Newgen’s CSR: Giving Wings to the Dreams of Our Future Generation

In 2014, corporate India was left perplexed with the official uptake of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) mandate. Interestingly, for Newgen Software, the transition was smooth and seamless as we were already working in this direction.

We had started 'Sadbhavna' - a philanthropic initiative in 2006, to provide education to the children with lesser means. We had started with the kids around our office, in Okhla. This gave us the confidence to envisage a program for school children studying in government schools in the vicinity of our offices.It is apt to say that the Sadbhavna initiative was the steppingstone for Newgen towards becoming a ‘socially responsible corporate organization'.

The key motive of this initiative was to bridge the gap between the less-privileged children and their priceless dreams. Many employee volunteers and their spouses came forward to help us in our initial days. We had started Sadbhavna with a group of 11 children and grew to nearly 100 children within a couple of years. 

Priyadarshini Nigam, Head-CSR, Newgen Software quotes, "I always believed that 'every child is unique’. Thus, each one of them deserves to get the right platform to realize the true color of their potential and fulfill their dreams with rainbow colors. Sadbhavna provides these children with that required platform where they learn how to turn their dreams into a reality with a little push."

The first few sessions of Sadbhavna were unstructured. The sessions were conducted to gauge the development needs of children. We observed that the children lacked basic social skills such as concentration, communication, and were low on self-confidence. With time, we started understanding the requirements of the children better and kept customizing the program accordingly. 

After formalization of the program, the children were bifurcated into two groups based on their age, skill sets, and learning and development requirements. The students needed a lot of financial support for pursuing higher education. We came up with the idea of crowdfunding in Newgen – an initiative that received an overwhelming response from our employees. The success of this initiative encouraged us to introduce a scholarship program for the higher education of meritorious students. 

It is a matter of immense pride that every child associated with Sadbhavna has showcased strong determination towards developing their future with commendable performance in academics and extra-circular activities. There have been no school dropouts and many of them have started working part-time after completing school while continuing with their college. 

There are many success stories worth sharing, wherein the Sadbhavna children have secured a well-paying job and are doing great in their lives.  

Kamini has been part of the Newgen Sadbhavna program since the age of six. She is currently pursuing B.Com (Hons.) from Delhi University and is planning to get enrolled for post-graduation management program. She shared that the Sadbhavnasessions played a vital role in developing her personality and helped her gain self- confidence. She feels she can now excel in every sphere of life. 

“Sabhavna is a platform where we increase our thinking capacity and try to apply in real life situations and it helps us to become confident, good decision makers and to be open towards the topics that no one wants to talk about and they motivate us to become independent and positive. Knowledge is worthless without personality and that is what they instill in us.”- Kamini Ghosh

Manish Rawat has been attending Sadbhavna since the age of 9. He is currently studying BBA from Fairfield Institute of Management and Technology, GGSIPU. According to him, Sadbhavna helped him inimproving his personality, gaining confidence, and discovering his hidden capabilities.

“It's not about who you are, it's about what you can do. Today, I can represent myself as a well-mannered gentleman, just because of Sadbhavna sessions. They have given me the vision to discover the world in abetter way.”- Manish Rawat

Interestingly, the values of Sadbhavna are deeply imbibed in the Newgen CSR vision, and that commitment led to the inception of Newgen's flagship CSR initiative "Newgen Digital Discovery Pathshaala” (NDDP), in 2016. 

NDDP is a digital learning program and currently, we are catering to approximately 3,000+ students of government schools in Delhi. The objective of this program is to make the students digitally sound and provide them the level-playing field.

Furthermore, we formed an Alumni association for the bright ex-students of NDDP. The NDDP Alumni provides career counseling sessions, personality development, and soft skill training to the students. We are also looking to introduce scholarships for their higher education.

To amplify the impact of our vision, we started offering remedial education, in association with KHUSHII, to nearly 6,000 primary school students of the government schools. Additionally, we provide mid-day meals to approximately 9,000 children in remote areas across the country. With our CSR initiatives, we are trying to work towards the holistic development of children.

Our over 14 years of experience of working with children has helped us in understanding their educational, emotional, and soft-skill needs. We look forward to keep empowering them with education, awareness, and digital learning, so that they can fulfill their dreams and become the leaders of tomorrow.

Author:

Mrs. Priyadarshini Nigam, Director and Head – CSR, Newgen Software