Educating the Underprivileged: An Initiative by IIM Ahmedabad

Here is a good samaritan work of the students of IIM- A, as they are coming to extol a cause for the underprivileged students by educating them.

The institute inaugurated its community outreach project ‘SMILE Centre’ recently. Under the programme around 38 students of IIM-A along with three research associates and seven faculty members have agreed to give their time for this noble project and impart formal and informal education to children of underprivileged families living in different slum areas of the city.

Also Read: From Slums to Mainstream School: IIM Ahmedabad and IRMA’s made it Possible

The programme will start with the active cooperation of SMILE (Student Mediated Initiative for Learning to Excel) Centre that operates from an open space under a flyover near the institute.

Wagh Bakri Group of Ahmedabad has agreed to provide financial assistance while Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has allotted the space for opening the Centre.

Also Read: Aiming for IIM Ahmedabad? Find out its Selection Criteria after CAT!

A professor of the institute said that the Centre is more than a tuition class and students and faculty members from the institute would provide these kids guidance on different topics like -

• Career Opportunities
• Skills Development
• Personality Development
• Other beneficial measures for their overall development

For this, they would not charge anything from the families of these kids. Till now around 89 students hailing from different slum areas like Ranujanagar, Jodhpur Gam, Ramdevnagar, Vastrapur Gam and Thaltej have enrolled for the programme for the academic year 2016-17. These students are studying in different classes like 8, 9, 10 and 11 &12 students from Commerce and Arts stream. The class strength consists of 35 girls and 54 boys, who are engaged in academic learning for three sessions in a day. The organisers of the programme expect more students to join at the centre.