One keeps hearing from various institutions across the globe that their Alumni did this that, that this etc but you do not hear what the Passion Packed 75-80 batch of Institution of Eminence BITS Pilani alumni did by establishing a state of the art PARC Pilani AtmaNirbhar Resource Centre with the sole objective to promote community development in and around Pilani, Rajasthan for bringing about a social transformation with emphasis on the lesser privileged members of the society.
BITSAA Alumni Trust was set up in 2005 by a group of alumni of BITS Pilani, for the purpose of furthering their common desire of “Giving Back to BITS”, more specifically to promote Local Area Community Development in and around Pilani, Rajasthan. While it started out with the BITS Pilani batch of 1975-80, it now has active support of BITSians from across batches in India and overseas. The Guiding Principles included Community (Work with local communities through nonprofits and replicable models), Comprehensive (Launch projects that address deep and systemic community needs), Expertise (Invite domain experts to tackle community issues with the Trust’s focus on motivation and facilitation).
The Trust firmly believes that it must play the role of a facilitator by creating a physical infrastructure in Pilani that can support work on the ground done by different stakeholders interested in the rural sector development, e.g. NGOs, civil society organizations, Central / State Government agencies, international development agencies and the like who have necessary expertise in their chosen areas of work. For pursuance of the said objective, the Trust was allotted land belonging to BITS Staff Housing Kalyan Samiti, Pilani, Rajasthan, on long term basis in May 2008.
In 2009 the building plan and design got approved and in 2010 construction work started and Pilani AtmaNirbhar Centre PARC sprawling 17,000 SqFt building was inaugurated in 2012. In addition to working partnership with Indian Institute for Rural Development Jaipur, presently the Memorandum of Understanding MoUs signed by PARC include names to reckon with Nirmann, PRATHAM, HelpAge India, Sustainable Innovations, Agastya, CSIR CEERI Pilani and Give2Asia, The people involved from BITSAA in giving shape to PARC have been senior professionals and officials from a wide ranging backgrounds.
The visit of large hearted well known philanthropist Mrs Neerja Birla in 2013 energized the activities of PARC to unprecedented levels. 2015 brought in CSR activities of Power major Neyveli Lignite Corporation and Lea Associates to PARC which was followed by CSR grants from Indus Towers in 2017 and Reckitt Benckiser in 2018. In 2006 the trust launched the BITS Mess workers Group Insurance scheme which won the hearts of one and all. In 2008 Sewing Machines were distributed under Self Help Group SHG.
Dr VK Dubey has been playing the role of Director in spearheading the activities of the centre right from 2012. Year 2016 was an action packed year with launching of Women Cell, Digital India Laboratory, and Health Camp and FCRA certification. 2018 PARC organized Eye camp followed by ENT camp. 2019 saw Google Ads bringing in a whopping $10,000 grant for PARC activities and the launching of AROGYA clinic. Under PARC Health Focus, so far 4821 senior citizens have taken physiotherapy treatment and 1286 patients treated in Eye camp including 210 operations.
Under PARC Education Focus, 13, 799 students trained in mobile science Lab, 104 trained in Digital India Lab, 1100 girl studentshave benefitted. Under PARC Livelihood Focus, 900+ trained for Hotel F&B Housekeeping, 80 villages adopted under Anganwadi program. Under PARC Community Focus, 10000+ people have access to safe drinking water and 120 senior citizens have been taken for excursions to historical places. Over 100 batchmates accompanied by their spouses from 75-80 batch gathered at Goa on 15 Jan 2020 to celebrate their Ruby Reunion and the success of their Mission with Passion Pilani AtmaNirbhar Resource Centre before attending the BITSAA Global Meet BGM 2020 at Goa scheduled during 17-19 Jan 2020
For more details see http://www.atmanirbhara.org/
Dr VK Dubey
Director PARC – Pilani Atma Nirbhara Centre
Kyamsar Road, Gyan Vihar –II
Harinagar, Pilani (Rajasthan) 333031
Phone: +91 94147 43091
Email: vkdube2010@gmail.com
Website: http://www.atmanirbhara.org/
About: Pilani Atmanirbhar Resource Centre PARC is a Mission with Passion by Sunil Nanda sunil.nanda at yahoo.com a distinguished alumnus of BITS Pilani who along with his vision packed batchmates 75-80 Rakesh Kapoor, Vijay Poddar, Sanjeev Lodha, Gautam Mazumdar, Chandan Sengupta, Shiva etal raised funds to make this dream come true. For more details see http://www.atmanirbhara.org/
