Mangalore: Trailblazing Initiative by World Konkani Centre through VKSSF

By Florine Roche
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, Jun 20: The Vishwa Konkani Student Scholarship Fund (VKSSF) instituted in 2010 under the aegis of World Konkani Centre, has plans to provide scholarship to another 175 students in the academic year 2011-12. This is in addition to the continuation of scholarship to 162 students who have been availing the benefits since last year. The scholarship amount to be distributed in the coming academic year for students for professional Engineering and Medical courses will be to the tune of about Rs. 1.5 crores, a quantum jump from the Rs. 49.30 lakhs distributed last year. It may be recalled the VKSSF has been instituted by World Konkani Centre from last year to provide assistance to economically backward Konkani speaking students to pursue medical and engineering studies, irrespective of caste, creed, race, religion or region.

Pradeep Pai, who is the Secretary of VKSSF, says “we have been monitoring the performance of the students who have been awarded the scholarship last year onwards. Our feedback shows that the results of the 1st semester examinations of the scholarship awardees have been excellent. More than 70 per cent of the scholarship students have scored 70 plus in the examinations, an indication to show that we have reached out to the deserving students. Their good performance has encouraged us to widen the scope of the scholarship and help more students with financial help in the coming academic year. We are also providing counseling to the small percentage of students who have not performed very well to help them cope better”.

Last Date Extended

World Konkani Centre has now invited applications online from Konkani speaking students to avail scholarship for the coming academic year and the response has been overwhelming says Gurudatt Bantwalkar, Assistant Director of World Konkani Centre. This online application module would enable students from anywhere in the world to apply for the scholarship. Though the last date for applying was June 20, it has now been extended up to July 10, 2011, as the counseling will get over only on July 7, 2011. This year onwards WKC is not going to process hardcopy applications for the VKSSF. The applications will be scrutinized by independent panelists.

Pradeep Pai also said that WKC has planned a three-day residential training programme called beneficiary training and orientation camp 2011 (BOTP) for these students in July this year. BOTP will be held in 4 batches of 40 students each to empower the students with skills like communication, personality development and other soft skills. BOPT also aims to provide personal counseling to these students to enable them to find solutions to personal problems, if any and also to boost their morale. WKC is monitoring the performance of these students on a monthly basis and takes necessary corrective steps. Pradeep Pai also stated that a 21 member Mentors Committee has been formed with Retd Defence Secretary, Government of India, P D Shenoy, as the Chief Mentor and these mentors will directly interact with the students and help them with necessary advice and guidance from time to time.

With the scholarship award amount going up threefold for the current year as compared to last year, efforts are on to mobilize resources required for the fund. Pradeep Pai said “at the moment we have an assured amount of Rs. 90 lakh for this academic year. T V Mohandas Pai and Dr Ranjan Ramdas Pai have contributed 25lakhs each, Ramdas Kamath has donated Rs. 15 lakhs and we are confident of Dayananda Pai will donate Rs. 25 lakhs. For the remaining 60 lakhs we have already approached about 100 philanthropists and their response has been encouraging. We hope last year’s contributors Ronald Colaco and Rohan Monteiro would chip in their contribution for this noble cause. We have also approached Grace Pinto who has assured us of necessary help in our efforts to provide financial assistance to economically backward students. For the first time in this country somebody has come forward to pay the entire fees of students pursuing higher education in medical and engineering fields and we are happy we are doing it for Konkani speaking students irrespective of caste, creed or religion”.

Guided by Stream Concept

VKSSF functions on the basis of “stream concept”, where the entire resources generated in that year for scholarship fund will be distributed in the same year and no separate corpus will be maintained. Last year WKC mobilized about 50 lakhs with generous contributions from ten benefactors namely T V Mohandas Pai, Bangalore, U Ramadas Kamath, Bangalore, K V Kamath, Mumbai, Jagannath Shenoy, Mysore, Dr T Ranjan Pai, Manipal, Ronald Colaco, Bangalore, Annappa S Kamath, Bangalore, Rohan Monteiro, Mangalore and Pradeep G Pai, Mangalore.

It a big boost to the efforts of WKC and its benevolent benefactors K V Kamath, Mumbai (ICICI) nominated VKSSF as his cause of choice in CNBC TV programme called “speak for smiles”. In this programme corporate leaders are invited for the programme to interact with aspiring students and the participating corporate leader can nominate any one organization as the beneficiary of the revenue generated through this programme. VKSSF also has registered compliance with Guide Star India and Give India to facilitate the flow of charity funds.

Konkani speaking students scoring 70 per cent and above in SSLC and in core subjects in PUC and also securing a rank within 20,000 in CET and those with a annual family income of less than 2 lakh are eligible to apply for the scholarship.  From this year onwards WKC had added two more conditions for aspiring students applying for scholarship. It is compulsory for students to provide references of a family doctor and a chartered accountant and they should also contribute 20 days in a year during their holidays towards community service and take part in some projects initiated by WKC. There is also an important condition that beneficiary students after completion of their studies and after securing employment should sponsor two Konkani speaking students for their education so that the ripple effects of this novel and much needed initiative reaches to a larger number of students and keeps growing each passing year.

VKSSF was a path breaking and novel initiative instituted by WKC from 2010 to provide financial assistance to economically poor Konkani speaking students to pursue higher education in medicine and engineering. WKC took the initiative based on a suggestion given by T V Mohandas Pai and today the initiative has become a revolutionary and much admired concept - sponsoring education to economically backward students of the Konkani speaking community. Selected students were awarded a scholarship amount of Rs. 30,000 for engineering and 40,000 for medical courses every year over a period of four years. Pradeep Pai also said the Committee of VKSSF is considering the idea of providing scholarship to students of other streams of education also in the coming years.

Empowerment through Education

The benefactors of the fund feel that this scholarship would go a long way in ensuring a better future for the beneficiaries and their families. As T V Mohandas Pai had said “no Konkani child should be deprived of education for lack of funds” and this initiative has been a right step in that direction of realizing this dream. The scholarship would provide that much needed breakthrough for these students to free from the shackles of economic deprivation.

It is a matter of immense satisfaction to note that the scholarship has given a new ray of hope to many students to pursue professional courses, which would not have been possible without the scholarship. The poignant stories of some of the beneficiaries of the scholarship are sure to stir a wave of satisfaction among the benefactors who are primarily responsible for making this scholarship a reality.  Some of the beneficiaries of the scholarship belong to the lowest rudder of the society that include children of daily wage workers and even those who are unable to eke out a proper meal a day.

Ramananda, who had lost his brother and mother while studying for his SSLC overcame the entire ordeal and came out with flying colours with distinction in PUC and with a good CET ranking. His unemployed father could not support his son’s meritorious achievements with financial backing and under such a depressing scenario it is the VKSSF that came to his rescue to pursue his dream of studying engineering.

Similar is the story of Radhika from Vishakpatnam, who had no support from either side after the death of her husband as she had an inter-caste marriage. With two children to take care of and with no family backing she saw light at the end of the tunnel when she came to know about VKSSF and was able to provide a way for her daughter Sonia to pursue her long cherished dream of studying engineering. Anand from Ernakulam belonging to the Kudubi community is the first person from his community to complete SSLC and it was VKSSF that helped him to pursue engineering course.

No doubt VKSSF is a trailblazing, inspiring, noble, admirable and revolutionary concept initiated by the benefactors in their quest to give back to the society through their own community from which they have benefited. This initiative would certainly go a long way in empowering the economically backward families. It is indeed laudable that such a concept has become a reality due to the generous efforts of the community leaders who are part of this initiative. May their tribe increase!