The Stunning Power of Ten

It's the cost of the two or three cigarettes you smoke away daily, or the two cups of coffee at the nearby cafe. May be the cost of the parking tickets you incur thrice a week. It's just those ten bucks you spend away without realising you did.

But, it's the same 10 rupees that could mean the world for a child, to get educated, a tribal in a remote hamlet, to provide a meal a day for his family, and a poor pregnant woman live.

It is realising the potential, the power of these 10 rupees, that a voluntary organisation in Hyderabad has come up with a novel initiative to provide a new beginning to the corporates and help them give back to the society.

With this initiative, called the "Power of Ten," the Naandi Foundation, set up by the AP state government and four major corporates here -- Dr Reddy's Labs, Satyam, Nagarjuna group and GTB, is urging employees of various corporates here to contribute Rs 10 per month for social causes.

"It's a movement, rather than a scheme to raise funds; a movement that will also inculcate the concept of giving back to society in the employees. It will capture their mindshare besides the token amount. They will give a thought for their underprivileged counterparts, when they see the deduction at the end of every month," says Manoj Kumar, CEO of the foundation that turns three this November first, also AP Formation Day.

The foundation worked out the average spend on the beneficiaries of some of its projects and discovered that on an average it takes Rs 4 to 35 per month to support an underprivileged individual. A "have" would need to just spare this kind of small amount per month to be actually supporting the livelihood of a "have-not", he says.

"We decided on a token amount of Rs 10, the price a share. We are not trying to connect one have with one have-not, but asking for the mindshare and skills of a critical mass of employees for developing the underprivileged through various kinds of help," Kumar adds. The amount raised through Power of Ten would be going in for various projects including livelihood and literacy initiatives for the extremely poor tribals of Arakku Valley, for health and education schemes for people in Paderu, and for funding education projects for children in Rangareddy and Vizianagaram.

The foundation is delighted with the response it has evoked so far. More than a thousand employees of DRL have already enrolled in the scheme, while about 3,000 are in the process of sending in their applications.

"What was a pleasant surprise was that majority of the employees, including even factory workers, are insisting on contributing more than the token amount, and we are collecting an average of Rs 50 per month per individual from DRL," Kumar claims.

And though the initiative was ideally meant for private corporates and PSUs, the foundation is making exceptions where people are eager to help. For instance, the five employees of Sodhana, an small NGO in Vizianagaram insisted on contributing Rs 100 per month per individual. So, has a government employee in Krishna district, who just sent in Rs 120 for the year's contribution rather than go through the rigmarole of the salary deduction.

About eight corporates, including BAAN, ABN AMRO, Coromandel Fertilisers, the GVK group, even IT companies like Cysphere, Erunway and Elearning, etc have agreed in principle to work for the cause. The upbeat foundation is looking at roping in 6,000 employees by this November and about 50,000 by March next year, and in the process raise at least a million rupees a month through the scheme.

The NGO is also going online on its third birthday, and will enable online donations on its Website, the CEO adds.