On 23rd Dec, we had the opportunity to interact with different professionals from different walks of life. I wanted to understand how do we as common citizens do our bit to solve neighbourhood problems. We all think of different kinds of public problems in our society, but no one takes initiative to go forward and solve these problems.In this era, where more and more people run after the glittery world of corporates, we witnessed a contrasting world with a vision to work for the betterment of the society. Working for the society can be done through different ways, but the purpose always remains the same – impacting lives of people directly or indirectly.I attended the session where I met Mr. Kuldeep Dantewadia Co – Founder and CEO at Reap Benefit. After a business administration degree in 2009, Kuldeep Dantewadia took a ride on Jagriti Yatra, meeting successful
innovators. The experience affirmed his determination to do something about the environment and he founded Reap
Benefit.Reap Benefit is a social enterprise with a vision to democratise ‘Public Problem Solving in every neighbourhood of India’
They have worked with 23000 youth who have invested 500000 hours of Public Problem Solving, crowdsourced
375000 data points, co-developed 200 civic solutions, diverted 430 tonnes of solid waste from landfills, saved 44 million litres
of water, improved sanitation systems in 300 low-income schools.He started off with a story about his journey through this and how he ended up with the Reap Benefit group. He gave his life experience about how he changed 3 colleges in 2 years(11th and 12th). It all started because of their craziness to study in IIT. He got a seat in Delhi University. Post his education he wanted to take a break and travel around places in train. As a young fresh graduate he felt he could tackle anything. He was exploring different places and saw the increasing amount of garbage so he started cleaning it up by himself. During this act many people joined hands with him. So when he came back he spoke about this problem to one of his friends, after which they decided and started up an initiative/company – Reap Benefit. He mentioned that change starts from us and how we face the world and how we would like to see it in the future world. He also spoke about some career options in this line. Pursuing this career path can provide added job satisfaction and a sense of purpose while allowing them to do the most good for their clients and for their communities. You can always go ahead and be an entrepreneur in this field with a purpose and defined vision of social upliftment. Overall it was an amazing experience and we all loved it.– Rohitha (I PU) and contributions of other students.
