Sustainable Development
1. Rural Development (IRDP)
PBT along with its allied Sri Sathya Sai Annapoorna Trust, which provides morning nutrition to school-going children, has partnered with a local college in the district of Chikkaballapur - Nagarjuna College of Engineering & Technology, and initiated the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP). This is a first-of-its-kind initiative that started in October 2017 and aims at raising awareness in young students about the challenges in rural India. Since PBT and its allied Trusts are engaged in many rural-centric programmes, the idea is to expose students at these colleges to the practical problems of India’s villages, with an aim to inculcate in the students a desire to understand, analyse and address those problems by leveraging their skills and education.
The IRDP course has been introduced to over 600 students, including students of the Sri Sathya Sai University for Human Excellence, across different streams in their third and fourth semester curriculum. The course involves 3 hours of theory and 20 hours of practicals at various villages.
PBT also conducts ‘Grama Seva’ (service in the villages) every year during the month of November to provide food and clothing to near-by villagers. Conducting health screening camps for villagers, with special attention to women and children is done monthly by the Sri Sathya Sai Sarla Memorial Hospital that is being run by PBT.
2. Environmental Development (Campus Sustainability)
Green Campuses’ is one of the major focal points of the Institution. In line with Goal 7 of the Sustainable Development Goals - ‘Affordable and Clean Energy’, the Campuses follow a Green Policy.
-
Solar powered Campuses with 674 kWp capacity, saves 790 metric tons of CO2 emission every year
-
More than 50,000 saplings have been planted across Campuses
-
Wastewater management, recycling, and rainwater harvesting have been implemented
-
Well ventilated green buildings are constructed
-
Energy efficient lighting and equipment are part of the Green architectural planning of the Campuses
3. Capacity Building
Capacity Building as defined by the UN is the process of developing and strengthening the skills, instincts, abilities, processes and resources that organisations and communities need, to survive, adapt, and thrive in a fast-changing world. An essential ingredient in capacity-building is transformation that is generated and sustained over time from within; transformation of this kind goes beyond performing tasks to changing mindsets and attitudes. PBT holds the highest spiritual wisdom of non-duality along with the universal human values of Truth, Right Conduct, Peace, Love, and Non-violence as paramount for every staff, student, volunteer, partners and patrons associated with the Trust and its activities, and this brings forth the spiritual strength and moral values that are already latent, and ensures sustainability in any given situation, and promotes the lookout for the highest good of all in any given circumstance.
Towards its Human Resource Capacity Building, PBT handholds the child while he/she is a student until the undergraduate education, and then allows the young adult to take his/her first flight off as an independent contributor through the Internship programme, where the intern joins one of the School Campuses or other administrative/ Trust offices to learn the skills of the job as an on-the-job training. During the course of their graduate education, the students are part of a ‘Self-Development Module’ which spreads over a period of their three-years course and trains the students on the aspects of communication skills, life skills, and personality development.
Future Ready Academy is an initiative to prepare the callow yet earnest undergraduates to take up greater responsibilities, face exciting challenges, handle unforeseen situations, learn people and resources management. 20 important skills like - plumbing, cooking, driving, carpentry, gardening, electrical works, financing, budgeting, accounting, law, construction works, children psychology, etc. are taught to the interns before they embark on their journey of assuming the role of a young responsible adult. The training can be categorised into four major aspects such as - Academics and Co-Scholastic activities – Teaching, supporting teachers with classroom activities, etc.; Hostel Management - taking care of younger students, grooming them with a service outlook, discipline, attending to the safety and wellness of students, etc.; Administrative Areas - kitchen management, basics of accounting, purchase, office administrative work, event organising, art of interacting with elders and parents, etc.; Construction work, monitoring progress, etc.
Youth employment is a guaranteed part of the entire education spectrum of the Trust wherein, after two years of internship, the students choose their postgraduation course or professional course, after which based on their volition and interest, the students are absorbed into the education/ healthcare/ nutrition schema of the Trust activities conducted in various forms, based on the suitability and passion of the student.
India faces a severe cringe in the availability of teachers. As of 2019, it stands at a 24:1 ratio which is much lower than other countries. Hence, the Trust has taken up the humungous task of producing inspired teachers from within its kernel and sending them to all parts of the country, especially to reach the unreached and make India strong in literacy and education on a values-based substratum.
‘Financial Capacity Building’ of the Trust towards providing free education for students is taken care of by a unique approach wherein the urge to think for others and the opportunity to be altruistic for a noble cause, by believing it as a responsibility than a favour, is laid out by the Each One Educate One Programme. This is an initiative of the alumni of the Institution to bring quality education to Rural India based on the verity of ‘Right of Education to All’. It is anchored in the ideal of education as a service to society and every individual in society as a stakeholder in rendering this service.
.jpg)
