Hot Seat (Serving to the society)

As far as Rotary International is concerned there is a Machiavellian impression about the   organization which is known to a large number of people. They think it is all about partying and enjoying, while the truth is far from this. The truth is hidden behind the motto “service before self.”

From the surface it might appear to be full of play and enjoyment, however, I must clarify the true sense of Rotary International to a large number of people who never know the truth. I, Kamal Sanghvi, Rotary International Director (2019-21) and Chairman of Membership (2021-24) Rotary International worldwide and am playing role of a motivational speaker to inspire Rotarian leaders. This interview to The Blue Moon has given me an opportunity to speak out about Rotary and how it functions.

The general impression going around is that Rotary International is an organization meant for a certain class of people not so ordinary. I would like to smash this false impression. Rotary is an organization which provides a platform to people who believe in serving those in need. The members can be from any walk of life, important is that they have the inclination to help and serve those in need. The help does not necessarily mean donating money, it can be donation of service where you devote your time for others in the society.

I am not exhorting people to join Rotary International imagining it to be an immaculate club of a modish member. Rotary International is 117- year- old organization which already has over 1,4 million members from different vocations in over 200 countries including youth wings called Rotractors and Interactors. 

The most important corporate program of Rotarians was the eradication of polio from the globe; corporates like Gate foundation, UNESCO, WHO and CDC joined this initiative later. Rotary is involved in creating an environment friendly world so everyone can live peacefully. Even United Nations celebrates Rotary day every year.

We Rotarians focus on seven areas virtually covering everything. Environment, maternity and childcare, peace and conflict resolution, basic education and literacy, disease and prevention, economic and skill development and WASH are its constituents.

To elaborate there is a project in Jaipur in a coal mine area where people lose limbs in accidents. It is called Jaipur limb project.

Similarly a couple of years back we took up a project in Pakistan, 'Aman Ki Asha'. We operated on children for Congenital heart diseases like a hole in the heart. Over two thousand such surgeries were done. Rotarians in Honduras work in water, Rotarians in Africa work on malaria and Rotarians in India work on heart diseases, the environment, water, education and literacy.

During COVID, Rotary India Literacy Mission( RILM) created an E- platform and an E-learning program as per the NCERT curriculum. Vidya Deeksha program benefitted 25 crore children who got educated in the two years of COVID. Now RILM is in the process of uploading that in every government school in India.

Under Disease and Prevention in Erode, Rotarians helped construct a 60,000 square feet hospital in 40 days, costing 20 crore rupees and gave it to the Medical College, which is now caring for more than 5000 patients daily.

This is how Rotary reacts to the needs of the Community.

In Dhanbad, we are running Jivan Jyoti for 100 differently abled children in a school Our club runs it now. The State Bank of India constantly supports us in our endeavor. Helping children with hearing aids and looking after their food requirements in school.

Rotary is one organization whose members do the job at the ground level. In Rotary world, there is work for everybody, and Rotary welcomes everybody with open arms.

The Rotary Clubs are spread over most of the cities in India. Recently we distributed more than 100,000 computers with the help of Nandan Nankani. Similarly Infosys does work with us on a platform for creating digital technology and spreading digital technology in schools and colleges.

Rotarians at the club level work with corporates in their cities. Rotarians of Jamshedpur are working with Tata Steel on various initiatives like Tea Plantation and vocational training Centers for women, conducting heart surgeries or creating a pacemaker bank with the Tata Group. To provide cancer detection and treatment facilities in villages, we have signed an agreement with the Cancer Society, which is a part of the Tata Group Cancer Society of India.

Similarly, in Raipur, there is the Satya Sai hospital which predominantly looks after heart surgeries of children. With the efforts and determination of Rotarians, they raised funds for the hospital equipment and conducting surgeries from citizens and corporates of Raipur worth five crore rupees.

Nearly out of all the illiterates in India, 75% are adult illiterates. So now we have tied up with the government and state governments across India trying to educate these illiterates. 

Many Corporates have joined hands to support us across India. Many corporates are doing projects with various clubs, whether it's in Mumbai or Kolkata or Chennai.

There are times when I have approached corporates, asking them for space. We wanted to set up a vocational training center. They supported us with an area of 5000 square feet on their premises.

Alone in India, we have 160,000 Rotarian families from different vocations spread over all States and cities of India. If any corporate wishes to tie up with Rotary, we assure them that we will spend 90% of their money on the project. 

We contribute to and have a fantastic arm called Rotary Foundation. Through this we do large projects in India, we do global grants and do large amounts of work through the Rotary Foundation India and the Rotary Foundation across the World. But there is still a lot to be done.

Most of the time, Rotarians are taking out funds from their pockets, but we do not spend money trying to glorify ourselves, still it is required to bring about awareness through media.

Partnership is the order of the day. Alone, we cannot change the World. The world is all about alliances whether it is with corporates or diplomats. Recently the Rotary presidential conference held in Hyderabad in April 2022, was attended by corporates and diplomats who were impressed by the work done by Rotary. The more hands, the better we can serve. So my job is to create ecosystems where more and more people join together to make a difference.

When the Corporates and Rotarians join hands, they can create magic while using each others’ strength. We Rotarians monitor the project, conceptualizing, finalizing, executing, monitoring and constantly evaluating and continually expanding it. in the World, with 1.24 million people working for the cause of voluntarily making the world a better place to live. India alone has one hundred sixty thousand families working, free of cost, with each one of the Rotarians being an absolute authority in their field of work, in their place of work or residence and the city of a human being.

COVID has virtually crippled the World. It has made many people homeless, people lost their jobs. Many of us have lost our loved ones. It has changed the way we think, the way we do, the way we work, the way we live, the way we act, and so on. In the last two years, things have drastically changed across the World. Also, bringing the country from the brink is unbelievable. 

People are back to work. Any land which has to be prosperous, any country which has to be a world player, has to have an equitable society. A society where every citizen has a right to have clean water, nutritious food, primary education, literacy and essential health services, then only that Society can be prosperous.

We need to contribute to the development of the country in any format. It could be lending your expertise. Make sure that there are people in your Community, in your streets, challenged by health; who will look after them ? Senior citizens holed up in their houses, make their life slightly better.

Any format you can contribute to and every citizen in this World or our country should contribute to uplift the Community. Very few people have this ability to bring smiles to other people's faces. We Rotarians have that ability, and we are living up to it now. Please join us in trying to create smiles on other people's faces. This is what Rotary does. We are involved in bringing sustainable changes across the World. 

Are you willing to Imagine Rotary, Serving to Changing lives and Creating Hope for the World ?

TBM: Thank you very much, Mr Sanghvi, for sharing your valuable time and inspiring others to join Rotary and be a partner in this stupendous task.