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Jingle down the infoway

Anjali Prayag

If you thought the average IT employee's life revolved only around ESOPs, TGIF parties, weekend getaways, jaunts abroad and so on, you could be wrong. IT executives swear there is as much soul to their lifestyle as there is matter. Puzzled?

It's Christmas time and we decided to quiz some IT companies on the spirit of giving and sharing and their involvement in corporate citizenship. Says Vasantha Kalbagal, Vice-President, Corporate Communications, Phoenix Global Solutions (PGS), Bangalore, ``We believe that any company that reaps benefit out of its existence in this country should leave behind something worthwhile that can make the society around feel better.''

PGS is the IT arm of Phoenix Home Life, a US-based Fortune 500 company. PGS recently launched its first social involvement programme in India to provide opportunities for IT engineering graduates with disability. As many as 20 engineers have applied and one has already been hired by the company. Tests are on to select a few more.

Satish Bangalore, Managing Director of the company, clarifies that ``it is not out of sympathy that they are being considered. With meticulous training on the right platform, they are like any other qualified candidate who should be given a chance. Perha ps they are even more dedicated and committed''.

The company believes that profit and social responsibility can go hand in hand. Phoenix approached the Association for the Physically Disabled (APD), which was more than willing to source candidates for the company. The Mysore-based JSS Polytechnic Colle ge for Handicapped has also been roped in for the search.

In another instance, when the Bangalore-based IT company, Mindtree Consulting, was looking for a logo, it turned to the children at the Bangalore unit of the Spastics Society of Karnataka.

The company explained its mission, vision and core values to 10 students selected from the school. Their brief was: the logo should represent imagination, action and joy. Of all the designs made by the children, the work of Chetan K.S. -- a 10th standard student with motor and speech disability -- was chosen, which is now the famous Mindtree logo: A blue brush of tree with yellow leaves on a red background. The company believes that ``blue represents imagination, red stands for action and yellow for joy ''.

Recognising a work of art may sometimes mean endowing a bit of financial support. That's why it gladdened many Mysorean hearts to know who was recently the recipient of 1,000 blue-chip Infosys shares. The city's 100-year-old Jayalakshmi Mansion, which is badly in need of renovation, was adopted by Sudha Murthy, wife of Infosys Chairman Narayana Murthy.

Care to `share'

Mysore University, which owns the heritage building, was given the shares which would be sold and a part of the proceeds used to fund the Rs 1.7-crore renovation project. The rest of the money would be used for the building's maintenance.

Sudha, whose famous husband hails from the erstwhile royal city, said amassing wealth was not important. ``What is more important is spending it on useful causes.''

``Return a part of the earnings to the local community,'' Honeywell India Software Operation (HISO) tells its employees. Says S. Ramakrishnan, Manager -- Work Environment and Administration, HISO, ``In 1998, we decided to get into organised activity. Ins tead of getting into too many projects, we opted to get into the depth of one or two projects.''

HISO has adopted a government school in Bangalore and takes care of the children's needs such as education material, uniform and so on.

The company has tied up with MAYA, a voluntary organisation, to impart pre-vocational skills and, later, integrate the curriculum with the mainstream educational system. ``This is a two-year project for slum children and we're spending about Rs 26 lakh f or the same.''

HISO employees have also helped the teachers in honing management skills, library documentation, designing templates for a semester and so on.

Under MAYA TRAC, a workshop project, slum children are taught to make stationery, simple furniture, fix motorbikes and create lacquer art pieces. HISO buys all its stationery from MAYA. ``We also encourage our employees to give their bikes for servicing and small repairs at Motorfix, which is run by these children.''

The company has also taken under its wings an orphanage run for Sri Lankan refugee children. ``There are around 300 children there who have actually witnessed the murder of their parents and are now rehabilitating. This year, we decided to celebrate our annual day at the orphanage.''

Ramakrishnan says that each month, contributions from employees touch Rs 45,000, while the company donates an equal sum towards the upkeep of the children.

The personal touch

Apart from monetary aid, there is nothing quite like the personal touch. That is why more than 500 employees of Electronic Data Systems (EDS), together with their friends and clients, participated in the company's Global Volunteer Day, held for the third time in India.

Ram Seshadri, Managing Director, EDS India, says, ``On this day, EDS employees worldwide, their families, friends and clients come together to collectively demonstrate their commitment to social responsibilities.''

The company's Chennai office has adopted a village called Thiruvadisoolam in Chengelpattu district where it plans to conduct a medical camp and provide adequate facilities in the elementary schools.

The whole team was upbeat about this year's GVD with its many planned activities for community service. The participation is completely voluntary.

The EDS team in Delhi, for instance, celebrated the event among children from the Institution for the Blind (Andh Vidyalaya). The team donated clothes and organised entertainment activities for the children.

``Corporate volunteerism has been a top priority for us worldwide since 1986. By practising this global policy in India, our endeavour is to strengthen our ties with the Indian community and reiterate our commitment to the betterment of the society,'' sa ys Sheshadri.

Last year, EDS India set up a full-fledged computer lab at Avvai Illam, a school for orphan children in Chennai, and donated 10 computers. The teachers were provided computer training in association with NIIT. From 2001, the higher secondary curriculum w ill have a computer group, and the children will be able to make good use of the lab facility then.

Digitally united

The geeks have devised different ways of expressing their social commitment. Take the instance of FOC -- Friends of CRY, a Bangalore-based voluntary organisation essentially started by the city's IT employees. Says Anmol Nautiyal, an FOC volunteer and em ployee of IBM India, ``It is a three-year-old group of like-minded individuals from different walks of life who have firm faith in CRY's belief that each person can make a difference in the lives of deprived children.''

With a little spare time and skills, coupled with lots of commitment and enthusiasm, the group has raised a considerable amount of funds and awareness for CRY and its development initiatives. Most FOC volunteers come from the IT industry and are spread a cross companies such as IBM, Infosys, Wipro, Microland, TI, eCapital, i2, TCS, Aspect and so on.

As Nautiyal says, ``We do realise that in a voluntary effort, different people have different levels of involvement, depending on other personal/professional commitments. We try to work out responsibilities for individual volunteers in such a way that ou r collective effort moves forward in an efficient manner, even as individuals do not feel any strain on their time or other resources.''

FOC activities include:

* Fund-raising and awareness-generation drives, annual corporate quiz -- FACT (free a child today), donation drives in companies and so on.

* Organising events involving privileged and underprivileged children and youth.

* Holding interaction programmes with underprivileged children.

The FACT quiz, started in 1998, has been a success each year thanks to the support of volunteers and companies, says Nautiyal. This year, the event helped raise funds to the tune of Rs 5.5 lakh which, Nautiyal says, will be used to provide primary educa tion for about 550 children in different organisations funded by CRY.

What makes FACT quiz stand apart from most other fund-raising events is that it is entirely driven by FOC volunteers. Participating companies pay a registration fee which is channelised to CRY.

Right from framing the questions to organising sponsors for the event, arranging the infrastructure and dealing with other nitty-gritties, FOC members handle everything on their own and put in hours outside their regular jobs to make the event happen. `` Even the quizmaster happened to be from the IT industry... Indrajit Gupta, CEO of BAeHAL Software,'' says Nautiyal.

Unlike other fund-raising events, where a professional performs onstage while the contributors watch passively, the FACT quiz ensures that the contributors are active participants who also win prizes and surprise gifts in the bargain.

Kalbagal of PGS agrees that the talent pool in the IT industry should be used to benefit the `children of a lesser God'. ``For example, orphans do not want to receive old clothes just because it keeps them warm in winter, or their school fees paid; it is because they get a feeling that there is somebody out there who also finds time to remember them, a gesture like dropping in and spending some time with them. The idea is to make them feel part of us... feel good.''

PGS's multimedia team, comprising full-fledged artists, plans to hold an exhibition-cum-sale of their paintings and donate the proceeds to a needy old painting master. ``These are small giveaways for a company which earns in dollars. It makes a world of difference to the one who receives it. But that does not mean that the company should be misunderstood to be a charity organisation, which anyway we are not,'' Kalbagal emphasises.

That's the way the brave new world works. May their tribe increase.

Picture: Satish Bangalore,(extreme left), Managing Director, Phoenix Global Solutions, on the company's project for disabled IT candidates.