DDB Mudra Group launches 'Green Batti' project

The program, scheduled to be initiated on Children's Day this year, will bridge the gap between the young and educated workforce of India and the under-resourced children of the country

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | October 9, 2014

DDB Mudra Group, in association with Teach for India and Social Quotient, has initiated a community engagement program called 'Green Batti'. This initiative will bridge the gap between the young and educated workforce of India and the under-resourced children of the country.

Samyak Chakrabarty

Commenting on the initiative, Samyak Chakrabarty, Chief Youth Marketer, DDB Mudra Group and Co-founder, Social Quotient, said, "Mentoring as a tool has immense power to bring about equilibrium of opportunities in society. While, of course, the mentees would greatly benefit, we feel that this experience will also broaden the horizons of our mentors who will get insights into a world outside of their own."

Inspired by America's 'Big Brothers, Big Sisters' program, 'Green Batti' is a one-on-one mentoring program, based in Mumbai, that pairs 500 mentors with 500 mentees from under-resourced backgrounds. 'Green Batti' has been launched with an objective of enabling a relationship between the children and their mentors, wherein children can find a friend, motivation and inspiration in the mentors. The mentors, in return, get an opportunity to learn and gain insights from the interactions and the program as a whole.

The program is scheduled to launch on November 14, 2014, Children's Day. The first phase will be spread over a period of six months, covering 24 meetings between the mentor-mentee pair. The interactions will be one on ones, but will be held as group meetings. The sessions will include confidence building activities, special workshops, movie screenings, music and theatre performances and visits to interesting cultural spaces.

Utmost care will be taken to ensure the security of the mentees and mentors with the help of a software that will track the whereabouts and meeting status of the pair, in real time. With the help of the Teach for India team, various methods have been conceptualised to measure and monitor the impact of the activities on kids.

The program has been created with an intention of having a positive impact on the kids' health and hygiene, life skills, social skills, exposure to opportunities and helping them learn and develop a social perspective. The purpose of this program is to instill skills and values that the children can take back into the classroom and out in the world, which will help them take that leap forward, away from the confines of society.

'Green Batti' works on a simple format wherein mentors, in the age group of 21-29 years, are chosen after a personal interview, on the basis of their social background, competency in Hindi and their general behaviour towards companionship/mentoring and children in particular. The mentors are being chosen from several corporate companies and agencies which have nominated their employees to don the role of a mentor. The mentees are chosen from the under-resourced communities and are in the age group of 10-12 years. Teach for India, Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Mumbai Smiles will be taking the lead in sourcing the 500 mentees.

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