Looking at the larger good of society – Guest column by Prajith Jaipal

Our guest columnist this week is Prajith Jaipal, the noted disability rights activist from Kerala who heads the NGO Divyang Foundation Trust. Prajith, who was disabled in an accident, talks about a turning point in his life some years ago.

This incident took place a long time back, even before I was disabled in a car accident in April 2011. I was working with Aircel and every year we had a social service initiative by the retail team. In 2009 I was given the responsibility for a social service activity, and I this was the first time in my life that I was compelled to do something for society. Thanks to Aircel for that.

The moment of truth

I was confused about what to do, whom to approach and how to carry this out. I held a meeting with my team and a team member suggested we visit this shelter home located almost eight kilometres out of the city run by a famous Malayalam film celebrity. I and a few team members went to the place to meet the caretaker of the shelter.

We introduced ourselves to the caretaker and I was surprised to hear him say that the name of my company was known to him. I was further blown away to hear that a person in my company, junior to me and drawing a salary four times lower, would visit shelter every month with his friends and give ₹ 3,000 rupees from their earnings.

That incident opened my eyes to look at society for the first time. I started thinking about my actions and attitudes and realised how selfish I had was. Since then I started contributing towards people’s welfare. I urge everyone to do their bit to care for society and share what you do so others can learn from your actions.