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= Abhyuday, IIT Bombay =

Abhyuday.. is the Social Body of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay; a student-run organization which works towards fostering leadership and social impact. It believes in the importance of creating a socially conscious environment and empowering youth to work towards India’s challenges, fostering a movement of change-makers across the nation. With this belief; Abhyuday, IIT Bombay would develop a culture of participation in social development-oriented activities and taking up initiative among students by providing them with a platform to learn, interact and act. +With a network of chapters in colleges spanning the length and breadth of the country, it is India’s largest movement of youth towards social change.

History & Vision
Started in 2014, with a group of socially inclined students who felt the need for a body, which provides opportunities to the students of the institute who wish to work for a better society. With a vision to channelize the youth towards India's social challenges, Abhyuday has established itself as one of the country’s largest student-run social body in the mere span of 4 years. Campaigns being the flagship initiative, Abhyuday also conducts year-long events like conferences, panel discussions, donation drives, exhibitions and provide social fellowship, internship opportunities to the students of the institute. The ‘Social Fest’ usually held in January is a two-day extravaganza that celebrates the spirit of social good.

Satyamev Jayate live screening
India's highest rated social documentary show - Satyamev Jayate was recorded live in March 2014 in IIT Bombay along with an interactive discussion with Aamir Khan. The show introduced the audience to the brave victims of various social issues and those who work to bring a change in society. The show also paid homage to people working for the betterment of the society.

REVA
Abhyuday along with REVA conducted the largest fest in India for underprivileged students of age 6-14 years in 2015 and 2017 which provides them a platform to nurture their skills and boost their confidence ensuring their all round development.The fest marked participation of over 300+ students from various NGOs such as Udaan, Asha, Teach for India, Vidya, Pratham, etc. Various workshops and activities such as dance, clay modelling workshop, waste management workshop, origami workshop etc. were conducted.

=== Lend Your Voice Launch === The Lend Your Voice(LYV) campaign aimed to bridge this gap between the visually impaired people, and their pursuits of goals, by enabling access to learning and reading materials such as text and story books, in the form of recorded audio books. Famed actress, Shraddha Kapoor successfully launched Abhyuday's LYV app and the first crowd-sourced audio clip for Lend your Voice was recorded.

Unsung Heroes
"UNSUNG HEROES" featured people who have done something great for the society but have not been recognized where the students got a chance to interact and hear about their journey through the path less preferred by most of us. The event also featured famed actress, Sonam Kapoor. She shared the Story of another Unsung Hero Neerja Bhanot, whose character she portrayed in her film, Neerja. Some of the Heroes whose Stories were portrayed:


 * Dr. Girish Kulkarni: Founder, Snehalaya
 * Varun Srivastava : Founder, UPAY (Underprivileged Advancement by Youth) NGO
 * Krishnakant Mane: Visually-challenged, Working on several types of accessibility devices for visually impaired people
 * Milind Oka: school teacher who is working in support of FOSS
 * Sumaira Abdulali: An environmentalist from Mumbai and founder of the NGO Awaaz Foundation working to mainstream and build consciousness about previously unknown environmental hazards.

Independence Day Drive
With an aim to sensitize the people about the importance of a developed and secure country, Abhyuday organises events like donation drive, Sandesh to Soldiers every year on 15th August. Every year, Abhyuday executes Donation Drives donating books, umbrellas, raincoats, etc. with an objective of helping the underprivileged students, homeless and street dwellers during the harsh monsoon season in Mumbai. Each Independence Day, Abhyuday stand together to present their gratitude to soldiers and people whose efforts made us see this day. On Independence Day, students from the institute and children from Desire Society orphanage, which is a home for 30+ HIV positive kids expressed their gratitude towards our soldiers by penning down their token of thanks on postcards under the Sandesh to Soldiers initiative.

Antarchakshu
Antarchakshu, a mass awareness and sensitization event on the lives of persons with blindness and low vision, was organized with the Xavier’s Resource Center for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC), Mumbai. The aim of this event was to change this mindset, harness the thought process for accessibility and inclusion among educators in India and demystify myths. The event helped in enhancing the skills on using the power of imagination, ability to work around situations, overcome barriers, challenge beliefs and think out of the box.

=== Water 2020 === With the agendas like tackling the problems leading to finding solutions of drought affected areas, excessive water-logging in Mumbai, water related projects and research, the conference had speakers and guests including bureaucrats, government officials and professors.

Social Festival 2017
With the theme “Disability: I am not disabled, I am differently abled” the Social Fest 2017 of Abhyuday witnessed many renowned speakers like Arunima Sinha, Sindhutal Sapkal, Sandeep Rai; workshops like Stress Management, Visual Impairment Simulation etc. and cultural events. Also, an inspiring lecture was being delivered by Shri Pravin Dixit, 1977 batch IPS officer and Former DGP, Maharashtra Police who is also a recipient of the President's Police Medal. The interactive session revealed his journey from a UPSC aspirant to an efficient and successful administrator.

Blood Donation Camp
‘The finest gesture one can make is to save a life by donating Blood’. To contribute towards saving lives of people, Abhyuday organizes Blood, Organ and Stem cell donation camps and receives a prolific response from the student, staff and labor community. It was first organised in Oct 2015 for MDRI(Marrow Donor Registry India) and then in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The blood collected during the camp had the potential to save more than 1000 lives.

Abhyuday Helpline APP Launch
“Education is the need of the hour. Every child has the right to education but everyone is not as lucky as us. Even a little step from everyone of us can create a huge impact on society and transform the lives of many children.” And to extend our career counseling campaign to the entire nation, Professor Kameshwari along with her student Raj the ‘Abhyuday Helpline App’, a nationwide career counseling initiative. The App launch had three eminent speakers, Dr. Pradnya Sarvade, ADGP Maharashtra, Dr. Reeta Shah, Educationalist, and a Growth Coach and Mr. Kedar Sohoni, director of the cross-tab and founder of Green Communities Foundation. Many NGOs and their representatives such as Smile Foundation, Save The Children, CRY, Humara Bachpan, Swaradhar, and Vidya had shown their participation in App Launch.

=== Breast Cancer Awareness Talk === October being breast cancer awareness month, “Breast Cancer Awareness’’ talk was conducted, to initiate and drive research towards diagnosis, prevention, cure and treatment with constant information because ‘the more you know, the less you fear’. The talk was be delivered by Dr Rucha Kaushik, consultant breast cancer surgeon from P. D. Hinduja hospital with more than 6 years of research experience in this field. The lecture covered thorough knowledge about symptoms, prevention, cure and available treatment for breast cancer.

Social fest 2018
The theme of the Annual Social Festival of Abhyuday was “Enabling humanity with Human Rights”. Here are some glimpses of the Fest.


 * Afroz Shah delivered a talk regarding how we can make our environment clean enough by just involving oneself in that work.


 * The Changemaker Series: Dia Mirza - UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador; Prerana Langa - CEO, YES FOUNDATION and Poonam Mahajan - Member of Parliament, Maharashtra came to sensitize youth to discuss & ideate solutions to eradicate the misery of street children in India.
 * Socio-X Series : To convey that ‘Even a single person can make a difference and everyone should try!’ and one need not sacrifice his or her own career for social service. Medha Patkar - Human Right Activist and Founder of Narmada Bachao Andolan; Prakash Amte - Padma Shri and Mother Teresa Award Winner and Ujjwal Nikam - India’s most famous Public Prosecutor (Who fought against Kasab) and Padma Shri award winner shared their experience.
 * A Musical Concert 'Concert For a Cause' was organized with our chief artist Akriti Kakkar and NGO Swaradhar under the leadership of Ms.Hemlata Tiwari

Youth Empowerment Initiative
Abhyuday in collaboration with Ashray foundation initiated a lecture series to help IITB students cope with stress and mentally related issues. The first lecture was conducted by Dr. Niranjan Pendharkar accompanied by a pantomime show, titled Dining with the Monkey. The second session of the series by a motivational and TEDx speaker, Mr. Anand Munshi who guided and mentored the students towards the path of success through motivation, engagement, empowerment and transformation.

Plastic: Our Midas Touch
The world has a plastic pollution problem and it’s snowballing—but so is public awareness and action. A panel discussion was conducted by Abhyuday over the journey of plastic ban; how it was formulated, why it was deemed necessarily and what the future holds for the use of plastic. This discussion was moderated by Manisha Singhal and the panelists were Dr Sangita Hasnale, Mr Sarthak Gaurav, Mr Anil Agarwal and Mr Pradeep Tripathi.

Social Fest 2019
The theme of Abhyuday’s Annual Social Festival 2019 was “Engage, Encourage, Empower." Here are some glimpses of the fest.


 * Shaping the future- panel discussion by Dr. S.S.Mantha, Former Chairman of AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education), Mr. Abhijat Bedekar, Recruitment Manager at Teach for India. They put forth their suggestions on how the education system can be improved.


 * Role of the Individual- Role of the Individual series was organized to inspire people through sharing the social work of individuals with the mooto 'If they can, then you can'. DGP Sivanandan and Mr. Dilip Kulkarni inspired people through their social work and motivated them to make a small contribution to the nation and take sustainable measures.


 * Journey to Power- Ira Singhal, IAS (AIR 1 in UPSC examination, first differently abled topper) discussed the problems in the bureaucracy. She shared how she tackled the challenges that came in her journey.


 * Menstrual Hygiene Workshop- A workshop to spred awareness and education on clean and proper menstrual hygiene was conducted in collaboration with Upasana Society. Ms. Maya Vishwakarma popularly known as the ‘Padwoman of India’ shared her knowledge.


 * Mr.Himeesh Madaan, a famous motivational speaker, engaged the audience in a fun and interactive session on how to perceive life and lead a peaceful and serene one.


 * Socio X series- A series conducted to discuss on social achievements and issues in terms of technology, sports and society.


 * Fight against manual Scavenging- Mr. Bezwada Wilson discussed the problem of manual scavenging, which persists in pockets of India.


 * Famous LGBTQ activist, actor, film-maker Mr. Nakshatra Bagwe shared how the judgment of Section 377 has changed his life and others belonging to the LGBTQ community and about their future.


 * A fundraiser concert was conducted to raise funds and exten support to NGO Nayan Foundation(working to simplify the lives of the disabled) in which famous Bollywood singers Ritu Pathak, and Pawni Pandey performed.

Campaigns
Campaigns is the flagship event of Abhyuday, IIT Bombay. These are yearlong events which involve exuberant youth participation and witness heart-wrenching moments of self-discovery creating a deep and direct impact on the society as well as the social conscience of young adults. The major part of campaigns comprises of visits to various NGOs, Orphanages, Old Age Homes, Slums and other unexplored and unserved sections of society. Abhyuday conduct activities which create a direct impact on society. Abhyuday started Campaigns back in 2014 by Volunteers Visits only. Volunteer Visits include visits in Old Age Homes, Slums and Robinhood Army. Then it expanded Campaigns towards the concern of lack of career guidance and education through Career Counselling Campaign and Masti Ki Paathshala.

Volunteers Weekends
Volunteer weekends aim to enlighten the youth by making them conscious of social issues and encouraging them to initiate social change. Abhyuday connects and takes the help of youth for conducting various social activities. Under this initiative, they conduct visits to various NGOs, Old Age Homes, Slums and Orphanages, interact with them and deliver their services. They visit, they explore and try to solve those problems at their level which exists but are often ignored. These volunteers are mostly students of IIT Bombay itself. As of April 2019, they have conducted 600+ volunteer visits in different Old Age Homes, Slums and Orphanages. Abhyuday is associated with 50+ NGOs including Yuva Parivartan, Gandhi Fellowship, AAWC, CRY and Teach For India.


 * Old Age Home Visits - Abhyuday aims to sensitize students for elderly people. Students spend quality time with the elderly people, play with them and make them feel young and lively once more. The purpose of this campaign is to increase the sensitivity in volunteers who itself are students for their parents and elderly people.


 * Slum Visits - Abhyuday conducts slum visits and teaches some basic concepts of science to kids, it also teaches them some mathematics sutra, Vedic mathematics and English. It also conducts fun activities with them like art, craft, drawing and paintings.


 * Food Distribution Campaign - Abhyuday in collaboration with Robin hood army conducts food distribution campaign every weekend and provide food to the less fortunate sections of society. It helps connect young people to the problem of hunger in society and inspire people around us to give back to those who need it most. Volunteers visit nearby slums, provide food to the poor kids and teach them things like Counting, Basic Science, English and enjoy with them by conducting some fun activities like poem recitation, dance, etc.
 * Masti ki Paathshala - The “Masti Ki Paathshala” initiative aims to teach basic science to children through a more innovative and fascinating way with the help of fun experiments and toys making sessions. Abhyuday visits different NGOs & Orphanages and conducts basic science-based activities and help them understand the logic behind them. Abhyuday wishes to boost their curiosity, interest and let these kids fall in love with science again but this time in a different way by experiencing and performing science.
 * ADCC Computer Classes- Abhyuday aims to provide technical knowledge to the weaker sections of society. In this sequence, it provides computer classes to construction worker kids staying at Aman day care centre in IIT Bombay, to increase their computer literacy in today’s world of technologies.

Versova Beach CleanUp Campaign
Marine Debris is a global issue. Million tons of marine litter and marine debris is present there on our coastal land. Abhyuday IIT Bombay has been associated with Versova Beach CleanUp Campaign for more than one year under the leadership of UN Environment ‘Champion of the Earth’ Afroz Shah. Abhyuday IIT Bombay with a group of some Volunteers visited Versova Beach for the 'World's Largest Beach CleanUp Campaign’ i.e. Versova Beach CleanUp Campaign. During the span of one year, more than 300 volunteers who itself are IIT Bombay students have contributed their bit towards Clean India Mission. In its 136th week of the run, the Versova Beach CleanUp Campaign was specially conducted on the occasion of World Environment Day with the theme as Beat Plastic Pollution. The event was hosted by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and India. Abhyuday IITB also celebrated World Environment Day, 2018 with UNEP, Government of India, MOEF, Government of Maharashtra and MCGM. Abhyuday IIT Bombay was also felicitated with the certificate of appreciation from United Nations Environment and Afroz Shah for its selfless contribution of tackling Marine Debris on the occasion of World Environment Day.

Powai Lake Mega Cleanup
Abhyuday IIT Bombay in collaboration with Nisarg Swasthya Sansthan conducted the Powai Lake Mega CleanUp Campaign on 5 June 2019 on occasion of World Environment Day. The campaign was followed by a plantation drive at the banks of the Lake. The campaign was aimed at cleaning Powai lake banks to promote a cleaner, greener, and healthier environment. It also aimed at spreading awareness among people and stopping the littering of the Powai Lake. The Campaign saw active participation with over 400+ Volunteers showing up from IIT Bombay and Powai. The Campaign began with Volunteers taking a pledge not to pollute the lake any further and to create a greener Environment. Volunteers spread out along a stretch of 1.5 kilometers along the banks of the lake and collected around 1.5 tonnes of solid waste including plastics and other materials that pollute the lake.

Career Counselling Campaign (CCC)
The Career Counselling Campaign provides free career guidance to underprivileged students. The objective of this campaign is to bring awareness about the importance of career among school students. Abhyuday reaches out to students through sessions conducted in various schools of Mumbai and through their app called the Career Counselling Helpline. Career Counselling Campaign has been divided into two parts namely:


 * Offline CCC

The Career Counselling Campaign was started in 2016. In its early stage of start, the campaign ran in offline mode where volunteers of Abhyuday physically visited schools and provided career guidance to the underprivileged students by giving them information about what choices of career lie ahead. They make them aware of the importance of finding the path which is the best fit for them. Abhyuday distributes informative booklet, flowcharts to them and also conducts a test-quiz after the end of the session. As of now, they have covered 50+ schools and over 6500+ students with a volunteer base of 150+ students who itself are from IIT Bombay.


 * Online CCC

To increase the reach of Career Counselling Campaign and to make most of this initiative, Abhyuday IIT Bombay launched their online platform of CCC back in October of 2017 to cover all those students who can't be guided due to constraints of time and distance. They launched Abhyuday Helpline App through which volunteers from any institute with enthusiasm can help students with their knowledge about the importance of choosing the right career path. The app provides a simple yet powerful way of reaching out and connecting to the unexplored and unserved sections of the society. A Helpline Number (1800-200-2090) which is connected to the app is being circulated among the students who lack the resources and information for pursuing their dream career. By calling on this helpline number, the students can register a query. This query then gets allotted to and resolved by one of the app users/volunteers over a call. This is on call career guidance service hence makes it simple to create an impact on the lives of students who deserve better.


 * VTC Sessions

Abhyuday has organized two VTC (Video Teleconferencing) sessions till now in which they have covered 72,000+ students from 8th to 12th standard of BMC (Bombay Municipal Corporation) schools. The first session was conducted on 27th January 2018. In their first session, IIT Bombay students gave career guidance to the students of BMC schools in which they included all the quality content that is covered in offline CCC sessions. Their second session was held on 24th March 2018. In this session, one of the IIT Bombay faculty Prof. Parag Bhargava rendered an informative lecture on the importance of communication skills and spoken English.

Sparks To Fire
IITB’s faculty Prof. Parag Bhargava Sir has opened a few libraries in nearby slums so that the underprivileged can also get the benefit of reading. Abhyuday is now taking this initiative further conducting volunteer visits to these libraries helping students choose the right books and follow the proper sequence of books to get good knowledge and hence motivating them to read further.

Competitions
It is often said that a country’s youth has a major role to play in eradicating any social issue/problem. Hence, the competitions at Abhyuday, IIT Bombay tries to challenge these young minds to express their views and come up with a unique solution to these problems. The competitions serve as a platform that brings the community and change-makers together. And with this aim in mind, they have successfully reached over 45+ cities and 25+ states from across the nation.

Action Plan
Abhyuday believes in young minds to pioneer the path to overcome hurdles that have spread in our society for a long time. It is the need of the hour to converge and channelize the energy in the right direction that can impact the lives of many around us. With this vision, Abhyuday started its flagship competition - Action Plan, a social entrepreneurship competition in 2012. It is framed out of 3 mantras: Ideate - Innovate - Implement. With Action Plan, Abhyuday tries to amalgamate the best of the students from colleges, professionals from corporate, learned from academia and the experienced from NGOs, and create a platform to nurture the young minds that create modern solutions that bring about revolutionary changes at the grass root level.

It is conducted in 3 stages running over a course of 4-5 months. In this period, the registered teams work hard to define a problem statement which they want to work on, then Abhyuday provides them mentors who help them understand broader aspects of the problem chosen and help them build a proper business prototype. Finally, a few selected teams get a chance to pitch their ideas in front of a jury of investors and incubators. Finally, Abhyuday connects the respective teams to the interested incubators/investors to help them carry forward their idea.The last edition of Action Plan saw a phenomenal growth of 190% with the participation of 600 teams compared to 320 teams in the previous edition and was able to increase its reach to 1500+ colleges from 40+ cities across 20+ states across India.

Kalamanch
Touted as one of the largest national level inter-college debate competitions organized, Adhikaar’s debates mainly focuses on the burning topics across the country from violation of human rights to women harassment, from governance to education, etc. It has happened to attract more than 70+ teams from different colleges in its very inaugural edition making it a huge success across the speaking arts enthusiasts.

Adhikaar: The Battle of Words
One of the largest national level inter-college debate competitions organized at IIT Bombay, Adhikaar’s themes are based on some of the burning topics on various sectors such as violation of human rights, women harassment, governance, education, etc. In the fest organized in 2018, it happened to attract more than 70+ teams from different colleges making it a huge success in its very first year

R3
Known to inspire and challenge the youth of India to reach the highest waste reduction, recycling and reuse goals in the nation with the help of innovation and creativity by the young minds, it has drawn the attention of huge crowd over the past couple of years. The vacuum cleaner made with the reusable plastic material that costs a mere ₹ 150 was one of many best submissions in the event.

Ideathon: Road Safety Challenge
The average annual road death crashes stand at 1.3 lakh per year over the last one decade - a figure that surpasses the population of many small cities and large towns in India which is a matter of deep concern and an issue that need immediate attention on priority. To put the death toll due to this avoidable mishappenings - Abhyuday, IIT Bombay extended its support to Ideathon - An initiative by Indian Road Safety Campaign, an online competition where the participants have to submit their reports and presentations on the basis of their extensive literature study and practical results. The top teams were then invited to IIT Bombay to be a part of panel discussion in collaboration with IRSC and Ministry of Transport and Highway (GoI). Mumbiker Nikhil (YouTube vlogger), Satish Sahasrabuddhe (Additional Transport Commissioner), Steve Dayos (TVS AA strategy and CSR Head) were a few big names who graced the panel discussions and shared their rich knowledge. The winning teams are felicitated and got the opportunity to interact with the panel members.

Civic Meter
A competition based on critical thinking and awareness, Civic Meter, was first organized in 2018. It is a pen-paper format test based on the theme of the year - Human Rights, the then theme of the year. It consists of two rounds with second round being held during the Annual Social Festival of Abhyuday, IIT Bombay.

Associates and Partners
Abhyuday has been associated with 50+ NGOs creating an impact on Society on how to make this world a better place. Some of the major NGOs include Teach for India, Yuva Parivartan, Gandhi Fellowship, CRY, AAWC, Asha For Education ,Pratham Foundation. Abhyuday receives sponsorship from a wide range of sectors. Some of the major sponsors include Larsen & Toubro, ONGC, JSW, Hester, IOTIOT.in, DLP India, 3I Zone, Code Flow Tech, Connect Plus,  Aicumen, Incubate IND, V Skills, and many more. Abhyuday receives coverage through its extensive print, television and online Media Partners. Major Media Partners include Sakal, Carnival Cinemas, Radio City, Brain Feed, TheIndianFeed, TheNorthEastToday, The Citizen, TheCollegeFever, Indian News, Entrepreneur.com, Dare2Compete, Business Gyan and many more.