In most schools that I know of SUPW period is almost a joke. What is being done in the name of social work is lamentable. As heads of schools Principals take a moral high ground and believe they are God's gift to society. If ever this was true it would have been if you as a Principal nurtured socially conscious students.

My thoughts on SUPW take me back to the domain from where the biggest lessons of my life have come from. Every place I visit and the people I get to know during these trips form my travelogue and shape my learning map. Last year after completing the Horlicks Wizkids event in Patna I decided to visit Gaya, the place where Lord Buddha attained enlightenment. It was an amazing experience visiting the Maha Bodhi temple and meditating under the peepal tree. It was almost dark when I stepped out of this tranquility. While returning I noticed a lot of people on the roadside sitting dangerously close to the speeding vehicles. I wondered why anyone would squat on the dangerous roads at that time of the night and with no sense of fear. One of my colleagues had his own version of this situation. He strongly felt it was their way of making money. If by chance our vehicle touched anyone of them, they could then demand a huge ransom. These discussions were in full flow when we had to stop abruptly because of a punctured tyre.

While waiting for the car to get fixed, my curiosity got the better out of me. I walked towards a group of people and asked them why they were all sitting on the road. One of them replied in typical Bihari, "Our houses are below there, inundated with flood water. The only place that is dry is the road so we have no choice but to sit here." The reply shook me. I realised that for almost 100 kms all the people t hat I saw on the road were displaced by the floods and that was the reason for their being on the road. This is the kind of world we live in, oblivious of how the less fortunate ones are living..

When we talk about 'India Shining' we are actually referring to only a very small percentage of Indian society that is fortunate to have reaped the benefit of progress. A larger section of our society is a victim of the unequal wealth distribution. The ones who have seem to care less about the ones who don't.

Corporate Social Responsibility - CSR is the buzz word these days. I think its time that SSR - School Social Responsibility is talked about seriously by our educators. Your schools vision should have SSR as an integral part of it and your mission must be to create socially aware, empathetic students. It is time you took SSR seriously, didn't you?