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Adamya Chetana’s Inspiring Journey: Touching Vulnerable Lives

Proud Kannadiga Dr Tejaswini Ananthkumar
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Driven by the core themes of Anna, Akshara and Arogya (Food, Education, Health), the Adamya Chetana Foundation run by Tejaswini Ananth Kumar has been working immensely for the social development since 1997. Adamya Chetana was established in memory of Girija Shastry, mother of (late) H. N. Ananth Kumar, Union Cabinet Minister and Member of Parliament from Bengaluru (South), who dedicated her life to helping the underprivileged and needy.

The inception

Adamya Chetana began its humble journey with dedicated activities towards social growth by providing ‘tailoring classes’ in 1998 and computer training for poor girls in 1999. This was followed by an innovative web portal for blood donation (www.raktadan.org) and Aata-Paatha in 2001. The organisation today has expanded its intervention areas to include both rural development and environmental issues.

Tejaswini’s various initiatives have had a tremendous impact on the vulnerable and marginalised sections of society in providing nutrition, education, training, and health support to lakhs of children, significantly improved conditions in numerous villages, and made a significant contribution to improving Bengaluru’s green cover.

About Tejaswini Ananth Kumar

Tejaswini Ananth Kumar hails from Hubballi and attended her initial schooling at Belagavi and Dharawada districts. She did her B. E. in Electronics and Communication with Distinction from B.V.B College of Engineering and Technology in Hubballi. She later completed a Post graduate Diploma in Indology from Bengaluru University.

She served as a Software Engineer at Srujana Technologies in Bengaluru, as lecturer at BMS College of Engineering in Bengaluru, and a lecturer at SDM College of Engineering in Dharawada between 1988 and 1993.

“After marriage, I along with my late husband Ananth Kumar moved to Bengaluru. He was the Minister then. When my mother-in-law died, I decided to resign from my job and started working for Adamya Chetana,” said Tejaswini.

Tejaswini has been a Founder Trustee of the Sri Shankara Cancer Foundation, a 250-bed charitable hospital that is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the cure and prevention of cancer since 2006.

Between 1993 and 1997, Tejaswini Ananth Kumar worked as a scientist at ADA (then led by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam) on the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA – Tejas) project. She was conferred with Honorary Doctorate from Rani Chennamma University, Belagavi for Social Work in 2013.

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Motive of Anna- Akshara- Arogya

Annapoorna, Adamya Chetana’s mid-day meal programme, serves nearly 2 lakh students in Bengaluru, Hubballi-Dharawada, Kalaburagi, Ranebennuru, and Jodhpur and it has been operational for over 18 years with the help of government and donors.

“We started Adamya Chetana in a small way and our initiatives began with normal school children. We visited them and realised that these children require a meal in the afternoon. That is when we decided to provide mid-day meals to children and also the needy. More and more volunteers joined us in our efforts to benefit noble causes,” said Tejaswini.

During the lockdown, the organisation has offered 20,000 health and hygienic meals per day to people. The organisation has also cooked food for around 70,000 Covid warriors and media people per day.

“Schools have now begun, and we are providing students with a mid-day meal. Last November, we launched the ‘Nithya Annadana’ programme. If someone has a birthday or want to donate food, or has a special day, we will feed 150 to 400 individuals from all four Karnataka centres. On that day, there will be more than 2 to 3 diners which will be arranged at the centres,” says Tejaswini.

The kitchen uses 100 per cent free fossil fuel and is driven towards “Zero Garbage Kitchen.”

Adamya Chetana founded Aata- Paatha (Akshara), a one-of-a-kind mobile resource centre in 2001. It was found by the organisation that children at government schools have limited access to resources. These children come from underprivileged backgrounds. As a result, the children learn their lessons in enjoyable ways, such as singing, dancing, acting, story-telling, audio-visuals, and using learning aids through this initiative.

Arogya Chetana caters to the holistic development of children who belong to the underserved communities and are unable to get health care due to lack of resources. Arogya Chetana consists of a team of doctors who do check-ups for the children at the school. It also provides health insurance cover for over 10,000 children.

A planned coincidence – Tejas Aircraft

It was on January 4, 2001, then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) the name ‘Tejas.’ During an event in Bengaluru, Vajpayee watched for about 10 minutes the flying display of the LCA’s two prototypes, Technology Demonstrator-I and Technology Demonstrator-II, and chose ‘Tejas,’ one of the 20 Sanskrit names short-listed.

Tejaswini met Vajpayee along with her husband for a breakfast meeting just before the flying display. There was a message circulated in social media that Vajpayee named the plane “Tejas” after Tejaswini Ananth Kumar.

When asked about the same, Tejaswini said that, “The aircraft was not given my full name. Yes, it has ‘Tejas’ in it. I was working with LCA as a senior scientist at that time. It is not like I have done everything. I was part of the project and the credit goes to the entire team. This could only be a planned coincidence.”

Other initiatives

Some of the other initiative taken forward by Adamya Chetana is implementing SAGY (Sansad Adarsh Grama Yojana) at Ragihalli, the village adopted by Ananth Kumar.

The organisation’s Green Bharat 1:1, is a programme that aims to enhance the amount of green space in cities. “The organisation plants trees on every Sunday, called ‘Green Sunday,’ we plant trees. Last week was the 306th green Sunday,” she said.

Another initiative is Nature-Science Internship Programme, which aims at providing field work for young people in collaboration with experts from the Indian Institute of Science. Adamya Chetana to conduct a variety of field studies and lab analyses to map out the eco-system in and around their area and try to understand nature, which includes animals, birds, insects, trees, water, food, and so on.

Chinnara Chetana, a colourful Wall magazine, Arogya Chetana mediclaim facility for schoolchildren (inaugurated by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam), eye camps Vocational training courses like tailoring, computer, English Speaking, and the list goes on when it comes to the Adamya Chetana’s initiatives.

Message

“Technology is growing rapidly, and we must address two major challenges. The first is about global warming and climate change, while the second is about providing equal opportunity for everyone. We need to change our lifestyle and working style,” says Tejaswini.

“We should be conscious of and think about the water and energy we consume, as well as start to think about society and contribute accordingly,” stressed Tejaswini.

Image source Facebook, official website of Adamya Chetana

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Reshma B.

Reshma Babu, a young Postgraduate in Mass Communication and Journalism from St. Aloysius College, Mangalore University, utilises her considerable learned journalistic knowledge and inherent story writing and sub-editing abilities to add value to the company’s media brands and the editorial team. All dimensions of human interaction are her prime focus.

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