Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has been a strong proponent of volunteering, with many of its members actively building it into their corporate culture. The CII-led India@75 Foundation has been working actively to mainstream volunteering in the country through multiple interventions such as India@75’s National Volunteering Grid which is a robust IT platform designed to connect volunteers to opportunities.
However it is the Foundation's marquee annual event called the National Volunteering Week (NVW) which makes a strong case for institutionalising volunteering in the country. The National Volunteering Week (NVW), being held since 2014, brings together institutions, industry and individuals on projects which help highlight and address development challenges. These projects showcase the potential of multi-stakeholder collaboration in meeting social goals.
Over the years, the event has logged millions of volunteer hours and positively impacted the lives of several million people. In 2024, NVW celebrated its 11th edition under the theme “Shaping India@100 through Volunteer Engagement.”
It drew strong participation from all stakeholder groups, especially the corporate sector. More than 68,466 volunteers from diverse backgrounds registered their interest and contributed 8,66,083 volunteering hours of their time to further causes such as child development, climate action, community development, education, healthcare, nutrition, road safety, rural development, skill development, social inclusion, sports, culture, and women empowerment. More than 24.8 million people benefited from these activities.
One of the important events of the week was a discussion led by Jayanti Shukla, Chief Executive Officer, United Way India called Dialogue on Volunteering: Leveraging People Power for Change. The panel comprised of Preeti Khattri, Managing Director of Strategy & Consulting at Accenture in India; Chetan Kapoor, CEO, Tech Mahindra Foundation; Abhimanyu Sahu, COO, Schneider Electric and Dr Vinita S. Sahay, Director, IIM Bodh Gaya.
The discussion yielded valuable insights: educational campuses serve as nurturing grounds for volunteers, necessitating the integration of volunteerism into academic programmes; there’s a pressing need to institutionalise philanthropy within organisational structures; and concerted efforts are required to establish a conducive ecosystem for volunteering, involving collaboration across various sectors.
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