Sri Aurobindo Society in collaboration with the Directorate of School Education, Government of Puducherry, launched an innovative educational initiative called Our Responsibility to Children (ORC) in 15 government schools of Puducherry on the 11th & 12th of July 2019. It was held at the facilities of the Directorate of School Education. This is part of Sri Aurobindo Society's Svarnim Puducherry (Golden Pondicherry) initiative, an offering to celebrate the 75th Year of Indian Independence as well as the 150th Birth Anniversary of Sri Aurobindo on the 15th of August 2022.  Svarnim Puducherry aims to bring in the best practices in all sectors including Education, Health, Agriculture and Tourism to develop Puducherry into a model Indian state. 

About ORC

Our Responsibility to Children (ORC) is founded by Shri Vijayan, IGP Kerala, on the basic principle that we, as a Society have the complete responsibility to mould the younger generation into responsible, capable, compassionate and confident leaders to drive the world towards a beautiful future.  The program aims to empower schools to become centres of social change which in turn enables the students towards social entrepreneurship.  Through continuous student focused interventions, the program would help children to discover and nurture their true potential and interests. 

Inaugural Session

The program was inaugurated by Shri P T Rudra Gowd, Director, Directorate of School Education. In his inaugural speech, he enlightened the audience on the true meaning of education and on the responsibilities of educational institutes to stay focused on imparting holistic quality education in spite of the challenges. Shri Vijay Poddar, Member Executive, Admin & Finance, Sri Aurobindo Society, in his introductory remarks, explained the various education initiatives of the Society and the importance of ORC and invited everyone to contribute to to raise the status of education in Pondicherry. Shri. Vijayan IPS, IG of Police and State Nodal Officer, ORC Kerala State addressed the participants with his inspiring words and lively anecdotes. Shri Shashikumar Velath, Executive Trustee, Bridge Institute, one of the dignitaries, encouraged the faculty members to inspire change-making among the students.

Ms. Rupa S, Director Outreach and Partnerships, proposed the vote of thanks to the dignitaries and to the audience. Shri Raghunath, Director, Svarnim Puducherry, facilitated the inaugural program.

2-day workshop

The launch program was followed by a two days' workshop for Nodal Teachers on 11th and 12th of July 2019 was conducted for Nodal teachers from 15 government schools. The workshop was facilitated by Shri Saif Mohammed, State Coordinator ORC, Kerala along with his team. Experts from JIPMER were invited to conduct part of the technical sessions. Dr. P R Vinothkumar, Project Coordinator, Sri Aurobindo Society, helped in the overall coordination.

The workshop deliberated on ways to mentor and counsel the students over a range of relevant subjects including career guidance, emotional and behavioral challenges of the students. Every school will create a group of students called Smart 40 Group, who would become the agents of social change in making the school a model. Smart40 students will be empowered to create strong community linkages and develop innovative initiatives in education, health and wellness, environment education, training on leadership qualities etc.

Feedback from the Participants

• ‘Our Responsibility to Children’ is a very responsible shouldering training. This is the need of the hour for the present student folks. Children are facing multi- abuses in various places that we have not imagined in certain areas. It is an important one. A unique one of its kind inspiring training. Positive approach - K.GANAPATHY, HM-Gr-II
• Very useful Psychological tips. Very well defined problems with proper case study and demonstration. It is very helpful to make the students concentrate in their studies without any emotional, physical, behavioral and social problems. It will improve the learning ability of the students. It will be more useful when these problems are demonstrated in the school and suggestion given by the counselors. Very much informative - SHEELA VINAYAK, TGT
• The training was really good. The resource person were excellent. The implementation of ORC would really improve the quality of students.- K.SIVASUBRAMANIAN, TGT
• This programme regarding ‘ORC’ is well organized. Dr. Kirankumar explained elaborately about the bio-psycho–social problems. Mr. Vijayan IPS gave a wonderful speech - thanks to him. Really this was a very good programme and every school will benefit because we teachers are responsible to mould the students’ future. I thank our school education officials to give a platform for this ORC programme to Sri Aurobindo society. If this program is extended to the primary section we can achieve a lot thanks a lot - S.NAVANEETHAM, HM-Gr-II

The training is very useful one. When I came to this training I didn’t have any idea about ORC. Now I feel I can do better by understanding my responsibility to children. I learnt what are biological, psychological and social problems children face and how to solve them. We were trying in our way without knowing the technical method. Now we have the scientific way to solve the problems. - N. TAMILSELVI, TGT