Addressing the 37th annual convocation of Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), child health reformer and Padma Shri-awarded paediatrician Dr Abhay Bang appealed to the graduating batch “not get fooled by the luring packages”, and instead suggested they take up challenging roles and make a difference in rural development in the country.
“Today, you are faced with bigger challenges of inequality, jobless growth, global warming, farmer suicide, bank scams. There are bigger challenges than what we faced like malaria, malnutrition and mortality about 40 years ago. Now, we have a larger population, therefore there are bigger challenges and responsibility,” said Dr Bang, Director, SEARCH, Gadchiroli (Maharashtra), chief guest for the convocation of the graduating students of Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management (PGDRM and Fellow Programme in Rural Management (FPRM).
“Don’t sell your life for the sake of money. There is no dearth of money. Instead, IRMA graduates must go where the problems are, not where the facilities are,” he added.
Having modern resources such as information technology, digital and bio-technology at their disposal, there are infinite possibilities globally to address the need of rural development, Dr Bang said.
He stressed that a lot is required to be done on the front of tribal development as there is no data to indicate the state of healthcare in tribal communities. “There is a problem in tribal health. We are trying to develop a picture of healthcare in these community. But there is no data,” he said.
As a chairperson of National Expert Committee on Tribal Healthcare, Dr Bang appealed to the graduating students to create new models for tribal development and become a pioneer.
Placements
In all, 177 students were awarded the PGDRM diploma and one student was awarded the FPRM diploma. IRMA Director, Hitesh Bhatt said: “As an indication of increased engagement of business as well as development sector with the rural sector, the batch received 315 job offers from 114 recruiters.”
The average offer by private sector increased to ₹12.17 lakh per annum from ₹0.57 lakh last year. The average package from development sector — NGOs, cooperatives and government departments — stood at ₹9.42 lakh.
The highest offer stood at ₹46.50 lakh, while lowest was ₹3.5 lakh, which was a conscious choice of the student
This year, 18 students received pre-placement offers (PPO), and the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) emerged as the single largest recruiter with 16 offers. Cooperatives recruited 30 candidates.
Leading multinational recruiters included Tolaram, Afriventures, Godrej Agro, Cargill, ITC, Zuari, Mars International and KPMG. As many as 16 students accepted offers from government departments and NGOs such as BAIF Development Research Foundation, Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society, Jeevika and Livolink Foundation, among others.