PRAYASAM PRONAAM - COMMUNITY EXCELLENCE AWARD Almost all of us have heard of Oscars, Grammy Awards, Filmfare Awards and people going gaga about it. Infact these days, there seems to be awards for almost everything and in Kolkata too, we have the famous Durga Puja Awards in countless categories , the annual TTIS awards for honouring the achievements of the most priviledged children/ adolescents, not to mention the numerous awards presented on TV shows everyday ! Here at Prayasam we have our own set of awards under the name “Pronaam” and for Prayasam- be it the mentor, other associates of Prayasam and most importantly the children- this is any given day the biggest award for them on earth! It is a deep acknowledgement and recognition of the endeavours of the children towards sustainable community development. Lot of questions must be knocking your cerebrum as to what is Pranaam, what are the criterion of the award, when is the award given, who are the jury, etc, etc. One thing is for sure that Pranaam is one of its kind; Prayasam can be boastful of its yet another innovative and unique idea. Unlike the so-famous award programs Pranaam awards have a two-fold judging basis- the facilities provided by Prayasam throughout the year and in return the work done by the children in their community. This idea was materialized on 15th December 2012 when the first ever Pranaam awards meeting was held and was a day of joy Prayasam- people working at Prayasam as well as the children. Another noting fact is that whenever the word “Prayasam” appears it always means the people at Prayasam as well as the children, who are equal partners at Prayasam and never beneficiaries. Prayasam, throughout the year, provides 30 services which cover a wide array of life aspects including awareness and awareness creating skills, other life skills and soft skills together with utmost importance to their education and career excellence. Some of the services include personality development via Ontrack classes (classes on leadership & managerial skills), Sakha Ontrack (classes mainly for girls for their all-round development), media training (like poster /slogan puppetry & comics, newsletter development theatre of the oppressed/street play, etc), computer literacy, still photography spot film –making, training on health and hygiene, library, exposure visits (taking to book fair and others), community mapping, nutrition, fashion and beauty advice, tutorial classes for class10 and 12 students, sports, visual art space- to name the few. On the part of the children, they are judged as to how efficiently and effectively they use these services. There are 12 category upon which they are judged which are- Best Child Friendly Community, Best Managed Centers (Sahajpath, Ekjot-Nirmaan, Yuva), Best Group (Ekjot and Nirmaan), Best Leader, Best Area Health Minders’ Team, Best Reporting Team (writing), Best Visual Documentation (still/video), Best Community Rapport Builders, Best Community Event Organizers, Best Wall Magazine , Best Library Management, Best Finance Management. Each of these categories has criterions on which they are marked. Not just the category and the criterions are interesting but also the assessment procedure is interesting and innovative; the assessment takes place every month taking into account even the minute details and then the ratings are given in grade system- A, B, C, D and E. While assessing six aspects or can be said sub-criterions are also considered, viz, Proshashon (administration), Pronaami (finance), Prostuti (field), Proshar (public relations), Prokaash (documentation) and Projukti (social media). Surely a lot of Bournvita and Complan was put to use in childhood that while doing the assessment the minutest details comes to mind instantly. As earlier mentioned that the children are partners in Prayasam and not just the so-called beneficiaries, these children too have marking rights, viz, depending on the work done every month, the core members of every community rate themselves in every category in presence of each other and the other Prayasam members. We don’t believe in “fair is foul, foul is fair” but our viewpoint is “everything should be fair”; we work with the children and not just for the children. Cumulative markings are taken and then the final result of every month is declared. The first month (January 2013) winner was Rishi Aurobindo Colony. Many a times we sympathize with them on the basis of the fact that they are born in slums and are not as “fortunate” as we are because we are economically more well-off than they are. But if you just re-read the above paragraph and have a good analytical power then you will surely understand than these children are hundred times more fortunate than we are. All the experiences which an individual gathers over once lifetime, these children are getting it at such young years of their life. Moreover getting their hands on such varied skills of life, all under one umbrella is itself an indication of being FORTUNATE. The two biggest problems with human beings of all generations are being organized or doing things in an organized manner and taking up responsibility and executing them efficiently. These children are learning both these skills simultaneously, mostly without their own knowledge. “Pronaam” just aims to be that small firecracker which will engulf the entire community into its periphery and will bring an all-round development of the entire community. It aims to ignite the aspiration level of the children so that their strive towards excellence becomes faster, effective, efficient and dynamic. It is the catalyst which will speed up the reaction. Some positive results are already at hand, just in six months of its introduction and the ultimate success though yet to come but will definitely come. Through this, we aim to encourage the development of leadership and management skills, among less priviledged urban adolescents and youth, so that they can emerge as self-sufficient and well-groomed community leaders and capable of making the right life and career choices.

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