Young Indians (YI) Kolkata has a new chapter chair and he is focused, full of energy and all set to set a new benchmark. Rohit Patni who joined the organisation — an integral part and a strategic partner of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) — in 2016, has held many posts in the goaloriented body and now takes over the top post with new targets in mind. Excerpts from the interview:
You joined YI back in 2016. What was it that got you interested in YI and what was it that made you stick to it?
I read about YI online and a couple of my friends were also part of it so I joined it. It was at a nascent stage at that time but the kind of work they were doing was impressive. And I developed a liking towards it and got involved more in their vision. The organisation was a much smaller one with 75 or 80 members and we bonded very well. Also, it was an honour to be part of a prolific organisation like CII which did amazing work. YI worked at different levels and they were doing remarkable work in nationbuilding.
YI essentially follows a fourpronged strategy – Members, Yuva, Thalir and Rural Initiatives (MYTRI). Members stand for all the members, Yuva is the college students that we do work with, and Thalir, which is a South Indian word for a sapling, is the work that we do for the schoolchildren. And the fourth is Rural Initiative, where we acquire villages and work for them. Of all the four pillars I was more drawn towards Y, which stands for Yuva. And at that time, we had the YMP Yuva Mentorship Programme wherein eight college students were given first-hand exposure to a working office and I enjoyed that thoroughly.
Now that you become the chair, the responsibility is bigger. How prepared are you?
I was co-heading the chair with Vaibhav Soni, the immediate past chair, so I knew what is expected of me; I knew what I was getting into. However, it’s a different thing when you become a chair and I am aware of that too; it’s a big responsibility. I would like to thank all my past chairs of the last five years who have taken the organisation to a different height.
Since you have been part of YI since 2016, and you have held many positions in it including co-chair, members engagement; chair, members engagement; and co-chair, Gift an Organ, among others, how have you evolved?
I have had an interesting and fulfilling stint at YI so far. Since I was good at organising parties so I did organise many themebased events. Plus, we have something called Gift an Organ wherein people pledge to donate their organs after death and we created good awareness for that. The year after that, I got into the accessibility vertical and led the team with support from everyone. We managed to start a campaign called Uthe Sab Ke Kadam and tied up with Mahavir Seva Sadan and got prosthetic legs to many people and changed their lives. We went with a very small vision of 50 legs, and we transform that into 4,000 legs. The size of good work that you can do, you can only know when you venture into it. You can see how amazing and big you can make it. And we did that with some great collaborations.
How were the Covid years for YI?
Instead of mulling over the new crisis, we made a new force called the Covid Task Force. We took it up as a mission for ourselves to bring about the necessities that are needed by the people. We gave five ambulances to the hospital. We did some result-oriented work in vaccination, making sure the oldest members did not have to stand in the queue and that getting vaccines was easier.
What will be your area of focus as the chair?
I have this theme running for the year called ‘We’. We is the power of inclusiveness, the power of everyone coming together, the power of the strength of the multiple. And I want to capitalise on the strength of We to make a difference. Again, one of my biggest dreams is to do remarkable work in kidney dialysis. Though a lot of work is being done in this sector I would really like to add to it because it’s a big necessity for people who suffer from kidney disease. I want to make dialysis more accessible. Lastly, there’s also another project that I have had in mind since last year and that’s about protecting the mangrove in the Sunderbans. We want to plant at least five lakh mangrove trees in the Sunderbans as a massive project in conjunction with rural initiatives. There are also plans of planting fruit-bearing trees to increase livelihoods in rural areas. I have the support of my co-chair Siddharth Agarwal and I am sure we will achieve our goals.
