This article is not about any company. It deals with the Bhumi movement which has taken place in Chennai as a mean of social reform.

Introduction

BHUMI-Chennai is the Chennai chapter of BHUMI. BHUMI is an organization of youngsters striving to build a more influential, equal and socially conscious society in India. The aim of the organization is to give what the lesser privileged deserve by the combined efforts of students and young professionals who feel that it is their duty to pay back to society what they have taken from it. BHUMI has emerged as the result of their efforts to achieve those objectives.


BHUMI-Chennai is involved in several development activities across Chennai and surrounding areas like Computer and English teaching programs for orphaned and destitute children in several orphanages, Career counseling for underprivileged children etc. BHUMI is active in the field of Environment conservation and is running several projects to conserve the biosphere. The organization is also working with school children in promoting road safety initiatives and with the young college students in promoting Blood and Organ Donation through various camps.

Beginning

BHUMI was started on 27th April 2007 by a motley group of youngsters in Chennai, India. These young men and women were mainly students and young professionals who wanted to make contribution to the society in anyway they can. The first session of BHUMI was held in Gandhi Mandapam ground under the chairmanship of Dr. Prahalathan K.K., a young Doctor who and the ex-constitution head of Bharat Uday Mission, a youth political party in India, which aimed at cleansing the system through radical political and social reforms. The initial progress of the organization has been slow owing to lack of funds and volunteers.

BHUMI was soon registered and started functioning with its small group of volunteers. The first few attempts of BHUMI were Blood and Organ donation camps. A major breakthrough came with the flagship project of BHUMI which was called Kanini (Computer in Tamil). This was a project to make the underprivileged children in the orphanages of Chennai familiar with computers and make them computer literate. With help from Corporates and some individuals, this project is running till date.

Another project which BHUMI has recently started in joint participation with Make a Difference group (MAD) which aims at teaching English to slum children and grooming them in a way that their self esteem is improved and they are better placed in society. This project is still in its infant stage.

Structure of BHUMI

BHUMI has a completely decentralized structure with no clear hierarchy. The human resource consists of volunteers who are categorized as Interns, Associates and Executive members. There is an absence of public or corporate donations and the organizations is said to run on the internal contribution of it's members.

Projects

1. Kanini <BR>
2. MAD