'Divyas,' an attempt to eradicate corruption

“Sacrifice is the key to a successful life. When we live for others and make sacrifices for others, that ‘seva’ will make our life worthwhile,” said Minister of Health and Social Welfare U T Khader as he inaugurated a one-day seminar on ‘The role of values and seva manobhava to eradicate corruption in India’ conducted by ‘Divyas’ (a project of integral yoga satsanga) in association with Roshni Nilaya School of Social Work here on Saturday.

Addressing the gathering, Roshni Nilaya Dean Ramila Shekhar spoke about how youth can be instrumental in fighting corruption.  “Whenever we as citizens forget that the nation belongs to all of us, that’s when corruption and other negative elements crawl into the society,” she said adding that one’s happiness lies in the happiness of other people and when we give others happiness, we ourselves become happy.

The inaugural ceremony was followed by the keynote address by WHO, UNO Retd Regional Advisor Dr Derek Lobo. Speaking on the topic, he said that corruption is a concept that isn’t only related to higher authorities. 

“When we talk of corruption, we look at the government employees, ministers and other higher officials, but we fail to look at ourselves. To fight corruption, one must first blame him/herself,” he said, also stressing on the methods of education having to play a key role in shaping an individual, teaching them the right things and educators themselves following it.

 “Today we have nearly 6000 students committing suicide every year due to exam stress. We need to understand that when these students move into the real world, it is their soft skills and overall development and values that will help them survive and not marks,” Derek Lobo added urging the teaching community to make a change in the way children are being moulded.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, the Integral Yoga Satsanga (IYS) Managing Trustee V L Rego said that Divyas which stands for ‘deriving inner values, yoga and seva,’ is an academic movement started with the help of nine youngsters from different fields as a step to eradicate corruption.

 “An expansion of the mind and development of an attitude of service at a young age is what is required in order to make an attempt to fight corruption. This is exactly what ‘Divyas’ is trying to do. We have a made a syllabus that promotes values, service and yoga, that can be incorporated in school as a small attempt to help people change themselves than blaming others for corruption,” he said. 

Rego added that they have recieved a green signal from the education department, but the schools are not in full acceptance of this plan as it is not financially beneficial to them and also spoke of his plans to start a school of value development for which plans are already being laid out.