Bengaluru students raise Rs 65 lakh through Kanyathon marathon to support girl education

Bengaluru: Turning classroom lessons into real-world impact, students from three management institutions in the city raised around Rs 65 lakh through Kanyathon, a student-driven marathon held last week to support the education of nearly 1,000 govt school students.Kanyathon is a student-driven social impact initiative by students of Jagdish Sheth School of Management, IFIM College, IFIM College of Law, and Vijaybhoomi University. The marathon, which saw participation of nearly 10k running enthusiasts, was organised in Electronics City with funds sourced by students from corporates such as Wipro, HP, Biocon, Deutsche Bank, Infosys, and Siemens. In fact, in the last six years, Kanyathon has raised about Rs 3.1 crore. Through the programme, nine Kanyathon Shiksha Kendras were established to supplement the learning of 1,000 govt school-going girls with a solid foundation in English, digital literacy, and health and hygiene. It also helped educate them on their menstrual health and provided access to feminine hygiene products. In fact, for these students, this fundraising event was an application of all their management lessons on campus. "It is fully integrated into the university curriculum. Students earn academic credits and develop practical skills as they manage the event, applying classroom theories in areas such as organisational leadership, project management, human resources, and finance. Structured like a corporate entity, Kanyathon has designated roles — president, vice president, marketing head, operations manager, and finance head — that mirror real-world business settings," said Kalpana Padode, governing board member, Vijaybhoomi University, and the mind behind Kanyathon.Naomi Bhowmick, a PG diploma in management student from JAGSoM, agreed: "One of the most prominent lessons is in people management. We meet a wide range of people — common participants to senior corporates — everyone comes with different sets of expectations and temperaments." "We strongly believe in the cause. We pitch to the corporates and try to convince them with the impact and the scale at which it is happening. We engage them with stories of how it changed lives. Once they are convinced, we change the conversation to how they want to invest," she added. Ruchika Goel, another student, said: "We once went to Church Street for a sales drive. Some students stood on the pavement, frozen. People got curious, came up to us, and asked about the event. So it was a class for us to get our creativity out too."Planning starts from Nov. Around 2,000 students are involved. By Jan, students are out of classrooms, working full swing on the project.