Serving the young and needy!

Serving people considerably younger than them makes the members of this particular group happy. The Senior Citizens Group Of Besant Nagar (SCGOBN) in Chennai is a social service group formed by a few pensioners (average age 75) who have united with the belief, ‘It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness’. Founded in 2012, the group has become a part of Chennai’s lifeline.

The aim of the group is to take up issues concerning citizens, creating awareness through individual meetings, group meetings and mass media, and work towards finding solutions. SCGOBN also takes up issues concerning the needy and the poor and helps them as much as possible.

Retired Prof. Chandrasekhar, founder and president of the group says, “Started with just 10 people as an informal group of senior people, the Senior Citizen Group of Besant Nagar has come a long way. Now, the group has more than 50 well-wishers. We conduct meetings whenever necessary — twice a month or once in three months, it differs. All SCGOBN programmes are free for all senior citizens. There is no membership fee and we do not accept any monetary donations from anyone. All expenses are met through the pensions and savings of its founder members. However, sponsorship in kind is welcome.”

The group, that has done a lot of activities in the city, has launched a campaign to prevent the wastage of coconut water in temples across TN! “Thousands of coconuts are broken daily in temples. No effort is made by the authorities to collect the highly nutritious water and distribute it to the devotees. The coconut water is allowed to go down the drain,” says Chandrasekhar, adding, “None of the priests are interested in saving the coconut water. We are convincing the temple management to collect the coconut water and distribute it to the devotees.”

The group is also planning to conduct an essay competition for the students all over TN. “All the college students across the state can participate in the essay competition. The theme is ‘Ethics and values my grandparents taught me’,” he adds.

When quizzed about the outreach of the programmes, Chandrasekhar says, “Our work is transparent. People are confident with our work, and also, credibility is there. We started as a small initiative at Besant Nagar and we never realised that we would reach so many people in the city. The group wants to encourage similar initiatives in the state. For this, we are getting support from many institutions and organisations in Chennai.”