Vidya Setu- Knowledge Bridge for Societal Bonding

The aim of education is primarily to prepare a student for life. University education further aims at shaping the youth to conquer societal challenges and build a vibrant and enlightened civil society. However, as the chasm between the haves and the have-nots appears to be causing concern, the role and responsibility of academicians and centres of learning have assumed new dimensions. It has now been conclusively held that the gap between the rich and the poor is basically the 'knowledge gap'. Only through their bonding and fusion can we hope to build an enlightened civil society.

MET has taken up the onerous task of bridging the knowledge divide in our society through initiatives, that will reach out to the weakest segments. They will galvanise the knowledge workers of the university to reach out especially to the underprivileged sections and bring them in the main stream through empowerment and capacity building by deployment of soft skills. This effortwill be integrated into the heart of the structured learning systemwith students and faculty leading theway.
This is our offering 'VIDYA-SETU' - a bridge spanning the knowledge divide.

It envisages the students to reaching out to the weaker sections of the society through person-to-person interaction with them using soft tools like training, counselling, experience sharing, hand holding, skill upgradation etc. In a typical undergraduate programme the students would be free to choose any one of the following 15 Missions detailed in the document for which he / she would be trained to be a facilitator in the first semester as well as identify the beneficiaries located within the 3 - 4 km. radius of the institution spending 3 - 4 hours / week in a semester.

1. Mission to Eradicate Hunger and Poverty - HP 1-10 [Missions 1 to 10]
2. Mission to Promote Universal Primary Education - PE 1-10 [Missions 11 to 20]
3. Mission to Promote Gender Equity and Women Empowerment - WE 1-10 [Missions 21 to 30]
4. Mission to Reduce Child Mortality - CM 1-10 [Missions 31 to 40]
5. Mission to Improve Maternal Health - MH 1-10 [Missions 41 to 50]
6. Mission to Combat HIV AIDS/ Malaria and Others - AD 1-10 [Missions 51 to 60]
7. Mission to Ensure Environmental Sustainability - ES 1-10 [Missions 61 to 70]
8. Mission for Popularisation of Fitness and Wellness including Sports and Yoga - FS 1-10 [Missions 71 to 80]
9. Mission for Reaching out to Physically/ Mentally handicapped persons (Differently Abled) - DA 1-10 [Missions 81 to 90]
10. Mission to Nurture & work to foster Dignity & Respect to Elders through study & practice Geriatric Care (Senior Citizens) -GC1 10[Missions 91 to 100]
11. Mission for Providing Relief, Counselling and Hand holding to School dropouts/ street urchins and other underprivileged children. The Economically needy category - RC 1-10 [Missions 101 to 110]
12. Mission for Reaching out to high risk, high work pressure/ stress groups like Defence/ Police/ Fire fighters/ local train drivers to provide emotional relief / counselling etc. - to this High Stress Category - WP 1-10 [Missions 111 to 120]
13. Mission to promote universal cross cultural understanding through culture tourism and exchange showcasing the city as Global Tourism & Brotherhood Hub YB 1-10 [Missions 121 to 130]
14. Mission to Generate dynamic societal participation in development of Emergency response systems and networking vital for Disaster Management DM 1-10 [Missions 131 to 140]
15. Mission to Develop Global Partnership for Development - GP 1-10 [Missions 141 to 150]

beneficiaries every semester. In the sixth semester, students would present a paper on their experience with the families they have interacted and submit it for finalisation. The students of post graduate and masters will help in review of the schemes and reshaping the programme. In every semester the student is supposed to spend not more than 3 - 4 hours per week with the beneficiaries in the programme. In addition, summer camps or training programme could be held to bring in an outbound training experience to the students. In the entire programme the faculty would be guiding the students and evaluating their performance on a continuous basis. The students will be given credits for their work with due acknowledgement in the graduate programme. A pilot programme is already under the way at MET with good result. As an extension of Vidya Setu to achieve the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (UN MDGs) in the least developed areas of India, MET has been implementing an integrated programme for holistic rural development entitled ‘Project- TRUTH’ - Total Rural Upliftment Through Holistic care. Over the past 5 years, MET League of Colleges has successfully undertaken several programmes at Waliv village at Vasai including eco conservation, health-care, promotion of tribal arts and crafts and a unique alternative energy programme. Through these initiatives MET has made a difference in the life of many tribals. MET has decided to support and partly fund the following programmes at Waliv:

1. Solar energy project - lighting up the homes of the tribals.
2. Mass immunisation programme - immunising tribals against deadly diseases like cholera, typhoid and meningitis.
3. Computer literacy to all the tribals - MET will donate computers and train tribals in basics of computing.
4. Insurance to all - Each and every tribal will be insured through a special government scheme whereby government contributes only part of the premium and the rest needs to be arranged by MET. We believe that through these initiatives the poor tribals will lead a healthier and meaningful life in those remote areas while the students and faculty would immensely benefit by this exercise.