NIRMAN Selection Process, an ‘Intervention’ in itself!

Learnings from a Youth Development Program

Background
Described by the Lancet as the ‘Pioneers of health care in rural India’, Padma Shri
Dr. Abhay and Dr. Rani Bang founded the NPO ‘SEARCH’ (Society for Education,
Action and Research in Community Health) in the economically backward district of
Gadchiroli (Maharashtra) in the year 1986. Started with the vision of empowering
individuals and communities to take charge of their own health, the work of SEARCH
soon spread to other spheres such activism against alcohol and adolescent
education. In 2006,
Dr. Abhay and Dr. Rani Bang started the
initiative ‘NIRMAN’ under SEARCH in order to
nurture young leaders to take on various
developmental challenges. In 2008, SEARCH
collaborated with MKCL (Maharashtra Knowledge
Corporation Limited) and over the next decade
and a half, NIRMAN reached out to thousands of
youth spanning across 21 states in India. Additionally, the online educational
resources on NIRMAN’s YouTube channel have garnered more than one crore views.
NIRMAN sensitizes young minds to different burning social challenges and equips
them for effective action while simultaneously investing in youth’s own flourishing.
Amongst the multiple program activities of NIRMAN, the most intensive intervention
is the ‘NIRMAN Workshop’ which is designed to promote self-learning in an
interactive and lively way. Each batch of around 200 youth goes through a series of
3 residential workshops (in a progressively selected manner) that are organized
once in every 6 months. Each workshop is of about 8 days, conducted at Shodhgram
(SEARCH’s campus), Gadchiroli and the series continues for one year. Participants
from different regional, economic and academic backgrounds add depth and
breadth to this process. Over 1850 youth have participated in NIRMAN workshops till
date.
A dedicated ‘Selection Process’ is
undertaken by the NIRMAN team
before NIRMAN Workshops in order to
select the participants based on their
learning needs, aptitude, activities
done so far and future plans. While
this serves as a way to choose the
most suitable cohort for workshops,
the entire ‘Selection Process’ in itself is
a unique intervention.
The ‘Application Form’ is the first step of this process, followed by a ‘Consultative
Interview’ wherein interviewees are given thought-provoking ‘Assignments’,
submission of which concludes the process for applicants. Discussed further, is the
flow of this ‘Selection Process’ in detail and how every step of this process is an end
in itself.

The Application Form – An Introspective Tool

We often come across discussions between youth and their parents regarding
academics and choosing ‘lucrative’ careers. However, what we seldom see are the
deeper discussions on various facets shaping an individual’s character. While
choosing academics and one’s career are important things to ponder upon, these
topics end up occupying all the ‘spaces’ of discussions involving youth, resulting in
important questions about life in other domains not being thought about.
‘The NIRMAN Application Form’ has been designed as an introspective tool that
makes the applicants answer thought-provoking questions about their own life as
well as articulate their perspective toward society. These questions in the
‘Application Form’, rarely given a thought by youth, are both ‘internal-facing’ in
terms of making an applicant think about his or her own life, as well as external-
facing, making the applicant pour out his or her views about the society.
The ‘self-reflecting’ feature of the ‘Application Form’ can be understood from the
below given questions which are a part of the form.

Questions from the ‘Application Form’

 What kind of work do you intend to do after your education / if already working,
what are you doing? What was your thought process while making the decision?
 List 5 books that you have read and liked the most
 Talk about experiences or situations happening in society, which evoked the
feeling of righteous anger and/or empathy in you.

Questions in the Application Form make the participants think rigorously about their
life, even making them ponder about how they would like to see their distant future.
With such questions seldom asked to today’s youth, many of the applicants indeed
reply that it is only their first instance of thinking about their own life at a deeper
level as this.
Another important feature of the ‘Application Form’ is that it is dynamic. Every
year, the questions in the form are changed based on the scientific literature
studied by NIRMAN Team as well as on the basis of their continuous interaction
with youth, across academic and geographical backgrounds. Another important
experience of NIRMAN Team which also throws light on the ‘introspective’
aspect of the form is the response from applicants. Many applicants who make it
through to the interviews often admit that the questions in the ‘Application
Form’ were intriguing and such that they had never contemplated about.
One of the applicants even wrote back to NIRMAN Team about his experience.
“I want to mention one thing. Answering questions in the NIRMAN Application
Form was a delightful experience. I got an opportunity to pause and understand
what is going on within my own mind.” (Himanshu Kulkarni, NIRMAN 13
Applicant)
Another applicant, who too, wrote back mentioning his experience states that
answering the questions was a brainstorming activity.
“I had a lot of fragmented thoughts. But this ‘Application Form’ helped me to
think in a concrete way regarding the questions pertaining to my own life.”
(Vaibhav Raut, NIRMAN 13 Applicant)
All the applications received are scrutinised by NIRMAN Team, inviting
shortlisted applicants for the ‘Consultative Interview’ which is the next step and
intervention of the Selection Process.

Consultative Interview – A Developmental Dialogue

The applications received give an insight about the thought process of young
individuals. From the perspective of the ‘Selection Process’, it is imperative to
understand in greater depth, the thinking of a youth before finally accommodating
him or her for the workshop. An attempt to fulfil this requirement is the
‘Consultative Interview’. However, this interaction does not limit itself to the sole
objective of assessment and goes well beyond it in what can be called as a
‘Developmental Dialogue’ between the interviewer and the interviewee.
Over the last 5 years, since 2019 (NIRMAN 10 Selection Process), the NIRMAN
Selection Process has resulted in 2446 ‘Developmental Dialogues’. This number in
itself is considerable. Considering the average time of 45 minutes for an interview,
229 person days (1,10,070 minutes) have been dedicated solely to these
‘Developmental Dialogues’ in the last 5 years. One must note that point here is not
only about the quantitative magnitude of interactions with youth. These intriguing
interactions are more about their qualitative aspect – focusing on the identity of the
individual, their emotions, their insecurities and the questions they face in their life.
These important facets of a youth’s life are seldom discussed elsewhere. Even in the
closest circles of a young individual, these topics are left untouched. No wonder
many interviewees confess to their interviewers that such a dialogue is the first one
they ever had.
There also seems to be a stigma about discussions regarding social contribution.
Many interviewees confess the avoidance of such discussions due to prior
experiences of being ridiculed. Any meaningful discussion apart from those about
placements or further academics (Masters / Specialities / Ph.D.) is discouraged,
leaving negligible time and space for thoughtful youth to reflect where they are
going in life and gain clarity about their own future endeavours. A number of youth
often make way for their suppressed feelings and thoughts in these interviews,
where they acknowledge being genuinely heard.
One can understand the importance of such dialogues from the below interviewee’s
response–
“I did not expect the interview to be so engaging. Honestly, this interview was very
therapeutic to me. I hadn’t felt so good in many days. Here, I got to talk about a lot
of things and I explored myself through our talk. I got to put forth my most raw
feelings as they were. I looked at things from a different angle. I was feeling so
aimless, even to the point of consulting a Psychiatrist. But, after talking to you, I feel
like I can find the purpose of my life. It felt very nice talking to you. Really looking
forward to be associated with NIRMAN”. (Akanksha Shelke, NIRMAN 13)
While the above testimonial is a symbolic representation of the large chunk of
interviewees, there is also a cohort of youth which finds NIRMAN as a sharing space
for intense emotions, especially the negative emotions. There have been instances
where the interviewee disclosed being a victim of sexual harassment. Youth often
share their pain with the interviewer with respect to the issues the face in their
family – financial problems, addiction/s of parents or a discomforting experience
which they are unable to cope up with. Thus, the interviewers strike an emotional
chord with the majority of their interviewees, creating a bond of mutual trust /
paving way for a long-lasting connection with NIRMAN.

Educative Assignments – A Step Forward

Interviewees are given assignments at the end of their interview to help them gain
useful insights as well as to obtain clarity about their own journey ahead. These
assignments also serve as a way to check how proactive an interviewee is, making
their submission a mandatory requirement for the final selection. While utmost care
is taken to see that these assignments are thought-provoking, the interviewer often
suggests the interviewee actions which ensures a face-off of the interviewee with a
persisting social challenge or a victim of it. These assignments can include activities
such as reading, interacting with people, visiting public places (example - Primary
Health Centre) and even spreading of useful information / resources among the
needy. While the physical interaction of the interviewee during his / her assignment
is with the external world, it also stimulates a cognitive enquiry internally, wherein
the young person can know whether he / she really wants to pursue what the
individual is talking about.
Since the Selection Process conducted for NIRMAN 10 (2019), 1491 youth have
completed and submitted various educative assignments. These assignments have
resulted in hundreds of human to human interactions of youth, especially with the
marginalised. This indeed can be considered as a step to inculcate empathy among
youth towards the distressed population, help them to know the social challenges
and their implications around them, gain intriguing insights about self and society
and enable youth to get important cues for their life journey. Most importantly,
these assignments have culminated into actions by youth which underlines the
significance of this process as an intervention in itself.
One noteworthy incident which needs to be mentioned here as a symbolic example
is that of an interviewee (Shrirang Pathak – NIRMAN 13 Selection Process: 2022)
from AIIMS Bhopal who was asked to speak to 10 underprivileged patients in the
hospital. While doing so, the interviewee came across a patient who wished to
receive consultation in the ENT Department, but due to a confusion was issued a
consultation paper of the Radiotherapy Department. By the time the patient had
realised the same, working hours to get the consultation papers were over making
the patient tense. The interviewee, upon speaking with the patient understood the
scenario and helped the patient get the appropriate consultation paper investing his
own time and efforts to speak to the concerned authority. While the simplistic
nature of this action may not raise eyebrows, yet such actions propel the youth for
another such action, eventually developing empathetic attitude.
Such interactions and actions also generate a sense of responsibility among the
ones doing them. One can understand its significance from the below testimonial of
a medical student from Nagpur who was a part of the Selection Process for NIRMAN
13.
“In the last 5 years, I do not think I had ever interacted with patients this way. I
could see how eager they were to share their experiences and wanted someone to
listen to them. I am grateful for this assignment. While speaking with patients, I felt
a sense of responsibility and even saw a hope in their eyes when I told them the
objective of my interaction.”
- Rutuja Bhoyar (NIRMAN 13)
Such has been the experience of many youth. While these assignments are the final
leg of the Selection Process before deciding the final list of participants, it can also
be viewed as the beginning of an action-oriented journey for the youth. Upon the
assessment of each submitted assignment, the final selection list of participants is
declared paving way for around 200 budding social change-makers to become a
part of NIRMAN’s most intense intervention – The NIRMAN Workshops.
Yet the Selection Process is no less significant, touching upon the lives of hundreds
of youth through different methodologies – the introspective application form, the
thought-provoking interview and the educative assignments. This is what makes the
NIRMAN Selection Process an intervention in itself!
Applications for the next batch of NIRMAN have begun! If you are a young
individual in the age group of 18 – 29 years, fill up the introspective
Application Form and begin your purposeful journey.
Apply Today!
https://nirman.mkcl.org/doc/NIRMAN_Application_Form.pdf
Applicants in the last 5 Years Applications from Reputed Educational Institutes
(Since NIRMAN 10) – 3,687
IIT (Bombay, Kharagpur, Patna, Indore, Madras, Delhi),
Applicants Background: IIIT-Nagpur, IIT-BHU, VNIT-Nagpur, UDCT-Mumbai,
Medical – 1,734 (47%) BITS-PILANI, Walchand-Sangli, VIT-Vellore, COEP-Pune
Non-Medical – 1,953 (53%)
AIIMS – Delhi, Raipur, Rishikesh, Bhopal, Bathinda,
Applicants’ Region-wise: JIPMER, NIMHANS, CIP-Ranchi, IIPH-Gandhinagar,
Maharashtra – 3,203 (87%) GSMS (KEM, Mumbai), BJMC-Pune
Out of Maharashtra – 484 (13%)
IISc-Bangalore, IISER-Pune, IISER-Bhopal, IISER-Tirupati,
IIM-Indore, ATREE-Bangalore, NID-Ahmedabad

- Prathamesh Dhadse, Project Coordinator NIRMAN

([email protected])
- Aditi Pidurkar, Project Coordinator NIRMAN ([email protected])
- Amrut Bang, Program Coordinator NIRMAN ([email protected])

Prathamesh is an MBA and used to work with HDFC. Aditi is an engineer and used
to work with Hitachi. Amrut is trained in engineering and management in India
and USA and used to work with Symantec. All three of them quit their jobs in the
corporate world and started working for NIRMAN with the mission of Flourishing
Youth, Flourishing India!

NIRMAN Website: www.nirman.mkcl.org

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