Mr. Sankar Halder on Mukti’s Mission and Vision

The vision of Mukti is to create a platform for like-minded people who neither want to confine themselves to their respective professional space, nor want to work in the political space, but are still eager to work for society. As they are constrained to various industries or sectors due to their livelihood, they are unable to dedicate their time to society. Mukti believes in providing a platform for donating time, and not just money.

Today, especially in Indian society, there is a lack of people with the 4 Hs – great Head, big Heart, helping Hands and Honesty. The engagement of these types of people is very rare in the political and social spheres. It does not mean that those people do not exist in society. But in the urge to earn a living, these people first try to find a sustainable way of earning to make their own lives smooth. So they engage themselves in selective occupations like medicine, engineering, science, teaching, and other occupations of their choice. It creates a big void in the field of social services. Mukti is trying to create a platform for them, where they can come and contribute to society. This is an entrepreneurship model.

Mukti calls to people who are working rigorously to keep their families safe – to spend some of their time serving the underprivileged people because Society is interconnected; if one part is jeopardized, then one’s family will also face danger. Serving society with time and goodwill is more important than funds. People willing to serve society need to think about societal problems, find out a solution and implement it in a meaningful way. The gap is in time and talent, and not funds. It is this gap that Mukti intends to fill. To be a volunteer of Mukti, one needs to commit a certain number of hours in a year.  Committing funds if possible, comes next in importance. When people engage themselves and utilize their expertise in Mukti they are contributing something to society which is more valuable than money.

Social problems have many dynamics. So, to address these heterogeneous issues, we should value people with different skill sets and knowledge. They can be the curators who will upgrade society to a higher level. We see that every time the government is criticized for any social problem. But as citizens, the responsibility lies with all of us. Criticism shows the social drawbacks as a mirror but it can’t solve the problem. For a solution, everyone has to participate.

Mission is basically the path through which Mukti is going to achieve its vision. Mission is time specific and very focused on the timely delivery of what Mukti wants to do. When there are people coming from various sectors with different areas of expertise and trying to address these varied issues, then chaos is to be expected. Through 9 different program areas – HEALER AID (health, education, agriculture, livelihood, environment, climate resiliency and recovery, awareness and empowerment, integrated development and disaster management) – Mukti segregates these problems. Mukti has specific projects in each program area. At present, Mukti is running 3-4 projects in health, 6-7 in education, a couple of projects in livelihood, organic produce-related projects in agriculture, addressing environmental issues by implementing a huge plantation drive, working extensively on climate resiliency and recovery in the Sundarbans, working for right based activities through awareness and empowerment programs, and transforming a village into a “model village” through an integrated development program addressing health, education, livelihood, and environment issues. Mukti volunteers have spread the development activities in 10 villages beyond Sundarban, and Mukti has become proficient in managing disasters through the help of a few lakh volunteers associated with Mukti (directly or indirectly). This volunteer network has become proficient in responding quickly to natural disasters in the Sundarbans.

Mukti hopes that people will continue to be with Mukti in the future for the successful implementation of Mukti’s missions.