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| 'Collective
thinking for a civic change' |
Education |
 It is a generally held
notion that youngsters are aimless and do not come forward to take responsibilities.
Defying any such notion are the members of the Chennai Think Tank, who have engaged
themselves in discussions and deliberations on issues that affect the public. "The
process doesn't stop with that," says Paul Prathap Jayaraj, Chairman of the forum,
"We forward the conclusions we draw from our discussions to the concerned authorities
and request them to implement the solutions, offered." Chennai Think Tank was formed
as a result of belief among the young professionals that they have innovative ideas to
offer in solving issues. "At least we have the ability to gather good ideas that
float among the public and put them as suggestion to the authorities," explains Paul
Prathap Jayaraj. Started with just 25, in July '99, The forum today boasts of a strength
of 50, which includes management consultants, lawyers, students, journalists, etc. with
retired Civil servant and officers sitting as advicers. "Even as a smaller body, we
have conducted a survey on the sale of drugs, which we have discovered as not affordable
to the middle class people," says Paul Prathap.According
to their survey, every drug and related products cost around 300 per cent more than their
actual cost price. "We
then sent a suggestion to the health secretary to implement measures that would bring down
the sky-rocketing price scale," says Prathap. The forum had also similar discussions
on bringing a single window system for the students who write entrance tests for courses
like MBA and MCA. "Entrance exams conducted by individual institutions for these
courses,create enormous problems to students. Having been applied to more thanone
institution, they are forced to give up writing the entrance test for at least one
institution because of clash in dates. We sent a letter to the education secretary of the
state and also to the center, explaining this issue," Prathap says, adding that the
response from them is enthusiastic.
 The forum also has issues like traffic management, tackling of corruption,
eco-friendliness, etc., in their agenda for discussions to come. "We should like
every member of the public to participate in these discussions because we believe ideas
are everywhere," says Prathap. The forum has been receiving a very healthy response
from many senior citizens, who have instantly come forward to offer their expertise and
guidance. "With all the resources we have, our plan is to become a parallel body to
the State Planning Commission in a few years time. If everything goes well, we are well on
course to achieve this," says Paul Prathap Jayaraj with a warm smile in his face. In
a growing commercial world, to see young people showing interest in solving social
problems is indeed encouraging. However, success of these missions are only possible when
the public reciprocate the sense of responsibility shown by the members of Chennai Think
Tank by participating and cooperating with them. When this happens, our leaders' dream of
achieving a progressive democracy will surely come true.
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