By Rishi Muralimohan
Hidush focuses on education, health, and the environment.
Hidush Foundation was incorporated as a Sec 8 not for profit company in July 2015 and has been in operation for five years. The Founders and Directors are Rishi Muralimohan, a chartered accountant and company secretary with about 35 years of corporate experience. Rishi is the CEO and is responsible for the day to day operations. Sujatha Rajashekar, a cost accountant by qualification who has chosen meditation as a way of life
Nirav Vaghela, a Chartered accountant, is employed with a multinational firm. Hidush is registered with NGO Darpan with ID MH/2017/0156822 and registered with BSE Sammaan and United Ways of Mumbai. Hidush registered under Sec 12AA and Sec 80G of the Income Tax Act 1961 as a charitable organization. Hidush’s focus areas currently are education, health, and the environment.
Hidush has been supporting the infrastructure renewal process and operations of the Madh Municipal school, Malad West, Mumbai, for the past four years. The school operates in 2 shifts and offers education to about 500 children from Class 1 to Class 8. As a part of infrastructure renewal, the school building freshly painted using high-quality paints ( considering its closeness to the sea). All 22 broken windows were replaced with high-grade aluminum windows with transparent plastic, industry-grade water purifier, 22 cupboards, LED lights, and energy-saving fans in all classrooms and school premises. To ensure adequate lighting and ventilation, PIN up boards for all classes to post educative study material, benches, laptops and desktops for all classrooms, high-speed printer, scanner and copier, water pump with an 8000 litre overhead tank to take care of water and sanitation needs of the school, internet connection and cabling and networking for all classrooms. The school now has separate toilets for boys, girls, and teachers.
The Foundation also takes care of operational requirements like repair and maintenance, AMC for computers and electronic products, stationery, and other needs. The Foundation has municipal approval for supporting the school. Hidush has provided two back up teachers this year and plans to offer four more teachers to impart English, music, dance, drama, and sports to augment the education process. All the students screened in the last academic year, and students with special needs were identified. A medical check-up organized for all students in the past academic year and proposed to make this an annual activity. It needs an amount of approx Rs 10 lacs a year to support operations. Hidush plans to provide projectors and laptops to 5 classrooms this year, estimated to cost Rs 3.5 lacs, and give a roof to the school assembly area at approx Rs 5 lacs.
Hidush, through CSR funds, also digitized four classrooms this year by providing projectors, laptops, sound systems screens, and educational software to the Urse school at Palghar. The school is state-aided, run by a private trust, and needs support from time to time, both in infrastructure and operations. The school caters to the need of about 180 secondary schools ( Std 8 to Std 10th ) students and requires infrastructure up-gradation estimated at around Rs 2 crores. Once completed, this will benefit students from a radius of about 40 km. Currently, Hidush is working on getting solar power installed at the school to counter voltage fluctuations and frequent drop-in control and has quotations in place for an amount of Rs 17 lacs. The school currently has about 50 resident students, which can go up if funded for foodgrains and provisions.
Hidush is working on setting up an English medium school near the outskirts of Bengaluru for rural students. The project is currently at the planning stage. This school will follow the Steiner method of education and cater to a radius of around 25 km. The project involves purchasing land, constructing buildings, and equipping the school with modern amenities. The project, when fully implemented, will become a benchmark in quality education. The school will also focus on providing vocational training as a part of Skill India. The tentative costs for setting up the school are around five crores. The amounts planned to raise from corporate and other donations.
Hidush, as a part of these initiatives, will implement health and sanitation initiatives at these locations to augment the health of the children and community. One of the Directors of Hidush Foundation teaches meditation, and several videos on meditation and health have been posted on YouTube to augment citizens’ health around the globe. The production of the video is done through upcoming artists to encourage art and music.
Hidush plans to support environmental issues in and around its operations by tying up with other “not for profits” specialized in such work and corporates. Implementation agency for CSR programs. Hidush also acts as an implementation agency for corporate CSR programs and, in the past year, has organized and delivered foodgrains and groceries to about five orphanages, two nursing homes, and a rescue home. It continues to collaborate with these NGOs based on their need.
