ROUND TABLE INDIA

Round Table India (RTI) is an organisation of non-political and non-sectarian young men between the age group of 18 and 40. The aim of the young men is to promote service, fellowship and goodwill in national and international affairs. The unique feature of this organisation is that it always remains young, because the Tablers retire when they turn 40, giving way to younger people.

Round Table India, the association, was formed on November 14, 1962 with just a membership of 100. It has, over the last 4 decades, grown to become a 2500 member strong association, individuals who can rise above personal concerns to seek and serve the larger needs of the community.

We have 165 Tables located in 75 cities and towns, comprising of businessmen, entrepreneurs, technocrats and professionals. On the administration front, Round Table India has a National Board, which guides the affairs of the association. Round Table India is divided into 10 Areas, which have their own Area Board to administer them. The wives of members of Round Table are a part of a separate organisation called ‘Ladies Circle’.

Currently Round Table exists in 54 countries around the world with a total membership of around 36,000, providing limitless opportunities for members to travel and change their perspective on life.

Service Through Fellowship is the lifeline of Round Table India. It is through the fellowship of young men that this organisation has served the community for the last 45 years.

Round Table India started its efforts in helping the community with small projects directed towards service. Over the years, we have grown from strength to strength and today we are building big projects and have moved over from community service to community development. The concept of National Project for Round Table India was introduced in 1992.

Blood Typing, the National Project in 1992 enlisted over 30000 Blood Donors across the country.

Operation Thirst in 1993 was the first Community Development Project to provide drinking water source to village people by sinking over 500 borewells at a cost of over Rs.10 Million.

AIDS being the killer disease, its awareness was promoted by Round Table India in the year 1994.

Project SMILE, providing dental hygiene for rural children by conducting several dental camps benefiting about 300,000 children in the year 1995.

In 1996, “Right to Learn” the National Project to provide school infrastructure was very successful and over 140 school buildings were constructed at a cost of over Rs.70 Million, benefiting 200,000 rural children across the country.

In 1997, Round Table India launched “Project Touch” and we adopted 2000 orphan children in association with SOS Children’s village at a cost of Rs.1.5 Million.

After nearly 60 years of independence, 50 Million Indian children have never ever been to school. Illiteracy is a self-fulfilling curse that perpetuates the chain of poverty, degradation and child labour. To reach out to this group of underprivileged children, we proposed in 1998 to provide basic infrastructure for primary education in rural India, reaching out to One Million children over a period of 10 years. We believe that true freedom for an individual comes only through education. Keeping the millions of underprivileged children in mind, we declared our long-term national project as “Freedom Through Education (FTE)”.

In the last 7 years, Round Tables in India have really put in a lot of effort to provide infrastructure in schools. By now, RTI has been successful in building over 1000 schools, at a cost of over Rs. 75 crores, which has benefited over Half a Million (500,000) children.

Our partnership with various State Governments has really helped us in our endeavour to reach out to more and more children across the country. The support we have received from State Governments viz. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal etc. has taken ‘Freedom Through Education’ project to greater heights.

Our efforts on “Freedom through Education” reached out across frontiers in International territory as well. The Association of Round Table Netherlands was so impressed with the work we have been doing that they decided to adopt our National Project “Freedom through Education” as their National Project.  It is now the Round Table of Great Britain and Ireland (RTBI) that has come forward and will partner us in this noble mission.

Round Table India performed its National duty when it collected and handed over a sum of Rs.5.1 Million to the Prime Minister towards the Kargil Fund.

During the earthquake in Latur in 1993, Tablers of Round Table India moved relief material within 24 hours to the earthquake hit villages. We also constructed a Community Welfare Centre in Latur as a relief measure.

Round Table India worked very hard in Orissa during the Cyclone Relief Work in 1999-2000. “Operation Sadhbhavana” launched by us saw the construction of 4 schools at a cost of Rs. 2 Million directly by the Tables in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.

Round Table India also tied up with NOVIB of Netherlands and Centre for Youth Social Development to construct 15 schools at a cost of Rs.13 Million all over Orissa.

The Gujarat Earthquake was another moment, when Round Table India was present in full strength to support the victims of the earthquake. We moved materials to Gujarat from all over India and helped them with immediate relief. We have also collected over Rs. 28 Million towards construction of 14 school buildings in Kutch and Surendarnagar districts of Gujarat. Azim Premji Foundation has contributed a sum of Rs. 8 Million towards this initiative.

Round Table India released Braille Dictionaries in Tamil and Marathi languages and distributed the same to several blind institutions. We received accolades from blind people and institutions for this stupendous effort.

Round Table India was recognised by Govt. of Tamil Nadu as one of the 8 Non Governmental Organisations taking up rehabilitation work in Tsunami affected areas. A total of 120 primary schools were taken up by RTI for complete reconstruction at a cost of 60 Million Rupees. This entire project will be completed by June 2006. Apart from this, RTI also provided boats, fishing nets and other accessories to the affected fishermen.

The investment in projects is growing every year and the per-capita expenditure on projects of Round Table India is Rs. 50,000/- per annum, possibly the highest amongst all service organisations in India. We are also proud of the fact that Round Table India is a Zero Overhead organization.

Looking at the importance of education for the development of the country, Kajol & Ajay Devgan, Sabeer Bhatia and Narain Karthikeyan have agreed on their own accord to support Round Table India in its mission to educate One Million children. They are the Goodwill Ambassadors for Round Table India’s long-term project ‘Freedom Through Education.’

It is a new freedom movement calling for the entire nation to rise to the challenge and take a stand against illiteracy and its tight grip on generations of Indians. We believe that we can do something to give every Indian a chance. Round Table India with its approach of ‘Service through Fellowship’ is making the difference.

For more details please visit our websites:

Email- nationalpublicity@roundtableindia.org 

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