Desire to serve trumps dream of hefty pay

AHMEDABAD: They did the unthinkable — disregarded lucrative pay packages that landed their way. City colleges are now blooming with students who dare to listen to their hearts and not pockets. Parth Shah, Aditi Gupta and Sneh Bhavsar rejected six-figure offers to serve society.
Helping hands
The desire to serve society made Parth Shah from LD Engineering College turn down a job that would have paid him more than Rs 30 lakh yearly.Shah wanted to work in a multinational company but he received a wake-up call when he met a blind student in college. At a time when blind or partially blind students are finding it difficult to get writers to appear on their behalf in examinations, Shah, along with 30 friends, has developed a system of support that provides exam writers for such students. Called ‘Nayan-Ek Chhoti Si Asha’, the startup helps students with visual disabilities at HK Arts College gain the skills and experience needed to find employment. The programme educates them about job-searching techniques, builds their confidence, and gives tips to tackle interviews. “Our attempt is to give such students a direction or more specifically a vision so that they can dream too,” Shah said. “The overwhelming response has spurred the plan to expand our startup in other colleges in the city.”
Taboo no more
Not so long ago, the mere mention of the word sex raised eyebrows in their houses. But thanks to this Government Polytechnic alumnus, getting sex and menstrual guidance is no longer an anxiety-ridden task for women. The transformation in outlook has occurred as Sneh Bhavsar took the lead in setting up a unique online health centre, OoWomaniya.com not only creates awareness about sex-related health problems but also educates women on personal hygiene.
Formed with the help of his friends Varun Varunesh and Krutika Katrat, Sneh has created an enterprise whose vision is that women should have access to good quality care to meet their sexual and reproductive health needs. “We wanted to address preventive healthcare but we were shocked to find some other complicated issues,” Sneh said. “Therefore, we came up with a platform where women can seek expert advice on periods, pregnancy, sex and relationships. They have to only register for consultation and are redirected to the health expert free of cost.”
Smashing menstrual myths
At NID, when Aditi Gupta and Tuhin Paul got into a relationship, he came to know more about the inconvenience that women go through every month. And there they saw a lot of design scope to plug the gap of information as communication designers. What started as a thesis project at NID has now become a social enterprise. They created a prototype where menstruation is explained through comics using characters and stories and tested it on young girls. This later took the shape of Menstrupedia.com for which the couple quit their well-paid jobs. Now they provide essential information related to menstruation in a concise and lucid manner.