On a mission to keep the memory of his mother alive, a Presidency College alumnus, who is now associated with a university in the United States, has taken it upon himself to support the studies of underprivileged children.

To take his mission forward, Kanadpriya Basu, a faculty at Thunderbird School of Global Management of Arizona State University, and his wife Treena Basu, an associate professor in mathematics at Occidental College, USA, set up a foundation named after his mother Mira Basu, who passed away last year.

“The Mira Basu Educational and Charitable Trust aims to support needy students with all logistic support,” Kanadpriya, who is a professor of artificial intelligence and data science, said.

To make a beginning, the couple have joined a social initiative “Vivekananda Siksha Prakalpa”, a non-formal learning assistance programme run by Vivekananda Swastha Seva Sangha, in Hooghly’s Khanpur. The programme aims to develop underprivileged children holistically and prevent school dropouts. The couple have taken up the responsibility to support 120 children.

“My mother was my inspiration. In a country like ours, poverty becomes a major hurdle to meeting academic goals, including basic education. This used to haunt my mother. So, I decided to take up a mission to help children for whom education becomes a burden for financial reasons. I want to keep the memory of my mother alive among these children,” Basu told The Telegraph.

As the first step, the trust distributed apparel among the students in Khanpur and was involved in developing a library and a computer laboratory at Vivekananda Siksha Prakalpa.

“Education is my field and I am planning to include more like-minded friends in this mission so that we can collectively take up more such projects to help needy children across the state,” Basu said.

The Vivekananda Swastha Seva Sangha (VSSS), a social initiative of a group of doctors and educationists with whom Basu has taken up the mission, was set up in 1983. Inspired by the Ramakrishna Mission, the VSSS launched an “early childhood educational care programme” in 1990 for underprivileged children that was also aimed to create health awareness and moral education.

In 2010, the central government extended support to the initiative through its Gadadhar Abhyudaya Prakalpa, launched as part of Swami Vivekananda’s 150th birth anniversary celebration. In 2014, after the expiry of the four-year support period, the Gadadhar Abhyudaya Prakalpa was stopped resulting in a financial crisis for the VSSS and the initiative came to a temporary halt.

However, the organisation re-launched the programme on April 1, 2014, with the support of villagers and with a new name. The ‘Vivekananda Siksha Prakalpa’ was born in Khanpur and the journey started with 100 children.

The in-charge of the project, Sarbani Putatunda, said: “Vivekananda Siksha Prakalpa, which runs for three-four hours every morning, is a huge learning assistance programme under which children from LKG to Class V are imparted education — both academic and moral — in non-formal ways to make them school-friendly. It is a comprehensive education-cum-rearing project for children of underprivileged class in which we just don’t impart them education, rather provide all support, including apparel and nutritious food, to them.”

Putatunda said running the project required funds of around ₹50,000 per month and it included an honorarium for volunteers. “We are thankful that Professor Kanadpriya Basu has come up to extend his financial and moral support to our endeavour,” said Putatunda and added that their initiative was held during pre-school hours and the children attended government-run schools in the vicinity.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Kanadpriya said: “It is just the beginning. I plan to stretch the initiative but the primary objective is to ensure that no child has to drop out of school because of financial stress.”