Youth group that raised funds to feed drought-hit students fails to keep its word

Acting on the complaint filed by students of Fergusson College, the charity commissioner has initiated an inquiry into the working of SHH

The people running Students Helping Hand (SHH) were not such good Samaritans after all, if the complaints received by the charity commissioner on Wednesday are anything to go by. In fact, acting on their submission, the charity commissioner has initiated an inquiry into the NGO, purportedly out to help students hailing from drought stricken regions of the state.

A group of students, mostly from Fergusson College (FC), have reported that after whipping up a lot of publicity through the media and raising voluminous funds, SHH has stopped feeding them since May. It may be recalled that even Mirror had run the story — ‘Drought-hit students in city get free meal services from seniors’ — in February, essaying the initiative to take care of the daily meals of the impoverished students from these economically embattled areas.


SHH, which currently claims that it is serving 600 students across the city with free meals, has stopped serving the 50 students it used to in Fergusson College since May. “In the name of students from drought-prone areas, SHH has raised huge amounts of fund. They catered to us for two months.

But since May they stopped supplying the food. This, after taking large donations from various donors on the pretext of helping us,” the complaint stated.

They contended that the founder of SHH, Kuldeep Ambekar, had built up a strong network of companies, tapping into their corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds, on the grounds that his group was helping needy students. The group gained a lot of traction in the past six months, roping in participation from businessmen, politicians and even social workers.

But the entire exercise now seems be one for exhibition rather than continuance of the good work, the complainants contended. “Ambekar spread fake information through newspapers, attracting donors, who pitched in lakhs of rupees to help it in its stated mission. But we must point out that Ambekar is no longer helping us and request the charity commissioner to run an inquiry and initiate legal action against SHH,” the complaint reiterated.

The students listed out names of Chetan Dahiya of Anant Industries, Shridhar Joshi of JCB Chemicals Pvt Ltd, businessman-turned-politician Rohit Pawar, Ritu Chabbria of Mukul Madhav Foundation – a trust supported by Finolex, Nimesh Smurti from Mumbai and Siddharth Dhende, the city’s deputy mayor, among others, as people who have contributed to the cause.

Clearly feeling let down, Sunil Jadhav, a student of FC recounted, “We are not being given the form for requisitioning the tiffin, despite several requests since early this month. We feel completely used by the group to gain mileage and make a killing. Ambekar is not only slighting us but also cheating the donors who genuinely wanted to do something positive for the society.”

The free meals came at a price pointed out Ankush Helode from Garware College. “Students availing the free food were forced to attend every event (mostly politically tilted) of SHH. This was the mandate if they wanted the meals to keep coming. Having no option we complied. We were puppets SHH placed before the donors and the media, to endorse their work,” he observed on hindsight.

Even when the meals were coming, the students’ sense of gratification was soon dissipated by the dwindling quality of the offerings. “We were so pleased with the arrangement. We chose not to return to our villages, as we could work and earn some money to be sent back to our families facing hardship, with our meals taken care of. But this did not last and now we are in trouble. Even when it came the food quality was not so great and sometimes they arrived as late as 4 pm and 11 pm,” recalled Rushikesh Ballar, another FC scholar.

Acknowledging the complaint, Dilip Deshmukh, Joint Charity Commissioner, Pune region, informed, “We’ve issued inquiry orders against SHH based on the complaint. We’ve sought a detailed investigation. The students have complained, but we cannot act purely based on their complaint. Action will be taken pursuant to getting the inquiry report filed by our officer.”

Vehemently refuting the allegations Ambekar shrugged them off saying, “Students are required to submit documents to prove their eligibility. We are juggling 3,000 requests presently, so why should we consider these students. It is not for the students to question us as the decision on who to serve rests with the founder of the group and the donors. It is not the students’ place to question who is helping and who is giving media bites. We’ve not used names of specific students to raise the funds. These students got the benefit of our work for last three months, so why should we continue supporting them?”