Prayas Foundation Course

(Integrated Personality Development Program)

(For Retired Individuals or Individuals aged above 60 years)

Course Module code: PFC/04

 

[An adult who was very busy in his/her job or occupation or family responsibilities as its head, feels very lonely and left out after his son takes over the command of the family or after his/her retirement as he/she loses his/her power and importance in the family. If he/she does not know how to graduate to such a powerless life and live it well, he/she could be victim of not only depression but also of various ailments related to it. This particular module of Prayas Foundation Course is an unique program which prepares participants aged above 60 years and up to 75 years, who participate in this program, for living a graceful post-retirement life with peace and happiness by bringing requisite shift in their thinking and behavior and improved emotional, social and ethical intelligence and developing a internally driven, self-motivating and proactive personality through guided brainstorming sessions on interesting questions related to real issues of this phase of life and possible ways to enjoy it in tune with one’s aptitude and interests. Aptitude and interests are determined through daily non-prescriptive writing on subjects of self interests. It empowers participants to achieve success in shouldering the responsibilities related to various social services or mentoring responsibilities suitable for this stage of life on their own without any spoon feeding and too in most difficult and challenging circumstances. Life is full of difficulties, problems and challenges which get more intense with age and one should be able to live it in a happy and healthy way. This program prepares senior citizens for the same. It is most flexible, informal and economic program in the present day context. Most important feature of this program is an assurance to participants of this program that all their queries or doubts regarding the subject or the topic being brainstormed will be replied and they can avail mentoring facility even after completion of the course, if they so desire, on payment of annual charges of Rs. 1000 (One Thousand) by normal candidates and Rs. 500 (Five Hundreds) by candidates belonging to economically weaker sections of society on long-term basis. It is fact that ‘Prayas discourages spoon feeding but takes care of the pressing problems of its customers and will not leave them high and dry and tries to help them to the extend feasible.]   

 

Special Features of Program

This program is dedicated and customized for learning the art of living a detached but happy, peaceful, healthy, socially useful and self-satisfying post retirement life by bringing requisite shift in the thinking and behavior of participants with regard to achieving gradual detachment from day to day affairs of their families. This six monthly Integrated Personality Development Program titled “Prayas Foundation Course” facilitates living a somewhat detached life with peace and happiness by developing positive thinking, increased liking for healthy life style besides developing balanced understanding of the desired change in one’s role in family, institutional, social, legal, economic and political environment at this stage of life. It encourages participants to deliberates and discuss about basic human values, rights and duties of citizens  and desirable personal, family, institutional, social, economic and political behavior at post retirement/post working  stage in life through unrestricted brainstorming on interesting questions related to important issues of these areas relevant for this stage of life. It encourages and motivates them to take group decision through consensus about adopting behavioral changes suitable for this stage in their life.  This program makes the participant realize the important of calibrated withdrawal from hard core issues of family life and providing soft guidance to children and working adults wherever required or sought after and desist from interference in day to day affaires as they were doing in their working like as head of family. It prepares them for mentorship.

General Need of the Program

According to ancient Indian Life Tradition, for living a peaceful, successful and happy life from birth to death, an individual has to shoulder the responsibilities of various phases of his/her life i.e. Bramhacharya, Grihastha, Vanprasth and Sanyas Ashrams to best of his/her ability and with full honesty. “Prayas Foundation Course” launched by ‘Prayas’ contains customized modules for various phases in life of participants of a particular group. This particular module is dedicated for individual who have just entered into Vanprasth Ashram or have retired from regular work. It is holistic in approach for this stage of life.

The qualities and values required to be developed for a peaceful, satisfied, and happy post retired life include: recognizing importance of maintaining good health over anything else and adopting healthy life style, positive thinking, inter-personal harmony, role and benefits of mentoring the young generation, universal brotherhood, patience to hear other’s view carefully and react in an objective, motivating and humble manner, ability and willingness to understand and appreciate other’s emotions and thoughts and respect them, ability to present one’s view point before others in an objective, courteous and effective manner, alertness towards one’s duties & responsibilities and willingness to fulfill them as a responsible citizen, faith in democratic thoughts, principles and processes, general understanding of common features of all religions, respecting them and belief in co-existence of a multi-religious society, belief in individual/human rights  and freedom, understanding the importance of ethical values in life, affection  for younger members of family and other young individuals and willingness & eagerness to guide them from their vast experience, habit of regular reading and learning new things for use in life and undertake social service in spare time. Besides above an individual should be sensitive to changes occurring in current family, institutional, social, economic and political environment. Unless above mentioned values and qualities are developed in a person, he/she would not succeed in his family and social life after his/her retirement. Also he/she would neither be peaceful and happy nor can he/she earn respect of others. In fact he/she could be odd man out.

Considering the current post retirement problems which are increasing day by day, ‘Prayas’ has launched a unique Personality Development Program (PDP) titled “Prayas Foundation Course (PFC)” to develop emotional, social and spiritual intelligence to navigate post working/retired life successfully. It adopts a unique process of self analysis, group discussions in brainstorming mode.  This course is part time, flexible and informal and does not interfere with regular daily routine of the participant. Length of its sessions, duration and timings etc. can be customized as per requirement of the participants of a batch subject to minimum duration of 90 minutes for single brainstorming session.

Just after conclusion of the admissions to a batch of this program and its commencement, a group personality profiling test, consisting of a number of time tested psychological instruments, is conducted through a mobile app to ascertain the current level of emotional, social and spiritual intelligence of participants and other general personality features developed so far (called entry profile) and concerned  Vyaktitva Vikas Margdarshak (VVM), who himself/herself is a retired person, is appraised about personality features of individual participants. VVM keeps a special watch and guides them through the program as per advice received from “Prayas”. Again just one month before conclusion of the program, a repeat group personality profiling test is conducted again through a mobile app to ascertain actual changes which have occurred in the personality of participants due to participation in this program (called exit profile). A Personality Development Report (PDR) is prepared by “Prayas” and it highlights personality features of individual participant and changes which have taken place due to participation in his program and with recommendations for further improvement to be implemented by said participant in future.   It is ensured that participants completing this course successfully are totally ready to face and resolve day to day challenges of post retirement life with full confidence and are able to maintain a good health. 

Objectives of the Program

This program aims at developing following special abilities in the participants which are required for success in post –retired life.

• Ability to withdraw from intensive and active life in a gradual manner and focus on various aspects of maintaining a healthy life style and cordial relations.
• Develop natural inclination for reading good literature in spare time or doing some social service in the area of one’s interest.
• Ability to equip oneself with capability to guide others in family, social and work life as per their interests and aptitude in a selfless manner or play role of mentor to young and inexperienced.
• Ability to create a caring environment in family and social life.
• Ability to manage one’s time well.

Once above abilities are developed, the personality of the participants becomes motivating for others.

Syllabus of the Program

Retired individuals are encouraged to brainstorm on interesting questions related to following general topics relevant for living a post retired life. This process of brainstorming inculcates habit of mentoring on practical problems of life in a rational manner. The syllabus is updated based on continuous feedback from the participants.

• Special features of post retired life as compared to working life: Various sources of power: personal power and positional power, implications of loss of formal power, importance of informal or personal power, power of knowledge, how to detach oneself from life full of power to a life free of power but full of inner power, value of freedom . Learning new things in the area of one’s interests, there is never late in life for this.
• Power of mind over Physical health: Impact of our inner thoughts on our health and happiness. How to think right to remain healthy, peaceful and happy irrespective of situations one faces? Feasibility of changing the configuration of our genes made available to us by our heredity through positive thinking and meditation. Importance of good health in post-retired life.
• Benefits of understanding special features of one’s personality: Importance of understanding special features of one’s personality including interests and aptitudes through sciencitific methods in order to understand oneself, importance of different types of intelligence and need for improvements in the same, psychology of successful mentoring and the process of behavioral change in an individual, role of emotional, social and spiritual intelligence in creating a caring and sharing society, creating heavenly environment around us by our own behavior.
• Various dimensions of personality development: Family environment, importance of education & training: formal & informal, importance of environment conducive for continuous learning & self-development, benefits and method of focusing one’s energy on task on hand, need and benefits of balancing skills and intelligence, achieving emotional stability and importance of understanding the importance of ethical values in life. Role and benefits of mentorship in post retirement life.
• Individual thoughts and behavior : Principle of karma and fate, role of work or constructive engagement in human development, importance of time management, benefits and harms of excessive usage of internet and mobile and its proper utilization, migration from failure to success, causes of tension in our life and ways to manage tension, sources of negative thinking and method of inculcating positive thoughts, harms from negative thoughts, and benefits of positive thinking, creation of own destiny in remaining part of our life, negative impact of resistance to change and orthodox behavior, benefits from developing sportsmanship spirit, role of creativity and imagination in achieving success in life tasks, human needs for social acceptance, benefits of simple and natural behavior, importance of entrepreneurship in economic development, importance of developing managerial, financial and legal sense in individuals.
• Religious thoughts and behavior: Fundamental principles of different religions, role of secularism in governance, thoughts of universal brotherhood, equality of mankind, human rights, ethical behavior, no harm to anybody, benefits of social harmony & peace.
• Social relations and behavior: Human as a social animal, family and social relations, faith in inherent goodness of mankind, role of friendship, and negative impact of corruption on society in general and on poor in particular, negative effects of social and religious malpractices and benefits of social transformation & change. Role of elders in mentoring the young in family and society.
• Economic environment & behavior: Role of saving and investment in economic security, need of financial independence in post retired life, impact of acute economic inequality on social cohesion, unemployment-causes and remedies, causes of dissatisfaction in individuals, different currencies, international trade, negative impact of acute consumerism, proper usage of saving for a secured future, limit of the utility of money. Role of entrepreneurship in economic development.
• Political system and current environment: Current democratic environment, the process of casting vote, constitution of government – local, state and centre, rights and duties of responsible citizen, role of vigilance of public in ensuring quality of administration, importance of secular thought in governance in a multi-religious Role of elders in inculcating democratic values in younger citizens.
• Legal system: Law and order, crime and its control, psychology of crime, Civil Procedure Code (CPC), Criminal Procedure Code (Cr PC), current problems in maintenance of law and orders and their remedies. Role of positive mentoring by elders in achieving a peaceful and law abiding society.
• Organizational dynamics: Roles of organizations in society, nature of organizations, forms of organizations, role of individual in group working, need of synergy in personal and organizational goals, negative impact of conflict of interests, balancing aptitude and organizational roles, role of emotional & spiritual intelligence of employees in performance of organizations and its overall impact on the financial health and reputation of organizations. Role of retired persons as part time mentors for improving organizational efficiency and effectiveness on nominal honorarium.
• Role of Objectivity in Decision Making: Problems and quality of human life, problem solving process, need of developing decision making ability, nature of objectivity, role of objectivity in determining quality of decision, making rational decisions and their impact on our life. Role of retired persons in guiding other working adults in taking rational decisions.
• General Knowledge : Government systems, country and states, languages and their usage, role of agriculture in economy, importance of clean environment, types of pollution, health and disease control, benefits of balanced and nutrition rich diet, benefits of yoga and pranayam, benefits of good sleep. Role of elders in mentoring the young generation is adopting a healthy life styles.
• Other topics: additional topics are included based on the periodic feedback from the participants. Elderly persons may be interested to know how o manage their loneliness or boredom or use their spare time in an interesting manner. As such the course content is customized as per te nature of expectation of participants of a particular batch.

Operation and management of program 

This program is operated by independent well trained Vyaktitva Vikas Margdarshaks (VVMs) who themselves are retired officers or managers, under our guidance. Retired persons desirous of running this course have to sign a memorandum of understanding with us. It specifies the duties and responsibilities of both the parties i.e. VVM running this course and “Prayas” providing full technical and academic support.

Quality Control

Participants are asked to submit written feedbacks digitally about the methodology, contents and usefulness of this course for them at specific intervals during the course and at the end of the course. The feedback is carefully considered and necessary modifications are done in the course during the remaining period of a particular batch and also for next batch. The course is continuously updated as per requirement of participants and VVMs are also retrained if felt necessary.

Duration

The normal duration of the course is six (06) months provided one session of 90 minutes duration is held six days a week. It can be modified (extended or curtailed) depending upon the specific requirement of participants and the VVM conducting the course by adjusting the duration of individual brainstorming sessions as well as the number of days in a week on which sessions are held but in consultation with ‘Prayas’. However duration of single brainstorming session cannot be less than 90 minutes. The fee will increase if the duration of course is increased.

Conceptualization and Direction

This course has been conceptualized and designed by Dr. Ram Chandra Rai, an officer of Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS), a Central Civil Service. He completed his schooling and college education from rural area of eastern UP and thereafter did B.Sc. (Hons) in physics, Masters in Business Management and Ph.D. in Management from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. He worked as financial consultant with a Government Industrial Consultancy Organization for 7 years and subsequently got selected in the Central Civil Services Examination and worked in different position for 32 years with Indian Railways. He retired from the highest position of the accounts department of North Eastern Railway [Financial Advisor & Chief Accounts Officer (FACAO)] and is now engaged in activities related to personality development with ‘Prayas’. While working as financial consultant he played important role in institutional financing of various industrial sectors of New Okhla Industrial Development Area (NOIDA). While working with Indian Railways, he worked as Professor and Sr. Professor at the National Academy of Indian Railways (the then Railway Staff College) for 7 years and has reasonable experience of designing behavioral change enabling courses. He himself is retired officer and his energy level is example for others.

Philosophy of the Course

The fundamental philosophy behind this course is the proven fact of human behavior that an individual does not change his/her thoughts and resultant behavior, if directed or forced by somebody else to do so, due to ego problem. Even if he/she changes his/her behavior out of fear or some other compulsion, he/she would revert back to the old pattern of behavior the moment such force or compulsion disappears. However he/she is likely to change his thinking and resultant behavior on his own on a permanent basis if he/she is able to realize on his/her own the likely benefits of desired change out of freewill through a process of self discovery either individually or in group. Since the Vyaktitva Vikas Margdarshak (VVM) conducting brainstorming sessions of PFC encourages participants to brainstorm on various dimensions of an issue in a group and the members of the group are encouraged to arrive at consensus on desired roles of individuals in handling that issue, it is more likely that members of that group may decide to play desired roles on their own and accordingly may bring desired changes in their behavior in reference to that issue. It is the positive and willing change in behavior of an in individual which brings success, peace and happiness and golden future as his/her personality becomes internally driven, self-motivating and proactive.

Benefits to participants

Benefits of this course to the participants completing this program successfully include better understanding of oneself, one’s current stage in life, importance of gradual detachment from day to day affaires of family, realizing the value of financial freedom,   improved self-discipline, better time management, better relations with members of family, relatives, friends and better management of post retired life, increased happiness, and improved social prestige. This program brings positive changes in the life of participants and makes it peaceful and happy. Our life is full of problems, difficulties and challenges and if we can overcome them without losing our composer then we achieve success and remain satisfied, happy and peaceful. This program facilitates it. Most important feature of this program is an assurance to participants of this program that all their queries or doubts regarding the subject or the topic being brainstormed will be replied and they can avail mentoring facility even after completion of the course, if they so desire, on payment of nominal annual charges of Rs. 1000 (One Thousands) for normal category candidates and Rs. 500 (Five Hundreds) for candidates belonging to economically weaker sections of society on long-term basis. It is fact that ‘Prayas discourages spoon feeding but takes care of the pressing problems of its customers and will not leave them high and dry and tries to help them to the extend feasible.   

 

Course fee

At present the total fee of this course is Rs. 5000 (Rs. Five Thousands only) which is directly payable to ‘Prayas’ digitally through the payment link available on the registration format. However 30% of the seats are reserved for candidates belonging to weaker sections of society and suitable discount is given to such candidates depending upon their ability to pay. If, due to any reason, the duration of course increases then the mentoring fee will also increase prorata. Normally it is to be deposited in two installments. 50% advance at the time of admission and remaining 50% before 10^th of the third month or as agreed in the memorandum of understanding. The course fee can be modified in future but modified fee would be applicable from fresh batch only.  Individual or institution running this course under our guidance is paid 70% of the total fee by ‘Prayas’ after retaining 30% of the fee but after completion of a particular month on pro-rata basis.

How to start the course?

Retired Individuals desirous of running this program for other retired individuals may download literature of this program along with the registration form and blank Memorandum of Understanding (MOU from our website www.prayasvyaktitva.com and sign the same with modifications, if any, after discussion with us and pay advance fee per participants as per terms and conditions agreed upon in the MOU and commence this course digitally through their smart phone or at their premises or elsewhere after getting specific approval from “Prayas”..