What is RISE?
The Rural Immersion program for students of Science and Engineering (RISE) is an initiative by IIT Bombay Alumni of the Batch of 1992 to expose and sensitize undergraduate students to the problems faced by rural India, and to encourage them to find possible solutions.
How Does it Work?
As part of the RISE program, undergraduate students of IITB will get an opportunity to be part of a two-week immersive cultural experience of life in rural India.
Selected undergraduate students will be placed with a reputed NGO working in the field of rural development. Students will get an opportunity to stay in a rural household and get a glimpse of the hardships as well as the delights of rural life. They will be expected to work with the field workers of the NGO under the guidance of senior staff.
This rural immersion program will be conducted twice a year, just after completion of the end semester exams i.e., once in the first two weeks of May and again at the end of November/early December.
In each batch, up to 25 students will be selected and placed with the partner NGOs. Expenses for travel and stay will be covered by the RISE Program.
What happens after the Immersive Rural Stay?
Students are expected to submit a report on their stay, their experience, and what they learned in these two weeks on their return.
The program also proposes to support students who show a deeper interest in rural issues, and wish to pursue this further in developing solutions to problems that they identify in their initial Immersion Program.
Those students who are interested can opt for 2 more weeks of field stay with the NGO, with or without TDSL. They can also pursue the development of solutions with RuTAG (Rural Technology Action Group) which will be supported by the program
This could prove to be a life-changing experience for those who are curious to get hands-on experience of how the ‘other’ India lives.
Who can apply?
The program is open to all undergraduate students of IITB in Year 1, 2, 3 and DDP - years 1, 2, 3, 4
When to apply?
The last date for receiving applications is 31st March 2025
How to apply?
Click here to fill the application form.
RISE reports of previous offerings
For any other queries, write to riseiitb@gmail.com
Experiences from the first batch of RISE interns
"Working with the NGO helped me to understand about the culture and tradition of the villagers. I also realized that how many of the solutions I had in mind for the various rural problems were not applicable in most of the cases. in future I would like to pursue projects that are aimed in upliftment of rural areas which are related to the problems that I have identified. "
"I learnt the art of adjustment and the art of connecting with people. The NGO aimed to make us realize that there are a large number of opportunities for engineering graduates to contribute to rural development and the outcome is clearly visible in the exponentially growing quality of life of these villagers."
"Rural life is completely different from urban life. The welcoming people, the calm atmosphere, safety and security, all this was amazing. I would love to spend some time in my life in villages. the life learning lessons I got there are very valuable to me."
"This experience has given me glimpses of living with less resources and changed my thinking about different aspects such as the scarcity of fundamental resources that these people face and how people in the cities (govt.) violate fundamental rights of these people given by the constitution such as building dams for requirement of cities which would replace them from their land and how the forest department have snatched their land and that is even legal by the govt."
"Just reading about farmer suicides as news isn’t enough. Having spoken to them and lived with them, I feel for them and will make efforts to contribute to their welfare. The best thing during my 2-week stay was lack of internet connection. I had taken a few novels with me to pass time and unfortunately finished them in the first week itself."