The Social Service League

The SSL is the largest and the most active society of St. Stephen’s College. Founded in 1912 by W.F Ireland and C.H.C Sharp and following the motto “Service above self”, it works for the betterment of the underprivileged sections of the society. The SSL organizes several events and is actively involved in various projects and activities. Regular talks and seminars are conducted throughout the year, inviting people in the field of social service from Governmental and non-Governmental organizations. The following are our major events and projects:

Annual Events

Evening Classes: The volunteers guide the wards of the non-teaching staff throughout the year. This is an initiative to impart education to the underprivileged children around the campus

Blood Donation Camp: It is held twice a year, once every semester, with a record of around 250 students from the University, donating blood with a view to saving lives.

New Year’s Party: It is a felicitation ceremony of the non-teaching staff at the Principal’s residence in the first week of every year which has become a part of the tradition of the college.

Drishtikon: A two-day Inter-collegiate fest organized for the visually challenged students.

Rudra Dinner: Organized for the non-teaching staff in the fond memory of S. K. Rudra, the fourth Principal of the College, in which the Karamcharis are given a day of rest, with junior members replacing them in their endeavours.

Orphanage and Old Age Home visits: Regular visits in which volunteers interact with the inhabitants and help fulfilling their needs.

Book and Cloth Donation Camps: Held regularly every semester along with their distribution for the benefit of the underprivileged.

Helping Visually Challenged Students throughout the year with their curriculum, by successfully providing with readers and writers.

Rural Development Programme: SSL in association with Anant Vikas undertook developments process in the village of Gomla (Haryana) in 2012-2013 with the aim of making it a model village.

A team of Volunteers were sent to Sikkim as a Relief Operation for the earthquake victims on 2011.

Primary Education Programme: SSL in association with NGO-PENCIL carried out a 45-day teaching programme from January- March 2014 to impact co-curricular education to children of nearby MCD schools supplementing their academic needs.

New Projects Undertaken in this Academic Year

Skip-A-Meal: An initiative undertaken by the SSL, in which students of the College skip a meal, so that the mess food allocated to each of them could be distributed at a homeless shelter near Kashmere Gate. This involves resident students skipping a glass of milk and lunch on a Sunday per month.

We Plant Program: In association with the NGO We Plant, SSL visited Hatim village in Haryana in March 2014 and planted more than 100 fruit trees. In August 2014, the same project was undertaken in our campus and around 25 trees were planted.

Fundraiser for Kashmir Floods: In September 2014, with the onslaught of the Kashmir floods, SSL in collaboration with other colleges of Delhi University, in order to express its solidarity with its victims conducted a fundraiser program outside college, and collected Rs. 1, 40,371. A fundraiser was also held in St. Stephen’s College which culminated in the collection of Rs. 3, 08,478.