s NSS IIT Kharagpur gears up to celebrate its annual “NSS NSS Day is that one particular day to celebrate the spirit of selfless

Day” Event on the 5th of November it becomes mandatory community service, the foundation the whole NSS stands on and to

to shift our focus once again on what really is NSS, what it gauge what we have been doing and what remains to be done. NSS Ahas done so far and what does a day like Day is unique this time because for the

“NSS Day” really signifies. NSS is an first time the village kids will be

association of young people in colleges participating in cultural programme

who work with people in villages and with our NSS volunteers like drama etc.

slums near their campus, thus linking the and will be given an opportunity to

campus to the society at large, and showcase their talent and culture in

making use of their resources to bring out front of a large audience. Many

the best in the society somehow left out meritorious yet financially challenged

of the development map of India. What kids will be felicitated with scholarships

really puts NSS apart from the many other too which is sponsored by senior

NGOs working in the field of community students. Also there will be a presenta-

service is that NSS focuses on the tion of each group, where the audience

personality development of the youths will be acquainted with the work put in

involved in social welfare activities while by NSS and what's left to achieve. This

showing them an India, underdeveloped kind of interaction goes a long way in

and much less fortunate living close to bringing together both the IIT KGP

them. The lives of the student community community and the under privileged so

at large are often blissfully ignorant of the existence and struggles that they can work out schemes for the larger interest of the society.

of their rural backyard. NSS strives to make the future leaders of

India actually know their country better, arousing their social

consciousness and bringing a change to their social perception.

NSS IIT Kharagpur is one of the largest and efficient NSS units with a

student community comprising of about 1000 individuals and 17

faculty members working with them in tandem. The result is

palpable: the bonding between the students and the villagers is

strong like nowhere else. The trust deficit between the villagers and

NSS volunteers which is typical in so many places seems to be a rare

phenomenon here. The effort put up by the NSS IIT KGP has really

been appreciated by the Kharagpur community and seems to grow

by strength to strength by every passing day.

Anuraag | The NSS Newsletter5th November, 2011

Making a Difference

ED

ITO

RIA

LFEA

TU

RED

EDITORIAL TEAMImbesat Ahmad Krishna Kant Sijariya

Ishan Garg Saif Khan

M Vivek Reddy Gyan Prakash

Dr. Goutam Saha

o l a d a h a r i s t h e m o s t future development plan. Vigyan-Vivek members of IIT Kharagpur who underdeveloped village under run a free coaching centre there and a study circle helped in conducting Gopali Gram Panchayet in the the sports meet. IIT Kharagpur senior students provide PRERANA S

neighbourhood of IIT kharagpur. The monthly scholarship to one boy and one girl of the village. Development complaint from Panchayet was that activity under MGNREGA to start soon.the village was unorganized and no development work had been done there. For example, in last monsoon the Panchayet people were not allowed to conduct any survey in the village who wanted to assess the extent of damage. They were told either you help all or none.

On hearing this, NSS, IIT Kharagpur started an effort to organize the village youth and generate confidence in themselves. The village club was revived. Sports materials were donated. Then the village youth took the responsibility of organizing a one day sports meet which was mentored and supported by NSS, IIT Kharagpur.

The meet was held on 30.10.2011. The gram Panchayet member was present in the prize distribution and was overwhelmed by the change. After the meet he, NSS official and village youth discussed together

Organizing Village Youth

NSS Website: www.iitkgp.ac.in/nss/home.htmlNSS Blog: nssiitkgp.blogspot.comEmail: gsaha@ece.iitkgp.ernet.in

Anuraag | The NSS Newsletter5th November, 2011FEA

TU

RED

Prof. Saumen Hajra ( Program Officer) background will be given some cash as scholarship. I am satisfied

with the work put in by volunteers but much needs to be done.Q. Please briefly tell us about your group's work. Q. What kinds of difficulties are you facing and what suggestions do you Ans. We are in charge of Rangametia offer us for improvement?village. In total we have around 60 Ans. Most of the kids don't turn up on Saturday as there is no mid-

volunteers who are divided in 6 day meal scheme on Saturday. Also the kids don't study at home

groups. and whatever they have been taught gets lost during all the

1. Group A takes care of teaching of distractions back at their home. Also just a day of teaching by NSS

senior students of class 5-12. They usually teach mathematics, isn't really enough. I proposed to the government to have a

science and communication. permanent boarding facility for students so that they can stay there

2. Group B takes care of the sanitation of the village. Initially they are and study after school too. Let's see what comes out of this. It would

doing the survey like how many families have proper toilet facilities be nicer if the volunteers could give more time but I understand

and they are also trying to convince the families and making them they have their studies to do too.

understand why it is necessary. Next they will submit the survey to

the government and it will implement it. Our target is to have 100% Sumit Paul (Group Leader)

sanitation in the whole village by within 3-4 years.Q. Which activities is your group 3. Group C is involved in teaching the primary school students of involved in?the Rangametia Primary School and are in charge of full teaching of Ans. Our group which is group C the kids.takes care of teaching the primary 4. Group D takes care of helping the villagers in the issuance of their school students of Rangamatia caste certificates as most of the villagers are tribal with 75% STs and Primary School. We teach them how 25% SCs. They are initially doing the survey and through the to dance and recite English rhymes government help they will ensure that the villagers get their caste too. For the NSS day on 5th certificates issued.November there will be some 5. Group E is mainly focused on youth awareness. They contact the drama presentation by these kids youths of the village and help them in doing something useful.and we are helping them out with it. 6. Group F is involved in women and child care programme. So they

are trying to convince the women to become self-sufficient. They Q What are the difficulties you face and how do you feel when working for will be divided in different self- help groups. We have already talked NSS?to about 20 women and they will be deciding in what work they Ans. The biggest problem is communication as very few volunteers have interested and accordingly they will be supported by NSS as understand Bengali and can really communicate with the kids. well as Panchayat.Teaching these students irrespective of all these hurdles really feels

good and I get a sense of contentment doing my job.Q. How has the response been from the school management and the villagers?

Sonu Kumar Sharma (Group Ans. From the school management the response has been good. Leader)They are very much eager to take our help with regard to teaching

the kids. There are some problems with communication with the Q. Please describe your group activities.villagers as they being daily labourers stay out for work and it's Ans. We are of group F and try to difficult to talk to them and convince them.make the villagers especially the

women self sufficient by offering Q. Are you satisfied with the work put up by the volunteers?alternatives for different employ-Ans. Yes, most of them are doing well and committed to their work. ment. We went to houses in the

Q. What kind of problems are you facing in your NSS work? villages to talk to them about our

Ans. Main problem with the volunteers is the communication. So I scheme and convince them to try it.

give at least one Bengali speaking student in each group so he can Right now there will be two self-

work as a mediator between the volunteers and the villagers. help groups, one for tailoring and

another for animal husbandry.Q. What will be your future plans with this village? Q. What has been your experience while working for NSS?Ans. The plan is to make this village a Ans. Initially we faced opposition from the villagers as they didn't model village in this area by around trust us. But gradually we talked to them convinced them to come 3-4 years with us. These people are from very backward class and helping . them gives me a sense of fulfilment. Some of them don't even Q. What will be your message for other believe that we are actually helping them. If this scheme of ours NSS units and volunteers? gets successful the faith in us will be restored and this village will be Ans. Feel for the community and do on its way to become a model village.your work with all your heart.

Ravinder Singh (Group Leader)Biswanath Maity (Principal, Rangametia Primary School)

Q. What kind of work your group is involved in?Q. Please tell us about your school. Ans. We are from group B and in collaboration with group E we take Ans. Rangametia Primary School comprises of class 1-4 with a total out surveys in villages for offering them help in getting a proper strength of 74 students. We teach Bengali, English and Mathemat- sanitation facility and issuance of caste certificate for anyone ics for class 1 and 2 and Geography, Science and history to class 3-4 interested. For now we have surveyed 90 families and we will send in addition with Bengali, English and Maths. out report to the SDO office for its implementation.

Q. What kind of work is been done in your school by the NSS volunteers? Are Q. Any problems faced during the interaction with the villagers?you satisfied with them? Ans. Most of the villagers find it difficult to trust anybody. Most of Ans. Around 20 volunteers teach the kids every Saturday. They held the people are out of home on Saturday for work so it's difficult to a scholarship test on September 17 and 6 students of our school will cover many houses. Also the lack of communication due to the be felicitated and one boy and girl each from poor financial dearth of Bengali speaking volunteers is a major problem.

Featured NSS Unit

Anuraag | The NSS Newsletter5th November, 2011

NSS

BU

ZZ

FEA

TU

RED

Rangametia Village Self-Help Group Meetn 29.10.2011 the NSS Unit to this club. Incidentally, all financial supports come from donation

dedicated to Rangametia of IIT KGP students from savings of their allowances.

village organized a meet Owith women folk of another tribal It is important to note that young student volunteers, many of

village named Rangametia. About whom are not very much familiar with the local language tried hard

18 women gathered. Before this, over several weeks to gather these village women at one place. On

NSS, IIT Kharagpur learnt from the that meeting day too, they went house to house, motivated them

Panchayet office that the self-help and we had a successful meeting.

groups exist on paper but actually

are not active. We discussed how

we can help and the incentive provided is related to the condition

that they become active. Besides some start-up help, some

matching grant may be provided to the groups who start before

others. The panchayet pradhan Srimati Sushila Hansda in spite of

ill-health was present in the meet on our request and motivated all.

The village club members played an active role. In fact, he was

translating what we spoke in the tribal language to make everybody

understand. NSS, IIT Kharagpur is providing some sports material

Distribution of Platess soon as the village schools all of us there. More than the donation, the love and respect for the opened after Durga Puja underprivileged from the IIT Kharagpur community touched him a lot vacation NSS, IIT Kharagpur and he kept saying that. As it is said 'Daan' (offerings) is not complete if A

arranged to distribute the steel plates not accompanied with 'Maan' (respect). It reflected in the way all collected from S.N. / I.G. Hall. In responded. All in all, it was a great experience for all of us.between, the plates were repaired (wherever required) and SN / IG Hall NSS, IIT Kharagpur will feel privileged to extend support to individuals and NSS names were embossed on the plates so that they do not find a and groups in reaching out to the underprivileged community and way to market. Two of the most needy area in the neighbourhood were make a difference in their lives. Thanks to SN / IG Hall team.identified. The plates were given for use of Mid Day meal scheme of one SSK (Soladahar village) and one Primary School (Gholgharia village).S.N. / I.G. Hall warden and a few Hall Council Members accompanied the NSS, IIT Kharagpur team and participated in the distribution. Member of final year students were also there who are providing PRERANA scholarships to meritorious village / slum school children and had a field survey.

Gholgharia Primary School's Head Teacher's joy knew no bound to find

A few Glimpses

Roof covers being distributedRoof covers being distributed The participants of Art CompetitionSpeaking skills being nourishedVolunteers playing cricket with kids

Drawing competitionStudents putting their best efforts Football Competition Celebrating Rakshabandhan

NSS

BU

ZZ

Anuraag | The NSS Newsletter5th November, 2011N

SS B

UZZ

NSS Round UpBALRAMPUR VILLAGE much relished by the students.

Program officer: Prabodh Bajpai

PARIAPARA VILLAGE

In the first class, the teaching

group had only two students. In Program officer: Prof .Bibhudatta Sahoo

the past three months, the

teaching group saw a quantum Dedicated teams were formed to

jump in the number of students- identify solutions in the following

22. This is the result of sincere areas – school electricity, drinking

hard work and dedication of the water, enable filing of caste and BPL

N.S.S. volunteers. A quiz and a certificates, adult literacy, kid's

scholarship exam were conducted sanitation, and employment

for the students in that area. The generation ways.

scholarships will be handed out to One of the problems identified in

the students based on their the survey was of adult illiteracy -

performance and their economic only 35% of the adults in the village

needs. It is due on NSS Day. were educated. The group has

The Survey group has conducted a f ina l ly ident i f ied the least

comprehensive survey of the conflicting time during the day

entire Balarampur village. Data on when the volunteers will be

educat ional qua l i f i cat ions , teaching the villagers to read and

number of family members, write Bengali.

availability of resources (electricity, water, sanitation etc.), Some volunteers are providing

occupation, number of children attending school has been tuitions in English language for

collected from a large sample population. Various carpentry and needy high-school children in the

weaving facilities have been identified in the village, which has the village. A few others are teaching the school kids basic sanitation

potential of being converted into small-scale industries. Some rules.

areas are identified as potential sources of algae cultivation for Various fun activities such as colouring, kabaddi, football match,

generating biodiesel for improving the economy of the village. The tree plantation, and rakhi celebration have been organized for the

youth awareness group has been working with the youth of school kids. During these activities, effort was made to identify

Balarampur, working on confidence building measures and the ice issues faced by school kids.

has been broken. They started their work by visiting Kasba Kishore

Sangha (Estd. 1968, West Midnapore) where they mingled with the

unemployed local youth and tried to involve them in activities TALBAGICHA VILLAGE

which were productive for their future.

Program officer: Prof. R.S. Chakraborty

GHOLGHORIA VILLAGE Student Volunteers of this unit

have been teaching at the

Program officer: Dr. Manab Kumar Das Talbagicha village High School

every Friday and Saturday. The

The hygienic conditions in the s u b j e c t s t a u g h t i n c l u d e

village were checked by the Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics,

volunteers including drainage English and Computer Studies.

system and garbage disposal. The The volunteers have been very

result was poor which indicated decent in form of teachers and

fallacies in the maintenance they have always focused to make

department of the village. A the students understand the

meeting with the sarpanch is topics in as simple way as

decided to remove these problems. possible. As then it becomes more

After having a close observation feasible for the students to show

over village requirements the group real passion towards that subject.

came out with some schemes, which This initiative has been successful

could prove beneficial if adopted in motivating the students and

and executed properly like: mak ing them rea l i ze the

1. Lal Bahadur Shastri Yojna: aims to importance of a good education.

provide hand pumps to the needy.

2. Jyotirgram Yojna: aims to provide The unit will also be providing scholarships to students of classes

electricity in the village areas having IX-XI at Talbagicha high school every month. This money is donated

its deficiency. by IIT students, and similar scholarships are being given to many

For the beautification of the village, other schools. In addition, the unit would be organizing a "Sit-and-

the volunteers brought 30 saplings Draw Competition" at the Talbagicha High School on 12th

from the campus nursery and November.

planted them in the village

periphery and around the school SONAMUKHI VILLAGE

area. We advised the children there to take care of them and gave

some tips on gardening. Program officer: Abraham George

In the village school, students are taught different subjects .A

scholarship exam was also conducted there. A cartoon film was In the first half of the semester the group focused on the very

shown to them to provide them entertainment, which was very successful and effective 'Plastic free Campus' programme within

Anuraag | The NSS Newsletter5th November, 2011

NSS

BU

ZZ

the IIT Kgp community and the Tech Market. This programme was many centres. The group creates an atmosphere of education by

conceived with the cooperation of providing free coaching or tuition

the whole of the student to poor students in and around

v o l u n t e e r s a n d e x e c u t e d the I.I.T, Some of them are like

successfully with the whole- V ivekanand C lub Temple ,

hearted support of the shop Ambedkar Club, Sadhu's Temple,

owners, customers, both staff and National Congress Office, SN Hall

students alike. 900 paper covers Foyer, G-144, Tarun Sangha Club,

were distributed for the purpose. Hijli High School, etc. The

Volunteers discouraged the use of volunteers are doing their job with

plastic bags and prompted the IIT such a great dedication that one

market authorities to ban the use of the guardians once said, “My

of plastic bags in Tech Market. son is doing mathematics much better than the previous year. He

has started learning how to use computer, how to type a document

The group has successfully planted and paint on computer. I wish all the very best to all the NSS

50 saplings in the Campus at a volunteers for doing such a great work”.

d e s i g n a t e d l o c a t i o n . T h e

volunteers make regular visit at GHAGHRA VILLAGE

those sites to ensure that those

saplings are properly nurtured. Program officer: Prof. Sudeep Misra

They are the footprints of steps

towards making a green and clean environment. This group was active from the

outset, visiting both the villages

The volunteers are taking classes in two schools, the Hijli Hindi and forming a good idea about

School and Bengali school. The volunteers have proved themselves the scenario there. The literacy

to be very successful in retaining a good number of students in group spent the first few weeks

their classes. With different fun activities they are trying to make a visiting both the villages and

bond with the children, so that teaching would be very easy and finding out in detail about the

effective. Further, the NSS Team donated five plastic chairs, two scenar io w i th respec t to

globes, books, pencils, and similar articles of day-to-day use for the education and polio immuniza-

school and the children. tion .With respect to the latter, it

was confirmed that the situation

was quite good. Therefore, the group decided to focus for the time

being on literacy and non-formal education. The regular sessions

RAKHALGHERIA VILLAGE started with the students of both the schools and Aanganwadi

Kendras including a discussion for one hour or so on basic

Program Officer: Dibakar Dhara alphabets and words, followed by a session of drawing and creative

work. This met a good response from students. There is a plan to

The activities of the group are mainly focused on two types. In the hold a quiz and a drawing competition at the end of the semester.

first, volunteers actively interact with the students of Rakhalgeria

Primary School, and Salua Board primary School. The interaction The group scoured the villages

includes – teaching Basic English, drawing and encouragement for and found out the location of

participation in some non-academic activities as well. The students wastelands there, and proposed

have really enjoyed during some extra activities conducted by the the idea of planting fruit trees,

volunteers and the major positive aspect of this is that there has which was appreciated by the

been good attendance in the classes for the recent past. The team village head. They held a rally in

working in the village had a meeting with the local club members in purva patri and paschim patri with

which two basic areas were identified where volunteers are directly posters and slogans regarding

involved in improving local library and computer literacy in the women empowerment and

village. We also talked to the villagers to find out their level of environment conservation. They

knowledge on the available government welfare schemes. A came to know that literacy is bad. The idea to conduct special

detailed survey of the condition of the village citizens was done and classes for women and children has got confirmation from the

present the outcome will be presented to the local office bearers in village head. After talking with all the interested villagers, they are

next possible opportunity so that a joint effort could be put up about to start weekly evening classes with the assistance of some of

towards the upgrading of the socio-economic status of the the educated villagers.

villagers.

TELUGU BASTI AND OTHERS

Program officer: Prof. P. Guha

As all of us know, National Service

Scheme develops student's

personality through community

service by enhancing communica-

tion skills and creating a sense of

soc i a l re spons ib i l i t y. Our

volunteers visit many centres but

as every year new volunteers are

added to the group, at a few

centres, some people do not let those new volunteers work but with

the help of the program officer the issues are resolved. Someone

said that “If you are working for a good cause, you are bound to

face problems. But you should not stop until you win”. This year

the group includes 45 volunteers who teach about 120 children at

Anuraag | The NSS Newsletter5th November, 2011SP

EC

IALS

FEA

TU

RED

InspirationK Misra is an undergraduate

from IIT Kanpur, post- This year with the help of a Bangalore based private firm he set up

graduate f rom Tokyo Uttar Pradesh's first rural based call centre in his native village RUniversity. He is a fellow of Sonari. A group of 33 boys and girls, most of them intermediate

Harvard Kennedy School of pass outs, are getting computer training . Within next month, they

Government & Global Leadership would begin getting procedural training for a project involving data

Fellow of Aspen Institute, USA. He entry for a political organization. These younsters will be trained &

has been a social entrepreneur for employed at Sonari by a company which has set up 10 such BPOs in

most of his professional life, and the villages of various other states.

has founded and acquired three

technology businesses. In 2006, he founded SAHYOG - Indian Earlier, Misra had successfully experimented with a community

Council for Public Private Partnership. RK's focus areas are dairy project on one acre land. Villagers were given membership of

“Provision of Public Infrastructure” in Urban Centers and the dairy where they could sell their milk produce. The dairy and the

“Creation of Livelihood Opportunities” in Rural India. More building, where the BPO is set up, will functions from the same large

recently, he was declared the winner of TOI's 'Lead India' campaign. premises.

Over the years, he had provided monetary support for the

development of his native village Sonari, 60 km from Lucknow. Next on his agenda is agriculture. "Villagers need to be convinced

Though there was a brick building, notebooks, pens, and pencils that conventional farming does not bring huge returns. They need

and kids looked happy as in the good old days, the number of hours to grow cash crops like banana, potato, peppermint and medicinal

spent on teaching remained the same; quality and means of plants like Satawar and Artemisia,'' Mishra said.

education had not changed at all. The realization dawned upon

him that we could not think of competing with the best in the world Being an IIT alumunus himself he firmly believes that role of IITians

when most of India is still primitive in certain aspects like in shaping the future of the country socially is extremely important.

education.Hence, in 2005, at the age of 40 he decided to give his IITians have been at the forefront of Technology and

corporate life a rest and moved on to do something that would Entrepreneurship businesses in past decade. Most of them have

bring a socio-economic change in India. The result was the Change become successful investors as well as senior corporate citizens.

India Movement. Today he works with several state governments However what has been lagging is the social and political

and central government as a public policy advisor towards the leadership avenues.Through initiatives like Change India he hopes

development of both rural and urban India. to provide a platform for all IITians to take up a leading role in social

Specific initiatives that RK plans to take up include creating non- and political leadership positions.

agriculture-based rural employment, skill-based employment,

national health insurance, creating opportunities for jobs based on His work philosophy is simple. “To bring about a change, be the

local resources and skills, evolving better laws to ensure land change” and going by this the journey of Change India has just

reforms, regulating migration to urban India and issues that would begun and will continue to motivate and inspire people to work

be crucial to the development of rural India. selflessly for the upliftment of the society.

Message from SDO, Kharagpur“It's very heartening to note that that the NSS team of IIT Kharagpur will be celebrating NSS day on the 5th of November 2011. It has to be admitted that over the months, the NSS outfit of the institution, has really imbibed the true spirit of selfless social service. Through constant interaction with the rural community and voluntary service to the underprivileged, the young student volunteers have made their presence felt in a very strong way. Their eagerness to learn more on the different Government schemes and programme's on poverty alleviation and social welfare, coupled with their willingness to play an active part in the implementation of the same, is also very praiseworthy.

This, undoubtedly, has been possible through the active guidance and supervision of the Head, the Coordinator and the Programme Officers of the team. I wish the team members all the very best and expect, that in the coming years, such splendid work will be continued with the

same vigor and zeal. ”