5th November, 2011

Anuraag | The NSS Newsletter

Making a Difference
s NSS IIT Kharagpur gears up to celebrate its annual NSS Day Event on the 5th of November it becomes mandatory to shift our focus once again on what really is NSS, what it has done so far and what does a day like NSS Day really signifies. NSS is an association of young people in colleges who work with people in villages and slums near their campus, thus linking the campus to the society at large, and making use of their resources to bring out the best in the society somehow left out of the development map of India. What really puts NSS apart from the many other NGOs working in the field of community service is that NSS focuses on the personality development of the youths involved in social welfare activities while showing them an India, underdeveloped and much less fortunate living close to them. The lives of the student community at large are often blissfully ignorant of the existence and struggles 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.

NSS Day is that one particular day to celebrate the spirit of selfless community service, the foundation the whole NSS stands on and to gauge what we have been doing and what remains to be done. NSS Day is unique this time because for the first time the village kids will be participating in cultural programme with our NSS volunteers like drama etc. and will be given an opportunity to showcase their talent and culture in front of a large audience. Many meritorious yet financially challenged kids will be felicitated with scholarships too which is sponsored by senior students. Also there will be a presentation of each group, where the audience will be acquainted with the work put in by NSS and what's left to achieve. This kind of interaction goes a long way in bringing together both the IIT KGP community and the under privileged so that they can work out schemes for the larger interest of the society.

EDITORIAL TEAM
Imbesat Ahmad Ishan Garg M Vivek Reddy Krishna Kant Sijariya Saif Khan Gyan Prakash

Dr. Goutam Saha

NSS Website: www.iitkgp.ac.in/nss/home.html NSS Blog: nssiitkgp.blogspot.com Email: gsaha@ece.iitkgp.ernet.in

Organizing Village Youth

oladahar is the most underdeveloped village under Gopali Gram Panchayet in the neighbourhood of IIT kharagpur. The complaint from Panchayet was that 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

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future development plan. Vigyan-Vivek members of IIT Kharagpur who run a free coaching centre there and a study circle helped in conducting the sports meet. IIT Kharagpur senior students provide PRERANA monthly scholarship to one boy and one girl of the village. Development activity under MGNREGA to start soon.

EDITORIAL

5th November, 2011

Anuraag | The NSS Newsletter

Featured NSS Unit

Prof. Saumen Hajra ( Program Officer) Q. Please briefly tell us about your group's work. Ans. We are in charge of Rangametia village. In total we have around 60 volunteers who are divided in 6 groups. 1. Group A takes care of teaching of senior students of class 5-12. They usually teach mathematics, science and communication. 2. Group B takes care of the sanitation of the village. Initially they are doing the survey like how many families have proper toilet facilities and they are also trying to convince the families and making them 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% sanitation in the whole village by within 3-4 years. 3. Group C is involved in teaching the primary school students of the Rangametia Primary School and are in charge of full teaching of the kids. 4. Group D takes care of helping the villagers in the issuance of their caste certificates as most of the villagers are tribal with 75% STs and 25% SCs. They are initially doing the survey and through the government help they will ensure that the villagers get their caste certificates issued. 5. Group E is mainly focused on youth awareness. They contact the youths of the village and help them in doing something useful. 6. Group F is involved in women and child care programme. So they are trying to convince the women to become self-sufficient. They will be divided in different self- help groups. We have already talked to about 20 women and they will be deciding in what work they have interested and accordingly they will be supported by NSS as well as Panchayat. Q. How has the response been from the school management and the villagers? Ans. From the school management the response has been good. They are very much eager to take our help with regard to teaching the kids. There are some problems with communication with the villagers as they being daily labourers stay out for work and it's difficult to talk to them and convince them. Q. Are you satisfied with the work put up by the volunteers? Ans. Yes, most of them are doing well and committed to their work. Q. What kind of problems are you facing in your NSS work? Ans. Main problem with the volunteers is the communication. So I give at least one Bengali speaking student in each group so he can work as a mediator between the volunteers and the villagers. Q. What will be your future plans with this village? Ans. The plan is to make this village a model village in this area by around 3-4 years . Q. What will be your message for other NSS units and volunteers? Ans. Feel for the community and do your work with all your heart. Biswanath Maity (Principal, Rangametia Primary School) Q. Please tell us about your school. Ans. Rangametia Primary School comprises of class 1-4 with a total strength of 74 students. We teach Bengali, English and Mathematics for class 1 and 2 and Geography, Science and history to class 3-4 in addition with Bengali, English and Maths. Q. What kind of work is been done in your school by the NSS volunteers? Are you satisfied with them? Ans. Around 20 volunteers teach the kids every Saturday. They held a scholarship test on September 17 and 6 students of our school will be felicitated and one boy and girl each from poor financial Q. What kind of work your group is involved in? Ans. We are from group B and in collaboration with group E we take out surveys in villages for offering them help in getting a proper sanitation facility and issuance of caste certificate for anyone interested. For now we have surveyed 90 families and we will send out report to the SDO office for its implementation. Q. Any problems faced during the interaction with the villagers? Ans. Most of the villagers find it difficult to trust anybody. Most of the people are out of home on Saturday for work so it's difficult to cover many houses. Also the lack of communication due to the dearth of Bengali speaking volunteers is a major problem. 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. What kinds of difficulties are you facing and what suggestions do you offer us for improvement? Ans. Most of the kids don't turn up on Saturday as there is no midday meal scheme on Saturday. Also the kids don't study at home and whatever they have been taught gets lost during all the distractions back at their home. Also just a day of teaching by NSS isn't really enough. I proposed to the government to have a permanent boarding facility for students so that they can stay there and study after school too. Let's see what comes out of this. It would be nicer if the volunteers could give more time but I understand they have their studies to do too. Sumit Paul (Group Leader) Q. Which activities is your group involved in? Ans. Our group which is group C takes care of teaching the primary school students of Rangamatia Primary School. We teach them how to dance and recite English rhymes too. For the NSS day on 5th November there will be some drama presentation by these kids and we are helping them out with it. Q What are the difficulties you face and how do you feel when working for NSS? Ans. The biggest problem is communication as very few volunteers understand Bengali and can really communicate with the kids. Teaching these students irrespective of all these hurdles really feels good and I get a sense of contentment doing my job. Sonu Kumar Sharma (Group Leader) Q. Please describe your group activities. Ans. We are of group F and try to make the villagers especially the women self sufficient by offering alternatives for different employment. We went to houses in the villages to talk to them about our scheme and convince them to try it. Right now there will be two selfhelp groups, one for tailoring and another for animal husbandry. Q. What has been your experience while working for NSS? Ans. Initially we faced opposition from the villagers as they didn't trust us. But gradually we talked to them convinced them to come with us. These people are from very backward class and helping them gives me a sense of fulfilment. Some of them don't even believe that we are actually helping them. If this scheme of ours gets successful the faith in us will be restored and this village will be on its way to become a model village. Ravinder Singh (Group Leader)

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5th November, 2011

Anuraag | The NSS Newsletter

Rangametia Village Self-Help Group Meet

n 29.10.2011 the NSS Unit dedicated to Rangametia village organized a meet with women folk of another tribal village named Rangametia. About 18 women gathered. Before this, NSS, IIT Kharagpur learnt from the Panchayet office that the self-help 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 Plates
s soon as the village schools opened after Durga Puja vacation NSS, IIT Kharagpur arranged to distribute the steel plates collected from S.N. / I.G. Hall. In between, the plates were repaired (wherever required) and SN / IG Hall and NSS names were embossed on the plates so that they do not find a way to market. Two of the most needy area in the neighbourhood were 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

NSS, IIT Kharagpur will feel privileged to extend support to individuals and groups in reaching out to the underprivileged community and make a difference in their lives. Thanks to SN / IG Hall team.

A few Glimpses
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Roof covers being distributed

Volunteers playing cricket with kids

Speaking skills being nourished

The participants of Art Competition

Students putting their best efforts

Drawing competition

Football Competition

Celebrating Rakshabandhan

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all of us there. More than the donation, the love and respect for the underprivileged from the IIT Kharagpur community touched him a lot and he kept saying that. As it is said 'Daan' (offerings) is not complete if not accompanied with 'Maan' (respect). It reflected in the way all responded. All in all, it was a great experience for all of us.

NSS BUZZ

to this club. Incidentally, all financial supports come from donation of IIT KGP students from savings of their allowances. It is important to note that young student volunteers, many of whom are not very much familiar with the local language tried hard over several weeks to gather these village women at one place. On that meeting day too, they went house to house, motivated them and we had a successful meeting.

5th November, 2011

Anuraag | The NSS Newsletter

NSS Round Up
BALRAMPUR VILLAGE Program officer: Prabodh Bajpai PARIAPARA VILLAGE In the first class, the teaching group had only two students. In the past three months, the teaching group saw a quantum jump in the number of students22. This is the result of sincere hard work and dedication of the N.S.S. volunteers. A quiz and a scholarship exam were conducted for the students in that area. The scholarships will be handed out to the students based on their performance and their economic needs. It is due on NSS Day. The Survey group has conducted a comprehensive survey of the entire Balarampur village. Data on educational qualifications, number of family members, availability of resources (electricity, water, sanitation etc.), occupation, number of children attending school has been collected from a large sample population. Various carpentry and weaving facilities have been identified in the village, which has the potential of being converted into small-scale industries. Some areas are identified as potential sources of algae cultivation for generating biodiesel for improving the economy of the village. The youth awareness group has been working with the youth of Balarampur, working on confidence building measures and the ice 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 which were productive for their future. Program officer: Prof .Bibhudatta Sahoo Dedicated teams were formed to identify solutions in the following areas school electricity, drinking water, enable filing of caste and BPL certificates, adult literacy, kid's sanitation, and employment generation ways. One of the problems identified in the survey was of adult illiteracy only 35% of the adults in the village were educated. The group has finally identified the least conflicting time during the day when the volunteers will be teaching the villagers to read and write Bengali. Some volunteers are providing tuitions in English language for needy high-school children in the village. A few others are teaching the school kids basic sanitation rules. Various fun activities such as colouring, kabaddi, football match, tree plantation, and rakhi celebration have been organized for the school kids. During these activities, effort was made to identify issues faced by school kids. much relished by the students.

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TALBAGICHA VILLAGE Program officer: Prof. R.S. Chakraborty

GHOLGHORIA VILLAGE Program officer: Dr. Manab Kumar Das The hygienic conditions in the village were checked by the volunteers including drainage system and garbage disposal. The result was poor which indicated fallacies in the maintenance department of the village. A meeting with the sarpanch is decided to remove these problems. After having a close observation over village requirements the group came out with some schemes, which could prove beneficial if adopted and executed properly like: 1. Lal Bahadur Shastri Yojna: aims to provide hand pumps to the needy. 2. Jyotirgram Yojna: aims to provide electricity in the village areas having its deficiency. For the beautification of the village, the volunteers brought 30 saplings from the campus nursery and planted them in the village periphery and around the school area. We advised the children there to take care of them and gave some tips on gardening. In the village school, students are taught different subjects .A scholarship exam was also conducted there. A cartoon film was shown to them to provide them entertainment, which was very

Student Volunteers of this unit have been teaching at the Talbagicha village High School every Friday and Saturday. The subjects taught include Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, English and Computer Studies. The volunteers have been very decent in form of teachers and they have always focused to make the students understand the topics in as simple way as possible. As then it becomes more feasible for the students to show real passion towards that subject. This initiative has been successful in motivating the students and making them realize the importance of a good education. The unit will also be providing scholarships to students of classes IX-XI at Talbagicha high school every month. This money is donated by IIT students, and similar scholarships are being given to many other schools. In addition, the unit would be organizing a "Sit-andDraw Competition" at the Talbagicha High School on 12th November. SONAMUKHI VILLAGE Program officer: Abraham George In the first half of the semester the group focused on the very successful and effective 'Plastic free Campus' programme within

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the IIT Kgp community and the Tech Market. This programme was conceived with the cooperation of t h e w h o l e of t h e s t u d e n t volunteers and executed successfully with the wholehearted support of the shop owners, customers, both staff and students alike. 900 paper covers were distributed for the purpose. Volunteers discouraged the use of plastic bags and prompted the IIT market authorities to ban the use of plastic bags in Tech Market. The group has successfully planted 50 saplings in the Campus at a designated location.The volunteers make regular visit at those sites to ensure that those saplings are properly nurtured. They are the footprints of steps towards making a green and clean environment. The volunteers are taking classes in two schools, the Hijli Hindi School and Bengali school. The volunteers have proved themselves to be very successful in retaining a good number of students in their classes. With different fun activities they are trying to make a bond with the children, so that teaching would be very easy and effective. Further, the NSS Team donated five plastic chairs, two globes, books, pencils, and similar articles of day-to-day use for the school and the children.

Anuraag | The NSS Newsletter

many centres. The group creates an atmosphere of education by providing free coaching or tuition to poor students in and around the I.I.T, Some of them are like V i v e k a n a n d C l u b Te m p l e , Ambedkar Club, Sadhu's Temple, National Congress Office, SN Hall Foyer, G-144, Tarun Sangha Club, Hijli High School, etc. The volunteers are doing their job with such a great dedication that one of the guardians once said, My son is doing mathematics much better than the previous year. He has started learning how to use computer, how to type a document and paint on computer. I wish all the very best to all the NSS volunteers for doing such a great work. GHAGHRA VILLAGE Program officer: Prof. Sudeep Misra This group was active from the outset, visiting both the villages and forming a good idea about the scenario there. The literacy group spent the first few weeks visiting both the villages and finding out in detail about the scenario with respect to education and polio immunization .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 started with the students of both the schools and Aanganwadi Kendras including a discussion for one hour or so on basic alphabets and words, followed by a session of drawing and creative work. This met a good response from students. There is a plan to hold a quiz and a drawing competition at the end of the semester. The group scoured the villages and found out the location of wastelands there, and proposed the idea of planting fruit trees, which was appreciated by the village head. They held a rally in purva patri and paschim patri with posters and slogans regarding wo m e n e m p o we r m e n t a n d environment conservation. They came to know that literacy is bad. The idea to conduct special classes for women and children has got confirmation from the village head. After talking with all the interested villagers, they are about to start weekly evening classes with the assistance of some of the educated villagers.

RAKHALGHERIA VILLAGE Program Officer: Dibakar Dhara The activities of the group are mainly focused on two types. In the first, volunteers actively interact with the students of Rakhalgeria Primary School, and Salua Board primary School. The interaction includes teaching Basic English, drawing and encouragement for participation in some non-academic activities as well. The students have really enjoyed during some extra activities conducted by the volunteers and the major positive aspect of this is that there has been good attendance in the classes for the recent past. The team working in the village had a meeting with the local club members in which two basic areas were identified where volunteers are directly involved in improving local library and computer literacy in the village. We also talked to the villagers to find out their level of knowledge on the available government welfare schemes. A detailed survey of the condition of the village citizens was done and present the outcome will be presented to the local office bearers in next possible opportunity so that a joint effort could be put up towards the upgrading of the socio-economic status of the 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 communication skills and creating a sense of s o c i a l r e s p o n s i b i l i t y. O u r 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

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5th November, 2011

Anuraag | The NSS Newsletter

Inspiration
K Misra is an undergraduate from IIT Kanpur, postg r a d u a t e f r o m To k y o University. He is a fellow of Har vard Kennedy School of Government & Global Leadership Fellow of Aspen Institute, USA. He has been a social entrepreneur for most of his professional life, and has founded and acquired three technology businesses. In 2006, he founded SAHYOG - Indian Council for Public Private Partnership. RK's focus areas are Provision of Public Infrastructure in Urban Centers and Creation of Livelihood Opportunities in Rural India. More recently, he was declared the winner of TOI's 'Lead India' campaign. Over the years, he had provided monetary support for the development of his native village Sonari, 60 km from Lucknow. Though there was a brick building, notebooks, pens, and pencils and kids looked happy as in the good old days, the number of hours spent on teaching remained the same; quality and means of education had not changed at all. The realization dawned upon him that we could not think of competing with the best in the world when most of India is still primitive in certain aspects like education.Hence, in 2005, at the age of 40 he decided to give his corporate life a rest and moved on to do something that would bring a socio-economic change in India. The result was the Change India Movement. Today he works with several state governments and central government as a public policy advisor towards the development of both rural and urban India. Specific initiatives that RK plans to take up include creating nonagriculture-based rural employment, skill-based employment, national health insurance, creating opportunities for jobs based on local resources and skills, evolving better laws to ensure land reforms, regulating migration to urban India and issues that would be crucial to the development of rural India.

This year with the help of a Bangalore based private firm he set up Uttar Pradesh's first rural based call centre in his native village Sonari. A group of 33 boys and girls, most of them intermediate pass outs, are getting computer training . Within next month, they would begin getting procedural training for a project involving data entry for a political organization. These younsters will be trained & employed at Sonari by a company which has set up 10 such BPOs in the villages of various other states. Earlier, Misra had successfully experimented with a community dairy project on one acre land. Villagers were given membership of the dairy where they could sell their milk produce. The dairy and the building, where the BPO is set up, will functions from the same large premises. Next on his agenda is agriculture. "Villagers need to be convinced that conventional farming does not bring huge returns. They need to grow cash crops like banana, potato, peppermint and medicinal plants like Satawar and Artemisia,'' Mishra said. Being an IIT alumunus himself he firmly believes that role of IITians in shaping the future of the country socially is extremely important. IITians have been at the forefront of Technology and Entrepreneurship businesses in past decade. Most of them have become successful investors as well as senior corporate citizens. However what has been lagging is the social and political leadership avenues.Through initiatives like Change India he hopes to provide a platform for all IITians to take up a leading role in social and political leadership positions. His work philosophy is simple. To bring about a change, be the change and going by this the journey of Change India has just begun and will continue to motivate and inspire people to work selflessly for the upliftment of the society.

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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.

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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.