Dr. Jagdish Chandra Sharma Head master Government Senior Secondary School, Mahaveer Nagar I, Kota Dr.

Jagdish Chand Sharma, with chemistry background and loads of experience of teaching chemistry and its analytical behaviors part in human life was never able to understand the chemistry of use of tobacco in different forms in the community. It is far from his analytical brain to understand that why people administer the use of tobacco to relieve the stress of daily life. For him the momentarily pleasure which this tobacco gives has dreadful effects not only on the health but also on the social values of a person. With tobacco in various forms being so easily accessible at every nook & corner has become the most dangerous ailments for the society. The Pan Masala, Gutkha etc which have now become part of fashion statement are available are very cheap price making it more dangerous. As now young children can have access to these even with meager pocket money. The stuff used in these types of product does not have any specific quality standards and in most cases very cheap and degraded material is used which directly affects the health. This spread of Gutkha culture in society like an epidemic has always irritated and gave shivers of fear to Dr. Jagdish. In 2006 Dr. Jagdish got trained under Intel Teach program and was very clear in understanding of Project Based Learning approach. He thought that in PBL he has got a mantra to address different issues or concerns in society yet integrating his subject knowledge in it. This will be a new experience to understand & facilitate the application of chemistry in daily life. But due to circumstance his thoughts could not be materialized. It was only when he got transferred to Mahaveer Nagar I school he found a perfect opportunity to put his dream in reality by implementing a project where he could ask his students to use their knowledge of chemistry to address a real life scenario. Dr. Jagdish a keen observer observed that his school has a surrounding of slums and Kacchi basti. Therefore number of students in his school belongs from here. And due to illiteracy, lack of awareness, poverty & negligence the parents as well the children from here are drawn towards all kinds of bad habits and one of them chewing Gutkha is very prominent. Since Gutkha does not cost too much and also easily accessible has become an easy remedy to one and all for their daily anxieties. As a result slowly almost everyone has got addicted to it. Young children getting use to this habit was the most worrisome factor for Dr. Jagdish. As most of his students were coming from these localities had

developed this habit in them. This was directly affecting not only their educational growth but also their social upbringing. As a result of which many of these students have developed over a period of time bad habits which were not good for healthy society. More so it was having its direct toll on their health, their mental capabilities, power of concentration etc hence their studies was at total loss. Poignant with all this Dr. Jagdish designed a project to eradicate this habit from the locality so that the future does not get spoiled. Also this will help in developing a healthy society around school with good moral & social values. Dr. Jagdish was focusing on two aspects from this project: (a) Getting rid of this Gutkha menace from students and their parents. (b) Thus getting more & more children focused on education and not doing petty child labour to support their parents dreadful habits.

This project in which students were involved as messengers, contributors and director to direct and guide their known ones in the society about the ill affects of consuming Gutkha. Thus making students do lot of research activities on the composition of Gutkha through performing various analytical test in lab, understanding the affects on human health and drawing inferences as how to counter this problem in the society. This gave ample opportunity to students in terms of doing research, surveys and doing documentation of all the work done during the project. After days of research work on the percentage of people addicted to this habit, about the affects on their personal lives, affect on their income, family life and more importantly their health aspects. Also the documentation of the test carried on the constituents of Gutkha in the lab using their chemistry knowledge and their effect on health. On the basis of all the scientific work done and the research work students worked in groups to draw some conclusions as to how they can make efforts to stimulate people in their society towards leaving of consuming Gutkha and lead a healthy life. Dr. Jagdish Chand Sharma has high hopes from the work of students and believes that these young messengers will be successful in achieving the goals of the project.