Anuraag

a newsletter of NSS – IIT Kharagpur

In this issue:

Highlights

Photo feature: Regular activities

Photo feature: Annual Blood donation Camp

Powering India’s Youth – efforts of Senate by Hitabrata Chowdhury

Highlights About 70 volunteers of Unit 3 helped building a road at Malma in

February. They even procured the raw materials needed for their work with funds from IIT Kharagpur. Similarly about 150 volunteers of Units 2, 7, 12 and 13 repaired about 400 m stretch of road at Bolla village. Khelar Anchal Pradhan provided the raw materials for this work. A number of residents of Bolla – youngsters to elderly ladies – also pitched in this effort. Contribution of these volunteers in the sweltering early summer heat was very much appreciated by the locals of Malma and Bolla.

Six projects on social issues with IIT Kharagpur funding taken up by NSS – IIT Kharagpur are progressing well. One on sustainable agriculture at Pariapara under the stewardship of Unit 5 and Professor Dilip Swain led to the development of compost beds at several households in Pariapara; each likely to generate yearly incomes of about Rs 30,000. An organic farming venture at Pariapara set up in this endeavour is also nearing fruition with the first harvest of sweet corn is expected to reach the market within the next few weeks. In another of those projects Unit 15 volunteers under Professor Veni Adyam are setting up two puffed rice making machines at Sholadahar. This is also expected to supplement the monthly income each of ten participating women by about Rs 1,000.

Medical camps were organized recently at Hiradihi by Unit 11, at Pariapara by Unit 5; and at Sholadahar by Unit 15. Drs B Sahoo, consultant at BC Roy Technology Hospital, IIT Kharagpur, G Biswas, SA Najmi and P Patnaik of SE Railway Hospital, PK Sannigrahi of BC Roy Technology Hospital; N Francis, H Singh, J Dutta, R Mukherjee, S Paul and S Basu of School of Medical Science and Technology, IIT Kharagpur; and Mr J Dhole of Kharagpur Eye Hospital and Eye Bank helped with these efforts.

NSS – IIT Kharagpur helped with the Republic Day celebration at IIT Kharagpur on January 26 by hosting about 100 participating school children. Their Annual Blood Donation Camp of March 21 led to the collection of 80 units of blood. In addition, NSS continue to teach underprivileged children, monitor water quality, provide nutritional supplement at primary schools and campaign for social awareness.

Also shared in this edition is the work of SENATE, Kolkata. Students of IIT Kharagpur have been participating in some of their endeavours. NSS volunteers would surely like to learn from these initiatives.

April 14, 2015

Photo feature Blood Donation Camp

More than 1000 NSS volunteers from IIT

Kharagpur spends three hours every week teaching children, planting saplings,

assessing water quality, helping repair damaged

hutments and roads, organizing rally for

social awareness campaign, and

conducting medical camps at more than 20

villages and slums around IIT Campus.

This photo feature is on a few of these

activities.

The annual blood donation camp took place on March 21,

2015 at Transit Hostel, IIT Kharagpur with help from

Kharagpur Voluntary Blood Donors’ Organization,

Medinipur blood bank and BC Roy Technology Hospital. Eighty students, research

scholars and faculty members donated blood in the event. Component separation was used for the first time at an

NSS blood donation camp; a technique from which up to four recipients will benefit from a single unit of blood

donated.

Photo feature

Regular activities

United Nations reckon the number of 15 to 59 year old Indians as percentage of the entire population of the country is to remain consistently above 50 over the next six decades. Thus India will have the largest working age population in the world over the next several decades. This abundance of human capital – demographic dividend – could fuel the growth of the country if trained and put to proper use. Social Engineering and Advanced Technical Education, SENATE, was formed by a group of engineers, social scientists, and entrepreneurs to make an effort towards developing appropriate skill levels among the youth so that the country could tap into the demographic dividend.

SENATE started with an initiative, Asthabhojan, in 2007 with five participating women’s groups. Within a year the another 77 women’s groups joined the project with the Government of West Bengal starting to fund the efforts for creating livelihood opportunities for 100 underprivileged women of the Bidhannagar area of Kolkata. Asthabhojan has now become popular in terms of its business process and sustenance model.

As they trained the women’s groups in preparing hygienic food and vending them to the office workers of newly developing commercial districts on Kolkata’s outskirts often by engaging renowned chefs of the city, SENATE continues to conduct training programs for developing entrepreneurship, skill for self help groups and unemployed youth. These programs have been successfully run in social environments as varied as slums of Kolkata to tribal areas of Jharkhand.

SENATE have organized training programs in paper bag making, making handicrafts using jute, leather and paper pulp, mushroom cultivation, manufacturing artificial jewellery, tailoring, plumbing, electrical works, repairing of electrical and electronic equipment, e.g., air conditioner, refrigerator, computer hardware, mobile handsets, carpentry, automobile and machine repair, catering, hospitality management, and security services. They also helped the trainees in marketing their skill as well.

SENATE have worked with the Society for Self Employment of Unemployed Youth, Panchayat and Rural Development Department of Government of West Bengal, West Bengal Swarojgar Corporation, National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (erstwhile Bengal Engineering and Science University), Shibpur, Gardenreach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited, and Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation Limited, and undertaking of the Government of West Bengal. SENATE have also worked with Technology based Entrepreneurship Development Program at IIT Kharagpur in 2014. They wish to have a larger association with IIT and work with the students under the National Service Scheme (NSS) initiatives in vocational skill development for the youth and the women of villages around IIT Kharagpur.

Powering India’s Youth – activities of SENATE Hitabrata Chowdhury

SENATE, Kolkata 700064 hitabratac@yahoo.co.in

With 356 million 10 to 24 year olds, India has the world's largest youth population

United Nations

“

NSS – IIT Kharagpur for more information visit: nssiitkgp.blogspot.com

Units 7, 10 and 11 school news

Benapur High School, where unit 7 have been teaching since January, have instituted scholarships for brilliant yet deserving students of classes VIII to X from the annual gift of Rs 3,600 of Mr S Bhattacharya (bsurajit@gmail.com) to NSS IIT Kharagpur. Unit 11 have also instituted a similar scholarship at Hiradihi Madhyamik Siksha Kendra, where they have been teaching since February, for students of classes VI to IX funded by donations received by NSS. The first batch of Benapur and Hiradihi students selected from a quiz and an interview conducted by NSS volunteers and school teachers are to receive their awards during the NSS day program of April 14. Unit 10 volunteers have started teaching at Siddharth and Bharat primary schools at Ayma area. Balarampur Abhoy Ashram Naitaleem Vidyapith primary school in Balarampur, where Unit 10 have been teaching earlier, has been taken over by Unit 8.

Anuraag April 14, 2015

Outstanding volunteers, 2014-2015 Unit Nominated outstanding volunteer Unit Nominated outstanding volunteer

1 Alekhya Banki, Indranuj Das and Sheikh Aurangzeb

9 Britan Biswas, Chandra Prakash Ojha and Sanat Kumar Saha

2 Subham Uttam and Rachit Madhukar 10 Rajkumar and Subhajit Kumar Barman 3 Prabhat Agarwal and Subham Gupta 11 Ayan Biswas and Abhimanyu Das 4 Abhishek Mondal 12 Nikita Gagrani 5 Ankit Somra, Meka Asa Kiran, Johnson

Dominic and Rajat Gupta 13 Bhavya Kapse, Satyaki Mukherjee, Ashish

Kumar Mishra, Nikhil Gupta and Rakesh Patel 6 Lokesh Singh and Sushovan Mandal 14 Israrul Haque and Kotkar Shivraj Bhagwatrao

7 Sanjay Kumar Nayak, Debasish Darshan Das, Rakesh Chhipa and Sumit Kumar

15 Kasturi Saha and Ankush Chatterjee

8 Sreedhar Sahoo

Units with excellent performance, Annual Camp, 2014-2015

Gold medal for unit 6, silver for unit 11 and bronze for unit 15

Benapur High School and Hiradihi MSK scholarship recipients, 2014-2015

Benapur High School Madhyamik Siksha Kendra, Hiradihi Jahangir Karim Ali (Class VIII) Somal Chalak (Class V) Radhagobinda Singh (Class IX) Asha Hembram (Class VI) Aniket Goswami (Class X) Chandan Murmu (Class (VII)

Nanda Mandi (Class IX)