Thanks

Regular Activities

The regular activities of NSS, IIT Kharagpur are going on full swing. Work of some of the units have earned so much attention that the community where we could not reach out as yet are putting up requests .... so that our volunteers reach there. Headmaster of one high school affectionately complained yesterday that his school is getting less attention from us compared to another high school in the neighbourhood. We assured him the service of more volunteers. Free coaching centre for underprivileged in a nearby village has become so popular that a section of privileged community from the town requested their wards to be accommodated in that village centre. The other unit's weekly cleaning activity drew the locals to lend hand. Several units have engaged themselves with the village community to come up with cultural performances for NSS Day celebration (due to mid-sem. exam., it is going to be deferred.). There the IIT student volunteers and villagers will enact performances together. Thanks to the community around us to give young IITians opportunities to serve.

S.D.O. Meet

Besides the regular weekly activities, certain special activities / meet were arranged in between. On 3rd Sept., 2011 the district administration arranged a full day workshop. Here, 2-3 members from each unit participated along with 5 NSS faculty members. SDO Kharagpur, BDOs of Dantan-I and Dantan-II block, ICDS (Integrated Child Development Scheme - Anganwadi) project officer, District Panchayet Officer, District MGNREGA Officer and important officials from district administration briefed us about welfare schemes, its implementation and constraints at ground level. We had field visits to one Anganwadi centre, one SSK and one MSK under Dantan I block. SDO and other officials led from the front and walked along the village muddy road. The NSS student volunteers were greatly inspired. In the second half, the interactive session helped enhance clarity for the NSS volunteers and identify actionable items. NSS, IIT Kharagpur sincerely thanks district administration for this exposure and Dantan I Block officials in particular for hosting us. More pictures of this meet can be found in this link.

Meet with State Environment Minister

Dr. Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar, Environment Minister of this state visited IIT Khargpur on 8th Sept. for inaugurating a short term course. He was interested in the 'model village' concept we discussed in NSS Advisory Committee meeting. He had a half an hour meeting with NSS program officers that afternoon where BDO, Kharagpir-I block, Panchayat Pradhan of neighbouring villages and other panchayet officials were present. It was very fruitful and reinforced the processes the student volunteers are engaged in. We thank the Minister, BDO, Gopali Panchayet officials for their support.

Disaster Management Workshop

On 10th Sept., 2011 we organized a disaster management workshop where selected members of each of the 15 unit participated. Mr. Shyamal Sur, B. Tech. (ME), 1964, IIT Kharagpur and also a Stanford MS conducted the workshop with his team from Satya Sai Trust. Earlier they organized this for Indian Railways, Tamilnadu police. The 4 hour workshop was absorbing and the students thoroughly enjoyed the practical demo and hands-on. We thank our alumnus and his team for making it happen. We also thank our Director for getting NSS, IIT Kharagpur connected with this team. More pictures of this workshop can be found in this link.

Soladahar Gram Sabha Meet

On 11th Sept., 2011 few student volunteers and one NSS faculty attended a gram sabha on invitation in a neighboring village. This is the least developed village in our neighbourhood with predominantly backward class population. Earlier NSS team highlighted the plight of this village through field data and Govt.'s own statistics. The meeting was to make villagers aware of welfare schemes and how to avail them. Besides gram sansad member, panchayet pradhan, the entire panchayet officials were present in the village on a Sunday afternoon. The meeting was quite fruitful and it appears that several welfare initiatives will start soon. Thanks for giving us an opportunity. More pictures of this meet can be found in this link.

Benevolence of SN / IG Hall

The 13th Sept., 2011 was special for NSS, IIT Kharagpur for something novel. The SN / IG hall warden invited us to collect old-still-usable food trays that can be distributed among the needy in villages after some makeover. The Hall president and council members were present along with hall administration office members. The hall president said that they would be collecting old usable garments after Durga Puja for distribution among the needy. We also discussed the idea if one hall can adopt one village of the neighbourhood. NSS team may provide access and all logistic support with the help of district administration and elected representatives, so that they are not treated as strangers. Hall alumni during their visit to IITKGP may pay a visit to that village to see the progress. The pre-final, final year students can take the lead inside the campus. It may take some time to see such an idea taking concrete shape. Thanks to SN / IG hall team for coming forward.

Concluding event of this fortnight

Tomorrow (17th Sept., 2011) we have scholarship exam. in 13 village primary schools. Senior IIT students are sponsoring about 40 scholarships for village / slum school children (includes 2 high schools too) of worth  Rs. 60,000. This is named "PRERANA" scholarship to motivate the villages, several of them have no secondary pass in the village, to prioritize pursuit of academics. NSS, IIT Kharagpur team is logistic and infrastructure related support to this endeavour.Thanks to the IIT student seniors for setting a trend.

Winning friends

We won a lot of friends in the community around in last fortnight. We believe that the community too find friends in us. We hope to make our tie stronger in coming days. In the interactive session with district officials (on 3rd Sept., 2011 SDO meet) the MGNREGA district officer remarked that the way the IITKGP NSS volunteers posed various issues of the villages / slums they visit, show that they consider those issues are their own and not of someone else. He further said that this is what is needed and this is what is being missed in the planning process. Such comments inspire and increase responsibility of NSS team. We know that there are lots of rooms for us to improve and we will.