The Making of a Roof

Inspired by Asha, who serves as a maid in the campus (Link) but extends her support to her neighbours in terms of providing new roof, the NSS volunteers of Soladahar Unit (the village comprising of Lodha tribals is the poorest in our neighbourhood) decided to go for asbestos roofing of one house with whatever little fund they have and can save from their tiffin allowance. Today it is done. The journey itself taught us a lot. We took this opportunity to unite and engage local youth for constructive activities. This we have started sometime before when they arranged village sports, Saraswati Puja etc. Also, it involved dismantling of current roof, however dilapidated it might be, completing the task in time, addressing questions like why one particular house is chosen and not the other.

Accordingly, the local youth gave us five names. We selected their first choice after physical inspection. It was of Bishwanath Ari, a very bright student of Class V who lost his father. The mother works as maid in the campus and is raising three kids somehow. As long as Bishwanath was in village SSK (Sarva Shiksha Kendra, yards away) he was regular in school. Now in high school which is miles away, he has become irregular. The other reason could be his responsibility to take care of younger brother and sister at home when mother is out for job. When the NSS team of faculty and students, together with village youth visited Bishwanath's house to discuss this project with his mother, he was worried that we would complain his mother about his falling interest in study. We did that but we talked about this project for which she thanked us and agreed. The NSS students took it as a responsibility to remain engaged with Bishwanath so that he can continue his academics. We checked his class notes and asked few questions from that which he answered quite confidently.

We provided money to village youth in three installments who supervised the work. At times, we were worried about the Norwesters (Kalbaishakhi storm and rain) which is common during this time of the year. You can see in the picture the 3 feet high make-shift shelter they made for themselves during the construction period. Fortunately, much to our relief, the work was completed the day Kalbaishakhi hit this region. A pictorial journey of this is presented herewith. Wish we can do more. We are in touch with Govt. Admin. regarding Lodha housing projects. A few has been sanctioned in this village but is facing some difficulty at builder's end (who won the order).
Wish it gets resolved soon. Till then our NSS students try whatever little they can do through their small means.