Thursday, August 28

KARTAVYA - NIFFT : EDUCATION REDEFINED




You must be the change you wish to see in this world”. Whenever I read this, I feel the inner conscience pushing me to dedicate myself more to ‘KARTAVYA-NIFFT’ an NGO being run by the students of NIFFT for disseminating the ‘idea of education’ among the poor , deprived and underprivileged children living in slums of Hatia.
Started by an ISM Dhanbad alumni in ............ ‘KARTAVYA’ reached NIFFT the previous year. Our immediate seniors worked hard day and night to make it functional at community Hall , Hatia near NIFFT. Earlier, people of Hatia were sceptical about this concept thanks to the effect this materialistic world has created in the minds of people where every action of charity is weighed in terms of personal gains and losses. But at this juncture, the help came from a local woman ‘ Sheela Didi ’ who accompanied our seniors in conducting surveys and convincing poor parents to send their children at the ‘KARTAVYA’ centre.
Since inception, apart from a few hurdles like lack of manpower during the semester breaks ‘ KARTAVYA-NIFFT ’ has not looked back . In the past one year, it succeeded in developing the necessary educational environment around the slums of Hatia to help the masses become open to the idea of education. The number of students taking education at our centre increased to seventy five. A poor orphan girl was inducted into a private school ‘Shanti Niketan’ and all her expenses are being borne by ‘ KARTAVYA_NIFFT’ . A more important fact observed in the past one year was the rapid increase in number of girl students at our centre, quite inspiring in itself.
Now ‘KARTAVYA-NIFFT’ is one year old and a little matured in its approach. We are regularly conducting classes at our centre . We have divided students into different groups and Our attempt is to give individual attention on each. Also, we are providing books , copies , pencils and chocolates to our children on a regular basis to motivate them to be punctual at our centre. Besides , we have tried to incorporate some innovative ideas to make education fun at our centre . These include reciting poems and rhymes , story- telling , playing songs etc. Suggestions are also to impart knowledge of alphabets and elementary mathematics through multimedia. We are also trying to teach the benefits of proper cleanliness and hygienic conditions to our children since they are at greater risks of falling prey to communicable diseases.
Even after such efforts I think only a little has been done so far. We wish to achieve higher and for that we certainly have some plans in our minds. The expansion of our centre is on the cards and will materialise too soon. We are also going to open a library at our centre in the months to come. This year, we would brief the eligible students of our centre for the Navodaya schools. We are also looking at the prospects of employing some local youth girls to teach at our centre during semester breaks when we become unavailable.
However, as an industry requires raw materials to sustain , an organization requires funds to function .We are not an exception to this truth. At present, our sources of income include students’ contribution and selling of old newspapers. But, it is not sufficient. Infact, we are facing some constraints in properly implementing our plans owing to the lack of resources. Recently, Rotary club has come forward and promised us help . we are also in talk with some eminent media persons for support . But comprehensive changes will come only when NIFFT assists us either personally or institutionally.
In this materialistic world where everybody is after the ‘Money-Making’ process it is an invaluable feeling to do something for the downtrodden. . This is the way we can return something to the society we owe so much. I hope, if we continue, we can appreciate the dream of transforming India through education.



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