Initial Surveying at Bhangedi Village

This year, the village opted by the Model Village Cell of NSS Chapter of IIT Roorkee was Bhangedi Village which is at a distance of 4km from IIT Roorkee Campus. The activities for the new session began on 23rd September 2012. The events included teaching and gaming activities for children, collection of water samples for pollution testing and a survey for tree plantation drive.

After reaching the village near Valmiki temple at morning 10.30 a.m, three groups were formed. The first group comprising of about ten people went to cover the whole village and collect water samples from the roadside hand pumps to be tested in civil department laboratory for any sort of pollution. The other group with about the same number of people surveyed the full village to identify suitable places for tree plantation and developed the map of the village with the identified places marked on it for reference on the day of tree plantation. Rest of the people stayed back in the Valmiki temple and taught the village children gathered in the temple for some time and later had a gaming session with them. All the activities embarked the new session for Model Village and laid down the path for further activities in the session and gave a chance to the members of the cell for a healthy interaction with the village community.

NSS Day Celebrations

It is very natural for an Institute of national importance like ours to broaden its vision and indulge in social service. NSS IIT Roorkee has been providing a remarkable service to the society. Since its beginning days during 1970s, 24th of September every year is celebrated as the NSS day all over India to mark its beginning in 1969.
This year at IIT Roorkee, as a special event for the day, students were asked to give a presentation on the very thought provoking topic, "Should social service be included in the course curriculum of the students?" and the best presentations were to be awarded. Senior members of the NSS, Arpit Mittal and Kanishk (Former Secretaries of NSS) presided over as the judges. The event, which was held in the convocation hall at 6.30pm, witnessed an excellent audience. A total of seven teams participated in the event.
Though all the teams seemed to support the idea that social service should be included in the curriculum, they differed in their arguments. The teams discussed social service at very different perspectives that the audience found it intellectually amusing. It will be very right to say that the presentations got the audience thinking. From history of social service to the various NGOs present in the country, the teams explored the length and breadth of social service. One of the notable performances was of Gunjal Singh and Parul Singh, with their sweet voices and influencing delivery, which bag the first prize in the competition. The team of Astha Khurana and Shivani Soni won the second prize, while Aman Gupta's team and Prakhar Agarwal's team shared the third place.

In between the presentations a really influential video of NSS work with the physically handicapped people of a nearby village, Khanjarapur was screened. The video portrayed emotionally the gratefulness of the handicapped people, who were given free treatment in Delhi. Then, Prof. Anjan Sil, the Program Officer of NSS, took the podium to give a small talk to influence the students to give even more importance to social service. Following him, Shashank Jha, a 2nd year member of NSS, gave an impressive presentation to brief the first year students about the various cells and activities of NSS IITR. As a conclusion to the event, the general secretary of NSS IIT-R, Kapil Suyal gave a thanking note to everyone present. At the end of the day, the event left the students to participate more actively in social service than they are presently. Thus, we can say that this event met its objectives with grace.

    

855 Donors 707 Units Of Blood and a grand success...

“If you donate money, you give food. But if you donate blood, you give Life.” Once again, highly motivated by the quote, NSS IIT Roorkee organized a Blood donation camp. Three Blood banks of Uttarakhand- IMA Dehradun, Himalayan Jolligrant, Dehradun & Civil Hospital, Roorkee participated in the event which was organized form 9 am - 4:30 pm. A total of 855 people including students, staff & faculty members came forward to donate. From them, 707 units of blood were collected, which was 40 units more than the last year. This amount of blood could save the lives of more than 2000 people.
Dr. Pradipta Banerjee, the esteemed director of IIT Roorkee inaugurated the event in the presence of many other dignitaries where he examined the facilities and the necessary arrangements. He was upbeat about the enthusiasm displayed by the students and particularly impressed by the screening of the voluntary donors at three different levels since it is not a usual site at student level blood donation camps.The IMA had been allotted the students’ ward while the other two hospitals had their equipment in the family ward. The donor first registered himself by filling up a general questionnaire which consisted of questions regarding the donor’s medical history, followed by e-registration, before passing through three levels of screening. At primary level his weight and blood pressure were measured after which his level of haemoglobin was tested. Finally a blood donation kit sponsored by NACO (National Aids Control Organization) was provided. The prospective donors were helped at every step by zealous student volunteers from the various cells of the NSS. After the blood donation the donors were provided with refreshments along with certificates and mementos of appreciation. Three well equipped ambulances, one each of the participating blood banks were there to handle any problems that could possibly arise during the donation.

People participated in the event with great zeal and fervor. According to Subash Shivang, a second year student, the cooperation and association of the organizers was unparalleled. When asked about the pain during the donation, he replied that it was nothing compared to the agony of the people suffering with shortage of blood during emergency. Another student, Ashish Ranjan, a first time donor, confessed to being a bit nervous beforehand but the friendly nature of the hospital staff and the volunteers made him feel confident. Similarly another donor Aman Shrivastav said “Blood donation is important as you and your family members can also invariably be on the receiving end”. Dr. Smita Jha, the program officer N.S.S attributed the success of a blood donation camp to hard work, proper management, student cooperation and most importantly motivation and persuasion. “Myths are to be removed on scientific, technical and emotional grounds and masses should be made to realize that people are dying due to lack of blood during emergencies. Management was extraordinary, facilities superb and student participation excellent...”she added.
Highly prevalent and deeply rooted myths about the degree of safety and the health of donor often act as a barrier among the people and their will to donate blood. But the motivational lecture at the IITR convocation hall on the previous evening had been able to allay most of the fears in the people regarding myths associated with it. Blood donation is safe and rather makes a person feel relaxed. It has been scientifically proven that regular blood donors have low cholesterol levels. With booming population and skyrocketing spread of diseases it is estimated that the requirements of blood would increase by 5% every year. Hence this noble cause needs to be encouraged, promoted and supported by all possible means.

Blood Donation Motivation Program

Before the big event, a motivational Seminar with esteemed doctors and professionals as guests was organised at the Convocation Hall in IIT-R. The objective of the event was to encourage the students to participate by donating blood in the Blood Donation Camp to be conducted the next day i.e. on Saturday, 22th September.
The event started with a skit performed by the students of IIT-R with the message of humanity and brotherhood, defining blood donation as a great deed of humanity with the lines – ‘Raktdaan k liye pehalwaan hona zaruri nai, insaan hona jaruri hai’. Dr. Neha Tyagi and Dr. Robin from Himalayan Institute Hospitals, Jollygrant said that the health of donor is important because while a safe donor gives life, an unsafe donor can infect the recipient. Any healthy human between 18 and 65 years of age can donate blood and can save three or more lives. They also talked about the taboos related to girls for blood donation. They added that if the young generation pledges and comes forward to donate blood, there will be no dearth of blood worldwide.
Spreading awareness on the subject, Dr. Sachin Sharma, IMA Dehradun, in his talk said that blood donation is good for our health as it regulates the cholesterol level and reduces heart related problems and is also good for oral health. The withdrawn blood volume is restored within 24 hours of donation. He also allayed other fears and misconceptions regarding blood donation. Further Dr. Supreet, Civil Hospital Roorkee, told about the facts and myths related to blood donation and encouraged the students to donate blood and make a difference in someone’s life. She also made the audience aware about truth behind the myths and misconceptions prevalent about blood donation among the masses like-deterioration of health after blood donation, theory about limited blood in the body, and excessive time consumption in the process of donation and a few others of them.
On a concluding note, Dr. Smita Jha, Program Officer - NSS IITR, encouraged the students to come forward for the noble cause with her magical words. The Seminar ended with a moving presentation highlighting the need for blood donation.

Indeed a great number

                 

Lecture on Mind Management

NSS started the Autumn Session 2012 with a Lecture on Mind Management, which was delivered by Swami Advaitanand Saraswati. The lecture was held from 11 am to 12 noon in the jam-packed Chemical Engineering Auditorium at IIT Roorkee. He discussed the wonders that can be worked when one’s mind is healthy and motivated. He gave examples of illustrious leaders like Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi who had imbibed the very essence of positive thinking in their lives and had brought about revolutionary changes by preaching the same. The lecture left everyone spellbound and with a new vision in their life.

Quiz Competition

RT Eduslum also organized a Quiz competition and Essay writing competition for physically challenged and other students in the Govt. School, Khanjanpur. Those studying in classes six, seven and eight participated in the events. The students participated actively in both events displaying their general knowledge and writing skills. Winners were selected and given prizes to encourage them.