Introduction

Introduction
Semester I of NSS Team 2012-­‐13 saw the introduction of various events covering a wide spectrum of issues of social concern. It helped in nurturing thoughts and ideas towards these issues both within the team and amongst the s tudent community. A significant number of events were being held for the first time by NSS team and the response to these events were good to say the least, both from the faculty as well as the students. A renewed initiative was launched to involve more postgraduate students in NSS activities as more than half the number of total students in the institute comprise of postgraduates. A separate orientation program was conducted to brief them about the various NSS activities and the projects in which they can get involved. We also made an endeavor to explore the technical aspect to address the social problems surrounding us through technology. In addition to continuing the existing technical projects, we also started a few which mainly catered to the visually impaired population, detailed later in the document. The semester also marked a significant increase in environment-­‐related activities . The semester was preceded by a case study/article writing competition. The intensity picked up through the semester culminating in various activities. The Indian wildlife week was celebrated with full vigor having activities like nature walk, online awareness campaign, photography competition for campus biodiversity magazine, etc. A waste management plan covering the entire campus was formulated and the next step forward will be it’s due implementation. During the annual cultural fest, Rendezvous, the team collected over 6000 posters and reused them. In the same fest, 4 PET collection boxes were installed at strategic locations which saw a collection of over 1500 PET bottles, sent to an enterprise for recycling. In the wake of recent cases of gender violence in the country, a few team members formed a group, Stree . They started a series of discussions and online awareness campaigns to sensitize the student community of the various facets of this issue. Their goal is to equip the society to fight against the menace and the initiative has received support from the Delhi Police. As an initiative on the part of the team, NSS mobilized the student community, numbering 200, for midnight Independence Day celebrations. It included a series of events like panel discussion on “Role of Youth in Today’s World”, a trip to Air Force Museum and concluded by a blood donation camp. Regular events continued through the semester. A different kind of orientation was conducted by the Mentorship Review Committee this time wherein a stall was installed giving a glimpse of the kind of activities undertaken by NSS. An anti-­‐addiction event was conducted in collaboration with Student Counseling Service to address the problem of smoking and drinking amongst some hostel residents. Blood donation camp, campus cleanliness drives, cycle rally, nature walks and a couple of cloth collection drives were organized through the semester. 10 under privileged students benefitted Overview
Type Activity Hours Generated Events Regular 5610 Volunteering Opportunities 8040 Total Hours Generated: 13650 Zero Hours Events: 1. Independence Day Celebrations 2. Stage Play by Antraal Group 3. Wildlife Week 4. Green Campus The documentation of all the regular events had been posted on the council on a regular basis. Therefore in this report, we have subsequently discussed the volunteering activities undertaken by NSS IIT Delhi in the last semester. 10 under privileged students benefitted AAROHAN
Aarohan is working in the area of education for the underprivileged children. The main focus is on helping children living below the poverty line to gain admissions in government schools. Subsequently, their academic pursuits are being supported so that they do not drop-­‐out from schools. Our intervention: We teach PCM to underprivileged kids of class 11th and 12th. These kids go to nearby MCD schools and are really enthusiastic about their studies. In spite of having extreme resource crunch in their family they performed really well in their class 10th. Most of them scored above 90 in science and mathematics. Volunteering updates: In the summer break, students were taught in a regular classroom like system. Volunteers also prepared tutorials and test papers of various topics for the students. After commencement of their schools, they started going to a coaching institute. So we basically started to clear their doubts on an individual basis. Also, 3 new students, who did not belong to the Aarohan NGO, were added to the project. These 3 students came to IIT on a regular basis and volunteers were fixed for them. Till now they have been doing quite decently. It is ensured from our side that their concepts are clear. In the winter break as and when the students required help, volunteers who were staying in the vacations taught the students. Goals achieved: Up to an extent we are able to clear their concepts of the syllabus covered in the summer break. Their test in the summer break was taken in which they performed decently and scored approx. 70%. Challenges faced: One of the major challenge in front of us is regularity from student’s side. They are going to their coaching institutes regularly that result in very less contact hours which make it quite difficult for us to clear their concepts. Other problem is that some of them are enrolled in morning schools while some of them study 10 in uevening schools. Thus, the time at which they wish to study are different. So it nder gets a privileged bit difficult to bring them together at the same time. students Goals benefitted to be achieved: From January, we will be focusing on their paper solving abilities first from boards point of view and then if time permits for competitive exams as well . People Involved: Ravi Sinha, Khyatti Gupta, Prakhar Mishra. Summers Regular classroom teaching initiated July’12 Sessions held to clear doubts on an individual basis. September’12 3 new students added to the project. November’12 Organized two day NAB sports and cultural festival December’12 Winter volunteering at both the centers 500 hours generated 50 students volunteered Bhatti Mines Adult Education Project
In Bhatti Mines project, we teach around 30 women of the village. Most of them work as labourers in various part of NCR according to the demand and get work for 8-­‐10 days in a month. The literacy level was too low and most of them couldn’t even write their names when we started the project. Our intervention: The focus has always been on providing practical education to the women that can empower them for their holistic development in an interesting way. Apart from blackboard and individual teaching, we try to make it more interactive by including videos and group workshops. Their willingness to learn and improve their way of living is amazing. Through our assistance, Enactus has initiated an income generation project at our first site. Second site was initiated during the winter break so that we could cater to the need of a community of 40,000 residents. August’12 Project was planned and field visits were made. September’12 Classes started with approx. 25 women. October’12 An orientation session for Bhatti Mines was conducted. November’12 Volunteering updates: The project officially started in the mid of semester; however field trips by NSS team had been started as soon as the semester commenced. The second site is in its initial stages and was initiated during the winter break to cater to the need of a community with a population of 40,000. We taught alphabets, numbers, addition, subtraction, multiplication and basic communication skills at the older site. We also had educational videos, workshops, inspirational stories and discussions to increase their awareness on various issues like consumer awareness, women empowerment and rural social enterprises. Goals achieved: We successfully set two teaching sites and gained trust of the community. To a large extent, we instilled a sense of confidence and self-­‐belief in the women at our teaching site. Challenges faced: As our course structure is very dynamic and depends on the audience response, it was difficult for us to design a long term pre-­‐planned course structure. Winter internship opportunity was floated. December’12 Started teaching nd
project at the 2 site. Approx. 80 hours generated. 30 rural women were regularly taught 10 under It was privileged difficult to fulfil volunteer requirement on every weekend due to huge distance and students in every visit. Till now, mainly team members were involved in the project. time involved benefitted Goals to be achieved: We need to improve our curriculum development mechansiam and have to ensure that we have a good pool of volunteers. We are also aiming to start a rural development project that can create an impact on a larger mass. People Involved: Dev Priyam, Vaibhav, Adhyan, Divish 18 volunteers involved. VIDYA
Vidya is an NGO run by the wives of IIT professors, staff members and volunteers. They students of classes 1st to 12th from within the campus and nearby areas. The main teach vision of Vidya is to ensure that students learn the concepts of their level and have no difficulty in passing onto the next level. Our intervention: We teach kids of classes 1st to 12th. Extra-­‐curricular activities are being held on every alternate Saturdays to appreciate & enhance the talent of the kids there. Apart from the remedial sessions for the kids, Adult Teaching Program is also run simultaneously which is being taken care by Teachers of KV. Volunteering updates: In the summers, we taught around 40 kids of classes 1st to 10th. Many didn’t recognize even letters and were weak in Maths. A volunteer from Gargi college came regularly to teach Economics to a student from 11th std during July-­‐August. We started alpha phase of online volunteer Management System on trial basis in Vidya Extracurricular activities on alternate Saturdays were started and various Project. activities like Kung Fu panda movie screening, cartoon sketching, street play workshop, workshop and Jodo Gyan Workshop for teachers and volunteers were conducted. origami This has resulted in better interaction of students with the volunteers.
Goals achieved: Extra-­‐curricular activities are running smoothly and teachers have appreciated it. It also enhanced overall development of the kids. Challenges faced: There is a lack of brainstorming of different activities to be conducted, so a team of core members (of interested volunteers) need to be formed so that more & more ideas come in. Goals to be achieved: We need to form a core team of dedicated volunteers to brainstorm and implementation of various methodologies to teach kids in creative way. We also need to use Jodo Gyan Mathematics tool to teach the kids. Summers Taught around 40 kids of classes 1st to 10th. August’12 Movie screening of Kung fu Panda was held. Talent of art was also supported. September ’12 Volunteer Management System started. October’12 Trip to Rendezvous Street Play was held. November’12 Craft Activities, Story Telling, Poem Recitation & Extempore. December’12 Reading exercises started. Quiz for Grammar. People Involved: Vidya Teachers: Jyoti Ma’am, Radhika Ma’am, Ravi, Anjali 35 students volunteered 753 hours generated. MESS WORKERS’ TEACHING PROJECT
About mess teaching-­‐ Mess workers are taught English, Interaction skills and Computer skills. Mess Workers are well qualified, but they need training in English and interaction skills for being able to apply for better jobs or even increase their pay in the current job. Status before the start of semester: This project started this semester. It was a new experiment by NSS in adult education. Present Status (impact created)-­‐ Running smoothly and mess workers are responding with too much of excitement .In the starting of this only 3 mess workers were interested .now it has been to 5-­‐7 in few weeks which shows how they excited are. We have taught them english and some of basic computer skills like typing and basic navigation in Windows. However, we have focused mostly on improving their vocabulary and grammar. They are quite confident with english comparatively. We focused on spoken skills too and taught them to introduce themselves. Challenges faced-­‐ It was a tough job to create an educative environment amongst a group where some of them have child like us and they are are not much educated. Till now some of the mess workers are not open. Still they are not so keen towards education. For ex: During rendezvous and minor gaps we had a break from teaching and at that time it became impossible for us to regain their attention. They need to be motivated time to time. A lot is done and a lot has to be done to improve their confidence. We have been doing this by showing motivational and inspirational videos. Goals achieved/ Not achieved -­‐ Quite successful work has been done by volus. Volunteers as well as the mess workers both have increased since the inception of the project. The efforts were appreciated by the warden of karakoram. We But still have to form a more cognitive environment among them .We have been able to motivate mess workers so that they have called many of their colleagues to study with us. Goals for the next semester: We started this project this year. From nowhere we have come to 5-­‐7 (a decent number) and more in Kailash hostel. For the next semester we will try to start the same in other hostel. We have talked to some workers in aravali and they 10 under looked quite interested. we will be properly framing their curriculum and will include privileged students some creative volunteers .I will include some video for computer training skills and even benefitted thinking to include guard of the hostel because they are interested too. Also something needs to be done for the computers that we got from the csc for teaching mess workers, as those comp. don't work well. Hence are useless. People Involved: Umang, Nitika, Anuj. Summers Thought process to initiate such a project. July’12 Teaching site developed in Karakoram and Kailash hostel September’12 Computers arranged and project started. November’12 More energy pushed into the project December’12 Project continued in winter break though not regular. Not more than 10 hours generated as volunteering done by team only 7-­‐8 people impacted MUNIRKA TEACHING PROJECT
Summers What we do at Munirka-­‐ We teach children at slums of Munirka. These students are poor and some cannot even afford paid tuitions. For the last semester we were teaching only mathematics to students from Commerce Stream with 2 volunteers teaching happen outside the temple in the slum. However at the beginning of this semester , we made efforts to call more students to teach. We got good response and more than 20 children come to us now to study. We now teach them both in the park and temple with about5-­‐7 volunteers on every weekend Teaching done until the students left because of summer vacations August 2012 Teaching restarted with more energy and thrust. Impact: Performance in school of the students being taught has improved to a great extent. October’12 Current status: Teaching sessions have again been rescheduled to weekend from 3:00-­‐
5:00 pm. At present, around 20 children attend the help sessions conducted by our volunteers. Challenges: Biggest challenge the project has faced is the lack of interested students to teach. This happens since most of the students at the site can afford and are hiring private tutors. Even regularity in teaching sessions did not help increase the students’ count. We are hence planning to shift the site of teaching. Goals: One goal achieved: volunteers have been sent at every promised day to teach. Check has been kept to ensure only interested volunteers go for teaching, and syllabus is being covered at a fine pace. Also, in order to increase the number of students under our project, we have maintained personal door to door contacts with their parents. Yet to be achieved: Increase in number of students to teach and maintaining their regularity. People Involved: Siddharth Garg, Umang Gupta. An orientation session for volunteering was conducted. 30 students volunteered 20 children impacted 70 hours generated NAB: HAUZ KHAS & R. K. PURAM
The National Association for the Blind-­‐Delhi, is the largest non-­‐government, voluntary organization in India catering to the blind. Their main aim is to realize personal independence, economic self-­‐reliance and social inclusion for all visually impaired people in India. Our intervention: Regular volunteering was done at two of their centers: • NAB Hauz Khas (at walking distance from the girls' hostel gate) • NAB R.K. Puram (situated near Munirka market, close to the boys' hostel gate) The work ranges from editing books, recording books, teaching on a one-­‐to-­‐one basis, helping them make creative works in their handicrafts unit, writing examinations for them etc. Volunteering updates: Before start of the semester, a project under the name "job-­‐
mapping" was undertaken at NAB Hauz Khas. For a month, 4 volunteers went and helped the trainees. The main purpose of this project was assisting the visually disabled people during their training practices at the companies assigned. During the semester, a minimum of 2 volunteers were sent every day to the Hauz Khas as well as RK Puram center. Volunteering opportunities continued in the winter break as volunteers were regularly sent at the Hauz Khas center while book editing was done by volunteers from back home for the RK Puram center. Goals achieved: Interaction with non-­‐IIT volunteers has been good, and few volunteers helped at various stages during the semester. Volunteering experience provided has been quite good too. Goals to be achieved: We are planning for expanding our volunteering in other sectors at NAB like computer training (Hauz Khas), teaching, book recording (Rk Puram) etc. We are also looking to set up a resource center at IIT Delhi where the students will innovate so that blind students can feel expressions and do science experiments without any difficulties. People Involved: Sidharth, Nitika, Revant, Sonakshi Summers Job-­‐mapping for visually-­‐disabled trainees August’12 Orientation session + Trip to NAB Hauz Khas September’12 Regular volunteering at NAB Hauz Khas started November’12 Organized two day NAB sports and cultural festival December’12 Winter volunteering at both the centers 1500+ hours generated 100+ students volunteered More than 100 visually impaired girls benefitted Stree:
I shall find the way or make one
Stree is an initiative by NSS IIT Delhi in the field of women empowerment. We envisage a community free from incidents of sexual harassment. Our main aim is to spread awareness among males and females and equip them to take action against it. Our intervention: Target audience is college students, professional girls specially those working in night shifts from sub-­‐urban areas of Delhi. The initiative is well appreciated & supported by the Delhi Police & NGOs working in the field of Women Development. Project updates: We began with a small group but now the campaign has spread to some DU colleges. One of the main components of the campaign is an Android App that could trace the location of a person using the app & help in a safe & secure travelling in the streets of Delhi. It is under testing and we would be able to launch the final products soon. Three events including Street play were conducted that focused on breaking stereotypes and sexual harassment. An online case study competition was organized which witnessed large number of entries. An event was also conducted in Sri Venkateshwara Collge which received a good response from the audience. Goals achieved: •
•
•
Established in IITD and developed goodwill among NGOs and some DU colleges. Successful conduct of all events with exiting response. Successful alpha run of App during Rendezvous environment. Challenges faced: Being the first campaign handled by each of the members, we all were working on a ‘hit & trial basis’ & got to learn with each of our activities & still learning more with each exploration & discussion. Goals to be achieved: • Successful launch of app nder • 10 uSelf defense workshops and Street plays privileged • students Reestablishment of Sexual harassment committee in IITD benefitted People Involved: Akhil Aggarwal, Raaisa, Jyoti Jain, Khyatti, Kumar Subham, Anjali, Revant, Gurpreet, Aakash Goyal, Shubham Jindal (app), Ankush (app) Summers Online case study competition July’12 Workshop against stereotypes and Event in Venki September’12 Dry run of Stree-­‐
App. Street play “Dastak” by raging street November’12 Discussion with Ira Trivedi January’12 Establishment of SHC App Launch Self Defense Workshops NSS IITD | Technical Projects
SCIENCE PROJECT FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED
“Serving Individuals with special needs through research and innovation in affordable technology” For a person who is differently abled, assistive technology can play a key role in education, employment, mobility, social integration and above all independent living with dignity. It thus becomes imperative that we devote our resources to such technological advancements. Science project for visually impaired student dedicates itself towards different science experiments, which blind students can also perform and get into the scientific platform and get associated with the scientific world. Our intervention: In collaboration with NAB Huaz Khas and some Japanese Professors, we gave attempts to design instruments which work on visual to Audio conversion technic. Recently, we have designed a Light Probe which sense the color of a liquid and portray the chemical reactions occurring via auditory effects. IIT Delhi administration has agreed to be a think tank and resource center in this regard and assured enough mentoring through IITD professors too. We are also working on the guidelines of Assistech, IIT Delhi. Volunteering updates: Here, only team members are working solely for this project. Goals achieved: Work is in progress. Soon, a training session for the students ought to be organized by foreign professors at IIT Delhi. Challenges faced: Since this project is at initial level as well as highly innovative, it requires a lot of mentoring, enthusiasm and dedication to carry out research and development. Goals to be achieved: We are yet to design some other important prototypes and modules which are now the part of current semester workings. People Involved: Sidharth Ranjan, Revant Soni, Jyoti Jain, Khyatti Gupta, Vaihav Jain and Gurpreet Kaur NSS IITD | Technical Projects
TACTILE SENSOR PROJECT
Tactile Sensor Project deals with smooth communication, a better presence of mind and well accustomed thoughts in visually impairer’s general life discourse. They usually miss out on the most important part -­‐-­‐ Facial expressions, Ability, Communication skills, Presence of their confidence around and a lot more. For the Blind and Visually Impaired, we have different communicative symbols, relating with the specific vocabulary. In order to implement the tactile symbol system we may need to design our own vocabulary sets depending upon the general talks, intuition and general language in the locality. Our intervention: In collaboration with FAC, IIT Delhi, we have been able to successfully design few modules and prototypes. The recent prototype deals with the smile and sad faces made up of clay. Slowly and gradually we will expand our domain towards more diversified modules which would be a fantastic gesture for their full association in our society and letting them cherish the life as we do. Volunteering updates: We have made an enthusiastic FAC team especially working over this project. And this semester, we hope to end up with multiple different innovative modules worth life cherishing for visually impaired people. Goals achieved: We have made two facial expression modules made up of clay so far and also figured out other textile materials and commodities as other cheap and innovative way to carry forward the project. Challenges faced: Since this project is highly innovative and requires interaction with blind in order to figure out their desires and their life experience. Hence not every student can be a part of this project and hence require different sub-­‐divisions like R & D or Prototype design or Manufacturing at larger scale etc. Moreover before beginning to develop a tactile symbol system, there are issues related to materials and designing procedures. Goals to be achieved: We are yet to design some other important prototypes and modules which are now the part of current semester workings. We are also planning to design some games which they can play with anyone and really enjoy to the fullest. People Involved: Sidharth Ranjan, Anjali Gupta
D-NIP CARE
Dnip-­‐Care is an NGO dedicated to improving the quality of life of long-­‐term, terminally ill, bedridden patients and their families. It encourages local people to address the social needs of patients and their families in their own areas, train the community volunteers to offer emotional support, and facilitate the development of locally sustainable home care programs. Summers Volunteering stopped during summer vacations. August’12 Our intervention: Volunteers generally go every weekend to visit these patients at their homes, or in a hospital, and try to spend some time with them as their well-­‐
wishers/friends. Volunteering updates: Volunteering at the center had been stalled primarily due to lack of volunteers. Only 3 volunteers were actively involved in the volunteering, though they had been quite regular. An orientation session was organized to motivate students to go and volunteer for the Regular volunteering is going on with the NGO over the weekends, where cause. volunteers go and visit patients at their homes/hospital. 3 regular dedicated volunteers involved. September ’12 Orientation Session, followed by a trip to Dharmashala. October’12 Goals achieved: The quality of volunteering that we have been able to provide to the volunteers has been really good. The number of volunteers has also been increased, though there is still need for more. Volunteers increased to ten. Challenges faced: Number of volunteers need to be increased, we have partially moved towards this, though still we have a decent work to do. Goals to be achieved: It is a challenge for us to figure out how we can help the patients with our technical expertise, or provide creative solutions to their problems. 175 hours generated. People Involved: Sidharth Ranjan, Revant Soni, Kumar Subham, Lakshmi Radhika 10 students volunteered Medicine Baba
Omkar Nath aka Medicine Baba is a person who goes door to door in Delhi streets collecting unused medicines, so they could be distributed free-­‐of-­‐cost to the poor and needy. Volunteers go there every weekend and help him make a database of all the medicines he collects. The place of volunteering is Manglapuri, near Palam. Our intervention: After the volunteering opportunity had only been linked to NSS towards the end of last semester, after meeting with the concerned people regular volunteering was started towards the start of the last semester. Volunteering updates: Volunteers went there every Sunday to help him out in sorting the medicines he collects, and also compiling a database for the same. Goals achieved: The volunteering experience, in general, has been pretty good. An orientation session was organized to motivate students to volunteer for the same, where Mr. Omkar Nath(Medicine Baba) was present himself to address the students. Summers NSS was linked
with Medicine
Baba. July’12 Regular
volunteering
started September’12 Orientation session organized. Hours Generated Challenges faced: Regularity in the volunteering needs to be ensured, and it is a problem owing to the distant volunteering opportunity. Goals to be achieved: We need to expand the volunteering to send volunteers regularly on both Saturdays and Sundays, so as to benefit Mr. Omkar Nath aka Medicine Baba Maximally. People Involved: Akhil Aggarwal, Revant Soni and Vikas Suthar. 10 under privileged students benefitted 200+ No. of Volunteers 10 Medicines
collected are
donated for the
poor and needy.