THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: These student activists from GB Higher Secondary School, Attingal, have taken up their role pretty seriously and respond to the immediate need of society around them.
The team consisting of Junaid H J, Gouri M S, Shahana, Aditya, Abhin, Hamdan, Chandu and Reshma of the National Service Scheme (NSS) under the Department of Higher Secondary Schools have been involving in various activities in their locality, be it cleaning of government hospitals, blood donation camps or e-waste collection. Now they are on a mission to make an entire panchayat learn about e-wallets, Net banking etc. in the post-demonetisation phase.
For the e-literacy mission, the NSS volunteers have chosen Karichy Panchayat. The inauguration was done with much fanfare with 74-year-old Gomathi Amma from the village clicking her selfie. The event was attended by municipal chairperson M Pradeep. A classroom was set up at ward councillor Shyamalamma’s house. A door-to-door campaign and registration process was conducted in the panchayat.
But for the students, it was not an easy task. “Initially, people were reluctant to attend our classes. They were not sure they would understand Paytm, NEFT, Net banking etc. But once they got a hang of it, they wait for our weekend classes,” says Gouri.
The students have targeted middle-aged women for teaching these skills and around 150 of them have registered for the programme. Junaid, the team leader, said that the mission is to make the entire panchayat e-literate by this April.
Their service to Karichy is not limited to e-literacy. Village women get training from students in making paper bags and a special pen. The pen ‘Ezhuthu (vithu) vidya’ they make is special because the cover and cap are made out of paper and it has a seed at the bottom. Abhin, who is in charge of the pen-making, said that it was made with the intention of protecting nature. “The seed at the bottom is likely to become a tree when the pen is discarded,” says Abhin.
Cleanliness and environmental protection are the key focus areas of the group. Under the Swachh Bharat campaign, the volunteers cleaned hospitals, KSRTC buses at Attingal depot, chlorinated wells etc. In an e-waste collection drive conducted recently they managed to collect 1.5 tonnes of waste from the locality. The collection was handed over to the Clean Kerala company.
The students also run a blood donation group. It has 500 registered donors and 30 people have benefited so far from the blood donated by group. Junaid and his team members also know how to showcase their activities. Most of their programmes have participation of MLAs and other people’s representatives. They had their stall at the entrance of the recently-concluded Thiruvananthapuram revenue school kalolsavam at GHSS Cotton Hill, highlighting their achievements. Manoj C, who is the programme officer of the NSS unit, acts as a guide for the team.