SLC (University of Delhi) Shyam Lal College launches Unnat Bharat Abhiyan

SLC (University of Delhi) Shyam Lal College has initiated the campaign to survey the cluster of five villages it has chosen as a participating institution in ‘Unnat Bharat Abhiyan’. As a flagship programme of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) aims at enabling faculty and students of higher educational institutions to work with people of rural India in identifying development challenges and evolving appropriate solutions for accelerating growth of villages.

Principal of SLC Prof. Rabi Narayan Kar believes in taking classroom to the field and bringing field to the classroom. Through partnering with UBA, he has encouraged faculty and students to actively participate in selecting the cluster five villages namely Dhitora (Baghpat), Nithora (Ghaziabad), Chirodi (Ghaziabad), Jawli (Ghaziabad), Kutwalpur (Ghaziabad). The team led by Dr. Kusha Tiwari, Coordinator of UBA, SLC, consisting of teachers and students of various departments, would do extensive field survey of the said five village and identify at least three areas for improvements. The village level surveys aim at collecting primary and secondary data based on which the issues concerning the respective villages would be further taken up to an in-depth analysis. As a next stage of the UBA initiative, the SLC team would organize interactions with villagers and would ensure the involvement local functionaries of the governing bodies and concerning authorities towards the resolution of issues identified.

• Dr. Anuj Kumar Sharma, Coordinator
• Dr. Sunaina Zutshi
• Dr. Sudhir Yadav
• Dr. Raghvender M.
• Dr. Ompal Singh Yadav
• Dr. Swati Yadav
• Dr. Annat Upadhaya
• Dr. Virender
• Mr. Jitender Kumar
• Mr. Sumit Bhati
• Mr. Pawan Kharwar
• Mr. Vivekanand
• Mr. Manoj Kumar, S.O. (Admn.)

The UBA, SLC team has also worked with and helped the adopted villages during COVID-19 pandemic in following ways: poster and video circulation about maintaining hygiene and sanitation. A poster in English as well in Hindi was circulated in these groups. This poster was a beautiful culmination of pictures and information required to spread awareness among the people about safeguards against COVID-19. The poster was designed in such a way that even the graphics in the poster could help people understand the objective behind creating it, thus fulfilling our objective of reaching the masses, especially the ones who find it difficult to read.

The UBA team was actively involved in food distribution among the poor and the homeless. Distribution of food was a sight of respite for many during these testing times. The team also distributed masks in the villages and the adjoining areas of college.

For dissemination of information the UBA team has also formed Whatsapp groups with farmers, villagers to pass on information regarding precautions to be taken in farming activities during the pandemic etc.

Unnat Bharat Abhiyan SLC Covid-19 Response Report

The UBA, SLC and IQAC organized a National Webinar on "Financial Literacy for Women in Times of Covid-19" on 6th June, 2020 with Ms. Jayashree Vyas, MD. SEWA Bank as the Resource Person who talked about finance opportunities for women in rural and semi-urban areas for their progress and development. The webinar was attended by 250 delegates from different academic institutions of the country.

Webinar- IQAC & Unnat Bharat Abhiyan

SLC (University of Delhi), Shyam Lal College is a participating institute in the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA 2.0) which is the flagship programme of MHRD, GoI. Under this project, SLC has adopted 5 villages - Dhitora (Baghpat), Nithora (Ghaziabad), Chirodi (Ghaziabad), Jawli (Ghaziabad), Kotwalpur (Ghaziabad) to support rural development through institutional linkages. The Unnat Bharat Abhiyan team comprises of 10 faculty members and 25 student members of SLC who have conducted extensive surveys of the said villages, participated in the Swachata hi Sewa campaign, interacted with villagers and other stakeholders of the villages such as village Pradhans and village panchayat samities and other stakeholders. The visits and fieldwork happened between August and November, 2019. The surveys conducted and the interactions revealed the following:

• Issues with water logging during rainy season due to absence of proper waste water disposal system. The open drainage system of the village leads to breeding of mosquitos creating health issues for the villagers
• As these villages do not have public water supply system,they use private submersible pumps at their households to make up for their water needs. This has led to a lot of water wastage. This affects the ground water table level adversely.
• These villages also suffer from acute issues with garbage disposal in the absence of proper waste disposal system.
• The severe water logging situation in the villages.
• No Senior Secondary School and hospital in the village. Villagers want a skill development training center so as to make youngsters of the village employable.

The village visits, surveys conducted, data collected and interactions with villagers and concerned stakeholders of the villages have helped the PI to shortlist problem areas for which the SLC Unnat Bharat team has already started work.

• Awareness campaigns for financial literacy including availing government financial incentives and schemes,insurance plans and health insurance.
• Workshops for awareness around sanitation issues in the villages.
• The team has conducted campaigns about conservation of water and waste management.
• The team has extensively carried out campaign for non-use of polythene and distributed cloth bags.
• The team is in the process of formulating frameworks to deal with the problem of stray cattle in the villages for which there are efforts to contact different agencies to work out a solution.
• The team is also exploring to provide a practical solution for proper waste management.