The National Service Scheme(NSS)
National Service Scheme (NSS) is one of the flagship programs of the government. It aims at personality and character development of the students through voluntary community service. The overall aim of NSS is to give an extensive dimension to the higher education system and orient the student youths to community service while they are studying in educational institutions. The educated youths who are expected to take the responsibility of administration in future, are found to be unaware of the problems of the village community and in certain cases are found indifferent towards their needs and problems. Therefore, it is necessary to arouse the social conscience of the students and to provide them an opportunity to work for the people around them.
We have one NSS Unit with 100 active volunteers. The unit makes surveys several times to identify the different areas of weaknesses of this region and suggests some possible remedies. The unit organizes health check up camp every year for the people of the adopted village. Eye check up camp is organised in collaboration with local NGO. The unit tries to make the villagers aware about the importance of blood donation by organizing blood donation camp in the locality. Volunteers take active participation in the Safe Drive- Save Life campaign initiated by the local Police. For improvement of green environment, the unit arranges tree plantation programmes through out the year. On 21st June, ‘International Yoga Day’ is celebrated by demonstrating ‘yogasana’ by the experts and special lecture is arranged to aware the students for living a healthy life. On ‘Bio-diversity Day’, special talk is organised to aware the students to the importance of the eco-system for our survival. ‘Elephant Festival’ is organised in collaboration with WWF, Kolkata for maintaining the peaceful coexistence between man and wild life. ‘International Youth Day’ is commemorated on 12th August to encourage the youth to organise activities to raise awareness about the situation of youth in the country. On 8th September, ‘International Literacy Day’, the unit organises sit and draw competition among the school students and distributes school stationaries to encourage them.Every year, on the foundation day of NSS, i.e. on 24th September, the whole NSS Unit visits the rural hospital and distributes food among the patients. Except this, during the CORONA pandemic, mask and sanitizer have been distributed in the hospital premises on a regular basis. On ‘International Women’s Day’, the unit felicitates the lady doctors and nurses of the hospital. Every year on 11th October, ‘Girl Child Day’ is celebrated by organising self-defence training programme for the girl students in the college ground. During the Kerala disaster, the unit took part in Kerala Relief Fund Collection Programme and contributed the collected amount to the Chief Minister Relief Fund. The unit organises rally on ‘World AIDS Day’ to spread awareness. Gandhi Jayanti and Independence Day have been celebrated by the NSS volunteers through the enactment of street drama. On ‘Children’s Day’, Cultural programme is organised for the kids of the locality. Thalasemia Awareness Programme as well as Thalasemia Detection Camp are organised in collaboration with North Bengal Medical College and Hospital. On ‘Human Rights Day’ and ‘Constitution Day’ special lectures are arranged to aware the students about their rights and duties as enshrined by the constitution. In ‘Swachch Bharat Abhiyan Karmasuchi’, the volunteers take initiative to clean the college campus and surroundings like, bus stand, hospital etc. Each year ‘Special Camp’ is organised with a relevant theme for a duration of 7 days. Through this camp, the volunteers enrich themselves by listening to the deliberations from some eminent speakers on that particular theme and spread the message to others. It is felt that their interaction with the common man will expose them to the hard realities of life and bring about a change in their social perception.
The overall aim of NSS is to give an extensive dimension to the higher education system and orient the students to community service while they are studying in educational institutions. Therefore, it is necessary to awake the social responsibilities of the students and to provide them an opportunity to work for the people who actually are in real need. Keeping in mind the motto of NSS i.e. ‘Not Me But You’, it is our aim to uphold the need for selfless service and also to show consideration for fellow human being.