Objectives

National Service Scheme (NSS) is a students' empowerment programme through campus community interaction. This programme was introduced in the University of Burdwan in the year 1971 with 550 student-volunteers in 11 affiliated colleges. Within 3 decades the number of NSS volunteers has gone upto 16,000 spread over 82 colleges.At the university level, there is one Advisory Committee of the NSS under the chairmanship of the Vice-Chancellor. The Programme Co-ordinator, NSS is in charge of co-ordinating the entire programme of the University and Colleges. At the college level, Principal of the college is the chairperson of the NSS Advisory Committee. One teacher of the college is the programme officer of one NSS unit consisting of 100 student volunteers. Each NSS unit at the college level adopts a nearby village / slum where the student volunteers work at their leisure and attend special camps during the long vacation. The entire expenditure of the scheme is borne by the Central and State Governments.At present the total volunteer strength is 7500 with 82 NSS units. Relevent figures about NSS are summerised below :
Number of NSS units at the College level 82
Number of student volunteers :Men5434
Women2066
Total8200
Number of Programme Officers82
Number of Adopted Villages82

Co-ordinator, National Service Scheme

Name:
Dr. Rajesh Das
Designation:
Assistant Professor
Department:
Mass Communication
Qualification:
M.A., Ph.D.
Academic Profile:
Click here to view detailed profile.
Vidwan URL:
https://buruniv.irins.org/profile/252410
Rajesh Das
Address:
Department of National Service Scheme
The University of Burdwan
Bardhaman - 713104
West Bengal, INDIA.


Activities

NSS is an eduction extension programme. Besides their formal education, the student volunteers acquire practical aspects of eduction through social work. NSS activities are of two types, Normal and special Camping Programme. Normal activities are again of two types : On-Campus programme and Off-Campus Programme.

On-Campus Programme

  1. Programme on Health & Hygiene - College Campus cleaning programme at the week-end, blood donation motivation seminar, blood donation camp, organising First Aid Training programme, First Aid Corner at the college reception, developing garden of medicinal plants at the college premises and its maintenance.
  2. Programme on Environment - Tree Plantation and upkeep of the same in and around the college campus, organising seminars on environment by the green brigades of the NSS units.
  3. Programme on Education - Running book banks, organising tutorial and Pre-school coaching for children of BPL families.
  4. Programme on Sports & Games - Imparting Handball coaching and Yoga training to the NSS volunteers with an objective of spreading them in the locality.

Off-Campus Programme

  1. Micro level planning for the adopted village / slum - Collection of the primary and secondary data, bench mark survey of the adopted area with structured interview schedule and free-wheel in-depth interview with the villagers and compilation of the data for microplanning.
  2. Programme on Environment - Planting fruit bearing trees at the premises of BPL families, cleaning water weed from the village ponds, repairing drainage system of the village, water-shed management in the area, organising seminar & demonstration on chemical free fertilizer and pesticide.
  3. Programme on Health - Deworming programme for village children, participation in the pulse polio programme, organising RCH programme, AIDS awareness programme in each adopted village.
  4. Programme on Education - Organising Pre-school coaching camp for children, imparting health education for the school children and life style education for the villagers.
  5. Programme on Economic Activities - Organising training programme for the youth in general and NSS volunteers in particular in financial marketing to enable them to build up career as small savings agents, Life Insurance agents, General Insurance agents etc.

Special Camping Programme

Special camping programme of 10 days' duration are organised at the adopted villages during summer, autumn or winter vacation / recess. Volunteers' strength is 50 (45 NSS volunteers and 5 non student volunteers) per NSS unit and they observe the community to redress the problems identified earlier through survey carried out during normal activities. Usually each year a particular theme, prescribed by the Govt. of India, is sought to be implemented. Volunteers are supposed to lay special emphasis on this particular theme during special camping programmes.