AID Pilani Chapter

BITS Pilani is a lyceum consisting of 3000 students, who have high intellectualcapacity and extraordinary skills. However, the students are restless; everyoneis in a hurry here. Sometimes they get involved so much in the quotidian hustle-bustle of their BITSian lives that they pay little or no attention towards the smallest of things which impact life in a big way. Whether it is as simple as turning off lights when not in use or as intricate as considering the opportunity cost of making a choice.

We realized that Bitsians have developed a peculiar habit, a habit which could lead to catastrophic results in the future if left unchecked. This would-be-disastrous habit is ‘WASTAGE’. The obvious question which comes tomind is wastage of what? What can a college student possibly wastethat can cause a bleak future?

There are several things to waste and undoubtedly several ways to waste it. To quote the most generic:

v  The seemingly trivial matter of wasting his/her time by sitting idle. It has been noted for centuries that “an idle mind is a devil’s workshop”

v  Wasting money buying unnecessary things. Remember, “A penny saved is a penny earned”

Not withstanding, these things are individual-specific and no one is more affected by than the student himself. Moving on to societal problems, the scene at the college level which is nearly the same as that of the world, we have wastage of:

• food
• electricity and
• water

The common wastage started shaping up as so significant a factor in our lives thatit is unavoidable. To heat up the situation we have problems like

• regular power shedding,
• rising food prices and
• deficit monsoon

As we pondered over possible ways of tackling this problem and spreading awareness about wastage, we came up with an idea of organizing a Marathon to support this cause. It seemed a brilliant idea but we wondered if any of the BITSian junta would be willing to wake up on a Sunday morning and run. It wouldn’t seem important to them unless they have something in it. Fitness was one thing, butwe felt attractive prizes is what would lure them.

 We decided to have prizes up to Rs 1500 forthe first 3 spots. But there were some problems associated with this decision. Since we are still at in the nascent stage of our establishment and by no means could we sponsor the prize money we took help from National Service Scheme, BITS Pilani chapter to support us in our cause. They were more than happy to sponsor the amount decided as the prize money. On 23 August 2009, Sunday, our idea came alive with a 5 Km long marathon, flagged off at 7:15 A.M.by Prof. G. Raghurama.

Here are some of the statistics of the marathon.

Length: 5 KM

No of participants: 147

MarathonTheme: Save electricity, save water, save food.

Prize Money:

First:           Rs 750

Second:       Rs 500

Third:          Rs 250

Water points were put up at regular intervals for the convenience of the participants. At each of water points coupons were provided to the participant to ensure that no one takes a shorter route and uses right means to win the marathon. An emergency ambulance was also arranged to prevent any mishap. The winner had to produce all the coupons at the end to claim his prize. The students were given lime juice at the completion of marathon, after which prizes were given to the winners by Prof. G. Raghurama.

But we feel that the purpose with which we organized such an event is not fully addressed yet. Organizing such a marathon can be considered as the first step, rather an initiative towards fulfilling that purpose. The path is full of meanders, rapids and obstacles. It is on us now that how we interpret thesituation and act according to it. We feel that such kinds of events promote harmony and awareness among the educated people. Bitsians are an educated lot, they will learn to ignore ignorance and opt for means which are good for the society. We hope to carry our future endeavors with more dedication and effectiveness. Before we end please give it a thought:

Only when the last tree has been cut,

Only when the last grain has been eaten,

Only when the last river has been poisoned,

Only then will we realize that money cannot be eaten!!!

We are a group of students who started using the Right to Information act to tackle various issues plaguing the local people of Pilani and the surrounding villages.

We drew inspiration from a talk by Santosh Jha of Parivartan, an NGO fighting against corruption in Delhi, to work in this direction, during April '08. This lecture was organized by the student groups of NSS-BITS-Pilani, Nirmaan and Rotaract which have been working consistently for social causes.

Our personal zeal and enthusiasm took us on trips where we learnt many things about the ground reality in the villages of Rajasthan, the suffering of these people and also the way people live their lives which gave more impetus to our drive.

Various RTI applications filed:

We filed a number of applications invoking RTI act pertaining to various issues like the

• ‘Black Marketing’ involved in the Ration Supplies System.
• The excess amount taxed from a person who is unable to produce important documents (license, permit, etc) due to the presence of 'unauthorized' middlemen.
• Pathetic state of roads and garbage disposal system in nearby areas.
• Poor lighting in the streets resulting in accidents.
• Negligence on part of authorities in maintaining the cleanliness of the bus stand.

Framing questions for RTI applications:

We are not afraid to admit that we committed many mistakes in framing questions which we attribute to our amateurish approach but our pride lies in the fact that we learnt a lot from the initial mistakes. We came to know of the folly of assuming that government officials are well versed with the act in the process of our first application itself.

We are still in the process of improvisation and innovation in the art of forming questions which would help the people in this area and relieve them from corruption the system is suffering from.

Ignorance on the part of government officials:

We had to open the act and show a particular official who was designated to accept our application, of the rules and regulations and his duties. This was in regard to the part of the act which asks every public information officer (PIO) to forward the application to the concerned authorities in case the application received by him/her does not concern the department of which this officer is the PIO.

We had this initial difficulty as we assumed that things would be like they are in Delhi where NGO's have been employing the act since its inception which has led to even the government officials to be aware and vigilante about their responsibilities and duties in regard to the RTI act.

Points of learning:

In the applications filed on the ration and food supplies system to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) population, we first faced stiff resistance from the authorities in providing us information which would have helped us in exposing the fallacies present in the system, after the first application where we had asked for the subsidies announced by the government for the BPL. In the 30 days, which is the maximum time in which the information is to be provided, we went out and conducted several surveys. At the end of the survey we had the information about what the BPL people deserve and they actually get. There was a big mismatch in the data collected from people in surveys and that obtained from Government in response to Applications sent. After comparison we went about the task of forming questions to get the officers to give the BPL what they were supposed to get.

Spreading awareness among BITSians:

We had even filed an RTI on matters in relation to B.I.T.S, Pilani which is mentioned as a public authority on its main home page. This resulted in arousing interest among many students on this tool which is a wonderful instrument, which if used properly would help to if not eradicate, at least curtail corruption.

Aiming for amendments in the information providing machinery:

In the whole process we found a few things which we personally as taxpaying citizens of India found unacceptable. For example, the postal envelopes which were sent to us requesting the money order of very meagre amounts ranging from 2-6 rupees had postal stamps of 20 to 30 rupees affixed to them. In regard to this, we wrote to the State Information Commission asking them to look into such matters of importance to the running of the mechanism of RTI which involves people getting a right to have a check on the money they pay as tax which the government is using.

Great aspirations:

We are hoping that in the next 2 years we will be able to make a difference to the people and rid them of the problems being faced due to the negligence, carelessness or corruption of the government officials.

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Mohseen

AID-Pilani

ELECTRICITY IS BEING WASTED – ARE YOU HEARING???

Campaign: AWARENESS AGAINST ELECTRICITY WASTAGE

With kind support of:  Honorable Vice Chancellor, BITS PILANI – Shri. L.K.Maheshwari

In Association with: Student’s Union, BITS PILANI

“Today’s environment is in dire need of increase in energy efficiency and as far as electricity is concerned, ‘ENERGY SAVED IS ENERGY PRODUCED’.  Moreover, in INDIA as most of the electricity is still produced from thermal power plants and with current losses taken into account , it’s no surprise if we reveal the fact that for every unit of electricity which we are consuming ,on an average approximately 1.5 kg CO₂ is released in atmosphere. It is the same gas responsible for causing global warming in our environment.”

With these words of Ravi Teja, General Secretary, BITS PILANI, we kicked off our campaign from one of our hostel wing. Actually it was more of a one to one interaction. We simply explained the need to reduce the wastage of electricity to the students around us. Along with us we carried some slips which read “PLEASE SWITCH OFF YOUR FANS AND LIGHTS WHILE LEAVING YOUR ROOM”. After explaining everything we asked everyone that in case someone thinks that these slips can remind them of switching off their electronic appliances while leaving the room, then he/she can take the slip from us and stick it according to their place of convenience. It can be around the latches on the door so that while locking they can have a glance or above it, at eye level on the door or may be on the switch board , study table etc..  We were armed with fevisticks as we did not want people to make any excuses and would provide them simultaneously to the willing people to stick the slip on the spot.

Meanwhile we tried to take care of the fact that we are not blaming anyone for not switching off their lights and understood that no one does such act intentionally. Rather it was all being absent minded, about our forgetfulness which can be well tackled. In this way after 3 hours of exhaustive campaigning in rooms of about 80 students and with all our satisfaction for the day achieved, we gave the final halt for the day. One more thing I would like to add about the slips is that we carried 3 types of slips with us. Apart from the one mentioned above other two read “PLEASE SWITCH OFF YOUR MONITORS, FANS AND LIGHTS WHILE LEAVING YOUR ROOM” and “PLEASE PUT OFF THE LIGHTS WHEN NOT IN USE”. The first one was for students and the latter for bathrooms and common rooms .

Later on in next two days Ravi Teja discussed this agenda with our Honorable Vice Chancellor and was able to persuade him to take out some time from his schedule and speak to the students personally regarding this issue.

At the end of the day, after Vice Chancellor’s interaction with students we finished our job with another 300 students and now the preparations are on to increase our effectiveness for the left 3,500 students on campus.

We understand the fact quite well that it is not going to be a cake walk as was neither till now but simultaneously believe that  “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short ; but in setting our aim too low and achieving the mark”.

SAYONARA!!!

ALOK SONI

AID INDIA, PILANI CHAPTER

59th Republic Day Celebrations at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani

Speakers:
Swami Nikhil Atmanand
Prof. L.K.Maheswari, Vice Chancellor of BITS-Pilani
Mr. Dharmendra Kumar, Head of AID Bihar

This event was jointly organized by NSS-BITS, Pilani, Student’s Union BITS-Pilani, Nirmaan-Pilani and AID-Pilani Chapter.

The meeting started with Swami Nikhil Atmanand ji's inspirational talk about Vivekananda and how "Yuva Sankalp" had to be brought into action. It was then followed by Prof. L.K. Maheshwari’s talk on some aspects of Vivekananda’s lectures and how his teachings influence each of our daily lives. The talk carried a message that one must be pure by his thoughts, words and actions.

This was followed by Mr. Dharmendra Kumar's talk. The topic was 'Emerging India or Emerging Bharat' (The inspiration of the topic came from the inaugural speech of Dr. Ravi Narayan at the annual AID conference in Bangalore.)

Synopsis of the lecture given by Shri. Dharmendra Kumar:

1. Importance of the "social scientists" and "people's engineers":
In the 21st century most of the pioneer educational institutes of the country are able to churn out specialised scientists and engineers in various fields like computer science, electronics, mechanical, civil, etc but the situation in the country today demands for social scientists and people's engineers i.e. the professionals who are ready to dedicate their lives or at least a part of their lives for the betterment of the society. So it is the responsibility of the individuals as well as these institutes to impart a feeling of patriotism, selflessness and uplift the masses.

2. Development of Inter Disciplinary Areas and Using Technology for the improvement of Villages (Masses):
Experts involved in development of various disciplines of technology should share their knowledge which may lead to evolution of revolutionary Inter Disciplinary areas like Genetics, Ultrasound Techniques, Robotics, etc. India is currently lagging behind in technological aspects because though the scientists here are on par with the best in the world but they are not able to share and pass on their intellect. Also a technology's success
is only justified when it can widely be used by poor people and people in villages. One must always have the under privileged men in mind.

3. "Globalisation of human beings":
Globalisation should be a process wherein people of the world get unified into a single society and function together. When there is a situation of crisis entire human community should fight against it without any barrier of continent, country, state, religion, caste etc. Entire globe should merge into a single entity.

4. Awareness against superstition:
Even in the time of "nano" technology, people in some parts of India believe in tantriks more than doctors. Even when space probes and shuttles are travelling out of solar system, people still believe that one should not go out during an eclipse. People should be inspired to think with a broad mind and overcome their superstitions. This can only be done by educating them and teaching them facts scientifically. Hence child education is of utmost importance. Even when one is at a very high position he should devote some time to spend with masses and educate them.

5. Misunderstanding "in and about" Bihar:
When people from various corners of the world came to Bihar during the flood relief operations several misconceptions about Bihar - place where crime rate is high, people there are narrow minded, etc were eliminated and it was realised that it was only due to a few instances that has let down Bihar's reputation in international scenario. Also the people of Bihar realised that Americans and engineers who came there were indeed to help them and did not desire any benefits (as in case of government servant).

After the talk all the speakers and guests who graced the occasion were honored with mementos. Dharmnedraji, Selva and Sanjaji also accopanied NSS volunteers to a nearby village school as a part of a awareness rally. Overall, the event was well organized and applauded by all the faculty as well as students.

We as BITSians, are engineering students and are also a chapter of AID. After recollecting the experiences in AID annual conference in Bangalore, we think that being the newcomers, we learnt following important thing -

AID is an organization consisting of full time activists as well as career professionals and both of these classes act in harmony for the single ultimate goal of AID – the quest of solutions for solving India's problems and for improving the existing solutions. AID works in different directions with different types of people, these directions are respected. AID also carries out experiments in implementing its solutions and tries to better them. The apparent lack of a unique direction actually does not leave a weak point in AID's functioning, but becomes its strength and support for experiments. None of us knows the root of every of our social problems or the ultimate path that will lead to the solutions. But we believe in putting efforts for what little we know and continuously learn.

Through the learning of our respected torchbearers like Mr. Balaji Sampath, we understand that

• A social problem is generally harder than it appears.
•  While implementing solutions, we have to be very professional in measurement and feedback of our efforts.
• And of course, many a times, simple solutions work out though they may be the most difficult ones to find.

We have great minds in Dr. Ravi Narayan and Dr. Thelma who make us realize the need to dedicate energies in creating demand as well as creating a system to respond to those demands. That calls for two classes of activists, demand creators and system administrators and harmony between these classes.

So where do we stand as a student chapter? What should be our role in AID?

We think that being students of a technical university, we can make use of our technical advantage for tackling social problems. Also staying amongst the brightest students of the country gives us access and the chance to create potential change-makers, the future leaders and the who's who. Being part of an organization which believes in experimentation and prototyping also gives us a lot of chance to come up with innovative ideas and implement them over subsequent levels.

We totally understand our responsibility and expectations from this chapter and under the guidance of the senior chapters of AID, we hope to meet the same.

The day 2 of the Conference started with the promotional video of ROTI (calendar by AID), which can be downloaded from here.

The highlights of day 2 can be summarized as -

• Agriculture session by Kiran and Kavita
• A session on gender and development, including women's issues by eminent activist Mrs. Devaki Jain
• A session on movement against corruption by 5th pillar, India
• A session on Copyright and Access to knowledge and culture by Lawrence Liang from Alternative Law Forum
• A session on climate change and resulting problems by Vinuta Gopal from greenpeace.org

The agriculture session included promotion of the 'I AM NO LAB RAT' campaign (www.iamnolabrat.com) against the genetically modified foods. Description of campaigns by AID for farmer-friendly and eco-friendly policies was also made in this session.

Mrs. Devaki Jain first interacted with the audience asking them various questions and applauding their work in the field of gender and development. Some of the issues discussed were 'place and importance' of women in Indian economy, the progress of women's movement in last 40 years, dowry. She stressed on the need of guiding women's movement in such a direction that instead of competing against male counterparts, women should be united to be able to raise their voice in society.

The session by 5th Pillar was made interesting by the guidelines of using RTI, zero rupee note and training to fight against corruption. The concept of zero rupee note says that everytime a corrupt officer asks for a bribe, one has to slip him/her a zero rupee note which has the words "I will not give or accept bribe" written on it. This note has been successfully used in past and gives a sense of empowerment to its user.

Lawrence Liang who is a lawyer, produced a very interactive and energetic session on copyright laws, piracy, free and open source softwares, their effects on culture and development. He started with an example of Ekalavya and Dronacharya to explain the concept of copyright and piracy and produced fine details of the positive effects carried by piracy on the culture of a backward and a developing economy. The mistakes made in applying the rules of tangibles to intangible economy, the merging of producer and consumer to form a new entity prosumer, and the free open source initiatives in the software world were the topics he talked about to keep the audience spellbound for a complete hour.

The session on climate change and its adverse effects was also quite mind-stirring as the AIDers knew and discussed about the islands near Sundarban consumed by sea, principles of climate justice and carbon credits. Vinuta who was talking, received a great support from AID – Bangalore who were willing to pursue this issue in their own city, to show the way to rest of the India by taking actions like contacting builders in the city to use the light-reflecting glasses, urging public through various communication methods to use CFL's and conserve water, pressurize administration to take corrective measures against the corporates misusing water.

The 11th Annual AID-India Conference was held in Bangalore during 26th to 28th of December. The Conference was organised by AID-India, Bangalore Chapter.
 
The highlights of Day 1 can be summarised as:
1) Inaugural Address by Dr. Ravi and Dr. Thelma
2) AID-India General Secretary Address
3) Annual review of different activities and projects taken up by AID India chapters
4) A session on Zero waste management taken by AID Saathi C. Srinivasan
5) A session on Globalisation and Economic Crisis
 
The Chief Guests for the inauguration of the conference were Dr. Ravi and Dr. Thelma. They are the founders of the Community Health Cell (CHC) popularly known as Jana Swasthya Abhiyan. Their work was acknowledged by the Karnataka Association of Community Health (KACH) who awarded them ‘The Best Community Health Professional Award’. In his inaugural address Dr. Ravi shared his life experiences and how he was inspired to take up the community health campaign. His message to today’s generation was, "If you are confused and are not sure what to do just go and grab the first opportunity that you get”. Dr. Thelma who is Dr Ravi’s wife also shared her life experiences and also talked about the urgency of a strong public health system and the collective reflections and actions that are required. For more information on their community health cell log on to http://www.sochara.org .
 
The AID India General Secretary Balaji Sampath in his address expressed his pride in being a General Secretary of an NGO which had volunteers from different backgrounds, interests and directions but having one common interest - that of social service. He talked about the large scale work in Tamil Nadu and the small works carried out elsewhere.
 
This was followed by an annual review of different activities and projects taken up by AID India chapters. Some of the highlights of the review included the Bihar Chapter’s Flood relief work, AID Chennai’s large scale work in the field of education and health, and AID Srikakulam’s hay-box project. AID Pilani also gave a presentation on its establishment and a brief insight on its future projects.
 
The session on Zero Waste Management was taken by AID Saathi C.Srinivasan. In this session he discussed about his Zero Waste Management Plant in Vellore. It was very amazing to know that everything that we consider as waste can actually be converted in some or the other useful form and can be used for monetary gains. The fact that waste from our houses can be divided in 133 types was very startling!!! The most important thing about the project that he talked about was that the project did not involve any automation and only humans and animals were involved in it.
 
The last session of the day was on the current intriguing issue - "Globalisation and Economic Crisis" conducted by eminent economist M.R. Shenoy. In this he talked about the present recession times and the reasons behind it. He said it was mainly the greed of the banks to earn more money that has led to the current economic crisis. The session was very interesting as he explained all the difficult economic terms in layman’s terms. He ended the session on a note that the recession is just a beginning and the future may see even worse times.

Bihar has been hit by a terrible flood. It is one of the worst disasters to strike the country. It is worse than the Tsunami or the Gujarat Earthquake. Several million people have been affected. Entire districts - villages and towns - have been washed away. The number of people dead is not even known.

There are over 6 lakh people living in 200 relief camps. In Saharsa district alone there are 2 Lakh people in 68 relief camps. Similar numbers are living in camps in Madhepura, Supaul, Araria, Purnia and Katihar districts. And many more (those who are better off and have relatives and friends outside) have fled these districts.

AID INDIA’s Bihar team has been on the field organizing rescue and relief efforts in the affected districts. So far we have been able to organize some rescue operations and have provided food, milk for children, and medical support for children in several camps.

But this in not all. They need to raise more than 100,000 USD to carry on the relief operations.

We at Pilani have tried to do our part by directing funds generated by the Students Union of BITS Pilani towards this cause at Bihar.

Some of the relevant links:

Eureka Child Bihar Floods Website

Donate Online to AID India

Bihar Flood 2008 Blog - latest on-the-field updates from volunteers

Bihar Flood Satellite Imagery

Wikipedia article for the 2008 Bihar floods

Relief Contact Information

Find a relief collection centre near you

The much needed chapter of the Association for India’s Development in Pilani has finally kicked off in the right spirit. And guys here couldn’t have hoped for a more positive and vibrant start.

The chapter is going to start its operations with a massive campaign against electricity wastage inside the BITS Pilani campus. A detailed plan has been formulated for this and appropriate volunteers have been indentified from the social service organizations already operating inside the campus to work on this on a long term basis. More about this
campaign in a later post.

We are also straight ahead with our plans to generate some revenue for the chapter. Look out for AID Calendars (http://calendar.aidindia.org/Cal_2009/samples.php) in the NSS stall this OASIS (the cultural festival of BITS Pilani - http://www.bits-oasis.org/).