CHENNAI: The will to involve more girls in the field of Science drove Srimathy Kesan to form a special initiative under her organisation, Space Kidz India. She was on a mission to reach out to the rural parts of the country and provide an opportunity for students from underprivileged backgrounds. The search stretched from Jammu and Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Questions like “Why do you want girls to be involved in this project?” and explicit rejections from parents and teachers uttering “Hamare ladkiya aise nahi karte (Our girls wouldn’t do this)” hurdled her path. But the curiosity of some and the “we will learn as we go even though we don’t know anything now” attitude of the students pushed her to form her team of 750 students from classes 8 to 12, building the AZAADISAT, a satellite mission.
“For the 75th Independence Day, I wanted to do something the world hasn’t seen before. We always look back to our villages when we hear the word independence. The initial idea was to make a satellite with girls from villages all over India. I spoke to almost 350 government schools from the list given by NITI Aayog and finally got a hold of the current 75 schools. From Tamil Nadu alone, we have 80 students from eight schools (including four schools from Chennai). We started working with them and the mission happened,” says Srimathy.
Fighting the hurdles
AZAADISAT was conceived in January 2022 and was launched by SSLV-D1, the new rocket of ISRO. The mission didn’t turn out as they had expected. “Unfortunately, due to a technical snag in the rocket, they couldn’t put our satellite in orbit. So, AZAADISAT 1 was lost and it became debris. ISRO was very considerate and assured us that our next satellite will be deployed in the SSLV-D2. Now, we have got the opportunity again and the satellite will be launched anytime soon,” she shares.
The responsibility of selecting the girls was given to the science teachers of the schools. “We wanted kids who were interested in science. None of the children in my team have scored more than 60% but they built the world’s lightest satellite,” Srimathy says as she beams with pride.
Making the most of it
But mere determination wasn’t enough to fuel the mission. A budget of almost `4 crore was required for building the satellite. The team brought it down to almost `80 lakh through careful work. To smoothen things further, Lumina Datamatics, a company focusing on content management, came on board with support. Anju Kanodia, executive director of Lumina Datamatics, says, “Educational support is one of our CSR initiatives. After interacting with Srimathy, we understood that what they are doing is just phenomenal.”
Training the students happened online. The real challenge was when the students had to balance the online classes and their personal problems. Srimathy says that even though some kids wanted to stay a few more hours in the classes, they couldn’t because of the burden of household chores and other responsibilities.
There were also instances where 10 students gathered around a single device and listened to the classes. They sent the devices and Wi-Fi modems to schools that needed their help. “Starting from the basics, we taught them the sensor, the use of each sensor, how it will react, explained the different parts of a satellite, the working and where it will be placed.”
The students also got an opportunity to meet the chairman and the scientists from ISRO which expanded their interest in the field. Srimathy says, “This project has more emotional involvement. It is not just putting together technical tools, instead, it is inculcating the value system in children and generating an aspiration in them.”
Space Kidz India hopes to have a successful launch and continue taking up more such initiatives. Srimathy comments that it is hard to not meet these girls anymore. “I am devising a curriculum to keep these children engaged and ignite the fire in them,” she adds.