KOCHI:For the new-gen kids emerald green paddy fields are just an idyllic visual. They hardly know how it feels to tread the pulverised soil to place seedlings or collect the crop using a sickle. But the NSS volunteers of SN college, Varkala, are a different breed as they have hands-on experience in each step of the cultivation process. The unit, which bagged the awards for Best Unit and Best Programme officer in Kerala University for the year 2016-17, recently harvested a whopping 150 kgs of rice. “It was distributed among the most deserving families of Kanvasramam, a village our unit adopted,” says Praveen Kumar, Programme Officer.
The 100-member unit guided by two programming officers are currently in the process of cultivating an organic vegetable garden spread in 50 cents inside the campus. “I think the students are very keen on agricultural-related activities and we have various agriculture groups among volunteers. The paddy field is over four kms away from the campus, yet they were involved in every stage of the process. With the help of farmers they cultivated rice in the traditional style without using any machines and harvested it using sickles,” he says.
The unit has also adopted Kanvasramam, a village near the campus, after a socio-economic survey. “Around 500 families in the village are socially and economically backward. The students are also into waste management, literacy programmes and environment protection activities there. There is also this issue of alcoholism so we will be launching awareness campaigns as well,” he says. The volunteers will be starting tuition classes for students from the village and are also into a volley of cultural activities. “The volunteers have been presenting street plays against drugs and atrocities against women at various venues,” he said.
Another project of the unit is Sneha Swantanam where volunteers raise fund for financially backward patients, providing them proper medical care. “Last year we could offer help to a handful of cancer patients and this year we plan to build a house for one of our students. We will soon be staring a palliative care unit offering assistance to bed-ridden patients. Around 20 of our volunteers have undergone training in that with the support of Varkala government hospital,” he said.
Praveen says the volunteers work usually on weekends and public holidays so that their studies are not affected. “We make sure that they don’t miss classes or have enough time to prepare for the exams,” he adds.