The ISR initiatives of Gopsai Avinandan Sangha range from caring for society, providing healthcare, education to caring for the environment. The ISR is a module to ensure a holistic development of a students through community service.
Continuous Literacy Campaign in Tribal Society and Villagers, primarily amongst the people who are deprived of higher education, is religiously being done by G.A.S for years.
The Institution took it upon themselves to contribute relief items for the massive effort underway in natural calamity ravaged state many times. The survivors of the floods /cyclone were given shelter at various relief camps and were provided with food, clothes, medicines, first aid items, essential items for daily living and woman’s’ health and hygiene.
Since enlightening the under priviledged tribal society of Paschim Medinipur and neighbouring areas with Education and thus enable them to be a part of the main stream was the primary aim of Gopsai Avinandan Sangha, providing financial assistance in terms of scholarship and fees reduction for the economically backward yet brilliant students has always been a responsibility of us. We feel honoured to see ourselves to be a part of the social progress and wish not to get inundated with complacence ever.
Along with education, creating jobs for the youths in our own capacity, though unemployment has been a matter of concern all over, is another area where Gopsai Avinandan Sangha has been relentlessly contributing to.
Further, we diligently followed the direction of PCI which says that, in 2018 all registered pharmacists will have to take part in up gradation training program for renewal of their registration. This up gradation Training program is being organised by West Bengal Pharmacy Council in all the districts. P.G. Institute of medical Science has been given the honour of conducting this training program in Paschim Medinipur along with West Bengal Pharmacy Council. Our adept faculties have been delivering this responsibility with full dedication.
Alongside, free medical camps are set up with a sacred aim to bring awareness amongst the deprived population of the locality and in turn of the country who have no access to basic healthcare services or knowledge about the diseases they are suffering from. So, PGIMS tries to provide the free medical advice, medicine to the under priviledged people and guide them for specialised treatment if it is required. These camps make sure people are getting the healthcare at the right time, and seeing the doctor early enough before a small health problem turns serious.
These medical check-ups include eyes and health check-ups, E.C.G, X-Ray and assessment of the functioning of vital organs like the heart, lungs, digestive system, liver, kidneys, and immune system. Besides, considering the effect of SARC COV 2, there were several health camps were organised by following all the laid down protocol in local villages where people were demonstrated about hygiene, cleanliness, hand wash, importance of social distancing etc. On behalf of PGIMS, masks and sanitisers were distributed amongst the people who attended the camp.
VALUE ADDITION TO THE SOCIETY
Gopsai Avinandan Sangha has created a path for its own that was guided and enlightened by strong commitment, tireless hard work and dire willingness to add value to the society; to make the society a better place to live for the future citizens. Thus, we have tried creating many more aspects of serving life other than offering job-oriented education or creating awareness program amongst local backward population, especially in tribals. Our honest and relentless effort of adding value to the society have resulted into several contributions which have been enriching society someway or other. Let us see some of the aspects as below:
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1. SPREADING EDUCATION AMONGST MAJOR POPULATION CONSISTING OF TRIBALS:
Education is one of the most essential elements for development of human resource and socio-economic conditions of any society.According to the census of India (2011) tribal population share about 8.6% of total population of India and their literacy rate is about 58.96%.West Bengal is one of the popular tribal concentrated states in India having almost 5.79% tribal people of the total population as per census 2011. In West Bengal, Paschim Medinipur is the tribal-dominated district in because of major tribal concentration i.e., 16.61%.
As per the 2011 census, in Paschim Medinipur, the tribal literacy rate is 59.51% whereas, in West Bengal it is 57.92% which is also covering much better compared with West Bengal average tribal literacy rate. In fact, Paschim Medinipur has major tribal literate people which occupy the 17.03% (where male literate 10.14% and female 6.89%) out of the total tribal population of West Bengal.
If we look back through the previous census report, the literacy rate was about 20% less. One of the reasons was recorded as scarcity of educational institution nearby and lack of infrastructure. Exactly this is the area, GopsaiAvinandan Sangha wanted to address and to some extent became successful. Following is the graphical impression that shows the graph of Tribal Education. -
2. INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT : SOCIAL & PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
An institution, that has been housing increasing number of students every year not only just help in educating the people or society, it does help in total development of the locality and thus total development of the society which we call as development of Social Infrastructure. Since incipience the institutions flourished in such a manner that it could seize the attention of government. Since then, significant advancement has taken place in Physical Infrastructure of the locality around the Institution and slowly in the district. Infrastructural development is of paramount importance for achieving sustainable & equitable economic growth through economic through providing access to the basic facilities and amenities that each citizen deserves as a basic requirement for enhancing living standards but people of this locality were deprived of for years. These are necessarily comprised of transportation and communication facilities, water and electricity, roads, water, sanitation, sewerage, electricity where substantial growth were observed and enjoyed. -
3. ECONOMIC INFRASTRUCTURE
When a vast area sees growth in physical infrastructure, it's obvious that economic infrastructure can't stop being developed behind. Needless to mention that this could only happen because of the establishment and progress of the Institutions by GopsaiAvinandan Sangha. With this the locality witnessed a rapid growth primarily in below mentioned areas:
a) Indirect generation of various ways of earning : When number of students started increasing inside the campus, outside local people started renting out part of their houses as Mess. With the time, this has become their steady source of earning.
b) Development of small business opportunity : With the increase in number of people as students and employees, in the area it created a demand for basic necessities like vehicle for local and regular transportation which created work opportunity for the local youths who are not so educated but physically strong enough to provide this particular facility. Also, lot of shops, small to big; i.e. Grocery, Stationary, Vegetable & Fruits vendors, Fish & Meat Vendors, Laundry, Sweet Shops, Bakery, Restaurant etc that provide daily needs, were established and with the time all of these have been upgrading themselves.
c) Commencement of various banking, insurance, credit facility and thus upliftment of the living of local people : This is another area which can't be ignored. Increase of people, increase of local per capita income also became a reason for commencement of new Banks or business growth of the existing banks of the locality. -
4. DIRECT CONTRIBUTRION TO THE ECONOMICAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIETY
With the development of social infrastructure comes the responsibility of Economic Development of the society which GopsaiAvinandan Sangha has been performing relentlessly for years.Some of those are humbly presented below:
a) Direct Employment Generation : Spreading education is not possible without teachers; with the establishment of number of colleges, requirement of teachers and educators were also increased. So remarkable number of Employment opportunities for Teachers have been created over years. Running any organisation aptly demands lot of departments to run efficiently and that in turn creates ample number of Employment in all departments. So happened in Gopsai Avinandan Sangha. It has turned an under developed under priviledged barren part of Paschim Medinipur a place of creating and ensuring job scope to people from different areas of the state along with the local educated people at the time when unemployment has remained a matter of concern for all. Along with providing job-oriented educations we could retain and nurture our own talents as Employees; i.e, Associate professors, Civil Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Electrical Engineers and many more.
b) Brain Drain and our role : Brain drain has always been a problem everywhere. Midnapore is a known for its brains but lack of opportunity in higher study, technical study and most importantly job-oriented study used to compel the best brains to migrate in other states. But establishment of various colleges for providing job-oriented courses had stopped the brain drain to a notable extent. Also job opportunities created by Gopsai Avinandan Sangha brought back many talents from other places and to some extent migration for job has also been restricted.
c) Turned the Unskilled to Skilled : Poverty was all around in this part of Paschim Medinipur but everyone needs the basic demand of livelihood. So, lot of unskilled youths have been hired and trained so that over the period of time they turn to be skilled workers and earn their livelihood. Not only Paschim Medinipur, in this section we cater to the people of neighbouring districts like Bankura, Purulia, Purba Medinipur, Mediniopur, Burdwan and neighbouring states as well.
d) Construction and It's impact on Economy : This is a major area of Gopsai Avinandan Sangha that has contributed in complete upliftment of the human resources and thus society. With the increase in number of institutions, construction of buildings to house students' classrooms, Library, Laboratory, hostels, staff quarter etc. became a mandatory requirement. So, from an unskilled labour to several levels of architects & Engineers were recruited. Apart from that these tasks in the campus, demanded lot of suppliers, vendors to supply raw material. Though we insisted and preferred to work with local vendors first but not always they were available. So, we had to procure all sort of raw materials from neighbouring district & states. But at the same time local suppliers were created and that has created a great impact in the growth of local unemployed youth and thus economy. We can proudly say that some hundred crores have been poured in the upliftment of the social economy and the effort continues. Thus, considering above facts, we can conclude by opining that the “Social Infrastructure” which was created by Gopsai Avinandan Sangha has been playing a critical role for last 17 years in the process of “ Continuous upliftment of Economical Infrastructure”, through creation of human capabilities and capacity building by enhancing the quality of human life with enhanced financial capabilities, better provision of education, health and recreation facilities and of course augmenting a new social culture which brings mankind together. -
5. SOCIAL CULTURE
Boosting up of economic system through spreading education is not the end of social responsibility; in fact that ignites other social responsibilities like ascertaining social culture and ushering those in various ways, introducing new culture through its continuous support in various social &recreational facilities. As Mr. Jerome Bruner Said, Education must, be not only a transmission of culture but also a provider of alternative views of the world and a strengthener of the will to explore them.Gopsai Avinandan Sangha has been trying to nurture the culture amongst its students through different celebrations and ceremonies which made the student aware of their roots and make them responsible to carry those forward and spreading in the society. Further, Gopsai Avinandan Sangha has been encouraging various activities in the locality and neighbouring places through sponsorship. That includes,
a) Sports activities like Football tournament, Cricket tournament, Volleyball tournament, Kabaddi competition etc.
b) Festivals of all religion where different cultures congregate, mingle with all from all social strata and experience & exchange their social values and beliefs.
c) Talent search from local youths which includes all circular and co-curricular activities.
d) Felicitation of local talents after board exams. -
6. ESTABILISHING WORK CULTURE :
It was a time when farming & cultivation was the main occupation of the people of this part of Paschim Medinipur. Tribes of these area were mostly daily labourer or sharecropper. Higher Education was a distant dream for many of them. With the time, higher job centric education introduced by Gopsai Avinandan Sangha brought a great transformation in their society. A bigger world got opened up. Lights of education and culture was ignited. People started exploring new job areas. They learnt different kind of works and imbibed work culture in their lives. That's how a total transformation occurred in the lives of many people slowly over the years and mission is still on. Thus, we can conclude as there is a transformation led by education with the hand of Gopsai Avinandan Sangha. The education is recognised as necessary social capital in a society with a market economy in which social position is determined by the level of education of individuals. Despite several social restrictions, obligations, reform of education and several controversial issues, the fact that the leading role has been achieved by Gopsai Avinandan Sangha through spreading education and thus reformed the social structure in significant way is an indisputable fact.The policies of handholding the youths, more precisely under priviledged youths to lead them towards job centric educationwhich has been contributing immensely to the formation of a new identity of Paschim Medinipur and neighbouring statesis stillin place with the mission of mastering the skills needed in the workplace and appropriate knowledge and skills of international standards in the era of globalisation. -
7. PROMOTING 1ST GENERATION HIGHER EDUCATION TO IT'S EMPLOYEES FAMILY :
Gopsai Abhinandan Sangha not only employs educated people, there are many employees who has experienced first generation education but could not continue for long. We feel priviledged to be a part of fulfilment of their wish to see their next generation educated and established. We offer their children higher education at minimalistic expenses. Not only that they are also offered jobs post completion their education.
Comparison of Total literacy rate and Tribal literacy rates in India (1961-2011)
