Mysuru: NSS and Red Cross Youth Wing of Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering (VVCE), Mysuru, had organised a two-day NSS camp in the Hirikyathanahalli village, Hunsur Taluk recently.

National Service Scheme (NSS) is a voluntary association of young people in colleges working for campus-community linkage and aimed at developing students’ personality through community service.

VVCE has adopted Hirikyathanahalli village under the Central Government’s ‘Unnat Bharat Abhiyan’ (UBA) scheme and NSS wing of VVCE looks after the UBA activities and their implementation. The Mission of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is to enable higher educational institutions to work with the people of rural India in identifying development challenges and evolving appropriate solutions                                    for accelerating sustainable growth.

It also aims to create a virtuous cycle between society and an inclusive academic system by providing knowledge and practices for emerging professions and to upgrade the capabilities of both the public and the private sectors in responding to the development needs of rural India.

The NSS student volunteers planned meticulously for the two-day camp by visiting the village twice prior to the camp. Demographic survey of the village was done in the first visit and an outreach programme was conducted during the second visit.

Many activities like tree plantation, Shramadhan (cleanliness drive), creating awareness through skits about ill-effects of dowry, smoking, alcohol consumption and plastic usage were done on the first day.

The villagers were also briefed about various Central and State Government schemes which they can benefit from. The students of Venugopal Education Trust (a Government aided school) in the village were taught about basic usage of computers. Health and dental check-up were also organised on the second day for all the villagers.

Doctors of St. Joseph’s Hospital, Mysuru, volunteered for the health and dental check-up. A team of 46 members comprising 37 student volunteers and 9 faculty members of VVCE, under the guidance of Dr. B. Sadashive Gowda, Principal of VVCE, were involved in the camp activities.

Prof. K. Gopala Reddy was the Faculty Coordinator and A.R. Abhishek and Bharath Yogendra were student coordinators of NSS and Red Cross Youth Wing of VVCE.