IIT wants 10 great ideas to change world...

GOLDEN JUBILEE

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: “All advancement and progress come through ideas, not through physical force or mechanical force,’’ Emerson had said. So when an institution like the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) celebrates 50 years of its existence, what message does it like to pass on to its students and faculty? To think harder.
On Friday, IIT-B unveiled its golden jubilee celebration plan to invite ideas that have the capability of changing the way the world lives. The IIT is seeking ‘10 great ideas to change the world in the next 50 years’ and has called for applications from students, alumni, faculty, present and retired staff members.

As IIT-B director Ashok Misra explained: “It will require research, innovation and creativity for any university to surge ahead in the 21st century.’’

Ideas can be in the area of information technology or social work, in agriculture or health engineering, but they must transform the way people get on from one day to another. Chairman of Godrej Group, Adi Godrej, said that if India has to achieve 10% growth rate and come up with solutions to the problems of poverty, education and health, and if societal transformation has to take place in the real sense, people need to come up with “out-of-the-box ideas’’. He added, “World growth for the last few years has been the highest ever in history because production has been high, caused by technological changes.

Those associated with IIT and interested in participating in the ‘10-great-ideas’ competition can send in their ideas by October 30, 2008. A website http://10greatideas.iitb.ac.in has also been created. Entries will be judged by an international panel of ideators, including principal scientific advisor to the government R Chidambaram, head of nanoscience at Cambridge University Mark Welland, chief mentor of Infosys N R Narayana Murthy, Naushad Forbes, director Forbes Marshall India and Ajay Piramal, among others. The panel will be chaired by former president A P J Abdul Kalam.

IIT-B expects at least 100 entries. Selection of the 10 greatest ideas will be completed by February 28, 2009. Those whose ideas are selected will be invited to present a white paper at a round table summit in March 2009.

IITs need to adopt engineering colleges...

NKC Says Move Will Help Raise Edu Standards

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Concerned over the “glaring regional imbalance’’ in engineering education, the National Knowledge Commission has suggested that the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology should adopt some lesser known engineering colleges to raise their standard.
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, NKC chairperson Sam Pitroda has also suggested integration of science and engineering education. Pitroda pointed out that two-thirds of the engineering institutions were located in the four southern states and Maharashtra. Therefore, he said, a framework of public-private partnership was needed to establish new quality institutions. Therefore, the IITs should “mentor’’ new institutions to raise their standards, he said.
“Mentoring by its definition is a voluntary activity, but if we can create an atmosphere where institutions of distinction feel a sense of calling in the interest of the larger national good, it would transform our education,’’ Pitroda said. Therefore, institutions like IITs should bear some additional responsibilities. “In particular, the existing IITs could mentor the new ones being established. The latter, in due course, could play a similar role vis-a-vis others,’’ he said.
As for integration of science and engineering education, Pitroda said, “We have entered a period in history where the distinction between sciences and engineering has all but disappeared.’’ In order to reduce the perceived gap between sciences and engineering, there was a need to create mechanisms that allowed mobility between the two streams, he said.
In this regard, Pitroda said that one option could be to start four-year undergraduate programmes in sciences, initially in institutes of excellence where facilities for such courses already exist. It would enable pursuing doctoral programmes in science and technology, without a master’s degree.
Pitroda also said that several initiatives were necessary to promote research in engineering. Vibrant and well-funded PhD programmes with opportunities for international exposure should be provided to attract students who currently go abroad for doctoral degrees, he said. Also, the new academic and research institutions being established should be so located that they could optimise mutual collaboration.
Means-cum-merit scholarship
The Cabinet has approved a “means-cum-merit scholarship” of Rs 6,000 per year to prevent economically weak but meritorious students from dropping out of school.
IIM-A director explains fee hike
The director of the IIM-A, Samir Barua, has written letters to the institute’s alumni, explaining why the recent fee hike was necessary. The fee hike proposed by the IIM-A has created enough resentment from various quarters. In his email to alumni, though, Barua seems to be in an explaining mode.
In his letter, Barua explains why the fee hike of 300% was proposed for the June 2008 batch. The letter specifies the objectives of the fee hike as: providing relief to students who come from lower income families, continuing to significantly subsidise the PGP from the surplus generated from other activities of the Institute. TNN

...sickening

61% kids work 17 hrs/day

Rahul Mangaonkar | TNN

Ahmedabad: The state government may have dedicated this year to the ‘nirogi balak’ and may also plan to open a children’s university. But a large number of children from outside the state earn a living in Gujarat as labourers. If that is a measure of the state’s prosperity, surveys have also indicated that several children from Gujarat too are employed as household helps or in tea kitlis, when they are very young.
A report published by the Union Women and Child Development Ministry—‘Study on Child Abuse in India: 2007’ shows at least 60.98 % of children in Gujarat between 5 and 12 years of age work seven days a week. The report also states 56.14% of girls in the state work seven days a week.
The study reveals that one of every two children across all age groups in the country has worked seven days. Most children working as domestic help covered under the study woke up for work between 5 and 6 am and slept only between 9 and 11 pm.
This path-breaking report on the basis of a national study raises the point as to whether children below 18 should be employed at all. Under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986, engagement of children below the age of 14 years in hazardous occupations has been declared illegal. The Union ministry of labour and employment has declared domestic work, working in restaurants, tea stalls and dhabas as hazardous. Around 56.38% children are working in illegal and hazardous occupations such as domestic work, roadside restaurants and dhabas, construction work, bidi rolling, lock making, embroidery and zari and others.
Even in those occupations where the law allows children to be employed, the conditions under which these children work and the hours that they are made to work are exploitative and often inhuman. Children who work as domestic helps are the most vulnerable and exploited lot because of confinement in other people’s homes. They begin work at an early age, shoulder excessive responsibilities such as handling fuel, stoves, sharp tools, working for long hours with no rest and little or no remuneration. Working at the mercy of the employer they frequently suffer from gender and sexual violence.
They are deprived of access to schooling, play,the affection of their family and friends. As per the study across all age groups,58.79% of working children reported physical abuse, of which 47.3% were girls.
WHERE CHILDREN ARE TOILING IN GUJARAT
Hotels, chai-kitlis, lari-gallas: Local children, kids from Rajasthan Bt-cotton fields: Mainly north Gujarat, including Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Mehsana Textile markets in Surat Embroidery units in Gomtipur, Dani Limda and Amraiwadi in Ahmedabad: children mainly from Bihar Gold and silver jewellery melting and making units in Ratan Pol, Ahmedabad: Children from West Bengal

CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD

GUJARAT’S THROBBING INDUSTRY MAKES IT THE WORST OFFENDER WHEN IT COMES TO CHILD LABOUR

Radha Sharma | TNN

Ahmedabad: This is a number one position which the state would rather not acknowledge! Gujarat tops the country with the highest number of children working, according to the National Family Health Survey - Phase III (NFHS-3).
The survey has revealed that 31.6% children in Gujarat were engaged in some or other kind of labour as compared to 9% children in Maharashtra which is economically and industrially progressive. Of the 31.6 % children working, 19.5%were involved in unpaid labour while 5.5% earned a wage.
“In Gujarat, every third child is engaged in labour. One in 18 children are paid workers while every fifth child is engaged in unpaid work for someone who is not a member of the household,” says MD Irfan Khan, professor and head research at Taleem Research Foundation, who was the project director for carrying out research for NFHS-3 in the state. Gujarat is followed by Arunachal Pradesh where 20.1% were involved in labour and Rajasthan wherein 19.6% children were found engaged in labour. Nearly 3,400 households were covered in Gujarat in the survey.
A child worker, as defined by UNICEF, is a child between 5-11 years, who in the seven days preceding the survey, worked for someone who is not a member of the household, with or without pay, or did household chores for 28 or more hours, or engaged in any family business. It also includes any child between 12-14 years. “In Gujarat, maximum children are employed in hotel, chai-kitlis, laari-gallas and entertainment sector. The second biggest sector employing children is domestic which has now been accepted as hazardous for girl children,” says child-rights activist Sukhdev Patel.
Meanwhile, Campaign Against Child Labour and Child Line has planned a rally where participants will wear extra-huge glasses to seek child-labour.

Anganwadis..

REPORT BY PLAN PANEL MEMBER

Anganwadis: State does well, but more needs to be done

Madhavi Rajadhyaksha I TNN

Mumbai: In Rajasthan, there was a carcass rotting outside an anganwadi and no women or children were in sight. A childcare centre in Chhattisgarh was closed at 1 pm, though the official timings were from 10 am to 2 pm.
In Andhra Pradesh, anganwadis were either missing or not functioning properly. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, though, presented a more hopeful picture with their “bright and cheerful children’’.
These were some of the observations of Planning Commission member Dr Sayeeda Hameed, who visited 48 anganwadis across 17 states over the last three years and recently sent an “eyewitness account’’ to the Maharashtra government.
Anganwadis are childcare centres in urban, rural and tribal districts, which provide supplementary nutrition to children below six years and are monitored under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).
“The picture that emerges is a grim one,’’ is Dr Hameed’s hard-hitting observation, as her report goes on to detail how anganwadis in most parts are run from ‘kachcha’ premises with no space for children to spend the entire four hours and how personal hygiene is ignored. She
estimates that there are toilets in less than 25% of the centres and referral health services are seriously wanting.
Maharashtra, with its startling malnutrition rates, presented a comparatively encouraging picture in her report. Take the instance of the Abadimandi centre in Aurangabad, which the team visited in May 2007 and found “uniformed children sitting in neat rows’’.
The centre boasted of a child-friendly toilet, a tap for drinking water and was stocked with educational kits, a first-aid toolbox, a mirror and combs. “We learnt that children are given six different recipes in a week and the cooked food is given in take-home-rations to children below three,’’ the report states.
The observations have predictably pleased state officials. “Generally, we receive a lot of criticism. Her account came as a surprise even to us. We have started a lot of new activities under the Integrated Child Development Services and are glad that the efforts are showing,’’ says Dr Vijay Satbir Singh, secretary, women and child development department.
A centre in the Kagazipur area of Aurangabad district was, in fact, cited as a model in “personal hygiene’’ practices. “We were pleasantly surprised to see that all the children got up and went outside to wash their hands. They then dried them and sat down to eat,’’ says the report, adding that the children seemed comfortable with this routine and it didn’t seem like an act for the visitors.
Some of the other centres, however, received brickbats for the shortage of IFA (folic acid) tablets and the lack of drinking water facilities, which highlighted the poor coordination of Integrated Child Development Services with other departments. State officials say more projects are in the pipeline. “We recently sanctioned Rs 38 crore (for this year) for the construction of new buildings for anganwadis,’’ says Dr Singh.
But activists aren’t satisfied with Maharashtra’s high scores. “The observations for a few centres cannot be generalised when it comes to the implementation of Integrated Child Development Services across the state. In Aurangabad itself, there are many tribal and slum pockets, which still do not have Integrated Child Development Services centres,’’ says Amulya Nidhi from Bal Hakk Abhiyaan. He says malnutrition in the state has seen a huge public outcry in the last two years, be it in the heart of Mumbai or the tribal belts of Melghat.
While government records show that 80,00,000 children benefit from Integrated Child Development Services, the malnutrition-related infant deaths (which stand at more than 7,500 annually) suggest that Maharashtra though ahead of other states still needs a lot more to be done.
Apex court order
brings smiles
Demand an anganwadi and get one within three months? A little-known Supreme Court verdict of 2006 has brought a smile to several slumdwellers in Mumbai. The court had ruled that any community with more than 40 children below six years could petition the ICDS authorities for an anganwadi and get it within three months. Voluntary organisations Shahar Vikas Manch (SVM) and YUVA did precisely that.
“The verdict was delivered while hearing a petition, which questioned why government godowns were overflowing with rotting food, while children remained malnourished. We have been holding meetings with the slumdwellers and mobilising women’s groups in slums around Malad,’’ said Mohan Chavan of SVM. Their awareness drives saw 42 new anganwadi centres being inaugurated in P-ward (Malad-Malvani) on Saturday. TNN

HEALING TOUCH: A file picture of a doctor examining a child at an anganwadi

Education Management and Moey matters...

Director’s ‘luxuries’ force VJTI shutdown

Last week, Bhartiya Kamgar Sena unit of VJTI had lodged a police complaint alleging he was involved in large scale corruption

MUMBAI MIRROR BUREAU

On Wednesday, the Veermata Jeejabai Technical Institute (VJTI) campus was shut after Dr K G Narayankhedkar — the director of the institute — attempted to get inside his office under police protection. Last week, a complaint had been lodged at the Matunga police station by the Bhartiya Kamgar Sena (BKS) unit of VJTI alleging corruption by the director.
The BKS filed a complaint after the minister of technical education Dilip Walse Patil, presented a report before the Assembly last week citing irregularities at VJTI.
The report, probing corruption charges against the director, confirms unauthorised purchase of a luxury car by the director. Since then political parties also have been demanding that the director Narayankhedkar be ousted. (see box)
There was commotion at the campus and police had to intervene to ensure that no law and order problem took place.
“The director went missing after the complaint. He tried to enter his office seeking police protection. The local Sena union leaders requested senior police inspector Azad Modi not to allow him to enter his office as he could tamper with the records,” said S N Nakhare from VJTI. The BKS members allege that the police paid no heed to their request and instead took 16 people in custody.
After this the demonstrators got charged up and immediately geared up to shut the institute.
“The director was nevertheless, escorted to his office by the police,” said a member of the non-teaching staff from the institute. The Sena leaders from Sena Bhavan rushed to the police station. DCP Sunil Ramanand present at Matunga police station heard the group. Later, he released the detained members. However, the agitation at the campus continued but without any disruptive activity.
A couple of days ago, local MLA Jagannath Shetty and Mehernosh Fitter — ward president of the Congress — had promised the staff at VJTI that they would take up the issue with the authorities and demand that the director be ousted.
The police said there was agitation but no law and order problem occurred. “The director has sought police protection and we provided the same as per directions given to us. Even the Sena members extended co-operation and peacefully carried on their protest,” said Modi. Naraynkhedkar was not available for comments despite several attempts.
VIDYARTHI SENA
TAKES DIRECTOR’S CAR KEYS
As per the World Bank assisted Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme,VJTI was allotted Rs 22 crore of the total of Rs 170 crore for the state.
There are allegations that a large part of the money was utilised by the director himself in leasing a Rs 15 lakh Toyota, a digital camera, a mobile phone worth Rs 29,000 and also a camcorder worth Rs 2 lakh, for his own usage.
On Tuesday members of the Shiv Sena’s student wing, Vidyarthi Sena, took away the director’s car keys stating that the car was bought with the World Bank money and he shouldn’t use it.

VJTI staff protest against the director on Wednesday for alleged misuse of a large grant given by the World Bank to the institute.

The world is their oyster...

Two years ago, three teenagers from a village near Pune got a chance to study IB at the Mahindra United World College. Now, they are headed for the US

Anahita Mukherji I TNN

Mulshi (Pune): Asde is a tiny village plagued by power cuts in Pune’s Mulshi taluka where children playing in rocky courtyards shriek with joy when the lights come on after dusk. Not quite the sort of village which sends its girls to America for higher studies.
But then, life can be full of surprises, like it was for Ashwini Bharam and Pramod Nikalje from Asde and Milind Jori from Bhadas, a neighbouring village. These three teenagers, who had never spoken English or seen the outside of their village two years ago, are now headed to the US for undergraduate studies.
Two years ago, the trio’s world changed completely when they were selected to study at the Mahindra United World College, India (MUWCI). MUWCI, spread out on a sprawling campus in Mulshi, is one of the 12 United World Colleges across the globe where students from around the world study together on a single campus.
It all began with Akshara, a social outreach program run in collaboration with MUWCI, which is involved in teaching children from neighbouring villages on the MUWCI campus. Mudit Tyagi, a student from a poor family in UP, who studied at the United World College in the US, was the brain behind Akshara.
Two years ago, the Akshara team suggested getting a few meritorious village kids to study the International Baccalaureate at MUWCI, an idea that the college principal, David Wilkinson, agreed to. And so, Ashwini, Pramod and Milind, who had studied in a Marathi-medium school till Std X, were suddenly catapulted into a world of cultural diversity, on a campus populated by a whole range of skin colours with myriad accents.
The transition wasn’t easy. “I was rather apprehensive for the first few months. The students had to cope with so many changes, not the least of which was to switch from the Marathi medium to the English medium,’’ says Wilkinson.
“At first I couldn’t understand a thing. Everyone spoke in English. All the classes were in English. It just didn’t make sense to me,’’ says Pramod, adding that in the village, students simply studied English to pass the SSC exams. But gradually, they learnt the language by hearing it around them.
It helped to have classmates from countries like Mongolia and Japan, who weren’t too fluent with English, either. “We would point to objects when we didn’t know what they were called,’’ grins Pramod.
And the staff, too, went out of its way to ensure that the trio fitted in. Harsha Joshi, executive director at Akshara, not only worked with the students on campus and drove them to study harder and practise their English, but also frequented their villages to convince their parents of the importance of the programme they were studying.
During the first few months, Pramod, Milind and Ashwini were practically non-resident students; they’d run back home at every opportunity. “The cultural shock was overwhelming,’’ says Nitin Padte, the only Maharashtrian faculty on campus, in whom the students often confided their fears. It was also difficult for them to digest the friendships between boys and girls on campus. “I’d barely spoken to a boy in school,’’ says Ashwini.
But then, after the initial hiccups, the three got caught up in the whirlwind of activity that’s part of life on campus, and began to love the environment they were in. After coming from a school where they simply crammed their texts, they suddenly found themselves participating in classroom discussions and doing their own research. “Out here, examinations aren’t based on textbook answers. We learnt to find the answers for ourselves,’’ says Milind.
“During the first term, they found it so tough to cope with the change in medium that they’d fail in practically every subject,’’ says Padte. Now, however, they have not only mastered the language but made close friends from around the world. “There’s Toshi and Nozomi from Japan, Ada from Hungary, JJ from Mongolia...’’ counts Pramod. Ashwini was “adopted’’ by a gang of Scandinavian girls whom she’s very close to. The village kids now deftly switch from speaking in English with their foreign classmates to talking in Marathi with each other.
“Beneath the skin colour, I’ve learnt that everyone is the same,’’ adds Milind wisely. His Spanish roommate, Pablo Cancelo, says he’s impressed that while the other teens on campus paste posters of their favourite movie stars on the walls, Milind’s wall has a chart on poverty alleviation. “It’s to MUWCI’s credit that it not only has students from European countries studying on campus but also underprivileged students from India,’’ adds Pablo.
The youngsters aren’t ashamed of their background, and have often taken their classmates over to the village. There have been some rather dramatic changes in their appearance, too. For instance, when Joshi first took the three students to Pune to shop for clothes, Ashwini refused to step out of the trial room in jeans, something she’d never worn before. Today, she struts around campus in her bright pink capris, and even sports her new look back home. Pramod, too, now has a floppy hairstyle that his parents in the village aren’t terribly pleased about.
All three of them are now nearing the end of the two-year IB diploma course and have got admission to American universities. Ashwini plans to study economics, while Pramod will study bio-technology. Milind, who’s keen on studying agriculture, says he will return to his village once he is back from the US. “Everyone in my village feels there’s nothing here for them. They want to migrate to cities like Pune. I want to return home and show people how much one can do in a village,’’ he says.
anahita.mukherji@timesgroup.com

A CULTURAL LEAP: Pramod Nikalje (left), Ashwini Bharam and Milind Jori (right) with Milind’s roommates Pablo Cancelo and Morshed Mannan at the MUWCI campus. (Below) Power cuts are a frequent occurrence in Ashwini’s village Asde near Pune