Competition for Children

Competition for Children

Competition for Children

Competition for Children

Competition for Children

Competition for Children

Competition for Children

Competition for Children

Competition for Children

Competition for Children

Competition for Children

Competition for Children

Competition for children

Prize winning essay

Infosys foundation’s Parishudh Initiative with Sri Kottal Basaveshwara Bharatiya Shikshana Samiti, Sedam organized a competition for rural and Taluka high school children. 1,014 high schools located in villages and Taluka places of Gulbarga, Yadgir, Bidar, Raichur and Koppal district were invited to participate in the speech, essay and drawing competitions held related to rural hygiene and sanitation. Over 1,200 students who won competitions at their respective schools then participated in the Taluka level competitions held in the third week of January 2012. The zonal level competitions were organized between 27th of Jan 2012 and 30th January 2012 at Bharatiya Vidya Kendra Sirnoor, Gulbarga. 95 students who first won the competitions at their respective schools and then at Taluka places participated in the three day experiential learning program cum zonal finals.

The first day’s program started with competitions at the zonal levels. Immediately after the competitions, the children participated in a participative “Breakthrough Thinking” session where they debated on topics like “Should rivers in India be joined?”, “Which is better – Swadeshi or Open market”, “Is subsidy a good thing or a bad one?”, “How do we keep our water sources clean?”, “How do we increase ground water level?”, etc. and presented their points of view to the audience. They fiercely debated with other students who did not agree to the presenter’s points of view.

On the second and third day, the children visited Maharastra’s Silkhevadi village near Kolhapur that has already achieved 100% sanitation status, has all houses equipped with biogas, is self-sufficient in many respects and is often referred to as model village in India. They learnt quite a few things over there and wowed to implement many of the things at their own villages. They also had an opportunity to get advice from Sri Kad Siddeshwar Swamiji who has adopted over 12 villages and had them reach 100% sanitation levels.

On 30th January 2012, there was a valedictory function at Institute of Engineers, Gulbarga. Gulbarga’s well known child specialist Dr.Ramesh Yelsangikar was the Chief Guest, and judges of competitions Namadev Jadev, Mallaya swamy and M.M.Pujari were present. All participants were presented with a solar lamp and a certificate of honour. The winning students at the zonal level were also given cash prizes of at least Rs.500.

Vasudevrao M Deshpande, Program Manager of the initiative gave an overview of the initiative and encouraged students to act in their “circle of influence” by taking up activities in their span of control and make a difference in the villages related to hygiene and sanitation. Sheshadri Kulkarni anchored the program. A few students also shared their experience of the event conducted and left for their villages happily with sweet memories.

Prize winners in each category:

In Essay competition

·         Manjushree d/o Veeranna Madival of Maski in Raichur

·         Akshay Kumar s/o Ramesh of Mangalgi

Speech competition

·         Vidyashree d/o Devindrappa of Chitapur

·         Manjunath s/o Shivappa of Kushtagi

Drawing

·         Kadambari d/o Ellappa of Surpur

·         Prasanna s/o Veeranna of Chittapur

The Parishuh Initiative is working on helping over 40 villages in North Karnataka area reach 100% sanitation levels in 2012. The competitions were conducted as a part of its drive to educate at least 100,000 families on hygiene and sanitation.   

For additional details about the project, please contact

Vasudevrao M Deshpande

Program Manager of the initiative

Vasudevrao_d@infosys.com

+91-97422-04624

Or

Srinivas Deshmukh

+91-94835-00810

Parishudh.in@gmail.com