Bankim Sardar College – A College with Potential
for Excellence
In Search of Excellence in
Sunderbans
Our Best
Practice – Bibidher Majhe Dekho Milano Mahan
1.
Title of the Practice
Bibidher
Majhe Dekho Milano Mahan (Identifying Unity in Diversity and be inclusive)
2.
Objectives of the Practice
The objective is the enrichment
of students by way of extending them beyond the narrow concept of self.
The
life process of people differs across person, place, culture, religion
etc. Such diversity often causes
disharmony. Thus one holistic objective of people is to remain identified with
the diverse life processes of others and find out the unity in diversity. HEIs
can play a pivotal role in imbibing the vision of harmony and unity among the
students by way of observing and commemorating observable days, identifying
citizenship roles by way of establishing neighbourhood relation and most
importantly strengthening cultural exchange among diverse communities.
3.
The Context
Students
who are living in this part of the mother earth are predominantly introvert in
nature and lack exposure to the diverse life processes beyond their narrow
geographical boundary. Students in this college come from pre-dominantly rural
background and belong to SC, OBC and minority communities (about 85%). Teachers on the other hand come from urban
areas. It is felt that the college in general and the teachers in particular
can therefore play a greater role in making the students much more open minded
and free thinkers by way of appraising them with the larger life processes of
communities beyond the narrow provincial domain in which the students live.
Under the context of such diversity, the college plans to observe “dibash”
(days) following a pre-scheduled calendar where each dibash holds different connotation and enables the students to get
identified with different value systems.
4.
The Practice
The
IQAC aims to organize
1.
Regular counseling of the students by the Principal
2.
Cultural visits for the students every year – to places
like Santiniketan (the place of Kabi Guru Rabindranath Tagore), Belurmath (the
place of Sri Ramakrishna & Swami Vivekananda), Kolkata (The City of Joy)
and also
cultural exchange programmes where teachers and students from other premiere
institutions (e.g. Patha Bhavana, Visva Bharati) come to the college for
conducting cultural programmes with the college and school students of the
Sunderbans.
3.
The celebration of the birth anniversaries of Swami
Vivekananda, Subhash Chandra Bose, S. Radhakrishnan, APJ Abdul Kalam every year
and the birth centenaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
4.
The celebration of the Communal Harmony day on the day
of Rakhi Bandhan when the teachers, the staff and the students go out to
the local villages and spread the spirit of oneness and harmony. College
students and school students in unison participate in Rakhi Bandhan and conduct cultural programmes. The college also
observed the 125th year of Chicago address of Swami Vivekananda as Sampriti
Saptaha.
5.
Regular visits to the neighbouring villages on the days
of Netaji Birthday, Republic Day and the Independence Day. Teachers, staff and
the students take part in such march to the villages and such visits help the students
and teachers to get identified with the life process of the villagers and spread
a feeling of oneness among the villagers.
6.
Occasional visits to the local primary schools to
encourage the young students to come to the college and learn computers courses
from the college students. The objective is to imbibe the dream of higher
education among the young kids.
7.
The celebration of the Fisherman’s day by celebrating
and observing the meen mangal utsav. The objective is to recognise the
contribution of the fisherman community of this region
8.
Free legal aid service camps (in collaboration with the
advocates of the Law College) for the residents of adjoining villages with the
objective of making the villagers feel at home and discuss their legal
issues.
9.
Regular extension services by the NSS and the NCC units
of the college often in collaboration with the West Beacon Scout with the
objective of making the students to learn to think for the society beyond
narrow self interest.
5.
Evidence of Success
The objective
was to encourage the students to learn to extend them beyond the narrow domain
of their self-interest and spread their being to the neighboring villages, get
identified with their objective problems and realities.
After
three years of effort in this regard, most of the students today by and large
have started appreciating that they cannot afford to live within the narrow boundaries
of their home and have started identifying themselves with the world beyond.
This is
becoming evident as they are showing larger interests to participate in inter-college
events and writing papers, letters and essays on inter-temporal and inter-spatial
issues.
6.
Problems Encountered and Resources Required
The practice
does encounter problems in the areas of time resources. With the introduction
of the CBCS and the semester system time is becoming the limiting factor, for
both the teachers and the students, in actualizing the practice. Furthermore,
there are inhibitions in the minds of the local people about the manner in which
free thinking is encouraged. Finally, as students in general are accepting
“broadmindedness” as a social value, some narrow minded parochial
“non-students” feel insecure and pose resistance to the best practices.
