Internship Training Program at DISHA for the students of Khudiram Bose Central College

Overview

The students of Khudiram Bose Central College (KBCC) have undergone an internship training program for the month of June as per the new education policy (NEP 2020) of the Central Government.

  • 16 students from the First Year second semester of the Political Science Department received exposure and training at various places where DISHA is currently working.
  • The internship program was held from 14th of June, 2024 to 29th of June, 2024
  • DISHA shared their experience of over 20 years to all the students in all their fields from zero waste campaigns to livelihood concerns and human rights
  • The students were divided into groups and each groups focused on a specific issues on which they had made reports that was vetted by both the college and DISHA for the purpose of evaluation of the students.

The first day was an orientation program conducted by DISHA and the teaching faculty of KBCC. Firstly, Prof. S Nandy explained the requirements and evaluation process of the internship training program with the students (the do’s and don’ts). This was followed by a primer on the history and nature of Non-governmental organisations which was given by the President of DISHA, Santanu Chacraverti, which concluded the first session of the day-long orientation program.

The second session was initiated by the Secretary of DISHA, Sasanka Deb, who first shared the experience and history of DISHA and then focused on the zero-waste campaign and other campaign related to waste management and awareness towards various waste generation and its impact on the society.

Santanu Chakraborty, followed this session with a presentation on forest livelihood and forest rights and the session concluded with a presentation by Abin Dutta on Fishing Communities and livelihood.

Group Activities

The students were divided into four groups (Group A to D) and each group was geared towards focusing on a particular issue/concern. Apart from this, on a few matters all four groups attended the same program/area of concern. Some groups had also interchanged their learning areas so that most students can be exposed to almost all the issues/activities/areas of concern of DISHA.

Group A and B: They focused on the work of DISHA in Dhulagarh, particularly the waste management Centre and the fishing communities in Dhulagarh, They also focused on the waste and landfill issue in Dhapa in East Kolkata Wetlands and the fishing communities in East Kolkata Wetlands. They also had exposure in the issues of Tiger victims in Sundarbans as well as the issues of the Forest Communities in Bankura and other areas. Group C and D: They had travelled to Purba Medinipur where they had focused on the issues of Fisher’s communities and educational programs of DISHA. The students had spent 5 days in Kanthi in Purba Medinipur where they had gone to multiple field visits to learn about the coastal fishers and their community concerns, the work of DISHA in the coastal communities as well as the education related programs that are run by DISHA particularly the Ananda DISHA project where a holistic approach is taken to inculcate culture and education through sports, yoga, extra-curricular activities and book fairs.



Conclusion

This internship program was one of the first in the entire history of DISHA and it has mainly been possible due to the new education policy (NEP 2020) of the Central Government. DISHA is keen to undertake such efforts to sensitize the youth on social and environmental issues and is looking forward to such efforts in future. The students of the KBBC had eye-opening moments during the internship program which reveals the nature of lack of information regarding environmental and social issues among many youth in the state of West Bengal.