Who better than students to instil and disseminate the spirit of national integration? Realising this, the National Service Scheme (NSS) has been conducting national integration camps on a regular basis bringing together NSS volunteers from various States under a common roof. In a year, eight such camps are held, so that all States get an opportunity to participate.
At the camp that was held from May 8 to May 14, the team that represented Tamil Nadu was from Bharathiar University. And the 14 volunteers headed by NSS Programme Officer S. Leema Rosaline clinched the overall best team award at the national level.
Teams from 12 states participated in the week-long activities that were held at Andhra University, Vishakapatnam. Seven girls and seven boys selected from as many colleges of the university took part in them and came up trumps beating their counterparts.
Ms. Leema from Nirmala College for Women, Coimbatore, says the activities based on culture, social and economic behaviour, communication skills, and interpersonal skills were assessed for the award.
“The seven days were divided to include activities based on the above parameters. The first two days students had to showcase through various art forms the socio-economic and cultural behaviour of their respective states. Our children put up an impressive show consisting of songs and dances including Bharatanatyam, folk dances and other performances based on the Chera-Chola era. But what became a great hit was the ‘karakattam' that they performed,” she says.
The next couple of days consisted of activities like cleaning the campus, classes on personality development and role of volunteers in the NSS, etc. The evenings were filled with cultural activities.
Another day consisted of ‘Shramdhaan' where one student from each state was selected to form a group thereby making 12 such groups. Each group was assigned a task. At the end of the day the groups were assessed to find out what the members of each group had picked up from each other.
R. Monica, a NSS volunteer, who attended the camp, says that they were asked as to how many words from other languages they had learnt in that day. Questions about the cultures of other States were also posed to assess the level of interaction the volunteers had with each other.
One day was reserved for home stay. The local volunteers from Vishakapatnam took one or two guest volunteers home for a whole day. Ms. Leema says even the programme officers took volunteers home and it was a great experience in sharing of culture.
The last day was for sight seeing that included a visit to a submarine. And, at the end of the day no one wanted to go back home, says Monica. “We had made a lot of friends and the exposure we got during that week cannot be paralleled with any other. Every NSS volunteer should undergo this experience,” she adds.
In spite of the camaraderie, the volunteers did not forget that they were being assessed at every stage for being judged for individual and overall awards. So, there was real contesting during the competitions.
Ms. Leema says that even before the activities could begin, they were informed that throughout their stay a ‘spy' will monitor their every activity.
“This did not stop with only the events that were put up by the students. The way they conducted themselves with their counterparts, their behaviour in the dining hall, in the rooms, their interaction with elders, and the discipline they maintained at all times, were taken into account for the best team award. So the Tamil Nadu team's award was not based only on their performance but also on the discipline they exhibited,” she says.
Other than the overall team award, the volunteers also bagged individual awards for competitions like elocution, rangoli and slogan writing.
