My India

Nirmaan Organisation, erstwhile My India is a voluntary organization formed by the students of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India. It was started at Pilani and now runs its projects in different places like Hyderabad, Pilani, Goa, Mumbai, Bangalore and Vijayanagaram. It focuses on providing education and employment opportunities to the economically challenged people. This society was started around February 2005 by Rakesh Anugula, student of the 2002 batch of BITS Pilani.

This group has gone from a set of 15 students to nearly 600 students actively involved in Social Welfare activities, creation of self help groups, etc. According to the Mr. Rakesh Anugula, “The organisation, My India wants to see India become a developed country without much of loss of time. We are very committed to this objective. We aim to achieve this by promoting entrepreneurial opportunities especially in rural areas, and by actively involving in sustainable social service activities”.

My India successfully conducted an awareness programme for the conservation of natural resources at BITS Campus. The organisation runs evening schools in Pilani, Bangalore and Vijayanagaram for the benefit of the poor people.

Village Knowledge Centre Vivekanand Gramin Gyan Kendra was opened at the Dhandhar village near Pilani, Rajasthan, India on Sunday 25 September 2005. The Kendra was started by the My India, which is a voluntary organisation formed by BITS Pilani students. The village knowledge center will soon function as a hub of knowledge having a library, computer with internet connectivity and BITSIAN students will assist the villagers in accessing the knowledge from the internet. Besides books, the Kendra gets newspapers, magazines and there is a radio too.

Soon the Kendra will have 3000 books relating to Fiction, Mythology, General Knowledge, History, Geography, Medicine, Agriculture, History and Religion .The Kendra is located opposite the Primary school in Dhandhar and its library will function in the afternoons daily. Students from BITS will make weekly visits and conduct training sessions on accessing information from internet for the benefit of the villagers. Besides the BITS students will conduct awareness camps in the village on Health, Family Planning, and career related matters. The Kendra plans to work closely with the agriculture departments in order to provide knowledge relating to improved agriculture methods.

GYAN VIHAR Also My India runs another set of operation known as gyan vihar under which students of BITS Pilani campus teach underprevileged children in and around pilani. It is conducted at a number of places around pilani. Classes are organised six days per week roughly from 5pm-6pm everyday in which students from standard 4th to 12th are taught. Classes are organised in two series TThS and MWF (each letter stands for each day of a week). Each volunteer is supposed to work in either of the series.Basic stress is given on developing concepts in science and mathematics. Although kids are also taught basic English grammar. On every Saturday interactive games are organised in which the concepts thought during the entire week are covered again with the help of interactive games and activities.[1]

More information about the Knowledge Centre or about My India can be had from Rakesh Anugula, BITS Student, at [e-mail]

Website http://www.nirmaan.org

Recent News and References

Village Knowledge Centre
http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/119709/1/
http://www.digitalopportunity.org/article/view/119680/1/
http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/education/200702071837.htm

About My India at the BITS Pilani Website

http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/NewsModule/detail_archivedpage.aspx?id=125