PRACTICE I

1. Title of the practice: Institutional activities for overall social well-being and social harmony

2. The context: Narasinha Dutt College gives effort to conductactivities for social well-being of students, underprivileged people and industrial workers of the slum area near campus. The NSS and NCC units, St. Johns Ambulance and Alumni Association conduct a number of activities for social cause. Students involving in such activities develop leadership and teamwork skills  and become more adopted to work with the people of diverse demographic background. Such activities make the students more involved, satisfied and motivated and help them to develop better relation withneighboring communities and fellow students.

3. Objectives
   1. To help the community through the activities of NCC, NSS, Alumni Association of college, etc., by organizing awareness programon environmental and health issues (e.g., ,plantation, vector-borne diseases, health and hygiene, drug abuse, smoking, etc.)
   2. Encouragement of the students inthe participation in such activities with social cause, which is helpful in their personality and skill development.
   3. To provide a platform of interaction for the students and community members.
   4. To generate sense of responsibility for a sustainable environment and society.
   5. To help the students to grow as a responsible citizen of the country

4. The Practice

Conducting awareness programs on vector-borne disease, women’s health.

Arranging OPD health check-ups for students, staff and migrant labors of locality inside the college, respiratory health &eye check-up outside the campus, Thalassemia detection camp, blood donation, motivational webinar during pandemic, etc.

Observation of Independence Day, Republic Day, World Environment Day, Rabindra Jayanti, Netaji Jayanti, Youth Day (Vivekananda Jayanti), Earth Day, International Mother Language Day in the college.

Organizing plantation, plantlet distribution in locality, poster exhibition on environment and health, Swachh Bharat Abhyyan within and outside the campus, students’ webinar on single-use plastic, motivational interaction with COVID warrior, etc.

Organizing interactive session on “How to take care of your child” for the mothers ofnearby slum area.

Distributionof garments among local laborers and donationof relief fund to natural disaster-stricken areas.

To motivate the children of local area by conducting sports and sit & draw competition.

Organizing different religious festivals like Saraswati Puja, Iftar, Raksha Bandhan, Community Namaz, which plays a role to maintain social harmony.

Organizing awareness webinar on  “Value Education” and distributionof booklet on human value for a better society.

Organizing rally for raising voice against terrorism, to aware people about Coronavirus and vector-borne diseases.

Solid and E-waste management and maintenance of mostly paperless office.

5. a) Problems Encountered: In the CBCS mode of curriculum, students get less time to involve themselves for social causes.

b) Resources Required: Some amount of fund, cooperation from the community and motivation in students with active involvement.

6. Evidence of Success

Spontaneous involvement and participation of the students.

Active participation of the students in different kinds of activities, observations and social awareness program.

Regular publication of wall magazines, e-magazines also from all the departments.

Reflection of peaceful social harmony during Saraswati Puja, Ramzan Namaz and Raksha Bandhan conducted in campus.

PRACTICE II

1. Title of the practice: Maintenance of the freshwater pond biodiversity and using it for surface water preservation

2. The context: Narasinha Dutt College is situated in central Howrah. The nomenclature has the origin from the Bengali word “haor”, which means swampy low land, where water and mud is accumulated. For this prevailing geomorphological character, the college campus was used to be in waterlogged condition for days in the rainy season every year, leading to loss of working days and valuable office documents and infrastructure degradation.It was a seasonal situation, for which the stakeholders had to face problems.

In the campus, there is a freshwater pond, with rich biodiversity, adding to the beauty of its landscape.  To overcome the waterlogging problem, the administration made a policy to use this water body by its proper maintenance.

3. Objectives
   1. To maintain the freshwater pond in the campus with appropriate planning, to use its water to maintain the green cover and garden, specifically in dry season.
   2. To use the pond as a reservoir of overflown surface rainwater of the campus, to get rid off recurring seasonal waterlogging condition during monsoon.
   3. To augment the aesthetic effect of the ambience of the campus.
   4. To have contribution in aquatic biodiversity conservation, maintaining ecological balance.

4. The Practice
   1. The pond in the campus has been maintained with regular cleaning activities.
   2. The quality of freshwater is monitored by routine check-up of the parameters like dissolved Oxygen level and Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), for confirmation of the suitability of water quality to sustain aquatic biodiversity.
   3. The biodiversity register comprising of aquatic plants, phytoplanktons, fishes, amphibians, etc. are regularly updated, to detect any disturbance in ecological food web and its control.
   4. The slope has been maintained in such a way, so that it can act as a reservoir of overflown surface rainwater, during heavy rainfall.

5. a) Problems Encountered : There were some difficulties to make the pondwater usable for the maintenance of the green cover within college campus. During Pandemic, the total aquatic ecosystem was disturbed, specially after the cyclone “Amphan”. However, the whole thing was restored with pwithin limited period of time.

b) Resources Required: Some fund and manpower to clean and maintain the pond. The quality of water is monitored by students by estimating its dissolved Oxygen and BOD.

6. Evidence of Success
   1. The aquatic ecosystem of pond has become the home of different floating, submerged & emerged plants and several types of fishes, insects and amphibians, being an example of the practice of biodiversity conservation within campus, with direct involvement of all stakeholders.
   2. The water of the pond is directly used to maintain the plants in the campus in dry season.
   3. The classes & examination are not interrupted due to waterlogging in the campus and the problem has been distinctly minimized.