News
Not money, but teaching in a rural school brought happiness to this young man.
Satwik Mishra resigned from a lucrative job to join the SBI Youth For India Fellowship to find himself. His job was paying him well and yet satisfaction eluded him. He finally found some when he gave back to the society rather than getting everything.
When Satwik Mishra resigned from a lucrative job to join the SBI Youth For India Fellowship, the sole driving force was the urge of self discovery. His job was paying him well and yet satisfaction eluded him. The wandering soul finally decided to look out for the happiness in the remote corners of India and that’s when he applied for the fellowship in 2016.
After the orientation of the fellowship program, the applicants were sent to the allocated NGO. As per Satwik’s application he got assigned to work for ‘Gram Vikas‘. Next came the orientation from ‘Gram Vikas’ which saw him travel to different villages for a field visit, in order to understand what ‘Gram Vikas’ has been doing since its establishment.
“We explored more than 50 villages where ‘Gram Vikas’ has been working and we were amazed at the sustainability of development in and around. Some projects, which Gram Vikas has been working on, were water supply to each and every house, disaster-resistant house building, primary schools, livelihood, alternate source of energy, 100 % sanitation facilities etc. Simply one can define these villages as ‘Smart Villages’”, says Satwik.
Gram Vikas Residential School, Kankia is one of the 4 schools that ‘Gram Vikas’ has started and is currently operating. 500+ students attend the school from more than 200 tribal villages of Odisha. “Being located in a remote area, 13 km away from the nearest town, this school was a surprise for us. It had a weightlifting center, solar energy supply, solar water filter facility, steam cooking installations, vermi-compost units, a library, computer lab and creativity center”, remarked Satwik.
Education and all other facilities are free here. Satwik was wondering if even urban schools offered most of the facilities. Further visits to the school, however, revealed the problems the school was facing. But he quickly resolved to be the solution to the problem and not its critic.
One of the problems the school was encountering was poor student performance in Science and Mathematics. The most obvious reason that struck Satwik was the absence of a science lab where students could learn through experimentation. It struck him as odd as to how could any science teacher teach the methodologies and working principles of scientific instruments efficiently, until and unless they have the facilities to demonstrate them? While the school tried its best to stick to the quantity of teaching hours, it missed out the fact that quality matters as well. Quality, when it integrates with quantity, brings out enormous output on an average.
Sticking with the solution attitude, he decided to set up a Science lab in the school. He has already drafted a lab manual while also taking workshops on various softwares. Their eagerness and zeal makes these students learn much faster.
“I have now realised that satisfaction doesn’t come through getting everything we want from the world but from what we give back to it. Happiness is something which increases by sharing. The more you share, the more you get,” wise words from a 26-year-old.