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Honey bee publish details |
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Social Innovations |
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| Title |
Innovation at Dimra High School, Ranchi, 27th Shodhyattra , 2011 |
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| Abstract |
Innovation at Dimra High School, Ranchi, 27th Shodhyattra , 2011There are many social needs which markets, the state and even civil society fail to address. It is at such moments, that certain individuals decide to gather their wits to overcome institutional and social inertia. Most of the individuals whose stories you see in this section did not have to look for reasons outside for their actions. |
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How big are your problems?Writing letters to plant trees Ramjibhai Charan, Sabarkantha, Gujarat Ramjibhai Charan, a primary school teacher from Sabarkantha tries to attend as many shodhyatras as possible. He has found a very interesting approach to increasing the green cover in Gujarat. Every time an obituary is published in the local newspaper, he writes a letter to the kith and kin of the deceased, requesting them to plant a tree in the memory of their loved one. So far, he has written about 40000 such letters. Every day, he spares at least one hour for his mission to promote the importance of planting trees. He makes banners for his tree planting campaigns and examples of his planting are evident all around town. Earlier, there was not even a single tree around the playground at his Primary School. Today, 25 big trees encircle it, lending beauty and shade at the campus. He also planted trees around the campus of Gujarat Vidyapeeth, of which he was a student. “If you just take care of these plants for one year that will suffice, after that, they grow without any problemâ€, he explains. To spread his message, Charan regularly organises painting, poster and essay competitions related to nature in schools and colleges. “The winners are given saplings as prizesâ€, he says. He also meets people during his visits to residential colonies. “I tell them about the importance of preserving nature and try to persuade them to plant saplingsâ€, he says. He is happy that in many areas the people have responded to his pleadings. Seeing his total devotion to the trees, the people have now taken up the task of taking care of the saplings in their areas. Vol 20(4)-21(1) Oct 2009-Mar 2010 The Man Who Planted Trees and Never Looked Back Premjibhai, RajkotPremjibhai was born in village Bhayavadar in Upleta Taluka, Rajkot district. Although he belonged to a farming community, he took to trading as a profession and soon became a distributor for Reliance Textiles. Till 1975, he conducted his business in Upleta and later moved to Mumbai. But he never liked Mumbai. Frustrated by the lifestyle in Mumbai, he yearned to retire and do something that would make a difference to the world. To begin with, he supported tree planting around temples in his own village. He selected the areas surrounding temples for doing so simply because people do not cut the trees around temples. In 1987, Premjibhai returned to his village in order to fulfil his dream. In the beginning he set out every morning with a bagful of seeds and a small spade in his hands. He would wander around the fields in his village and plant seeds on the bunds of fields and along road sides. Premjibhai felt the need to scale up his activity. He bought a motor-cycle to increase his mobility. He learnt to ride motor cycle at the age of 55. He used it for both, procuring seeds as well as sowing them. Each day he would set off on his motor cycle taking along a bag of seeds with him and stopping randomly at any village on the way. After locating individual(s) or institution(s) with a good reputation of voluntary service, he contacted them and tried to motivate them to volunteer in the work of ecological restoration. He also contacted local schools and recruited school children’s skills wherever he found the teachers responsive. Vol 7(3) Jul-Sep 1996 Travelling radio station for a social cause Rajubhai, Purulia, West Bengal During the 20th Shodhyatra, we came across a very interesting device made by a young boy, Raju. He had developed an FM station through which he broadcasts free music to people. Though unauthorised, the station nevertheless contributed an immense service to the community. He did not broadcast any advertisements. He had a phone-in-service through which anybody could request a song, or announce a spiritual and any social event. He had such an amazing memory of the sequence and the location of about 2500 songs on different CDs and cassettes that he could immediately locate and play the desired song. He also promoted government programmes for polio vaccination, education, and similar other activities. He had developed a transmitter having a range of 25 km for a paltry sum of Rs 5000. Incidentally, a commercial transmitter with a 70 km range costs about Rs 3, 00,000. Unfortunately, public policy does not favour such low-cost innovations that could create tremendous impact on local economies and socio-cultural conditions. New performers could become popular and thus might get livelihood opportunities by being invited to various functions. Perhaps the local administration could have been authorised to monitor the proper use of these lost-cost transmitters. Vol 18(3) & 18(4) Jul-Dec 2007 Clay nests for sparrows Dr. Paresh A. Raval, Kutch, Gujarat Sparrows are a most common sight in cities but their number is ever dwindling. Dr. Paresh A. Raval, is a man with a noble mission to provide these vulnerable birds a home to nest in. One day as he was sitting in his courtyard he observed something unusual. He noticed two sparrow eggs inside an old pair of shoes lying nearby. He was appalled by the sight and felt pity for the plight of these birds that do not have even a place to lay their eggs in. Dr. Raval decided from that moment that he will provide a home to these birds. A potter near his college helped him obtain about 5000 clay nests made in a nearby village. This passion has taken over him completely and he carries a clay pot nest wherever he goes and gifts one to anyone who needs it (including the Honey Bee team). He manages to do all this from his own resources.Vol 10(3) July-Sep 1999The essence of peace There was a king who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The king looked at all the pictures. But there were only two he really liked, and he had to choose between them. One picture was of a calm lake. The lake as a perfect mirror for peaceful towering mountains all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace. The other picture had mountains, too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky, from which rain fell and in which lightning played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all. But when the king looked closely, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest - in perfect peace. Which picture do you think won the prize? Vol 14(3) Jul-Sep 2003The herbal wisdom of birds and animals Many of the medicinal plants have been discovered by some natural incidents. In this line a new experience is not only worth sharing but thrilling to narrate. The incident had been experienced very recently by one of our employee Rajesh Topno’s late mother Silbiya Topno from Kanakloya village, Gumla district, Jharkhand, India. On the day of this event she was on a walk- around the fields adjacent to the village, when she saw a bird (Vanellus indicus) repeatedly diving towards the earth and screeching all the while. Being curious she moved closer to the spot. As the bird was targetting a particular spot she could locate it easily and to her surprise found an angry cobra intent on some object. After all its diving antics failed to drive away the snake, the bird started showering the snake with small twigs collected from a nearby place. Gradually, the snake lowered its head and retreated. After making sure that the snake had gone Silbiya cautiously approached the spot. There she found a bird’s nest with two eggs in it. It was thus clear that the snake was after the eggs and the bird was trying to protect them desperately. It also became evident that the twigs were being spread to drive away the snake. These twigs obviously had some ingredients in them to repel the snake. Thus, the medicinal use of this plant was discovered. It also showed that animals also have intuition about the medicinal use of plants. The local name of the plant is Gusumpuru (Mundari) Botanical name - Indoneesiella echioides (Linn.) Shreem. Family - Acanthaceae The extract of whole plant is used in dealing with snake-bite. -Ed.Vol 10(3) July-Sep 1999If you just take care of these plants for one year that will suffice, after that, they grow without any problem- Ramjibhai Charan |
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee 25(4) & 26(1) 36-39, 2014-2015 (25 years celebration) |
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