An Educator Bringing Social Reforms by Education with Edutainment : Sangita Das

“Man is made by his belief. As he believes so he is”.

Bhagvada Gita

The words have been said more than two thousand years ago, are still relevant today as per Ms Sangita Das.

Born in a bureaucrat’s family, Sangita Das strongly believes that our beliefs become our thoughts, our thoughts become our words and our words become our actions. Sangita is an educator -principal, a mother, an inventor, a reformist and got her inspiration from her father who always act as an epitome of excellence and constantly thrived to make this world a better place for all.

Sangita is pursuing her motto “SOCIAL REFORMS BY EDUCATION WITH EDUTAINMENT” which mainly focuses on bringing out the uniqueness in the child by leaving behind the traditional path. As an educator Sangita has taken some pathbreaking steps which are topped by “Best Out of Waste” initiative.

It was a thought three years back which gradually adopted by her students and colleagues. Since last 3 years the team is organizing a special mela on a regular basis to showcase and sell artifacts prepared using the waste material. The initiative is based on “3 R Sangam” acronym. These days the 3R may have become like a cliched acronym however in RHMPS (Rao Harchand Memorial Public School) campus the students have put the principles of Reduce, Reuse and Reduce into their practice and followed the spirit under the able tutelage of other teachers. The money which is collected by selling the items prepared following the “Best out of waste” idea is donated to orphanage, old age home and other areas to support them to fulfill their daily need. It also helped the students to learn and earn during the schooling to spread the joy, love and happiness among all.

While talking to Sangita, she mentioned “We introduced a new concept to bring the students closer to the nature. We have created a “Punishment Corner”, which is a very novel and unorthodox way of giving punishments to our students for their undisciplined behaviour. We ask our students to plant a sapling for every tiny mistake as we don’t believe in any harsh punishment which in return will spoil the child. Through this act of planting saplings, the students learn to be responsible and respect nature subconsciously”.

Further on the list Sangita has introduced “Naari Sashaktikaran“ concept to empower the girl students through various programs for girls such as camps on sanitization, talks on health issues, self-defense trainings. They also organized various awareness programs using folk dance, nukkad natak, poster competition, quiz competition, debates, visit to slum areas and various exhibitions which are helping to foster the gender equality.

SRO AWARD is another best concept amongst some of the other initiatives to promote good relationship between the students and society. The SRO (Student Respecting Other) award aims to raise awareness to become respectful and kind. It is often said that “Food is the gateway to the soul” and to pursue this Sangita is leading another initiative “Bhojan – Milan Ek Sajhedari”. This is an uplifting and electrifying project which mainly focuses on building a relationship of trust and transparency between the teacher and the pupils. During this the kids become comfortable to share their sorrows and hardships without any hesitation.

Sangita further shared that she knows about the problems, sorrows, happiness and excitement of the students and their families by just using a concept of “Speaking Jamun Tree”. As per students, it is a platform where they can freely express their inner voice on a piece of paper and then hung that on the Jamun tree maintaining the anonymity. This concept is further supported by “Nurturing- Rishta Dil Se” idea  which is helping to nurture the relationships because this is most crucial for both intellectual and social growth.

PANDEMIC MANOEUVRES – COVID DIARIES

Sangita has put in tremendous efforts to lead and succeed to overcome from the Covid-19 challenges. Sangita has gone an extra mile and made attempts to eliminate mental, emotional, physical and psychological stress by introducing “Sampurn Digital Library”. This is an online platform which has been introduced to edutain, motivate and compensate the present situation of COVID-19. It contains more than 1 lakh books to enhance scholastic and co-scholastic knowledge. The focus of this venture is to mainly to upgrade the knowledge while keeping safety on priority of children and their families in this plight.

Emo-Ment is another initiative which is introduced during Covid-19. It is an anonymous digital caretaker for emotional and mental wellbeing of every person whosoever wants to seek any help, this platform acts as an EMOTIONAL- MENTAL DUMP.  On this online platform users can share their emotional, mental and physical well-being so that they can lead pleasant stress-free life while getting guidance and maintaining the anonymity.

While talking about the social responsibility Sangita said “Apart from studies and extra cocurricular activities,  our thrust area has been emancipation of all students and especially girl students from underprivileged community. We encouraged these students and most of them were able to break the proverbial glass ceilings of their fear and hopelessness to achieve excellent results. Due to these efforts RHMPS is recently ranked 9^th in National Active Championship which is testimony to the tremendous efforts put by us with limited means”.

During the discussion about plans, Sangita said  “I want to build an institution for the underprivileged where we can help the children to reach their full potential and learn to become independent by having their own identities separate from their families. We want to help these children to break the cycle of familial hypocritic traditions and learn different skills to help them with individual development”.

Sangita’s advice for the readers is that never give up, accept failure and be a change creator, never follow the herd, be unique and be true to yourself  while being empathetic for others. Sangita is determined to help others and urging everyone to become the best version of themselves.

Appeal to others:

If all of us adopt and care for a single child in our lifetime,  every child in India will be empowered, and it will become a better place. Thus, Sangita urge you all to adopt a child and change the life of that child to become a better skilled citizen of India.

Sangita is the Principal in Rao Harchand Memorial Public School, a mother of a daughter and a son. She always believes that if we have the willpower, anything can be done. As it is said  “if there is a will, there is a way” so nothing is impossible, all it takes is a little bit of courage to step up and Sangita has gone hundreds of extra miles while learning from loopholes and always tried try not to regret for any past actions.