With a view to converting ‘citizens’ into ‘active citizens’ by making them identify social evils and eradicating their existence from society, a five-day-long ‘active citizen development workshop’ is being organized by the National Service Scheme (NSS) members of North Bengal University (NBU) kicked off on the NBU campus.

The NSS is organizing the programme in association with the British Council and Rajiv Gandhi National Institute for Youth Development (RGNIYD). NSS members of 15 colleges under the NBU are participating in the workshop, billed as the first of its kind in the North Bengal region. “This workshop is an action-oriented one,” said master facilitator of the event, Subhrajyoti Kundu.

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“Teachers attending this workshop will go to their respective colleges and impart the same training to students there. The students in turn, along with the teachers, will educate the society, ultimately helping society to address the social issues,” said Mr Kundu. “The workshop consists of different activities such as chart work, demonstrations, forum theaters and game activities to develop skills in identifying the social problems and then addressing it by finding a probable solution to that particular problem,” he added.

Explaining the working of the NSS, NSS programme coordinator Dr ujjwal Bhui said, “The NSS unit adopts one village and works in that particular village; the members educate the villagers about the social issues, helping them to overcome them.”

“The workshop works like a chain reaction. Two of our senior NSS members went to Chennai at the RGNIYD for training on July last year, and they are now training 30 NSS members from 15 different colleges under the NBU, who in turn will train their NSS volunteers in their respective colleges and finally the society,” he added.

Describing her experiences, professor of the Sonada Degree College, Sushila Baraily, said, “The workshop has enlightened us on the techniques to communicate with the society and help the society grow.” The workshop that began on 29 January will end tomorrow, it is learnt.