Gadchiroli June 14 (District Correspondent) Gondwana University has started a unique initiative of providing degree education to the youths at their villages themselves. The idea was mooted by the vice Chancellor Dr. Prashant Bokare. Expert professors are going to the students’ villages from 6 to 9 in the night to teach. The students admitted under this will be awarded the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
Gondwana University is the first university in the state to implement this initiative.
Gondwana University is channelling the modern knowledge to remote villages in sensitive districts like Gadchiroli with its innovative initiatives. The aim is to increase the skill of the youths and to make them worthy of earning.
Gadchiroli district has a rich heritage of bamboo forests. The bamboo here is considered to be of excellent quality. Inherent knowledge and understanding of bamboo craft is also present in the tribal community here. Gondwana University has gone ahead to add modern knowledge and skills to their innate skills to establish them as skilled artisans, businessmen and entrepreneurs. That is why bamboo craft has been deliberately included in BA Arts degree course.
“The Bamboo Lady of Maharashtra” Ms. Meenakshi Mukesh Walke has been teaching in Jambli village to provide training in bamboo designing under the university’s village initiative. This is the first time that such a world-renowned bamboo instructor has reached the students’ doorsteps. Ms. Walke has imparted bamboo training to over 1100 tribal-underprivileged women in 3 states in the last 6 years. Meenakshi Walke has developed 5 new experiments in Bamboo Design and has also created the country’s first model Bamboo QR Code Scanner and has popularized Bamboo Rakhi all over the world.
Through the initiative ‘University in your village’ Gondwana University has taken up this initiative under Unnat Bharat Abhiyaan. As many as 22 students were identified by conducting survey and they are now being taught in Jambli Village Panchayat. These students will be getting the degree of B. A. after their training is complete.
The courses are prepared by the Model College of Gondwana University which includes five subjects namely History, Forest Management, Forest Products, Bamboo Crafts, Wild Vegetables. In the subject of history, the latent task of studying the historical background of Gadchiroli and Chandrapur districts and studying through direct visits is included. Gadchiroli and Chandrapur districts are famous as forest districts. In order to establish one’s own livelihood by living in the forest, forest management has been added in this curriculum and the management of the forest produce which is available in abundance in this forest has also been included in the third subject.
Bamboo is exported from Gadchiroli district all over India. Keeping in mind that if handicrafts are made from bamboo, there can be a large demand for it. The students passed from this college can develop interest in handicrafts and create employment. That is why the subject of Bamboo Handicraft was included.
The subject of Wild Vegetables was created in the curriculum with a very broad objective to create awareness about the forest vegetables available in Gadchiroli Chandrapur district
The university is getting a very good response from the youth in this activity in Jambli village. Every day, expert professors from the university go the village and teach the students.
This course was launched recently by the Vice-Chancellor in the presence of senior social worker Devaji Tofa.
