Tag Archive for: Panjab University

Chandigarh May 21, 2019 

Swachhta  is Everyone’s Business – Parameswaran Iyer

 “The Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) (SBM-G) launched in 2014 has 
revolutionized sanitation in India, specially the rural sanitization coverage which increased to nearly 99% from 38.7% in 2014”, said Sh Parameswaran Iyer, Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India and leading flagship of SBM while delivering the lecture on ‘Implementation of Large Scale Social Transformation Programmes: Lessons from the Swachh Bharat Mission during the 56th Panjab University Colloquium 4th Shenmar Memorial Oration, held here today.

While sharing the detailed information about various challenges in 
implementing Swachh Bharat Mission, Sh. Iyer said that this had direct bearing in the largest transformation ever witnessed in the behavioural changes in India and abroad. He informed that over 5.6 lakh villages, 617 districts and 30 States/UTs have been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF). More than 9.22 crore toilets have been constructed in the rural areas in this period. The recently concluded National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS) conducted by an Independent Verification Agency surveying over 90,000 households across India has pegged the usage of these toilets at 
over 96.5%.

 He further added that developing a large scale programme for a nation like India, with complexity of 22 languages, 700 dialects, 6000 villages was a challenging task as one size does not fit all. The challenge of implementing at scale was met with leveraging the power of 1.3 billion people to create a Jan Andolan. Extensive Information, Education and Communication (IEC) interventions were used to target beliefs held for generations (Stigma). Finally, more important than achieving was sustainability in the long term to ensure that people don’t slip back into old habits. 

 Sh. Iyer further informed that to bring behaviour changes at large scale, over 6 lakh grassroot sanitation champions or ‘swachhagrahis’ have been trained to deliver sanitation messages in their villages. They work at the cutting edge and motivate and inspire communities to build and use toilets through community approaches to sanitation and behaviour change triggering, he informed. He vociferously highlighted the main tagline of the mission is “Swachhta  is Everyone’s Business”

 He further informed that large scale people’s participation campaigns like the Swachh Sunder Shauchalaya (1st January, 2019 to 31st January, 2019) during which 1.34 crore toilets in rural India were painted by householders, and Swachchata Hi Seva (15th September 2018 to 2nd October 2018) where over 20 crore people participated by offering shramdaan or taking pledges for swachhata, show the scale that the program has managed to achieve. Even celebrities have taken to the movement and participated in mass media campaigns such as Darwaza Band (1 & 2) with Amitabh Bachchan and Anushka Sharma, and showcased the Mission in popular culture such as ‘Toilet – ek prem katha’ with Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar.

Talking about the Policy lessons, he stressed upon the 4Ps of the mission for 
large scale transformation which includes Political Leadership, Public Funding, Partnerships and Peoples participation. About Administrative lessons, he said that it was important to set a target for any programme like this and time period of 5 years i.e. October 2, 2019 has been set as a deadline for the Swachh Bharat Mission. It started with the belief that it can be achieved and hence the SBM-G team was created. Younger people like students were appointed Brand Ambassador of the mission, women 
workers were also roped in as motivators at the grass root level. They triggered behavioural change at ground level. Then there were Collectors which was the most critical force being helped by many young professionals from IIT’s and IIM’s to work in fields. All ministries were also pitched in for sensitizing people about the mission. Arguably the biggest game-changer for the SBM (G) was that the Hon’ble Prime Minister lent his personal political capital to the Mission. Inspired by the leadership and commitment of the PM, various Chief Ministers (CM) and District 
Magistrates (DM) emerged as sanitation champions –the PM-CM-DM model in this Village Mukhiya’s (VM) was added to bring transformation at the grass root level. 

 He added that continuous engagement with implementers keeps them motivated. Regular feedback was taken and the SBM-G team visited each state multiple times and engaged directly with district collectors through learning workshops and informal gatherings. Healthy competitions at all levels- State, District and Village were conducted. It was also informed that association of Bollywood stars, sportspersons and other influencers with SBM-G helped break the taboo around sanitation. Apart from this, SBM-G organized mass events and campaigns which helped it stay on top of public 
recall.

 Prof. Shankarji Jha, Acting Vice Chancellor and Dean of University 
Instruction, PU in his address said that it was a matter of great pride and honour to successfully complete 55 PU Colloquiums and Shenmar Memorial Oration which has proved to be a platform for various eminent personalities to share their experiences here. He said it was an honour and a very alluring opportunity for Panjab University and the exuberant audience gathered here today, to have Sh. Paramewaran Iyer, Secretary, 
Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India, us as the Invited Speaker.

Prof. T.R. Sharma. Executive Director, NABI, Mohali in his address while 
appreciating the success of the SBM-G, compared it with the Green Revolution which started with political will at the top. He said that the awareness for such campaign continues and need to persistently make people aware of these. He added that SBM-G of Government of India has brought a revolutionary change and for upgrading the hygiene and cleanliness stature of the Nation by stimulating the thought process of both the rural and urban areas.

 Earlier, Prof. Promila Pathak, Coordinator, Colloquium Committee introduced Sh. Parameswaran Iyer to the audience. She expressed her gratitude to Dr Shashi Paul & Dr. Vinod K Paul, Chairman, Board of Governers, Medical Council of India for their solicit presence and their pillar like support and generosity towards the Shenmar Memorial Orations that are held annually.

 Earlier, Prof. Promila Pathak, Coordinator, Colloquium Committee introduced Sh. Parameswaran Iyer to the audience. She expressed her gratitude to Dr Shashi Paul & Dr. Vinod K Paul, Chairman, Board of Governers, Medical Council of India for their solicit presence and their pillar like support and generosity towards the Shenmar Memorial Orations that are held annually.

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Chandigarh May 20, 2019 

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 Every year Panjab University, Chandigarh awards two Medals to the toppers of the Department of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh at Bachelor’s and Master’s level.  During the last convocation held in the month of April 28, 2019 Ms. Nandani was awarded with a Professor (Dr.) S.R.K. Chopra Memorial Gold Medal for standing First in (B.Sc. Hons.) Anthropology for the year 2018 and Ms. Harpreet Kaur Saini was felicitated with Dewan Bahadur Wali Ram Taneja Gold Medal for standing First in (M.Sc. Hons.) Anthropology for the year 2018.

The students brought laurels to the Department of Anthropology and the 
Chairperson Dr. Kewal Krishan wishes the students all the best for their future endeavours and further studies.

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Chandigarh May 20, 2019 

The Linnaean Society of London has awarded Dr. Ranjana Jaiswara, DST-INSPIRE Faculty, Department of Zoology, Panjab University, Chandigarh a prestigious research grant of £ 1000 (British pound) for the year 2019. The current research grant from the Linnaean Society of London is to explore and document diversity of Indian cricket species based exclusively on their acoustic signals. Crickets sound producing structure is now being extensively studied by bioengineers and nanotechnologists to design highly efficient and smaller speakers for portable devices like mobile phones 
and hearing aids for humans. The Linnaean Society of London is the world’s oldest active biological society founded in 1788 and named in the honor of the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, “Father of Modern Taxonomy”. It is an international society of many prominent scientists dedicated to the study of, and the dissemination of information concerning, natural history, evolution, and taxonomy of biological specimens. 

Dr. Ranjana recently joined PU with India’s most distinguished faculty award by the Department of Science and Technology.  She pursued her PhD degree from the top most institute, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in collaboration with Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. Over a decade, Dr. Ranjana’s research work has been focused on demonstrating the use of acoustic signals as an efficient tool in addressing the serious problem of species identification in biology. Scientific publications in the international journals of Zoological Journal of 
Linnaean Society, London and PLoS ONE are a few to evidence. 

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Chandigarh May 17, 2019 

Department of Public Administration, Panjab  University, Chandigarh under the UK-India Research Council’s project “Transforming India’s Green Revolution through Research and Empowerment for  Sustainable Food Supplies (TIGR2ESS) organized a workshop titled “Food Grains and Health” by Professor Richa Puri, Department of Botany, Panjab University, Chandigarh and Dr Poonam  Khanna, Assistant Professor of Nutrition in School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh.

 Professor Ramanjit Kaur Johal, Co-Principal Investigator and Chairperson, 
Department of Public Administration, Panjab University introduced the TIGR2ESS project and opined that the project aims to define the requirements and set the policy agenda for a ‘second Green Revolution’ in India focussing  on skill development, health and well being, framed by demographic changes affecting rural communities and feminisation 
of smallholder farming systems. The project will develop and strengthen alliances across a carefully selected network of UK and Indian experts, build  long-term research capacity and partnerships for sustainable agriculture that will set India on the path to a second Green Revolution. The project is being led by University of Cambridge in which around 20 collaborating institutions from UK and India.

 Professor Richa Puri delivered an introductory lecture on “Minor cereals of the World, India and Punjab”. Professor Puri stated that out of the estimated 75,000 species of edible plants, only about 150 have been used and of these only about 30 species provide 90% of the world’s food. She further deliberated on the history of cereals. Professor Puri discussed at length different forms of cereals and millets of the world, India and Punjab and also carried out a comparison of millets with wheat on the basis of their nutrient content. She concluded that though the governments have 
been initiating policies and programmes to promote cultivation of millets against the dominating cropping pattern of wheat and rice but still the success of these initiatives is far from satisfactory.

 Professor Richa Puri delivered an introductory lecture on “Minor cereals of the World, India and Punjab”. Professor Puri stated that out of the estimated 75,000 species of edible plants, only about 150 have been used and of these only about 30 species provide 90% of the world’s food. She further deliberated on the history of cereals. Professor Puri discussed at length different forms of cereals and millets of the world, India and Punjab and also carried out a comparison of millets with wheat on the basis of their nutrient content. She concluded that though the governments have 
been initiating policies and programmes to promote cultivation of millets against the dominating cropping pattern of wheat and rice but still the success of these initiatives is far from satisfactory.

The workshop was attended by faculty and researchers from Department of Public Administration, interns from PGIMER and delegates from Mehr Baba Charitable Trust, Fatehgarh Sahib. Both the sessions were highly interactive and were appreciated for giving a strong understanding and awareness about food grains and nutrition.

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