14 states participate in 7-day ‘National Integration Camp’ organised by NSS cell of Assam University

May 3: A National Integration Camp (NIC) was organized by the National Service Scheme (NSS) cell of Assam University, Silchar under Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India began from 26 April to 2 May, 2022. 14 states from different parts of India participated in this week long camp with over 200 NSS volunteers along with their Programme Officers (PO).

NSS is organizing the NIC since 1989 and this is for the first time the NIC was organized in the campus of Assam University. The NIC was organized on the patron of ‘Ek Bharat Shresth Bharat’ which was vividly witnessed in this week-long programme where participant volunteers hailing from different nook and corner of the country represented their culture, traditional attire, traditional dance and songs, food etc. NIC gave them the platform through which the volunteers along with their POs showcased their immense talent which made the 7 days long NIC vibrant and lively.

Various activities were conducted with the active participation from the NSS volunteers and POs during the NIC in the campus. Dignitaries hailing from different fields were invited to the programme to interact with the participants during the NIC. Dignitaries from Assam University were Prof. Rajive Mohan Pant(Vice-Chancellor of Assam University), Dr Pradosh Kiran Nath (Registrar of Assam University), Dipak Kumar (NE NSS Regional Director), Gopalji Mishra (Professor, Department of Social Work, Assam University), S.P.Chauhan (Professor, Department of Hindi), Gangabhushan M.Molankal (Professor, Department of Social Work and NSS Programme Coordinator), Professor A.Nataraju, (Dean School of Philosophy, Assam University), Dr.Satabisha Roy Choudhary (Medical Officer, Health Centre, Assam University) and other Professors from the campus.

Along with them, some visiting dignitaries were Debabrata Dutta (Administrative Officer, Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Silchar), Shantanu Paul (Director, Bhabikal), online session by Sandeep Kumar (motivational speaker Sandeep IAS academy, Delhi), Rajiv Gupta (DDMA Cachar Consultant), Dr. Rajiv Biswas (Blood Bank In Charge, SMCH), Vijay Pandit Prabhu (Hare Krishna Movement, Guwahati) and Brigadier Arun Uniyal (NSS GP Silchar).

Starting from physical exercises, which became the part and parcel of the camp, yoga session, interactive intellectual sessions conducted by Professors from different departments of Assam University along with other esteemed resource persons invited from different other organizations. The sessions conducted covered some crucial topics such as the concept of national integration and the importance of it, health and well-being, lifestyle diseases faced by youth and measures to prevent them, communication skills, self-defence mechanism, theatre education and how it can be used to promote social change, crisis management, youth and character building, role of youth in disaster risk management, blood donation and youth which is the lifeline of NSS, youth and elderly issues and generation gaps, yoga and well-being, youth and information technology.

These sessions were conducted throughout the 7-day programme where the importance of these were discussed in details and the role of youth in becoming the change of the nation was highlighted. Along with this,  the participants and the POs visited the Rosekandy tea estate where they interacted with the community people, tea estate managers which uplifted the entire NIC program with enthusiasm.

The highlight of the NIC was the cultural programme and recreational activities where volunteers from different parts of the country performed their traditional dance and song, poetry. The auditorium was filled with colours through the traditional attire of the participants and NIC gave them that platform where they very enthusiastically displayed their culture, tradition in front of others.

The motto of ‘Unity in diversity’ was truly witnessed where the participants from Rajasthan danced on the tune of Bihu wearing the traditional Assamese attire and the participants from Assam danced on the tune of Rajasthani folk song, Volunteers from Arunachal Pradesh imitating the steps on the tune of Garba, POs from different states performing traditional dance.

The enthusiasm was sky-high in these 7 days. NIC with the volunteers learning the true meaning of oneness and the motto of Ek Bharat Shresth Bharat was achieved in the real sense. Overall the programme became a grand success with active participants from the university staff, Regional director of NE NSS, VC of Assam University, Programme Officers and Programme Coordinator Prof.M Gangabhushan from Assam University and all the active NSS volunteers who represented 14 states.