Essay on “National Service Scheme(NSS) Day-September 24” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

National Service Scheme(NSS) Day-September 24

Essay No. 01

The National Service Scheme (NSS) was formally launched on 24^th September 1969. The Programme was started during the birth centenary year of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the Nation, who inspired the Indian youth to participate in the movement for Indian Independence and the social upliftment of the downtrodden masses. Every year 24^th September is celebrated as NSS Day with appropriate programs and activities.

At Present, there are 2.6 million student volunteers serving in 198 Universities, 9117 colleges, and 7542 higher secondary schools all over the country.

History of NSS

In India, the idea of involving students in the task of nation-building dates back to the times of Mahatma Gandhi. The first duty of the students should be, not to treat their period of study for indulging in intellectual activity, but to prepare themselves for final dedication, in the service of the society.

The University Grants Commission headed by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan recommended the introduction of national service in the academic institution on a voluntary basis with a view to develop healthy contents between the students and teachers on the one hand and establish a constructive link between the campus and the community on the other hand.

In 1958, the then Prime Minister Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru in his letter to the Chief Ministers mooted the idea of having social service as a pre-requisite for graduation and directed the Ministry of Education to formulate a suitable scheme for the introduction of national service in the academic institutions.

In 1959, a draft outline of the scheme was placed before the Education Minister‘s conference. The conference unanimously felt the urgent need for a workable scheme of national service to reconstruct the country.

To realize the objective of the scheme, it was decided to integrate social service with the educational process and led to the appointment of the National Service Committee under the leadership of Dr. C.D. Desmukh on August 28, 1959. The Committee recommended that national service for a period of nine months in a year be made compulsory for all students completing high school education and intending to enroll themselves in a college/university.

The Education Commission headed by Dr. D.S. Kothari (1964- 66) recommended that students at all stages of education should be associated with some form of social service. In April 1967, the State Education Ministers Conference recommended that at the University stage, students could be permitted to join the National Cadet Corps  (NCC) that was already in existence on a voluntary basis and an alternative could be offered in the form of a new program called the National Service  Scheme (NSS). On September 24, 1969, the then Union Minister Dr. V.K.R.V. Rao launched the NSS Programme.

The NSS aims at the involvement, mainly of undergraduate students, on a voluntary basis, in various activities of social serviced and national development, which, while making a contribution to socio-economic progress, would also provide opportunities to the students to understand and appreciate the problems of the students to understand and appreciate the problems of the communities, awaken social consciousness and inculcate in them the sense of dignity of labor.

Basics of NSS

NSS plays a vital role in the academic expansion. The spirit of selfless service is inculcated among the student and NSS Programme Officers through sustained community interactions. It is said that ‘Service to Man is Service to God’ and NSS provides opportunities for preparing the students for commitment in the service of the community and ultimately service to God.

Objectives

The main objective of NSS is the personality development of the students through community services.

The Specific Objectives are : 

• To provide a variety of learning experience
• To develop a sense of participation, service, and achievement among the volunteers
• To emphasize the dignity of labor and self – help and the need for combining physical work and intellectual perspectives
• To develop a sense of social and civic responsibility
• To develop the capacity to meet emergencies and national disaster
• To acquire leadership qualities and a democratic attitude
• To identify the needs and problems of the community and involve them in the problem-solving process
• To practice national integration and social harmony
• To encourage students and non-students to work together along with the adults in rural areas.

NSS Motto

The Motto or watched word of the NSS is ‘ Not Me But YOU’. This reflects the essence of democratic living and upholds the need for self-less service. It emphasizes that the welfare of an individual ultimately leads to the welfare of society.    

NSS Symbol

The symbol of NSS is based on the ‘Rath’ wheel of the Konark Sun temple of Orissa. The wheels represent the cycle of creation, preservation, and release and signify the movement in life across time and space. It also implies the continuous striving of volunteers for social transformation and upliftment.

NSS Badge

The NSS symbol is embossed on the NSS badge. The NSS volunteers wear it while undertaking various programs of community service. The right bars of the Konark Wheel represents 24 hours of the day. The red color indicates that the volunteers are full of blood i.e., lively, active, energetic, and full of high spirit. The navy blue color stands for the cosmos of which the NSS is a tiny part, ready to contribute it’s for the welfare of mankind.

Duration

Two years

Composition of NSS Unit

One NSS unit consists of 100 student volunteers led by a teacher In-Charge called “NSS Programme Officer”

Approach

NSS attempts to establish meaningful  linkages between

• Campus and Community
• College and Villages
• Knowledge and action

Training Centers

• Fourteen Training and Orientation Center (TOC)
• Four Training Orientation & Research Centers (TORC)

Liaison and coordination

Each state has a liaison cell to monitor the NSS program in the state. Ministry o Youth Affairs has 15 Regional Center to guide and help the states and universities in NSS program implementation.

Funding

• Joint funding by the center and the states in the ratio
• Full funding by center for union territories and J& K state

NSS Activities

NSS activities have been divided into two major groups. These are regular activities and a special camping program. 

(1) Regular Activities

NSS volunteers undertake various activities in adopted villages and in college campuses for community service, during weekends or after college hours. Each volunteer should take part in regular activities for 120 hours per year. Regular activities are grouped under the following three major heads.

a)Orientation: Each student who joins NSS has to undergo an orientation in the NSS program for 30 hours to get the basic knowledge about the history and growth of the NSS programme, aims, objectives, and other basic concepts of NSS. During the orientation. They also develop program skills, which are essential for community work and completion of NSS duties. The orientation can be done through lectures, discussions, field visits, and  Audiovisual aids.

1. b) Campus Work: The NSS Volunteers may be involved in the projects undertaken for the benefit of the institution and students concerned. Such a project covers the development of the playground. Maintenance of gardens, tree plantation in the college premises, awareness prgorammes on drug abuse. AIDS, health, population education, etc. the purpose of the campus projects is to motivate the volunteers for manual work and instill dignity of labor. The NSS Volunteers may work on-campus projects for not exceeding 20 hours in a year.
2. c) Community Service outside the College Campus: Since NSS has made efforts to link the campus with the community. the remaining 70 hours has to be utilized for community service on the projects, in adopted villages independently or in collaboration, with voluntary organizations.

2) Special Camping Programme

Special camping forms an integral part of NSS. It has a special appeal to the youth as it provides unique opportunities to the students for group- living, collective experience sharing, and constant integration with the community. the camp provides an opportunity to live and work together harmoniously with groups of students drawn from different areas, different castes, social religious, and language groups. It provides an experience in mutual adjustment and adaption to new, changing, and challenging situations. It helps in developing student’s qualities like character, courage, confidence, comradeship, decision –making, democratic attitudes, resourcefulness, objectivity, and leadership.

Themes of Special Camps

A Camp of 10day duration is conducted every year in an adopted village /slum on specific them is given by the ministry.

Sl. No         Year                             Themes

1                 2                                              3

1. 1973-74                Youth Against Famine
2. 1974-75                Youth Against Dirt & Disease
3. 1975-76              1)Youth Against Dirt & Disease

                                      2) Youth for forestation  & tree Plantation

4.  1976-77 to 1980-8  1 Youth for Rural Reconstruction

5   1981-82 to 1982-83     Youth for Eco-Development Youth for Rural  Reconstruction

6. 1983-84 to 198788 Youth for Eco-Development Youth for Rural reconstruction Youth for Better Environment
7. 1988-89                     Youth for Development
8. 1989-90 to 1992-93  Youth for Mass Programme on Functional Literacy 
9. 1993-94 to 1994-95 Youth for National Integration
10. 1995-96 to 1998-99 Youth for Sustainable Development
11. 1999-00                      Youth for Healthy Society
12. 200-01 to 2001-02 Youth for Greenery
13. 2002-03                     Youth for Water Resource Management 
14. 2003-04                     Youth for  Cleanliness
15. 2004-05 to 2005-06 Youth for Recharging Water Resources
16. 2006-07                    Healthy Youth for Healthy India

Current Initiatives

• NSS launched a sensitization campaign on AIDS awareness popularly known as “Universities Talk AIDS” (UTA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare in all 174 universities all over & country.
• Seventeen Lifestyle Education Centers have been established to orient youth towards Planned Parenthood and a healthy lifestyle.
• More than 7,000 NSS Programme Officers and 55,000 Peer Educators have been trained on AIDS Education
• 5,820 colleges of higher learning and +2 level institutions have been declared AIDS Aware with more than 5.6 million student population.
• WHO headquarters. Geneva has termed UTA as an innovative educational Intervention. A National level quarterly Newsletter “ YOUTOPIA” is also published regularly.
• NSS is striving to make NSS the third dimension of higher education. NSS is working for the integrated development of adopted villages and slums through its regular and special camping programs. This will develop youth to make the fruits of education and technology reaches the weaker sections of the society.

Essay No. 02

National Service Scheme

The Indian youth is accused of being impatient, undisciplined, disrespectful to the elders, and irresponsible towards society and authority. It was felt that to curb these tendencies the youth required to be motivated in nation-building activities and made responsive to the social concerns.

For this purpose, the National Service Scheme (NSS) was introduced in 1969. Its main aim was to involve the students of the colleges and +2 level on a voluntary and selective basis in programs of social services and developmental activities. Gradually it was adopted by all the states and union territories. Today it covers more than 5000 colleges all over the country. Under this scheme, rural and slum reconstruction, repair of roads, school buildings, ponds, tanks, plantation of trees, environment protection, health, and family planning, and education of adults and women are undertaken. The NSS students aid local authorities in implementing various relief and rehabilitation schemes. In times of natural calamities like famines, floods, droughts, epidemics, and earthquakes volunteers helped by NSS students play a very positive and constructive role. It instills in them the spirit of social service and the sense of responsibility.

The tribal youth are given vocational training under a special scheme to enable them to become self-employed. Then, there are youth hostels set up all over the country to provide cheap accommodation to the youth to inspire them into undertaking educational tours and excursions to visit the cultural and historic sites to revisit our glorious past. 446 Nehru Yuvak Kendras strewn around the country provide vocational training to non-student rural youth and improve their personality. ‘Bharat Scouts and Guides’ and ‘All India Boy Scouts Association’ are teaching Indian youth the importance of loyalty and goodwill for others under the International scouting and guiding movement.