Visit of student competition ambassadors to Innovation House, Pabal

Action is the source of education. That’s why team TFS (Tech For Seva) decides to see some action. The team planned a visit to ‘Vigyaan Ashram’, situated at Pabal in Shirurtaluka of Pune District. Along with 40 student ambassadors, 10 volunteers from different colleges and institutes in Pune, boarded the bus for a 70km journey to ‘Innovation house’.Thepursose behind this visit was to understand why the student competition TFS is being held and to trigger the brains of the youth for benefit of rural India.

Rightly as the name suggests, ‘Vigyaan Ashram’ is a home for every one who can relate to science. The students here come from rural and remote areas, usually school dropouts. One of the teachers said “Our students are like Hanuman, they have very powerful brains, it’s just that they need to be reminded of their power”.

There are various departments like electronics, mechanical, food technology, food processing and testing, agriculture, etc. There is a FABLAB which is a collection of commercially available machines and parts linked by software and processes MIT(USA) has developed for making things. Goal of the Fab Labs is to find solutions to some of the most pressing problems the world faces today through distributed research network. Some of the innovative projects developed at Vigyaan Ashram include bicycle powered LED lights, Egg incubators, solar systems, various machines for cutting, drying and processing local fruits.

The courses offered not only polish the technical skills of students but also develop in them a sense of entrepreneurship. In his conversation with the volunteers the director of Vigyaan Ashram ,Yogesh Kulkarni says ”we only train students , the success and prosperity that follows is the credit of students”. Students also learn the techniques of goat farming, fish farming, poultry farming, etc

Founder Dr. Kalbag had said “I believe intelligence is developed and not inherited. Activity based thinking is the source of intelligence”. Ashram aims at replicating similar projects in every school. Dr. Kalbag’s invention is the educational system that integrates education and development, that is close to the real everyday life and which costs so little to implement. His vision is to see this invention spread all over India in all the schools.
Indeed it is a great inspiration to see the youth there who are deprived of all the luxuries, invent and contribute to the society.

-Neha Shaah
Cummins College of Engineering for Women,Pune