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About

About National Service Scheme

 

The National Service Scheme (NSS) is an Indian government-sponsored public service program conducted by the Department of Youth Affairs and Sports of the Government of India. Popularly known as NSS, the scheme was launched in Gandhiji's Centenary year, 1969. Aimed at developing student's personality through community service, NSS is a voluntary association of young people in Colleges, Universities and at +2 level working for a campus-community linkage

 

Motto

The Motto of NSS is "Not Me but You", that reflects the essence of democratic living and upholds the need for selfless service. The philosophy of the NSS is well doctrinein this motto, which underlines the belief that the welfare of an individual is ultimately dependent on the welfare of the society on the whole and therefore, the NSS volunteers shall strive for the well-being of the society.

 

History

The National Service Scheme (NSS) is Central Government sponsored programme falls under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Jawaharlal Nehru as first Prime Minister of post-independent India played a very important role in introducing NSS in academic institutions. NSS was launched in Mahatma Gandhi’s Birth Centenary Year 1969, in 37 Universities involving 40,000 students. Mahatma Gandhi always insisted the idea that students and youth should be involved in the nation building process and service to the nation. He suggested that instead of undertaking academic research about economic and social disability, the students should do “something positive so that the life of the villagers might be raised to a higher material and moral level”. Gandhiji insisted that the first duty of the students should be, not to treat their period of study as one of the opportunities for indulgence in intellectual luxury, but for preparing themselves for final dedication in the service of those who provided the sinews of the nation with the national goods & services so essential to society. Therefore, fostering social responsibility, inculcating dedication, commitment to solving social problems and developing personality through community service are the main aims of NSS. Today NSS has grown as one of the biggest social service institution and youth movement in the world with more than 38 lakhs of dedicated volunteers all over the country till 2016.

 

 

Objectives

 

The broad objectives of NSS are to:

1. Understand the community in which they work

2. Understand themselves in relation to their community;

3. Identify the needs and problems of the community and involve them in problem

Solving process;

4. Develop among them a sense of social and civic responsibility;

5. Utilize their knowledge in finding practical solution to individual and community

Problems;

6. Develop competence required for group living and sharing of responsibilities;

7. Gain skills in mobilizing community participation;

8. Acquire leadership qualities and democratic attitude;

9. Develop capacity to meet emergencies and natural disasters and

10. Practice national integration and social harmony.

 

Symbol

The symbol for the NSS has been based on the giant Rath Wheel of the world famous Konark Sun Temple (The Black Pagoda) situated in Orissa, India. The wheel portrays the cycle of creation, preservation and release and signifies the movement in life across time and space. The symbol thus stands for continuity as well as change and implies the continuous striving of NSS for social change.

 

Organization

At national level, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of India is the nodal authority, which works with state-level NSS cells. State-level NSS cells are responsibility of the respective state governments. Within states, each university has University level NSS cell under which institutions (schools and colleges) based NSS units operate. Most government and government-aided institutions have volunteer NSS units. Institutions are encouraged to have NSS volunteers. A unit typically comprises 20–40 students. They are managed internally by a responsible party from the school or college, who reports to the regional NSS coordinator. Most institutions do not have a separate uniform for NSS volunteers as there is standard khakhi colored national dress for NCC.

 

NSS Badge

The NSS symbol is embossed on the NSS badge. The NSS volunteers wear it while undertaking any programme of community service. The Konark wheel in the symbol has eight bars which represent the 24 hours of the day. Hence, the badge reminds the wearer to be in readiness for service of the nation round the clock i.e. for 24 hours. The red colour in the badge indicates that the NSS volunteers are full of blood i.e. lively, active, energetic and full of high spirit. The navy blue colour indicates the cosmos of which the NSS is a tiny part, ready to contribute its share for the welfare of the humankind.

 

NSS Day

NSS was formally launched on 24th September, 1969, the birth centenary year of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation. Therefore, 24th September is celebrated every year as NSS Day with appropriate programmes and activities.

 

NSS Song

During Silver Jubilee Year 1994 the NSS theme song has been composed. All NSS volunteers are expected to learn the theme song, which is given to them and sing the song during NSS programmes and celebrations. 

 

 

 

Special Emphasis by UGC for Expanding NSS at Post-graduate Level

 

In 2013 UGC sent letter to all the universities strictly instructing to expand the activities of NSS, one of the flagship programmes of Department of Youth Affairs, to post graduate level. The UGC letter pointed out that NSS, a programme aimed at “education through social service”, in the review of Department of Youth Affairs revealed that the scheme has enormous potential to strengthen knowledge, develop capacity and skill of students in a number of social, economic and development areas. UGC also proposed that NSS volunteers should be adequately rewarded for the selfless service rendered by them. UGC requested the universities “to recognize the NSS as a co-curricular activity under the credit based semester scheme for both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and consider giving grace marks for admission to graduate and postgraduate levels.” UGC also instructed the Universities to include a course on NSS in the curriculum. The sample syllabus for the same also distributed to universities as guidelines.

 

The programme aims to inculcate social welfare in students, and to provide service to society without bias. NSS volunteers work to ensure that everyone who is needy gets help to enhance their standard of living and lead a life of dignity. In doing so, volunteers learn from people in villages how to lead a good life despite a scarcity of resources. It also provides help in natural and man-made disasters by providing food, clothing and first aid to the disaster victims.

 

 

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.