St. Mira's College For Girls, Pune

Department of NSS - National Unity Day Celebration and Vigilance Awareness Campaign,26th October 2021 to 31st October 2021

The Department of NSS had organized the following activities to mark the Birth Anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

Short Film Screening - To celebrate The National Unity Day which falls on 31st October 2021, the NSS volunteers were given information on the great contribution made by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel during India’s freedom struggle and more importantly on accepting the challenging task after India’s independence of re-organising 560 princely states and amalgamating them into the nation of independent India in order to unite it in the real sense. Keeping the same spirit of unity in mind, the volunteers were shown a short film ‘Anekta Main Ekta’ highlighting the importance of overcoming challenges by staying united. 47 students participated for this film screening.

Display of Books - The College Library had also organised a book exhibition on the occasion of National Unity Day displaying books on Sardar Patel and his contributions encouraging students to read more on the contribution of the Iron Man of India.

Vigilance Awareness Week - Short film screening - Based on this year’s theme ‘Independent India @75: Self Reliance with Integrity’ - 3 short films were screened as a part of Vigilance Awareness Campaign on the theme where students were given information about corruption and most importantly how to stop corruption, whom to contact if we find such cases. An awareness was created to show how important it is to clean the systems of India as well. 47 students and teachers were present.

Integrity Pledge - Students and staff members took the pledge for Integrity and committed to uphold highest standards of honesty and integrity and to follow the rule of law in all the walks of life. Total 525 students and teachers took this pledge as a part of the Vigilance Awareness Campaign.

Department of NSS - Inauguration Program – 28th October2021

Under the guidance of the NSS Department, SPPU,St Mira’s College for Girls organised the NSS Inauguration Program on 28th October2021. The webinar was held on Google Meet platform and 50 NSS volunteers participated in the meeting. The event began in the presence of Principal in charge, Dr.Jaya Rajagopalan and the Vice Principal Dr.Shalini Iyer.The guest speaker for the event was Dr.Savita Kulkarni, who is the Pune District Co-ordinator of NSS- her contribution towards NSS activities is very admirable.The event began with a prayer by Vasudha and a bhajan sung by Bhavika, invoking the blessings of God and our revered founder Sadhu Vaswani and Guru Dada Vaswani. After that, the anchor of the event, Laksaya, played the NSS anthem and the university song for all.Yashashree introduced the speaker Dr.Savita Kulkarni highlighting her contribution towards NSS. Shortly after,the annual report of NSS’s activities during the academic year of 2020-2021 was presentedthrough a video made by Kanishka.Tree plantation,best out of waste, cleanliness drive and the Covid Resource Students Association work during the pandemic were a few of the activities which were appreciated by the Speaker as well. After that,Dr.Savita started talking about how NSS shapes one’s personality and makes them a responsible citizen.She also talked about her personal experiences related to NSS and how those little things changed her and moulded her into the person that she has become today.Some other things that were mentioned by her were how NSS exposes an individual to lots of opportunities and how it makes a person disciplined. The session ended with a question-answer for the students and the experiences they have had with NSS. This was followed by the Vote of Thanks given by fellow NSS volunteer,Harshita. A lot of NSS volunteers came together and worked behind the scenes to make the event a success.

Eliminating Plastic – Panel Discussion

The Green Club and the NSS Department of St. Mira’s College for Girls held a Panel Discussion on 25th June 2021 between 10am to 11am on Google Meet.

The dialogue began withthe introducing of the topic- Miss Shannon R talked about what goes around comes around. Ocean throws garbage (created by us ) back to us, so it is our collective responsibility to reduce garbage as much as possible. Miss Rakhi pointed out that it takes about 4000 years for plastic to degrade, hence we should say “No” to use of polythene bags. Miss Namrata Datta added to this discussion regarding reusable H20 bottle plus cloth bags- At present, our plastic use is choking us and we as change-makers need determination to bring about the change. Miss Maitrayee Sangitraohighlighted how everywhere plastics are used right from makeup to spectacles. She concluded by asking audience these questions- Do we need it, is it necessary? We must decide how much plastic to be used in everyday life.

Miss GauriRaje stated that change begins at home- we must adopt zero plastic-basedlifestyle, however challenging it is. She gave examples of using bamboo brush, upcycling old clothes, not to cut plastic pouches completely,encouraged to reuse menstrual cups. Miss Saloni Khullar spoke about human beings at our best are extremely creative, she added to switch to ink pens, cut gel pens can be used as beads, plastic stand of pens stuck together etc. Miss Annmariya said that plastic creates scarcity of land , alternative is use metal straw. Miss Kajal Yadavcoaxed all to buy bigger bottles to avoid using more of plastic consumption. Miss Riya Pawar spoke about how plastic tiffin boxes can be reused as a jewellery boxes, use cloth flowers, use paper cups,etc. Miss Anushka said that living a simple life is not easy but everyone can do it. Miss Aariya Parve shared here ideas of the various means to cut down plastic such as use of paper glasses, wire hangers etc.

Audience participation showed an overwhelming response to this discussion. Miss Kanishka informed to use steel items for milk cans. Miss Nivedita Sahoo suggested use of and wooden items in the kitchen. Miss Shannon encouraged audience to use cotton based sanitary towels, use metals instead of paper because trees are being harmed, use paper bags which are made out of newspapers. Miss Rajni Singh,inhouse faculty said that be responsible consumers, make producers to rethink the use of plastic material for packaging and at the end, Miss Gauri discussed the taboo relating to Menstrual cups.

The discussion ended with a conclusion by Miss Sandhya Pandit and Miss Manjita Kulkarni,inhouse faculty. Last but not the least an appeal was made for everyone to work together to “Save Mother Earth” and refuse to use plastic toeliminate plastic.

Department of NSS - Shiv Swarajya Din – 6th June 2021

St Mira’s College for Girls, Pune NSS Department organized the Shiv Swarajya Din on 6th June 2021.This historic day of Shiv Rajyabhishek Din was celebrated in Maharashtra todayto mark the coronation day of the great Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. It was on this day in the year 1674 when Shivaji Maharaj was crowned as the Chhatrapati of the Maratha Kingdom. NSS volunteers, the teachers and the non-teaching staff all enthusiastically participated in this celebration.

NSS PO, Dr. Sandhya Pandit introduced the session by paying homage to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and informing the audience about his true greatness. Dr. Pandit also shared the significance of celebrating this event with the students.

Following activities were undertaken to mark this day:

1. 2 Videos were shown to the students – One video was shown to payHomage to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

2. The second video was shown to pay tribute to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj by sharing with the audience the Leadership Lessons one can learn from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Leadership skills are required by both students and professionals for their careers. This was very well appreciated by everyone.

3. Later, a short film on ‘Fort Raigad’ – was shown to create awareness on the importance of the strategic location of this fort and its significance as the capital of the Maratha kingdom under Shivaji Maharaj.

4. This was followed by a live telecast of the Shiv Swarajya Din Sohala organised by COEP, Pune which was attended by esteemed dignitaries of the Government of Maharashtra.

The programme ended with the Maharashtra Geet and the National Anthem being played to pay our respect to our State and our Country to which we proudly belong. This programme was conducted online following all Covid-19 protocols. In all,there were 65 participants comprising 45volunteers, 17Teachers and 3 Non-teaching Staff e.

Department of NSS - World Environment Day – 5th June 2021

St Mira’s College for Girls, Pune NSS Department organized the World Environment Day Awareness Program – 2021 on 5th June 2021in association with the Jeevit Nadi Foundation.

The United Nations (UN) celebrates 'World Environment Day’ on 5th June every year globally.World Environment Day is celebrated with the aim of taking positive steps to protect the environment from polluting the earth and to inspire people around the world in this direction.

NSS PO, Dr. Sandhya Pandit introduced the session by sharing the objectives of celebrating this event with the students. NSS PO, Ms. Manjita Kulkarni conducted the programme and offered the concluding remarks.

Following activities were undertaken to mark this day:

1. 2 Videos were shown to the students – One video was by the Jeevit Nadi Foundation – ‘The Story of a River’. Since this river is in Pune it created awareness among the students of how important it is to keep the river clean for protecting the biodiversity of this city. The second video was on ‘Importance of Tree Plantation’ – shown to create awareness on the importance of Oxygen against the background of the Covid-19 Pandemic. – 42 students participated in this.

2. NSS volunteers also shared their initiatives on saving the environment through a discussion in the end.Bhavika Naik shared her way of contributing to saving the environment. She said, “I have started using a menstrual cup from last week since a sanitary pad takes more than 500 years to decompose and approximately one woman uses about 10000 pads in her entire life. This is my small contribution😊”.

3. Vaishnavi Kshirsagar shared the idea of planting a tree on the birthdays of each family member. She has so far planted 300 trees in her garden and also planted one more on this occasion to mark World Environment Day.

4. Teaching and Non-teaching Staff were encouraged to clean their emails – for this a post shared by Bhavika, an NSS volunteer was forwarded to them to help them realise the necessity of deleting unnecessary emails which contribute to polluting the environment. – We reached 50 staff members through this post.

The program ended with Dr. Pandit sharing 8 Helpful Ways of Saving the Environment with the volunteers.