KASARGOD: It was an unexpected feast for the eyes of students and visitors when physically challenged Karuthambu, who attended the inaugural ceremony of Central University of Kerala’s rural immersion camp, demonstrated bamboo basket making. He also trained them in the art, and they could make six baskets that could fetch Rs 200 each in the market. The villagers say they were not able to find markets these days and their living conditions are getting worse. The training aimed at mixing cultures of the rural and urban for mutual benefit.
The training was part of the two-day Rural Immersion Camp organised by the National Service Scheme Cell of the CUK at Angakkalari of Nileshwar Municipality here on February 24 and 25 highlighting the need to achieve sustainable development through a healthy immersion. Jithesh, the lone 22-year-old Endosulfan victim, was able to share his miserable experiences of not getting chances to go out and play football to the volunteers visited. He could foreground his plea for a 5-cent land granted by the government, but delayed due to the red-tapism.
As part of the camp, 33 NSS volunteers and ten programme officers of different higher education institutions in the state took up various activities to promote rural immersion to assess the grassroots level realities in those areas. The University’s NSS Cell coordinator Dur Iftikar Ahamed, Afsheer A. (research associate, IMG, Thiruvananthapuram), and Sreerag (PSW, Kerala) were the resource persons. The programme was formally inaugurated by Prof K.P. Jayarajan (chairperson, Nileshwar Municipality) at Angakkalari Vayal on Saturday. Dr Muralidharan Nambiar., CUK controller of examinations, presided over.
