Naya Daur - a new beginning

This is the brief description of one of my projects in Shell, this is not only aimed at benefitting worker and society, but also helping them them to help us (Employer). The video for the same is uploaded on Youtube, click here to see it.
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Maintaining safety standards have always been challenging at any construction sites and India is no exception. This is primarily due to the lack of awareness and deeper understanding of safety risks by workers on the ground, most of whom have a reactive approach rather than a proactive mindset.

With this in mind, Shell Technology India (STI) has initiated various activities at the Shell Bangalore Laboratories (SBL) site to address these challenges. This includes Hearts & Minds notices and posters in local languages, Tool Box Talks (TBT), role plays, detailed safety briefings and many others.

However, it was soon noticed that in addition to proactive measures to engage the workers on matters related to their job, many of them required exposure to soft skills. In India, a typical construction worker at a Shell site could be an illiterate migrant, unaware of his rights and having an indiscreet attitude towards life. Hence, this thought was explored and it further evolved to become the foundation on which Naya Daur was conceptualized, with a programme that emphasized on how ‘education and basic life skills’ can bring about a change in life.

Naya Daur, which means a new beginning in Hindi, is a Shell Technology India (STI) initiative that focuses on imparting basic literacy and life-skills education to the underprivileged workforce, directly or indirectly working for the organisation. This initiative aims to make great strides in the journey towards Goal Zero by reaching out and raising the lowest common denominator of the society, thereby helping them help us.

The first Naya Daur programme was for 45 days, with regular 90-minute sessions after work at the SBL site. Writing one’s name, combating social ills like substance abuse and dowry, awareness sessions on environment, health, hygiene and family planning, importance of goal setting, savings, education and effective communication, and building self-confidence were some of the subjects that the Naya Daur programme taught its participants. These modules were taught using the conventional medium of textbooks along with demonstrations, interactive role plays, live examples, case studies, games and quizzes, which further helped register the learnings in a more effective manner.

During the course of the programme, punctuality and merit rewards were given to keep participants motivated. They were also asked to give daily Tool Box Talks to boost their confidence and morale when addressing fellow workers and staff, at the same time inspiring more people to take advantage of the programme. The end of the programme saw a well-informed and confident participant emerge who in turn became an efficient, effective and productive worker at the SBL site.

Ad de Visscher, Bangalore Technology Centre Manager, said: “People began to notice apparent behavioral changes in the participants. They were more confident, became responsible for personal safety and hygiene, and introduced their peers and family to what they learnt. Supervisors saw increased efficiency due to better communication, and improved alertness and responsiveness to instructions. Naya Daur helped participants help us keep our high HSSE standards in place at all times on the construction site.”

To remain sustainable, the programme aims at infusing the right sentiment in people and the environment by creating awareness amongst the underprivileged and the privileged sections of the society.
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Pre and After Effects - Diwali

Diwali, festival of light, celebrated as an end of evil as per ancient India mythology, where people are encouraged to overcome and burn the devil within them.

In today's world, a new thing has got attached to this festival. The tradition of playing/bursting fire crackers. What is Fire Cracker ?
Fire Cracker (n) - a monsted that kills human, before during and after its life.

Given the situation of labors in India, where 'safe working' culture is an Alien, the fire cracker manufacturing industry is no less than a man-eater machine. On top of that most of the employees there are children, making them more susceptible to mistakes and accidents in absence of able supervision.

Next when these fire cracker move out of the factory shed, they are literally the bombs traveling on our roads and stored in our neighbourhood (shops), again eats up humans at every other chance.

Now when they are actually used by end customer, they cause enormous amount of Air and Sound pollution. And thats not the end, careless handling and unsupervised used by kids cause innumerable fire incidents.

And on top of everything, all this does not come for free, we pay under our nose to buy this monster to come into our life and cause destruction in myriad ways.

Thing that puzzles me is that without a single plus point coming out of bursting fife crackers, we madly love to indulge in them. Why are we so poor in recognizing what is good and bad for us ? How many more lives come to an end before we develop some common sense ? Where are we missing the point ? What needs to be taught at school to overcome this ignorance ?

I definitely know that there are religious sentiments linked to this, but there are valid and logical justifications to part our ways from the mindless consumption of fire crackers. It just needs a kick-start, and maybe its you and me who have to take the first step.

An ideal Diwali would be full of lights everywhere,with no clouds of smoke, no deafning noise, no fire accidents, loads of good food and sweet around with positive vibes.....aint it good ? or is it too much to ask for ?

I am personally staying away from it, but I haven't still figured out how to take people with me.