DEROZIO MEMORIAL COLLEGE

BEST PRACTICE-I

Pioneering A Positive Change: Empowering Girl Students And Motivating Them To Tread The Path of Equity

Objective of the Practice:

1. To provide quality education to girl students and eradicate gender discrimination in all forms 
2. To help girl students overcome the limitations posed by the socio-cultural and economic hurdles to them
3. To ensure access to education thus turning the girl students into confident individuals. 
4. To help them evolve as independent and assertive human beings who can contribute significantly to the society at large. 

The Context:

West Bengal is known for being a home to significant population of several communities. However, due to diverse factors, academic and basic education opportunities for girls are quite limited. Derozio Memorial College has been committed to fostering inclusivity and enabling more girls in higher education to ensure a society of equal standards. 

The Practice:

1. Scholarship programmes- OASIS, Aikyashree and Kanyashree Scholarship with specific nodal officers.
2. Several courses to empower girls in employment sector 
3. To make them aware of their rights and  roles of Women’s Cell and Anti-Sexual Harassment Cell 
4. Special lectures on women's health 
5. Girl students  pivotal in the NCC and NSS activities of college
6. Virangana workshops for women safety and defence 
7. Lecture series with special emphasis on women’s issues and contribution of women in various spheres to encourage girl students
8. Celebration of International Women’s Day 
9. Movie screening to showcase empowerment of women 
10. Safety and security of girl students through 24x7 CCTV monitoring of the campus.
11. Providing emotional support and guidance on issues like mental health, personal challenges and career advice to the girl students of the college.

Evidence of Success:

1. A significant number of girls enrol for scholarships which ensure economic liberty to them to pursue education. 
2. Girls students of NSS Units have participated in various programmes like Tree Plantation, Awareness programmes on Bank fraud, Thalassemia, AIDS. NSS is actively dedicated in several community services and cultural events.
3. The Beautician Course provides female students with vocational training. This training is a component of our larger initiative to support female financial independence and entrepreneurship. Women entrepreneurship is also promoted through handicraft exhibitions.
4. Orientation programme for girl candidates has been of pivotal importance in letting them know about Grievance Redressal Cell, Women’s Cell and Anti-Sexual Harassment Cell.
5. To promote menstrual hygiene, a sanitary napkin vending machine has been installed with clear notifications at the library door. 
6. Gender Sensitization Lecture Series educates students on gender issues, stereotypes, and biases. 
7. Several girl students have opted for higher education after attaining college degree while many have joined the job sector.

Problems Encountered and Resources Required:

1. Scarcity of basic educational services in marginalized communities is a grave problem. We, as stakeholders of a higher institution, have planned for social outreach programmes to address this issue.
2. With resources a separate hostel for women is also the need of the hour. 

BEST PRACTICE 2

Greenery as a Space for Healthy Living and Ecological Balance: Awareness and Sustainability of the Environment

Objective: 

1. To promote holistic approach towards maintaining eco-friendly environment and sustainability along with skill enhancement 
2. To inculcate amongst students a sense of responsibility to preserve flora and ecological balance and keep the environment pollution-free and green
3. To inculcate a multidisciplinary approach in teaching-learning 

Context:

• The campus boasts flowering garden, medicinal plant pockets, kitchen garden and boundary trees which are effective teaching learning tools, employed particularly by the Departments of Botany and Zoology to prepare herbarium sheet and make survey of butterfly diversity. 
• To make indigenous compost, dead plant debris are gathered and biodegradable solid wastes are collected from the bins and used accordingly.
• Used plastic bottles are stored in non-biodegradable solid waste bins.
• Need for plant preservation and Tagore’s concept of nature are correlated, thus encouraging an interdisciplinary approach. 

Practice:

• Floral richness in green campus

Major plants are tagged with their local and scientific names. Weedy plant species are used as samples for herbarium sheet preparation by the Department of Botany. Butterflies are documented by students of the Department of Zoology. Plastic bottles are sorted for plantation after cutting and soil filling. Plantation ceremony is practised every year. 

• Lush Green cover on playground

Mowing the grass, weeding and maintaining the green playground are practised.

• Botanical concepts in Rabindranath Tagore's lyrics

The knowledge extracted about plants of the campus garden by understanding metaphors embedded in Tagore’s lyrics, enhance understanding of botanical concepts with greater enthusiasm.   

• Cleanliness Drive and Pollution Free Green Environment

Students actively participate in cleaning classrooms and surroundings every year to ensure ‘Swacch Campus’. 

Evidence of Success:

• Floral 

Green campus model was displayed by B-Voc students in Environmental fair. Last field record of floral survey within the college campus shows nearly 200 plants of about 35 species (30% increment within five years). Plastic bottles used as plantation pots increase greenery of the campus, promote sustainability and control non-biodegradable pollution of the environment. Students are provided with hands-on training in skill enhancement courses like floriculture. Bio-fertilizers produced in-house play an important role in self recycling method of composting system and promote sustainability. Students distribute young seedlings to adjacent localities ensuring community participation and promotion of greenery outside campus. 

• Lush Green cover on playground

• Botanical concepts and Tagore

A search of Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry/songs in the college’s central library with the help of N-List and OPAC has revealed citation of Rangoon Creeper (Madhumanjaree). An inter-disciplinary approach has been promoted through official documentation of Tagore’s songs and relating those with botanical concepts which encourages a multifaceted and holistic teaching-learning exercise.

Problems Encountered and Resources Required:

• Absence of natural waterbody in college is a problem encountered by the students of the Departments of Zoology and Botany. Practical topics like study of photosynthesis, water quality analysis, study of local fish and aquatic plant diversity demand a natural waterbody. In this context both the departments have discussed with college authority to build a waterbody in the college premises. 
• Butterfly diversity of an area is inseparably related with larval food plant and nectaring plant diversity, which are mostly local shrubs. Those plants are to be grown more in college garden.