National Green Corps

A. Proforma for Schools
B. Proforma for District Implementation and Monitoring Committee
C. Proforma for State Nodal Agency

7. Contact Persons in the Ministry of Environment and Forests

1. Overview

We all know that we are part of the environment we live in. And the solution to many environmental problems lie in our attitude towards environment. Be it awareness to keep our surroundings clean or the realisation to conserve natural resources by re-using and recycling wherever possible, they all are attitudinal. On the surface it looks simple. But changing the attitudes of 100 crore people is not going to happen overnight. The best way to attempt to bring about a change in the attitudes in the society is through children. They have no vested interests. They are impressionable. They are our future. They are the single most important influence in any family. With this realisation the Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India has decided to launch the National Green Corps Progarnme (NGC) in all Districts of our vast country.

OBJECTIVES

• To make children understand environment and environmental problems.
• To provide environmental education opportunities for school children.
• To utilise the unique position of school children as conduits for awareness of the society at large.
• To facilitate children's participation in decision making in areas related to environment & development.
• To bring children into direct contact with the environmental problems facing the society they live in and make them think of solutions.
• To involve children in action based programmes related to environment in their surroundings.

COVERAGE

The NGC programme will be implemented in all the States and Union Territories in the country.

MEMBERSHIP

• About 100 schools in every district in the country.
• This will include all the Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas and all other schools under CBSE and ICSE.

METHODOLOGY

• The scheme will be operated through Eco-clubs to be formed in member schools.
• Each such club will have 30-50 children, who show interest in environment related issues.
• Each Eco-club will be supervised by a Teacher In-charge, who is selected from among the teachers of the member school on the basis of his/her interest in environment related issues.
• Each Eco-club will be provided with a kit of resource material in the language of their preference apart from a token monetary grant of Rs. 1000/- per annum for organising different activities (Please see the suggested list of activities)
• There will be District Implementation and Monitoring Committee to supervise, organise training for In-charge teachers, and monitor periodically the implementation of scheme at the District level.
• There will be a State Steering Committee to oversee the implementation of the scheme.
• The State Nodal Agency will coordinate the implementation of the scheme in the State and organize related activities like training to Master Trainers.
• The National Steering Committee will give overall direction to the programme and ensure linkages at all levels.

SELECTION OF PARTICIPANTS

All Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas and all other schools under CBSE and ICSE. About 100 schools in each district under the respective State/UT boards. The schools must be preferably of secondary and senior secondary level. In the districts, where it is difficult to find 100 secondary and senior secondary level schools, upper primary schools can be selected. Those schools who have prior experience in running Eco-clubs or other environmental related programmes would be given preference.

SELECTION OF MASTER TRAINERS

From each district, the District Implementation and Monitoring Committee would select one or two Master Trainers. They can be from among the In-charge teachers of selected schools. They would be first trained at the State Capital. They in turn would train In-charge teachers in the District.

FINANCE

(a) Financial Assistance

1. Each school with an Eco-club would be given an annual financial assistance of Rs. 1000k. The student members of the Eco-club and In-charge teacher would decide on using the sum for their activities in consultation with the Principal/Head Master.
2. The State Nodal Agency would be given 5% of total annual expenditure on the scheme in that State towards administrative expenses. The money could be used towards stationary, postage and other expenses.
3. For selection, printing and distribution of locally relevant resource material, the Nodal Agency would be given a financial assistance at the rate of Rs. 50 per Eco-club.
4. For organising the training of Master Trainers, the Nodal Agency would be given a financial assistance at the rate of Rs. 990/- per master-trainer. (It would be calculated at the rate of 1.6 Master Trainers per district.)
5. For organising the training of In-charge teachers, the Nodal Agency would be given a financial assistance at the rate of Rs. 335/- per In-charge teacher.
6. The State Resource Agency would be given 3% of total annual expenditure on the scheme in the State as their honorarium. The sum includes travel expenses and other administrative expenditure. No other financial assistance would be given to the Resource Agency for their assistance in the implementation of the scheme.

(b) Fund-flow mechanism

1. Except for the funds meant for Resource Agency where the money would be directly released, all other funds would be routed through the State Nodal Agency.
2. First installment of financial assistance released to the State Nodal Agency would consist of :
   • 100% funds meant for selection, printing and distribution of locally relevant resource material.
   • 100% funds meant for training of Master Trainers.
   • 100% funds meant for training of In-charge teachers.
   • 50% of funds meant for financial assistance to Ecoclubs.
3. Second installment would be released after the training for In-charge teachers is completed and resource material is distributed to Eco-clubs. After adjusting the first installment against actual expenditure, up to 30% of funds meant for financial assistance to Eco-clubs would be released. Final installment would be released subsequently.
4. The funds meant for State Resource Agency would be released directly to the agency.

ACTIVITIES

LIST OF SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES FOR ECO-CLUBS

• Organise seminars, debates, lectures and popular talks on environmental issues in the school.
• Field visits to environmentally important sites including polluted and degraded sites, wildlife parks etc.
• Organise rallies, marches, human chains, and street theater at public places with a view to spread environmental awareness.
• Action based activities like tree plantation, cleanliness drives both within and out side the school campus.
• Grow kitchen gardens, maintain vermi-composting pits, construct water-harvesting structures in school, practice paper re-cycling etc.
• Prepare inventories of polluting sources and forward it to enforcement agencies.
• Organise awareness programmes against defeacation in public places, pasting posters in public places and to propagate personal hygiene habits like washing hands before meals etc.
• Maintenance of public places like parks, gardens both within and outside the school campus.
• Mobilise action against environmentally unsound practices like garbage disposal in unauthorised places, unsafe disposal of hospital waste etc.

ROLE OF IMPLEMENTERS

ROLE OF STATE NODAL AGENCY

1. To nominate a Nodal Officer.
2. To ensure identification of member schools by the District Committee in consultation with the Resource Agency.
3. To select locally relevant resource material in consultation with the Resource Agency and get it printed.
4. To ensure identification of Master Trainers by District Committees and organise training for them with the help of Resource Agency.
5. To ensure training programme for In-charge Teachers in Districts.
6. To ensure distribution of grants and resource material to Ecoclubs.
7. To receive quarterly reports from District Committees and compile them in the form of reports and send them to Central Nodal Officer in the given format.
8. To organise State Level activities and coordinate them.
9. To organise publicity to the programme to encourage more schools and students to join Eco-clubs.

ROLE OF RESOURCE AGENCY

Each State/UT is being provided with the services of one Resource Agency for the better implementation of the scheme. The main role of the Resource Agency is that of a consultant and a facilitator. The Agency is expected to perform the following functions :

1. Assist the State Nodal Agency/District Committees in the identification of schools in each district.
2. Help the Nodal Agency in selecting locally relevant resource material.
3. Help the Nodal Agency in organising training programme for Master Trainers by providing technical inputs and resource persons.
4. Assist District Committees in drawing up action plans and in organising District level training programmes for In-charge teachers by providing resource persons as well as in drawing up training schedule.
5. To advise the State Nodal Agency in all the aspects of implementation of the Scheme.

COMPOSITION & ROLE OF STATE STEERING COMMITTEE

(a) Composition

1	Principal Secretary, Environment & Forests (Or an Officer of equivalent rank)	Chairman
2	Secretaries or their representatives from State Departments of Education, Health and other concerned departments	Members
3	Representative of Resource Agency	Member
4	Head of the Nodal Agency	Member
5	Two eminent NGOs working on environmental issues	Member
6	State Nodal Officer	Secretary

State government can nominate other officers and individuals considered relevant to this committee.

(b) Role

1. To coordinate implementation of the scheme.
2. To encourage different government departments to actively help the Eco-clubs.
3. To review periodically the implementation of the scheme and suggest activities to be taken up at District Level.
4. To select the best district, best Eco-club and give publicity to their activities so that other districts and Eco-clubs can adopt them.

COMPOSITION & ROLE OF DISTRICT IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING COMMITTEE

(a) Composition

1	District Collector/DM	Chairman
2	Conservator of Forests/DFO	Member
3	District level officials of Department of Environment/State Pollution Control Board and Department of Health	Members
4	Two eminent NGOs working on Environmental issues	Members
5	Heads of five schools from among the selected schools	Member
6	Representative of the Resource Agency	Member
7	District Education officer/District Scientific Officer	Member Secretary

The State government can nominate any individual who is relevant to the Committee

(b) Role

1. To identify the Member schools in consultation with State Nodal Agency and Resource Agency.
2. To motivate Heads of schools to initiate participation in the scheme.
3. To select Master Trainers and send them for training organised by the State Nodal Agency.
4. To identify In-charge Teachers in consultation with School Principals and organise training for In-charge Teachers.
5. To distribute Resource Material to In-charge Teachers at the time of their training.
6. To identify the activities to be taken up at the District level and organise them.
7. Coordinate, supervise and monitor the implementation of the activities by all the Eco-clubs in the district.
8. To keep the State Nodal Agency informed of the activities undertaken by the individual schools and at the district level in the given format.
9. To appoint the individual members as supervisors for a group of 10-15 schools and review their reports.
10. To send the monitoring report to the State Nodal Agency as per the schedule.

ROLE OF TEACHER IN-CHARGE OF ECO-CLUB

The Teacher In-charge of Eco-club plays a key role in the implementation of the scheme. He/She should encourage more and more students to join the club. He/She should take up imaginative steps to implement the activities suggested in the scheme, which are relevant to that region. Main functions of In-charge Teacher are :

• To assemble the eco-club members every week for one hour at-least and take up some activity.
• To encourage the students to suggest activities for the following weeks and make a list of it. Make necessary preparations for their execution in consultation with the Headmaster/ Principal.
• Send monthly activity report to the District Committee.
• Coordinate with the District Committee for taking up district level common programmes.

MONITORING

(A) PROFORMA FOR SCHOOLS

National Green Corps

Monitoring Proforma-A (For Schools)

(To be submitted every month to the District Implementation & Monitoring Committee)

Report for the Month of .........., 2001/2

About the School

1. Name of the School:
2. Total Student Strength:
3. Boys/Girls/Co-Education:
4. Do you Have Nursery/Primary/ Secondary Sections:
5. Medium of Instruction :
6. E-Mail Address (If Any):

About the Scheme

1. Have you Appointed the Teacher Incharge: (If Yes, give name)
2. Has He/she attended the Orientation Programme:
3. How many Students are taking part in the Scheme:
4. Break up of Girls & Boys (For Co-ed Schools)
5. Break up of Primary/Secondary Students:
6. Have you received Resource Material:
7. Any suggestions for Resource Material:
8. Have you received Grant:
9. Have you received Caps etc:

Activities

Activity	No.of Students Participated	Date/Duration
1. Seminar/Talk/Debate
2. Camp/Field Visit
3. Plantation/Cleanliness Drive
4. Awareness by Rallies etc.
5. Others (Specify)

Date:

Signature of Head Master/Principal with Stamp

(B) Proforma For District Implementation&Monitoring Committee

Monitoring Proforma-B-1 (District Level)

Activity Report

(To be submitted to the State Nodal Agency for each quarter ending in September/ December/ March/ June by the 15th of following month)

1. Name of the District:
2. Number of Participating Schools:
3. Number of Participating Students:

I. Activities by Individual Schools

Activity	Number of Schools which conducted	No. of Students Participated
1. Seminar/Talk/Debate
2. Camp/Field Visit
3. Plantation/Cleanliness Drive
4. Awareness by Rallies etc.
5. Others (Specify)

II. Activities Conducted by District Committee

Activity	Number of Schools which conducted	No. of Students Participated

III. Monitoring Status

1. Has the Monitoring Committee met during this quarter: Yes/No
2. Have the Committee members inspected the working of Eco-clubs in Schools: Yes/No
3. If Yes, No. of Schools Visited:
4. Remarks:

Signature of DEO/Member Secretary with Seal

(C) PROFORMA FOR STATE NODAL AGENCY

National Green Corps

Monitoring Proforma-C-1 (State Level) Activity Report

(To be submitted to Central Nodal Officer half-yearly in the 1st week of May & November)

1. Name of the State:
2. Number of Districts covered under the Scheme:
3. Number of participating Schools:
4. Number of participating Students:

   I. Activities by Individual Schools

   Activity	Number of Schools which conducted	No. of Students who Participated
   1. Seminar/Talk/Debate
   2. Camp/Field Visit
   3. Plantation/Cleanliness Drive
   4. Awareness by Rallies etc.
   5. Others (Specify)

   II. Activities Conducted By District Committee

   Activity	No. of Districts	Number of Schools which conducted	No. of Students who Participated

   III. Monitoring Status

5. Has the Monitoring Committee met during this Quarter: Yes/No
6. Have the Committee members inspected the working of Ecoclubs in Districts/ Schools: Yes/No
7. If Yes, Number of Districts/Schools Visited:
8. Remarks:

Date:

Signature of Nodal Officer With Seal

CONTACT PERSONS IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS