Being a government school, we were always told that innovating on problems and coming up with viable solutions is just not our cup of tea. Even when an ATL lab was set in our school, people still mocked us and doubted our abilities. They said that these facilities were given to the wrong organization. We however never took this in a negative light. These words were just further affirmation for our intentions and determination to develop, innovate and solve problems to create a better environment in which we live in.

As a part of our efforts to create and innovate, we were constantly in search of problematic issues in the society around us. We found one right next to our school. A Hindu cremation ground named Madhuban is situated right behind our school. The Arpa river which flows next to the Madhuban is severely polluted due to human ashes. People in the locality are dependent on the water from this river for there daily supply. As a result, there are many water borne diseases spread in the region. We innovated and successfully created the Moksha which was a device to better the quality of water in the Arpa and also improve ground strata of the river. When Niti aayag and Avishkaar box announced the competition with waste and water management being sub domains, we had the perfect platform and product to compete.  

 

The task to innovate was certainly not an easy one. We made the Moksha in order to help clear up the river near the cremation ground. This meant that for our surveys, research and product development, we had to constantly visit the cremation grounds. Bilaspur is a developing city. Visiting a cremation ground still has a rather negative stigma attached to it. Our own families used to look at us with rather skeptical eyes. Facing this was a serious challenge. We were only allowed to visit the cremation grounds at certain times and as soon as we left we expected to shower. Without that, sometimes we weren’t even allowed in school. After facing all this, we still had to convince people to use the Moksha. Even after all this, we triumphed. We got up to 350 families to use the Moksha. The obstacles were unable to slow us down.

Naturally, after participating and winning the IRC, the emotions experienced by us cannot be put in words. The feeling was out of the world and the English dictionary probably doesn’t have the right fit of words to describe it. It was an honor for us to participate in the first place. Winning was something that we certainly didn’t imagine. It seemed as if all the struggles finally brought fruit and that the sacrifices were worth it in the end. All the Naysayers were finally answered.

 

We attribute our successes to a constant zeal which burned in all our hearts. Our devotion to achieve our goals was not blurred by any distractions. We believe that only by doing an act can we achieve appropriate consequences. Like lord Krishna preached to Arjuna:
                      "karma is the only truth and karma we did. We did not care about the consequences. All we cared about is achieving our goals."
This means that karma is the only truth and karma we did. We did not care about the consequences. All we cared about is achieving our goals.

For further developing our product, we have certain plans already. We plan to associate with NGO’s in the short term. A lot of Non-governmental organizations work for achieving clean water and managing waste in our country. These organizations would be perfect to create a platform in order raise awareness about the Moksha as our ambitions align to a large extent.

We also plan to improve our product. We aim to upscale the Moksha. We want create the Moksha in such a way that the experience for Hindus becomes effortless. We plan to build partitions in rivers. These partitions will segregate water with ashes from river water. The partition is where Hindus will immerse ashes. This water will be filtered and flushed out in main river water supply via elaborate engineering mechanisms. This needs funding however and we expect the same out of Niti Aayong.

Ngo’s which we contacted have been very supportive of our product. Even the general population who were skeptical about a government school’s innovative capacity at first are now appreciative of us. They feel glad that there is someone to listen to there problems and solve their issues. The problem might be localized but is still a problem nonetheless. Our efforts have amazed them and the same time assured them that they will be taken care of. We now feel encouraged as well. Encouraged, but not content as there is still a long road of innovations and creativity ahead of us.

Dr Dhananjay Pandey
ATL INCHARGE
GOVT Multipurpose Hr Sec School BILASPUR CHATTISGARH

Aashish Raj
Mentor
ATL
GOVT Multipurpose Hr Sec School BILASPUR CHATTISGARH

Names of the students: Swastik Prajapati, Gaurav Kumar Mahato, Atul Agrawal and Yaman Nirmalkar(Grade 11)
Name of the School: Govt. Multipurpose Hr. Sec School Bilaspur ,Chhattisgarh
LLF Mentor: Ghanshyam Rao Shinde
Project Description: Moksha: Human Ash into Usable Substance- The developed prototype helps convert the water bed sediments(ash) into manure with the help of ATL equipment- Microcontrollers, Wheels, Connectors and hence solves the dual purpose of river cleaning as well as waste management.