Our Journey
Sameer Kumar Misra a Mechanical Engineer had been working in Metal Recycling Industry in Jaipur when he realized that he had a different calling. Leaving the job was difficult. He quotes Peter Thiel “I realized that quitting means just walking out of the 6 ft door. Yet people’s aspirations and responsibility don’t let them do it, sometimes forever.
Sameer an SBI Youth for India fellow considers that it is by chance he landed in the fellowship by applying one night seeing the advertisement in the SBI ATM. Yet it led him to what he wanted to do.
He came to Odisha to work with NGO Gram Vikas. There he saw how rural schools’ function. He could notice that there is a lot to be done.
Sameer who himself has been recognized by NASA &German Aerospace Center for one of his models quotes a first-generation Indian Entrepreneur, Narayan Murthy “There has not been a single invention from India in the last 60 years that became a household name globally, nor any idea that led to “earth shaking” invention to “delight global citizens”
And his experience in design projects in the college told him that a lab needs to exist where student from a very young age could make models using the locally available materials which could gradually increase their levels to more complex models. With this vision he started working with middle school kids in Gram Vikas Vidya Vihar, a small school located in remote village called Rudhapadar between the scenic Eastern Ghats in Ganjam district of Odisha, a state in Eastern Coast of India.
At first he collected all the materials by himself and gave it to the kid s guiding them to make simple models like the models of school, collage of personalities, pollution. Then he noticed a group of students making a windmill using straw and paper. It struck to him that why not focus on scientific things. With sheer effort two of the students developed Periscope using pipes, broken pieces of mirror and chart paper. The idea was to provide practical science education to tribal and marginalized communinty kids at par with the city kids at affordable cost.
Two kids Deepak and Sitaram have been instrumental in making many models like U tube manometer, cup anemometer using coffee cups, Newton’s disk using motor from old toys. They have built a section in the computer lab of their school called “NavonmeshPrayogshala” a Sanskrit-Odia name for Innovation Lab where all their models are kept.
After successfully completing the fellowship Sameer joined Gram Vikas as a full-time employee and wrote a proposal to NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) through which he secured a funding of Rs 2 million for Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) under Atal Innovation Mission. It is an Innovation Lab funded by the Government of India named after the former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
He has been working directly under Skoll Awardee Dr. Joe Madiath,Founder cum Chairman of internationally reputed grassroots NGO Gram Vikas for the past 3 years.JoeMadiath and Gram Vikas were quoted recently in the book Poor Economics by this yearsNobel Prize WinnersDr.Abhijt Banerjee and Esther Duflo.
The kids he taughtin his previous school also passed out to the High school where he got posted as the STEM Coordinator. With their help, he has just finished setting up the ATL and this school has become the only rural tribal residential school in India to have such a lab. He has received an appreciation letter from NITI Aayog for the same.
The Atal Tinkering Lab was recently inaugurated by Honorable Speaker of Odisha Dr.Surjya Narayan Patro.
He has been able to collaborate with an NGO Pratham Education Foundation for science related trainings for free of cost in this school and has also hosted their Eastern India Regional Training at the campus. From being from a place where they had never seen a train or a car in real life thesekids have won accolades all around India making models like water rockets, hydroelectric generator etc. They were the winner of Top 20 and Top 100 stories at the DFC I CAN Festival 2018 and were awarded by renowned Indian actor Rahul Bose for the same. The kids have also won various awards in different Bock level science fairs and got appreciated at national level competitions. One of the kids recently won Inspire Award Manak from The Department of Science and Technology, Government of India for his project.
Sameer has been able to impact 1200 tribal kids, in Gram Vikas Schools with his work, most of these kids are first generation learners with their parents being farmers and laborers from marginalized communities. This is in line with the UN SDG 4 of providing quality education for all.
Since he came from a Hindi speaking state, he could not communicate to people in Odisha initially. By interacting with kids extensively he was able to learn Odia and also teach them some Hindi so now both communicate easily with each other.
Sameer has recently been selected to IIT Bombay’s M.tech Program in Technology and Development in CTARA(Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas).
Sameer an SBI Youth for India fellow considers that it is by chance he landed in the fellowship by applying one night seeing the advertisement in the SBI ATM. Yet it led him to what he wanted to do.
He came to Odisha to work with NGO Gram Vikas. There he saw how rural schools’ function. He could notice that there is a lot to be done.
About Founder
Sameer is Mechanical Engineer, an SBI Fellow and founder of an initiative NavonmeshPrayoghshalaunder NAVKaushalaimed at providing quality education to the most marginalized communities.
He has been setting up Innovation labs in remote rural schools of Odisha since last 4 years to provide affordable practical science education to tribal kids. The parents of these kids are mostly farmers and labourers.
Sameer left his well-paying job to train these kids who have never even seen a real train till date. But now they can build and launch models like Cup Anemometer, water rockets by themselves. He is the recipient of prestigious awards from NASA and German Aerospace Agency. He has been awarded by ex-Chief Minister of Bihar, Honorable Speaker of the Odisha Legislative Assembly and NITI Aayog for his education and technology development work in villages of India.
His work has been covered in Kindness Matters series of UNESCO MGIEP (Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development)
