Our Innovation Journey…From THATCHED HUT TO DUBAI

    Our Innovation Journey…From THATCHED HUT TO DUBAI

In this featured post, Mr. Dhananjay Pandey, incharge of Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) at Government Multipurpose High School, Bilaspur and Mr. Ashish Raj, ATL Mentor have shared the excruciating yet satiating journey of their team’s invention THE MOKSHA winning a sponsored trip to Dubai at the Avishkaar Innovation Track 2017.

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.

Our search for community issues and launch of THE MOKSHA

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 their daily supply. As a result, there are many water borne diseases spread in the region. We innovated and successfully created THE MOKSHA – a device to better the quality of water in the Arpa and also to improve ground strata of the river. When Avishkaar box announced the competition Atal Innovation Track, in which waste and water management was one of the category, 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 were expected to take a bath. Without that, sometimes we weren’t even allowed in school. After facing all this, we still had to convince people to use THE MOKSHA. Despite all this, we triumphed. We got up to 350 families to use THE MOKSHA. The challenges which were acting as impediments failed to slow us down.

Winning a sponsored trip to Dubai at Avishkaar Innovation Track 2017

Naturally, after participating and winning the Atal Innovation Track at the National Finale of IRC League, 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 and get shortlisted in Top 10 and present our prototype in the final round at Thyagaraj Stadium, Delhi. 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 kept shut.

Our Winning philosophy and Future Plans

We attribute our successes to a constant zeal which burned in 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 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 NGOs 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 mutually to a large extent.

We also plan to improve our product. We aim to upscale THE MOKSHA. We want to create it 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 from Niti Aayog.

NGOs 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 their 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, Government Multipurpose Hr Sec School , Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh

Aashish Raj

Mentor- ATL, Government Multipurpose Hr Sec School , Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh