Children innovators & researchers: New paradigm in design thinking & doing

A jerky ride on a bumpy road can unnerve even a healthy person. But, imagine a patient being carried taken to a hospital on a stretcher through such a road. Will not the patient be inconvenienced more? This question might not bother us — the grown-ups — as we have learnt to live with inertia and inconvenience for decades.

Fortunately, in a changing India, children are not patients. Hema Pradahan was one such impatient student we met during a shodhyatra in Sikkim with IIMA students.

We could meet such students in roadside meetings, thanks to the support by Tshering Lepcha, village Paradhan from LUM, and Sonam, SDM and both are volunteers of Honey Bee Network for over a decade.

What did Hema suggest: Why can't we have a shock-absorbing stretcher for travelling in the ambulance on such bumpy roads.

This is not a problem just in Sikkim, but many parts across the country. Hema's solution will help transport patients in the ambulance world over.

SRISTI sent this idea along with more than 20,000 ideas from Haryana, Sikkim, Andaman islands, Odisha, Kutchh, Gujarat, Gurez, Jammu and Kashmir etc, to National Innovation foundation which received around 90,000 ideas.

I am happy to mention that Hema, of government school, Tashiding, West Sikkim, has been chosen as one of 32 winners of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam ignite award for creative children, by Honourable former President Shri Pranab Mukherjee. She will receive the award on November 17 at Grambharati, Amrapur, after an open public lecture at IIMA.

Hema is obviously not the only one concerned about the social unmet needs. There are thousands of such children all over the country, particularly in disadvantaged government schools. This time, NIF will also recognise four children, Supriya, Lina, Purba, and Rahul from a school of visually-challenged, in Odisha and one from West Bengal for suggesting a braille tactile signage in public buildings (not altogether a new idea through a worthy one never the less), and a navigation system in neighbourhood for enabling such people to meet nearby friends or to a shop or dispensary.

Tsering Omphel, Leh, Govt. Higher Secondary School, Jammu and Kashmir, is impatient with a deep-seated inertia in our society. Despite millions of rupees spent every year by the government, we have not developed a sea-buckthorn harvesting device. Indrajeet Singh, West Singhbhum, Jharkhand, has rightly felt the need for a low-cost portable Chironji decorticator.

There are many other good ideas that will be showcased by NIF on November 17 afternoon ( contact Dr Vipin Kumar, director@nifindia.org or ignite@nifindia.org for more information about participation).

Do bring your children to see and observe how creative children can overcome the inertia that has become so characteristic of elites of our society.

Sooner or later, I'm sure the educational policy of our country will change. Till then, the teachers and principals of various schools can do a few things on their own. One doesn't need the permission of education minister or secretary of school education to do this.

Just share with them ideas of other children (nifindia.org/ignite and ss.sristi.org), ask them to search for new ideas around their neighbourhoods.

Celebrate innovations by inviting innovators to class, and sense or scout unmet social needs of nature, elders, women, children and special need members of our society. Thus, Honey Bee Network innovation clubs can be set up in every school. Today, I tried to persuade faculty and students in one of the tops of design institutes of China in Nanjing University of Arts and Design to do likewise.

From my past experience, I will not be surprised if China catches up on this idea faster than our own country. Ghar ka jogji, jogna…. May you brighten your Diwali with creative and compassionate idea of the children.

The author is founder of Honey Bee Network & visiting faculty at IIM-A anilgb@gmail.com