Special Camping Programmes:

Special Camping forms an integral part of National Service Scheme. It has special appeal to the youth as it provides unique opportunities to the students for group living, collective experience sharing and constant interaction with community.

Special campings are organised generally on various developmental issues of national importance. In the past the themes of the Special Camping Programmes have been ‘Youth Against Famine’, ‘Youth Against Dirt and Disease’, ‘Youth for Rural Reconstruction’, ‘Youth for Eco-Development’ and ‘Youth for Mass Literacy’, ‘Youth for National Integration & Social Harmony’. ‘Youth for Sustainable Development with special focus on Watershed Management and Wasteland Development. Every year 50 percent of the volunteers of each NSS unit are expected to participate in special camps which is of seven days duration.

Contributions of Special Camping Programme

Concerted efforts have to be made for a number of years for reconstruction activities in rural areas and urban slums for improving the living conditions of economically and socially weaker sections of the community. For this, the universities colleges land +2 institutions having NSS have a special role to play in collaboration with other Departments and local authorities engaged in Development work. They adopt a village or group of villages/urban slums for intensive social development, where special camps are to be organised by them year after year to create tangible and durable community assets.

Objectives of the Special Camping programme The primary objectives of the special camping programmes are:-

• (i) Making education more relevant to the present situation to meet the felt needs of the communities and supplement the education of university/college/school students by bringing them face to face with the community situation.
• (ii) To provide opportunities to NSS Volunteers to play their due roles in the implementation of various development “programmes by planning and executing development projects, which not only help in creating durable community assets in rural areas and slums but also result in improvement of the condition of weaker sections of the communities.
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• (iii) Encouraging the students and non-students youth to work along with the adults in rural areas, thereby developing their character, social consciousness and commitment, discipline and healthy and helpful attitudes towards the community:
• (iv) Building up potential youth leaders by exploring the latent potential among the campers, both students as well as local youth (rural and urban), with a view to involve them more intimately in development projects for longer periods. The local leadership generated during the camps would also be useful in ensuring proper maintenance of the assets created as a result of the camps.
• (v) Emphasizing the dignity of labour and self-help and the need for combining physical work with intellectual pursuits, and
• (vi) Encouraging youth to participate enthusiastically in the process of national development, and promote national integration through democratic living and cooperative action.