Aniket Gupta, 18, received the electronic intimation of winning the Diana Award 2020 while he was still awaiting his class 12 board results this year. Diana Award is the highest accolade for youths in the field of social action. He deeply appreciates the “privilege of taking forward the living legacy of Princess Diana” who has been an inspiration herself.
About two-and-a-half years back, this young Delhi-based changemaker, hailing from a nuclear family, has founded the ‘Indian Science and Technology Campaign’ (ISTC) to encourage students to be innovative and creative in their thinking through a practical approach.
Since then, he has supported thousands of students and teachers of the country with practical initiatives, including a program combining science with entrepreneurial skills to create innovative, economical and constructive prototypes with worldwide benefits for big problems.
Now, Aniket’s initiative has been also joined by a volunteer team of 600 university students to develop low-cost practical experiments to explain complex scientific concepts at the school level.
“I would like to call myself a young changemaker who goes above and beyond in his daily life to usher sustainable and positive change,” Aniket says.
In a candid conversation with LifeBeyondNumbers, Aniket takes us through his journey so far.
Motivation
Despite his parents’ vivid concerns contemplating upon if Aniket’s initiatives might have hampered his academic career, Aniket was not only able to convince them but also garnered their support. “As our initiative started bearing fruits, my parents realized that what I am doing is no ordinary feat and they have been tremendously supportive ever since,” Aniket gladly reveals.
Though academically he scored excellent marks throughout his budding years, the cram for exams and the tendency of rote-learning among the Indian students have repulsed him significantly.
He quickly identified the limitations of the Indian education system, which does not allow freer interactions of students with the outer world beyond textbooks. It has been demotivating and shunning the growth of creativity among Indian students.
When Aniket was just about to fall for the same vicious circle himself due to certain societal pressure, his interactions with Mr. Amar Srivastava, Founder President of the Indian Road Safety Campaign (IRSC) completely changed his worldview.
Mr. Srivastava shared his story of initiating the IRSC after a road accident costing him the lives of his colleagues. Though he was deeply traumatized by the incident, he did not stop at blaming authorities or cursing India’s road safety concerns.
“He took it upon himself to start an initiative ‘Indian Road Safety Campaign’ to generate awareness among people through Road Safety and Traffic Rules Education in the country. His story inspired me to start taking actions for the problem we face, rather than just grieving for it”, explains Aniket.
Vision
Aniket started the Indian Science and Technology Campaign (ISTC) with a vision to strengthen the scientific skills of all those young minds who lose their scientific acumen at an early age owing to the dearth of practical knowledge imparting among most of the school curriculums.
“I wanted to create a platform where the children learn by doing. It enhances their thinking abilities and helps to develop scientific skills among them. My aim is to encourage the young minds in India by invoking in them the zeal to innovate environment-friendly solutions for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” he says.
The philosophy behind ISTC is “Practicality is Everything” to enable children in thinking out of the box and beyond the boundaries. “ISTC aims to bring about a wave of inquisitiveness in children to help them become the future leaders of change. We learn better when we do things,” explains Aniket.
Since technological and scientific innovations are key to developing a knowledge-based society in today’s world, success stems from students’ abilities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Scores of Indian students are lagging behind the developed countries’ students in this field of education.
“STEM education develops critical thinking skills. By increasing science and engineering literacy, we can enable the next generation of innovators. Ultimately, innovation leads to inventions that sustain the country’s economy,” believes Aniket.
The Milestones Achieved
So far, ISTC has successfully supported 19,000 students and 900 teachers with its practical initiatives. In the process, children not only enjoyed the simplification of complex scientific concepts but also, felt encouraged to become abstract thinkers discovering the mechanisms behind scientific formulas.
“I started at first with the local communities by interacting with students from underprivileged backgrounds along with conducting small and easy STEM activities. The school children enjoyed and took a keen interest in learning more about the scientific concepts deeply,” Aniket reveals.
While the joy it brings to the students is the reason of Aniket’s biggest satisfaction, Aniket envisioned a lot more. The ‘Vigyan Manch’ program, launched under the ISTC flagship, has nurtured scientific temper and problem-solving skills among the students allowing them to engage with real-world engineering problems.
As a young school student with scarce resources, the continuation and expansion of these activities were daunting tasks, until ISTC was affiliated under the Department of Science & Technology, Vigyan Prasar. Vigyan Prasar supported Aniket’s initiatives by providing guidance for low-cost experiments and activity kits on various theoretical concepts of science.
“We started conducting our activities and experiments in Government Schools. Alongside we also started training the teachers on how to use the activity kits in their classrooms. Later, I realized that we should integrate entrepreneurial skills along with scientific skills. So, we conducted workshops on Entrepreneurial Mindsets in the classroom where we brought students and entrepreneurs on the same platform for fruitful interactions,” mentions Aniket.
Aniket was determined to work with team members of around his age sharing similar vision like his. Since then he built a strong team of 600 volunteers from universities across the country. “Volunteers have been the backbone of my initiative. From curation of programs to its implementation, without them it would not have been possible,” Aniket proudly says.
Besides, he also advocates and takes initiatives for various issues such as Practicality in Education, Integration of Sustainable Development Goals, Human Rights, and Menstrual Hygiene Education in School Curriculum.
So far, through the course of his interesting journey, he has discovered the buried jewels of passion inside him and sharpened them in order to groom his personality. “I got an opportunity to present my ideas at the National and International Conferences as a guest speaker. I was invited by Hindu College, Delhi University as a Keynote Panelist at their Annual Festival,” he adds.
Apart from being a Diana Award recipient, in 2019 he was bestowed with REX Karmaveera Chakra and have been a Youth Ki Awaaz Action Network Fellow.
The Way Forward
“ISTC is a science outreach marathon, not a science sprint. We hope, this effort will fuel India’s drive toward becoming Vishwa Guru,” envisions Aniket for ISTC’s upcoming years.
Even when the pandemic situation has locked up the learners inside the home, Aniket decided to make full use of the time. “We are conducting online workshops and running various programs to raise awareness related to themes such as Mental Health of Youth, Child Rights, Menstrual Hygiene, Women Rights, etc through twitter conversations, Virtual Interactions & Panel Discussions,” Aniket tells LifeBeyondNumbers.
Aniket has not received any funding yet, though is hopeful about generating funds through its initiatives in the future. “To manage the future funding, we are planning to start India’s first Practical Olympiad platform,” he says.
In the upcoming years, Aniket wishes to come up with a platform for innovation where students are given the opportunity of scientific exploration and skill development irrespective of their socio-economic background.
“We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of that power we need inside ourselves already. We just need to change our thoughts and we will end up changing our world,” are his words of wisdom for the generations to come.
Aniket believes in remaining himself through the course of his journey as it is essential for the honesty that the world deserves from him. His uncompromising nature not only defines him as a person but also helps him remaining true to his visions and principles.
When a person determines to ‘be the change’ himself, age is hardly a parameter of his success. Aniket proves that once again to the world. We not only wish Aniket to flower as a young mind but also hope him to help bloom many more!