Kusuma Young Researcher Awards 2009 presented

Kusuma is keen to encourage research in the areas of children and education. Last year the Kusuma Foundation in India announced its national competition for Kusuma Young Researcher Award 2009.

The competition was open to Indian Research Scholars in the areas of social work, child development, urban and rural development/management, population sciences, education, sociology, and allied subjects from any University/Institute with accreditation from the Indian University Grants Commission.

At a ceremony organized in New Delhi at Vishwa Yuvak Kendra on the 22nd January 2010 Dr Arokia Maraichelvi received the first prize award of RS 2,00,000  from the Trustees for her original research paper titled ‘Facilitating the subsistence of street children through life enrichment education’. The Runner –Up (RS 1,00,000) was Ms. Ashima Das for her original paper ‘Educating children with disabilities in inclusive schools’.

Prime minister’s wife at presentation

Mrs Gursharan Kaur, wife of the Prime Minister of India, attended the ceremony and presented certificates to the winners.

Kusuma received a good response and of the 14 shortlisted research papers evaluated by a panel of national and international experts five papers, including the two winners, were shortlisted for further scrutiny by the international panel consisting of Prof Parasuraman, Director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Prof Babu Mathew, Director, Action Aid India and Prof Jean Paul Faguet, at the London School of Economics, UK.

Winner Dr. K. Arockia Mariachelvi, is a lecturer at the Department of Human Development, Avinashilingam University for Women, Coimbatore.

Winner of the first prize Dr. K. Arockia Mariachelvi with Kusuma Trustee and founder Soma Pujari.

Her paper captures an approach called Life Enrichment Education (LEE) Programme, designed to enhance the quality of life of street children to realize their self positively, help them to restore their health and well-being, promote healthy interactions with their own peers and other people and instigate them to understand the responsibilities to lead a contented and successful life in the years ahead.

Click_Here to download Dr. Arokia's paper - Life Enrichment Education (LEE) Programme.

Runner-up Ashima Das is a Senior Research Fellow, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. This paper was a qualitative study aiming at exploring the experiences of the children with disabilities who are studying in inclusive schools of Mumbai. The paper discusses development of self concept in children within inclusive environments, the support systems and the challenges they face in the school setting. The paper concludes that, policy actions enhances the participation of children with disabilities and foster their aspiration to live like all their non-disabled peers.

Runner-up Ashima Das also received her Kusuma Researcher Award  certificate from  Mrs Gursharan Kaur, wife of the Prime Minister of India.

Click_Here to download Ashima Das's paper - Educating children with Disabilities in Inclusive Schools.

The three remaining papers of those shortlisted were:

A comparative study with and without smart classroom in relation to achievement motivation of students, carried out by Amritbir Kaur, M.A., M.Phil, Malwa Central College of Education for Women,  Punjab Univeristy Ludhiana. This study used a set of tools to measure achievement motivation of the students studying in schools with smart classrooms that is having innovative teaching techniques such as use of multimedia, by in relation to achievement motivation of students in schools without smart classrooms.

Click_Here to download Amritbir Kaur's paper - A comparative study of schools with and without smart classrooms in relation to achievement motivation of students.

Ambar Zahara of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi produced a paper entitled ‘The Issue of Governance at Primary Level of Education -A Case Study of Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh’.

This paper attempts to understand the current status of government primary schools and the ills that plague them. Realizing the problems in the education system being multidimensional such as lack of transparency, poor monitoring, educational inequality, and quality, the paper attempts to explore the reasons for (even the poorest) parents prefer an alternative to government schooling, despite free provision of primary education by the government.

Using case-study approach, the researcher has tried to identify issues of good governance a prerequisite for imparting education- a service to be delivered through quality service delivery mechanism by studying the primary schools in Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh.

Click_Here to download Ambar Zahara's paper - A Case Study of Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh.

Finally, C H. Ramesh Babu, Research Scholar at the Department of HRM, Siva Sivani Institute of Management, Osmania University, Hyderabad produced the paper ‘Social Interaction and Social Change Adjustment among Street Children in Rehabilitation in Twin Cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad’.

This is a Phd thesis that attempts to understand the dynamics of Social Interaction and Social Adjustment among street children in Rehabilitation Homes in Twin Cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

Click_Here to download Ramesh Babu's paper - Social Interaction and Social Adjustment among street children in rehabilitation homes in twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.