Dr. Jagdish Chand Sharma, Head master, Government Senior Secondary School, Mahaveer Nagar I, Kota with a chemistry background and loads of experience of teaching Chemistry and its analytical behavior in human life was never able to understand the chemistry of the use of tobacco in different forms in the community. It is far from his analytical brain to understand that why people administer the use of tobacco to relieve the stress of daily life. For him the momentary pleasure which this tobacco gives has dreadful effects not only on health but also on the social values of a person.

Tobacco in various forms, being so easily accessible at every nook & corner, has become the most dangerous ailment for society. The Pan Masala, Gutkha etc which have now become part of a fashion statement are available at a very cheap price making them even more dangerous. Children have access to these products even with meager pocket money. The stuff used in these products does not have any specific quality standards and in most cases very cheap and degraded material is used which directly affects the health.

The spread of ‘Gutkha’ culture in society is like an epidemic has always sent shivers of fear to Dr. Jagdish. In 2006 Dr. Jagdish got trained under the Intel Teach program and was very clear in his understanding of “Project Based Learning” approach. He felt that with “PBL” he has got a mantra to address different issues or concerns in society while integrating his subject knowledge in it. This would be a new experience to understand & facilitate the application of chemistry in daily life. But due to circumstances initially, his plans did not materialize.

It was only when he got transferred to Mahaveer Nagar I school that he found a perfect opportunity to put his dream into reality by implementing a project where he could ask his students to use their knowledge of chemistry to address a real life scenario.

Dr. Jagdish, a keen observer, realized that his school was surrounded by slums and Kacchi basti. A number of students of his school belonged to this place. And due to illiteracy, lack of awareness, poverty & negligence, the parents as well as the children from here are drawn towards all kinds of bad habits prominent among which was “chewing Gutkha”. Since Gutkha does not cost too much and is also easily accessible it has become an easy remedy for one and all for their daily anxieties. As a result slowly almost everyone has got addicted to it.

Young children getting use to this habit was the most worrisome factor for Dr. Jagdish. This was directly affecting not only their educational growth but also their social upbringing. Many of these students, over a period of time, had developed habits which were not good for a healthy society. More so, it was taking a toll on their health. Their mental capabilities, power of concentration and as a result their studies were at a total loss.

Dr. Jagdish designed a project to eradicate this habit from the locality and to help in developing a healthy social environment around the school with good moral & social values. Dr. Jagdish was focusing on two aspects with this project:
(a) Getting rid of this Gutkha menace among students and their parents.
(b) Getting more & more children focused on education so as to avoid doing petty child labour to support their Parents’ dreadful habits.

This project in which students were involved as messengers, contributors and guides of their friends and family, was to educate the society about the ill affects of consuming Gutkha. Students did a lot of research activities on the composition of Gutkha through performing various analytical tests in the lab, understanding the affects on human health and drawing inferences as to how to counter this problem in the society.

This gave ample opportunity to students in terms of doing research, surveys and documentation of all the work done during the project. They researched work on the percentage of people addicted to this habit, affects on their personal lives, income, family life and more importantly the health aspects involved. They undertook documentation of the test results carried out on the constituents of Gutkha in the lab using their chemistry knowledge and the effect this has on a person’s health. Students worked in groups to draw some conclusions as to how they could make efforts to stimulate people in their society towards a ban on consuming Gutkha and consequently leading a healthy life.

Dr. Jagdish Chand Sharma has high hopes from the work of his students and believes that these young messengers will be successful in achieving the goals of the project.