Madras IEEE - Women in Engineering
Project: SANGAMAM - Appropriate Technology Transfer To Rural Areas
Women are the backbone of any society. The abundance of patience and wisdom in a woman makes
her the ideal candidate for her to lead a technical as well as cultural revolution on earth. Madras IEEE
WIE has launched the project “Sangamam” with utmost confidence in the ability of women to bring about
this much needed revolution. “Sangamam” means bringing together - here to bring together the technical
knowledge from the learned and the human and natural resources of rural areas for useful application
of this knowledge.
The primary activities and programs of Sangamam project include the following:
Usually the representation of rural youth in engineering is very limited. There are several reasons for
this, like limited exposure, societal background, awareness, lack of drive, lack of parental and
economic support and so many others. All we have to do is identify a village with enthusiastic youth,
both boys and girls and give them a little push. This program brings together the youth of the village
and Madras IEEE WIE organizes programs on career guidance and personality development
a. Women and children with necessary academic background are given computer training
and guidance is provided to put the training to good use.
b. As a part of the STAR programme, a video presentation on “Basics of Electronics” has
been developed by the students of Easwari Engineering College Student Branch to be
presented in rural schools and to create awareness of technical education. Project
competitions are also organized for the Senior school students.
Housewives and women without any academic training are taught to improve their domestic economy by
planting and maintaining kitchen garden, effective utilization of available natural resources, etc.
With this program, the village peers and youth and women groups are given a broader perspective of their
efforts. Small cottage industries like making cheese, baking biscuits, producing flame retardant thatching
materials, and others are initiated and followed up.
The following are the various technologies that are taught to the participants during the program.
The aim of this project is to create job opportunities for the people of the rural community and to create a
self sufficient society. We are proud to say that in the villages where these programs have been conducted,
unemployed youth have taken up the organization of follow up programs and the school children have been
inspired to take up Engineering as their choice of career. More particularly, women are employing their
free time better instead of idling it away.
In addition, teaching the young children on Vedic Mathematics, Basic Electronics, small circuit ideas,
environmental engineering are some of the other activities that are taken up under this project. The
following are some of the various programmes organized at various villages.
Program: YUVASHAKTHI and Women & Ecodevelopment
Date of Commencement : 25.05.08
Venue: Irandam Kattalai Village, Chengalpattu District, Tamil Nadu
Our first and foremost responsibility towards the future generations is to save Mother Earth from
destruction and leave her intact for their usage and living. Though she is abundant with her resources,
misuse or overuse of these resources result in creating havoc with the environment. The mankind has so far
developed a sustainable procedure to live and let live. But with the advent of technology, today’s lifestyle
has led to an alarming encroachment on natural resources.
The rural women need guidance to put their leisure time to good use. A lot of time is wasted by
watching TV and gossiping. This time can be effectively utilized for enhancing their lifestyle and working
towards the upliftment of their society.
Under this project, a program named “Women & Eco development” was organized BY Madras WIE
and Easwari IEEE Women in Engineering to enhance the quality of life in the rural society in various parts
of Tamilnadu. The first phase began in May 2008, with the Sangamam Team visiting a village named
“Irandam Kattalai” and conducting a survey on the various aspects of the society life. A questionnaire
was distributed and answers were requested from the inmates of the village. Most of them being
illiterates, the survey was done with the teams filling up the forms for them.
Based on the data the team visited the village with an environmentalist Dr.Radha Murali, who surveyed
the area and gave advices and suggestions on the resource management and utility. Women were given
lessons on the Ethnic values of the plants available. A seed bank was created and seeds were distributed
to the women for forming a kitchen garden with vegetables and medicinal herbs. Various technologies like
Drip irrigation, producing flame retardant thatching materials and Smokeless Chula were taught to them.
A youth club was inducted and the members were trained in finance management and marketing so that
the produces can be marketed profitably.
Program: Knowledge to Women
Date of Commencement : 27.12.08
Venue: Thondamuthur Village, Coimbatore Dt, Tamil Nadu
The Madras IEEE Women in Engineering and the Women In Engineering Affinity Group of
CIET - IEEE Student Branch, Coimbatore organized a five day Computer Training Programme for rural
girls school students under SANGAMAM Project from 27th to 31st December 2008. The students
had not even seen a real computer in their life time.
The computer training covered the computer basics namely MS- Word, MS-Excel, MS- Power point
etc. The Office bearers of WIE affinity group, CIET –IEEE Student branch gave the training to the
school students in their own language of study.
At the end of five days training, feedback was collected and the students assured that they will start
teaching their juniors on the same courses. With this in mind, the Government of Tamilnadu has given
10 computers to the school. The novelty of the programme is that all the students were given the
printed course material for the training in Tamil language.
Program: Knowledge to Women –
Date: 04.12.08
Venue: Government Primary School, Chunkankadai,
Kanyakumari Dt
The first IEEE WIE “Sangamam Project” was organized on 4th December 2008 at Government
Primary School, Chunkankadai, Kanyakumari District. The program was fully organized by the
IEEE WIE Student Branch Affinity Group, St. Xavier’s Catholic College of Engineering,
Chunkankadai and IEEE Madras Women In Engineering with support from R10 WIE. The
students of 1st to 5th standard were engaged from 9.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m.
The welcome address was given by Mr. JIJO, IEEE member. Following him, Miss. M.P.
Nageswari, Chairman, IEEE Student Branch gave an introduction about IEEE. Mrs.A.Subitha,
WIE Faculty Advisor gave an introduction about our Sangamam project. Mr.C.John Moses,
IEEE SB Counselor, Mr.A.Darwin Jose Raju, IEEE Co-ordinator, Mrs. Lalitha Bai, Headmistress,
Govt. Primary School, Chunkankadai felicitated the function.
Numerous competitions such us Rhymes, Singing competition, Quiz, Drawing competitions were
held on the occasion. It includes:
For I std. - Rhymes competition,
For II std. -Singing Competition,
For III std. -Elocution competition,
For IV std. -Drawing competition,
For V std -Quiz Competition.
In the elocution competition the students talked about our national leaders. Quiz competition for V
Standard consisted of two rounds. Preliminary round was the written test. In this screening round
each participant were given 20 questions. Out of 22 students 8 were short listed for the next
round. In the second round there were 4 teams, 2 members each. Points were given for each round
and the top scorers bagged the prizes. During the afternoon session we conducted surprise events
such as Memory Power Contest, Picture Joining etc.
The winners of the events were awarded certificates by Mr. C. John Moses, IEEE SB Counselor,
Mr.A.Darwin Jose Raju, IEEE Co-ordinator, Mrs.A.Subitha, WIE Faculty Advisor. Really these
games proved to be a real fun time for the participants. Members of IEEE nurtured it by their high
spirit of participation and team co-operation. The function came to a formal closure with
Ms.Lakshmi Pratheepa, WIE Secretary thanking everyone who made the event, a successful one.