Schoolchildren interpret their version of the significance of the Hooghly to Calcutta, its banks, its ghats and industry

The boredom of classroom studies is quite easily relieved when schoolchildren find out things for themselves, instead of relying on texts alone. Dry facts and figures suddenly come alive. The benefits of such empirical study being widely known, this has become part of the curriculum in schools, especially in science-related subjects. However, heritage and environment studies being relatively new in Indian schools, classes are still confined to the four walls of a schoolroom.

An exception was made in three Calcutta schools by architect Nilina Deb Lal, who recently did a master’s in heritage conservation at York University in the UK and has won a Rs 3.8-lakh grant from the Bangalore-based India Foundation for Arts. Deb Lal had taken the middle-school students of these three institutions for trips down the Hooghly with a view to opening their eyes to heritage. The programme was rounded off on Tuesday.

She says: “In the UK, heritage awareness is an accepted part of the curriculum. It is neither optional nor is it an ‘extra’”. To teach children the values of heritage, she had struck upon the idea of organising boat rides up and down the Hooghly, so that they can see for themselves the living history of Calcutta and colonial towns such as Chinsurah and Chandernagore by the banks of the river, and the depredation of the environment caused by mindless industrialisation.

The river is a “burning issue” for her. “We don’t think about it and its significance to the city, banks, ghats and industry,” says Deb Lal. The three schools she had chosen to work with were Birla High for Girls, Modern High and Akshar, for they had been “supportive from the preliminary stage.”

For each school, Deb Lal had organised a five-day programme. Orientation began with a short film on the river shot by her husband Sharan. The seven-hour launch ride took them to Serampore and downstream up to the Botanical Garden. Arrangements had been made for testing water for pollution and oxygen content.

The two resource persons were environmentalists Kushal and Diti Mukherjee.

The next day, they would drive to Barrackpore and then to Chandernagore. “I would talk to them about Saptagram, Chinsurah and Tribeni, relating geography with history. Governor Viren J. Shah and the Chandernagore church were all very cooperative.” On the third day, they would visit the Kidderpore docks, followed by a trip to Fort William. The schools only paid for the surface transport.

Children and teachers were equally excited about the trips and the projects that followed. Though the children of Akshar dutifully voiced their concern over the neglect of heritage sites, ghats turning into garbage dumps, thermal plants letting out hot water into the river and chemical effluents, they were most excited about the 15 dolphins they had sighted.

Their geography teacher, Jayanti Neogi, said it was an eye-opener for children for they had never been there before. “It integrated geography, economics,and sociology so well,” she added. History teacher Sumita Sengupta said: “I had never imagined this sort of experience. It was seeing the city from the river. Children felt history is not just textbooks. It brought things to levels they appreciate.” The visit to the docks and the fort, too, was enlightening.

It is now Deb Lal’s task to collect feedback and complete documentation. It’s been tiring, but “I want to take it forward,” she says.