Mamata Mishra
The
story of OSDD is not less than that of any story of a successful family. Family
is a simple term and easy to define concept. For anyone of us, I am sure; the
term family gives the first visualization of parents, children, grand children
and kith and kin. While talking about our own family to our friends or any
other people, the discussion starts with number of family members, the members
of family (right from the youngest one to the oldest one). Then gradually the
talk takes account of the relationship among the members, the weak as well as
the strong relations, the conflicts, the sweet as well as the bitter moments, the
collectiveness to achieve certain goals, standing with each other for every weaker
situation, and encourage for and to share every success. If we take an instance
of a joint family, we find more than one generation, people of different
mindsets, and different thoughts. In my opinion, the OSDD initiative even goes
further this point in terms of collective goal attainment.
OSDD
which started as a small project has taken a form of a unit. This statement sounds
easy. In reality, it is not an easy task. Keeping in view the mission, vision
and goals of the OSDD initiative, it is quite clear that lot of collective-minded
efforts have gone into the making of the innovative way of doing science. With
time, it keeps on proving its strength. It has got many helping hands,
dedicated minds. It did not wait for the best to come; rather it tried its best
to prepare even the average mind to be the best of all. OSDD gave a platform to
all to think differently, to do things differently even sitting at one’s own
space. It has completed five years of its journey and recently entered sixth
year. This is a burning example of nothing is impossible. It has given
opportunity to everyone who has an inner calling to do something for the
society; for the nation. At the very beginning when I read that anybody can
join and contribute to the project, I was wondering about this issue. As a
social scientist I was quite clear that I can do a very good study of OSDD from
sociological point of view, but was not clear as ‘how can I contribute’. Slowly
I realized my study of OSDD itself makes me a part of the OSDD family. I felt
good about it. This initiative has set an example for all of us who want to
really work for our nation. In fact, latently, doing this, we not only
contribute to our nation, but to those whose population is victim of such
neglected-ignorable diseases. Such kind of initiatives must be encouraged by
government, private bodies as well as the citizens of a nation.
Research Scholar;
Department of Sociology;
School of Social Sciences;
University of Hyderabad;
Gachibowli, Hyderabad-46;
Andhra Pradesh, India.
