INTACH in collaboration with FOX History & Entertainment Channel launched on 17 November 2009, an innovative school engagement programme, ‘My City My History’ for school children. This programme encourages school children to write about lesser-known historical treasures in their respective cities and send it for the national competition. This programme has been designed by HECS to encourage students to learn a lot more about their city and its heritage.

FOX History & Entertainment will film the five winning essays and the children will an get opportunity to represent their city and its history. All other participants will receive certificates of participation and merit based awards.

As part of the programme, HECS invited 25 Chapters to organize heritage walks for school children across 25 cities in India. The programme was inaugurated in Delhi with walks that took place at Mehrauli Village Settlement, Nizamuddin Village and surrounding and at Humayun’s Tomb. The Mehrauli village walk was with renowned historian, Mr. Charles Lewis and Dr. Swapna Liddle, INTACH Co-Convener, Delhi Chapter. At Humayun’s tomb Ratish Nanda a well known architect also gave his inputs.

Walks have been highly successful in the cities with the help of the Convenors including Amritsar, Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Pondicherry, Goa, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Pune, Lucknow, Bhopal, Hazaribagh, Gwalior, Warangal, Vishakapatnam, Gurgaon, Dehra Dun. All the walks received media coverage and was appreciated by schools.

The entries would be judged by a jury in the month of January 2010

A two day teacher training workshop on Heritage Awareness was held at Pragnya Bodhini High School, Gorgaon (East), Mumbai-400063 on 10-11 December 2009. 20 teachers from 12 schools attended the workshop.

The introductory session was chaired by the Mrs. Asha Sheth, Vice Chairman INTACH & Chairman of Vasant J Sheth Memorial Foundation, & Dr. Joan Dias, Programme Co-ordinator with Heras Institute of Indian History and Culture, St. Xavier’s College Campus, Mahapalika Marg, Mumbai. Mrs. Asha Sheth gave the welcome address in which she sensitized the issue of heritage conservation and saving the local heritage. She also showed her concern about imparting the issue of saving local heritage in the city.

Dr. Joan Dias, talked about how the concept of local history came into existence? How did it actually take shape and formation of Bombay Local History Society. In her presentation she also focused on the local heritage issues in the city of Mumbai.

The teachers were taken to the Kanheri Caves which shares its vicinity with the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Rajashree, a botanist, explained the botanical importance of few plants in the surrounding. The visit in the Kanheri Caves was guided by Prof. Anita Rane, head of Ancient Indian Culture at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. She explained them the historical and social aspects of the caves.

The workshop concluded with the distribution of certificate of participation to the teachers by Dr. Preeta Nilesh, Historian, Reader cum Lecturer, V. G. Vaze College of Arts, Science & Commerce, Mulund.

The culmination of the Cine Art Programme was witnessed by more than 1000 people including principals of various schools, teachers, children and parents at PVR Priya on 12th November 2009. Smt. Shiela Dikshit, Hon’ble Chief Minister of NCT of Delhi, graced the event by being the Chief Guest.

Smt. Dikshit unveiled CineArt Diary 2010 which showcases the work, paintings as well as short-films of Cine Artists.

For the first time in India the Philosophy for children programme was introduced. This training programme has become popular in 30 countries around the world and is a technique used to develop enquiry based learning amongst the teacher and student community. A two day workshop for Delhi School Teachers was organized at INTACH on 9-10th November 2009. 20 Teachers participated in the workshop. The course focused on the theory and practice and provided teachers with sufficient understanding of P4C to start practicing in their own schools.

The workshop was organized in collaboration with Open Futures, Helen Hamlyn Trust, SAPERE U.K and INTACH. After the registration, the teachers were given a brief introduction about the INTACH and the various activities undertaken in the field of heritage and heritage education.

Jane Yates was the resource person for the 2 day workshop. In the Session 1 she gave an introduction to P4C and talked about its relevance in the present day. The course is relevant to colleagues interested in teaching & learning strategies, thinking skills, including critical thinking, emotional literacy, values education, citizenship education, including global citizenship, assessment for learning etc. In the Enquiry session the participants read a story or studied a stimulus and decided on a philosophic question to discuss in the group. Topics like ‘Can learning be fun?’, ‘Bias and prejudice’ led to lively discussions amongst the teachers.

Each participant was asked to do one enquiry in their schools and to send their report to HECS so that it can be sent to Sapare for certification for completion of Level I. HECS plans to hold a follow up section in January 2010 to meet with participants and evaluate this enquiry based learning method and the response of their students.

HECS in collaboration with INTACH Art Conservation Centre organized half day workshop for 20 Schools from Delhi on 23rd, 26th and 29th October 2009 on art conservation. The resource persons were Smita Singh, Sr. Conservator, Joyoti Roy, Sr. Conservator and Amita Soni Tongaria, Conservator, INTACH ICCI Delhi

With an introduction to Heritage, the conservators spoke about Art Heritage and its importance and why one needs to preserve it. Taking about different kinds of art objects they emphasized on their causes of deterioration like aging, light, temperature, humidity/ moisture, environmental pollution, insects and microorganism, human action was explained. These causes may cause rapid decay to the art objects under highly adverse conditions.

With emphasis on paper and photographs, their process of making was explained, the causes of deterioration and how it can be prevented by proper storing which was followed by practical with children in which tear mending, making photograph corners and starch paste was undertaken.

In Do’s and Don’ts on safe keep of paper, paper documents and photographs were explained like which tapes and adhesives should not be used, importance of using traditional insecticides etc.

A two day teacher training workshop on Heritage Awareness was held at DIET Head Quarters in Srinagar.10 DIET personnel and teachers 2 from 2 schools attended the workshop.

An interactive group activity was taken up i.e. making of a newspaper front page based on heritage icons and issues of Kashmir various issues were taken up such as Kangri, Woodwork, Carpet, Chinar etc. Group presentation was followed by group discussion by Feisal Alkazi. A presentation was made by Ms Datt on INTACH and its heritage clubs.

A field visit was conducted at the Design Centre where the participants interacted with the craftsmen. The museum section of the Crafts Centre was interpreted by Mr Salim Beg INTACH Convenor, Jammu and Kashmir.Individual reactions to the crafts centre was taken up which included what did I feel, what did I learn and what is the additional information I would need.

In the post lunch session the calendar of events for the year was discussed and teachers were asked to participate and encourage children to give in entries for the yearly activities and the Young INTACH newsletters. The workshop concluded with a thank you note by Feisal Alkazi,Shweta Verma,Priti Jain and Urfana Amin.

Various workshops were held in state of Karnataka at Bijapur, Dharwad and Bangalore in Kannada by the Bijapur Chapter from 9th September 2009 to 17th September 2009. 120 Heritage Clubs was formed after the series of workshop.

The first workshop (from 9th September 2009) was held at Bijapur. 48 teachers from Bagalkot, Bellary and Bijapur with three nodal officers attended the workshop. Dr Geeta Bali, Vice Chancellor of Karnataka Women University inaugurated the workshop. Sjri Aswath Narain of Karnataka Chapter presided over the function. Smt Sandhya Patil, Sr Assistant Director Public instructions Bangalore was the first chief guest. While inaugurating the workshop Dr Geeta Bali said that heritage education is very much necessary in school curriculum and she is thinking to include this in University level also.

On 10th September 2009, 30 teachers and two nodal officers from Dharwad and Karwar District attended the workshop at Dharwad. It was inaugurated by Smt Shikha IAS CEO ZP, Shri Bhaskar Bhat, DDPI, Dharwad was the chief guest.

On 17th September 2009, 45 teachers and three nodal officers attended the workshop at Bangalore. Shri V.M.Umakant KES, Officer in-charge of implementing heritage education in Karnataka inaugurated the workshop.

All the workshops started with pre-test followed a brief introduction about INTACH and various activities being undertaken by the Chapter from time to time by Dr Kolhar Kulkarni, Convenor Bijapur Chapter. With an audio-visual presentation an understanding about heritage and its importance was highlighted. After the group activities and its presentation post workshop questionnaires were filled by the teachers.

A two day teacher training workshop on Heritage Awareness was held at New Science PG College, Warangal. 45 teachers from 27 schools attended the workshop. The methodology adopted was a practical and interactive one for the participants-through field trips, a nature walk, museum visit, slide shows by resource persons, talks, discussions and group activities.

The introductory session was chaired by Mr. BVP Rao, IAS (Retd.) formerly with United Nations Organization, Professor M Pandu Ranga Rao, Convenor, INTACH Warangal Chapter, Sri Laxma Reddy, District Educational Officer and Shreedhar Rao, Heritage Education Coordinator, Warangal Chapter. Mr. BVP Rao spoke importance of heritage education and children being the torch bearer and messengers for spreading heritage message. Professor M Pandu Ranga Rao highlighted the need for heritage clubs in High School.

With an introduction to INTACH, an introduction to heritage and heritage education was given by Ms. Datt. In the post lunch session, an ice-breaker, game was played with the teachers on famous love pairs, followed by an introduction and discussion on the Teacher Training Kit took place.

The teachers were taken to the thousand pillars temples to expose teachers about the built heritage and the great contributions of Kakatiyas in the field of technology and to Warangal Fort for the site visit. The distribution of certificate of participation to the teachers was done by Sh. S. Rajaiah hon’ble MP (Lok Sabha), Warangal. In the post lunch session, a time-line game was played and individual group presentation took place.

Enameling is the art of using enamel (powder mixed in water) painted over metal. It is exposed to high temp (800 degrees) in a kiln, which melts the powder and gives it an everlasting life along with the brilliance of colours. Enamel powder is a blend of silica, lead, soda or potash and borax tinted with metal oxides to give bright colours.

A three day exhibition cum workshop was organized by the Enamelist Society, Delhi from 5th – 7th October 2009 at INTACH. A workshop for 12 students from St Mary’s School, Jamia and LSR was organized on 7th October.

The workshop gave exposure to this ancient technique for the students. The artist Vasan Shah took the students through several rounds of painting on small copper plates and firing them in his small kiln. It was interesting to see how fire changed work of art and what immerged too was so unexpected.

A two day teacher training workshop on Heritage Awareness was held at Udaipur on 14th-15th September 2009. 23 teachers from 18 schools comprising of 3-4 rural schools attended the workshop.

The resource persons included Padmabhushan Dr Jagat Mehta, IFS, Shri C.P. Vyas, IAS, Shri S.L. Kumawat, Founder Alok Sanathan, Mr. S.K. Verma, Convenor Udaipur Chapter, Mr Sushil Kumar, Co-Convenor, Udaipur Chapter, Dr Pradeep Kumawat, Principal Alok Sanathan, Dr O.S. Rathore, Dr Lalit Pandey, Ms. Purnima Datt, Senior Advisor, HECS and Ms. Payal Joshi, Programme Coordinator, HECS.

The workshop was inaugurated by Mr. Verma, Convenor INTACH, Udaipur Chapter. Dr. O. S. Rathore talked about the rich culture of Rajasthan which can be seen starting from the pre-historic to the present day. An introduction to Heritage was given by Ms. Datt. She spoke on the importance of heritage education and ignorance of heritage awareness among the youth today. For the group activity teachers were divided into various groups of 5-6 teachers and were asked to make a lesson plan wherein the ideas on heritage issues can be integrated within the set school curriculum for their students. Various innovate and interesting topics were taken by the teachers to work upon.

After individual group presentation of their lesson plan, certificates of participation was given to the teachers with a promise that the ideas exchanged will not be restricted within the closed group of participants present their.

Filmit India, a project sponsored by Helen Hamlyn Trust was initiated in 2008-09 in 12 schools in Delhi. 65 films were made by these schools. It was so successful that the project is now been implement in two more cities, Kolkata and Chennai respectively along with Delhi Schools.

Short films would be made by the students to be put up on the filmit website -www.openfutures.com and exchanged with students of UK. These films would be made on various aspects of Indian culture including festivals, city, folk lores, crafts etc.

Filmit Delhi
On 2nd September, a one day workshop was organized for teachers and students of Delhi to give them a project update and to go through the technical details. The technical workshop was attended by 20 teachers and around 30 students. The resource persons included Mr Andy Huntington of the Helen Hamlyn Trust who responded to all the technical queries and put forward the linkages for second year. Dr Punja gave an update on the first year of the project and Ms Datt introduced the project timeline and the themes of the films. An interactive discussion took place with the teachers followed by a group activity.

Filmit Kolkata
A content and technical workshop for schools of Kolkata was organized on 3rd September 2009 at Bingsha Shatabdi which was attended by 10 content teachers and 5 technical teachers as well as by 20 students The themes and content of the films were agreed upon by the teachers. The workshop was inaugurated by Sr Cyril, winner of UN award and Padmashri. This was followed by an introduction by the Kolkata INTACH convenor G MKapur.The afternoon technical session was conducted by Andy Huntington. Schools were visited for interacting with the students and installing the software.

Filmit Chennai
A content and technical workshop for schools of Chennai was organized on 7th September 2009 at Sri Sankara Vidyashramam which was attended by 10 content teachers and 5 technical teachers as well as by 22 students. The themes and content of the films were agreed upon by the teachers. The workshop was inaugurated by the principal of Sri Sankara Vidyashramam. She also received the award by Dr Suresh, Convenor Chennai for excellence as a heritage club school. The sessions were fruitful and the children were enthused to make films. The afternoon technical session was conducted by Andy Huntington. This was followed by school visits where the themes of the films were discussed and Mr Huntington installed the software.

The follow up Teacher Training Workshop for 30 teachers from 28 schools from Delhi was held on 24th July 2009 at INTACH, Delhi.

The workshop commenced with a welcome address by Dr. Shobita Punja, and screening of the INTACH Film which gave a brief overview of INATCH’s various divisions and the projects undertaken by each of them.

An introduction to Delhi’s heritage was given by Dr. Swapna Liddle. She talked about what makes Delhi a metropolitan city and the capital of the country. Ms. Niriti Vaid gave little background about Sanskriti Kendra and the workshops which can be organized for the schools. Ms. Smita Singh’s presentation gave a background of various workshops which can be undertaken by schools for learning basic conservation techniques.

The calendar of events for the year was discussed by Ms. Purnima Datt and teachers were asked to participate and encourage children to give in entries for the yearly activities and the young INTACH newsletters. An orientation to the young INTACH website was given by Ms. Payal Joshi.

The workshop concluded with the distribution of certificate to participating teachers by Mr. Yogendra Narain, Member Secretary, INTACH.

Content Workshop for the CineArt programme was held on 6th August, Hiroshima Day, at Anadagram, Sanskriti Pratishthan. One teacher and 5 children from 20 schools each took part in the workshop. The workshop was organized to introduce children to content creation, creativity and interpretation which would help them to make short films on the theme Our World.

Children were divided into 5 groups. The various workshops included-Movement & Mime and Poetry & Music by Ashish Ghosh; Script writing by Feisal Alkazi; Dance & Drama by Vishwakant Singha and Art & design by Jolly Rohtagi.

The Technical Workshop for the same students will be held on 20 August 2009, wherein the children will be taught how to the use the camera and other technical details related to film making.

The Cuttack Teacher Training Workshop was attended 43 teachers from 18 DAV Schools from Orissa and West Bengal from 18th -19th July 2009.

Dr. H. K. Mohanty, Regional Director East Zone, DAV Schools was the chief guest. Talking about the importance of social sciences. He said that study of heritage gives an opportunity to discover oneself.

Prof Kharabela Mohanty, HOD History, S.B. Women’s College, Cuttack talked about the local heritage issues. Cuttack is the only city in which represents cosmopolitan Oriya culture- Shaila Bala Women’s College (6th oldest women’s college), Backley’s house, Press (Cuttack Mission Press), Stuart-School (Anglo-English School), Baramati Stadium (earliest stadium) etc. Professor Mohanty said Globalization implies being contemporary, by connecting ourselves with the past. Hence we have to develop a sense of creating.

The site visit study was done on the Barabati Fort by Dr. Sushanta K. Kar, Asst. Archaeologist, ASI, Bhubaneshwar Circle.

Certificates to the participants were given by the Dr. H. K. Mohanty, Regional Director East Zone, DAV Schools.

A two day teacher training workshop was held at Bhubaneshwar 16th-17th July 2009. 52 teachers from 32 schools attended the workshop.

The resource persons who talked about the local heritage issues included Dr Ganeswar Mishra, Retired Professor of English, Utkal University, Dr Bijay Kumar Rath, Retired Director of ASI, Shri Ram N. Jena and Shri A.B. Tripathy, Convenor of the Orissa Chapter. Konark, which is a UNESCO World Heritage.

An introduction to Heritage was given by Ms. Dutt. She talked about what makes India a unique country which includes mountains, rivers, deserts, people etc. One gets to see so much diversity which is very rare to see anywhere else in the world.

The site visit for the teachers was conducted at the State Museum, Bhubaneshwar. The two day workshop ended with the distribution of certificates to the participants by Dr Sebak Tripathy, SCERT.

INTACH's Madurai Chapter conducted the Teacher Training Programme for 25 teachers from 11 schools in Madurai on 27th June 2009 at Thiagarajar Arts College, Madurai.

The orientation to the workshop was given by Dr. S. Suresh, Convenor INTACH’s Chennai Chapter. Mr. Manohar Devadoss was the chief guest of the inauguration session. Mr. K. T. Gandhirajan, an eminent art historian, presented visuals of prehistoric paintings in the sites around Madurai.

Heritage Walk headed by Mr. K. T. Gandhirajan, was organized on 28th June at Kidaripatti. More than 100 students from 5 schools - Lakshmi School, TV Sundaram HSS, TVS Lakshmi, Rotary Laharry and Madurai College HSS along with their teachers and INTACH members.

On 24th May 2009, the work of students done in the two workshops-the Art Appreciation Workshop and the Painting competition was judged at multi-purpose hall at INTACH. 100 students from 20 schools in Delhi who would be going to the phase II of the Cineart Project were selected. The judges included Taposi Ghoshal (designer and illustrator), Jolly Rohatgi (Artist and Designer), Shobita Punja (head, HECS, INTACH) and Kartik Nair (Phil, JNU)

Workshop Winner
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PVR Nest in association with INTACH launched ‘CINEART’ on Earth Day, April 21st, 2009. This is a new and exciting initiative for children, for we hope that through them a happy and healthy environment can be created. This unique project will bring over 1000 students from 20 Delhi schools together to participate in creative activities, training in film making and related arts. Each school team will design, create, direct and make 2 short films to be shared with schools around India.

The program was launched on April 21st 2009, to celebrate Earth Day The theme of the programme was OUR WORLD The chief guest Mr Vinod Nagpal, eminent actor and theater artist launched this programme at PVR Priya, Vasant Vihar in front of 500 children. The project is divided into four phases. 1000 students from 20 schools were invited. The first and the second phase will help in selecting students who will finally make 3-5 minutes short films on the topic “Our World”.

In the Film Appreciation workshop 500 students from 20 schools in Delhi witnessed 2 films ‘Live and Let Live’ by Children Films Society of India and ‘Nanook of the North’ a famous film made in 1922 on the lives of the Eskimos of the Canadian Artic Region.

500 students from the same 20 schools participated in the Painting Competition held on April 24th 2009 at Mehrauli Archaeological Park. INTACH’s Delhi chapter members took the participating children on the heritage walk of the park before they made posters and paintings on the theme OUR WORLD.

After evaluation and selection, a group of 120 selected students will be chosen for the film making workshops. Five workshops on acting, music, script writing and dialogue, costume designing and make up, photography and filming and finally technical know-how will be organized in July 2009 so that children will be trained to make their own films.

Painting, posters and art work made by children in these workshops will be used to make calendars, diaries and posters for wide distribution.

INTACH organized a Filmit Festival in the forenoon of the 29th of January 2009 at India Islamic Cultural Centre. The festival was the culmination of the pilot project being carried out by Heritage Education and Communication Division (HECS) relating to film making by students. Ms Nandita Das, Chief Guest, a well known film actor and director and guest of Honor, Ms Lucy O Rourke from the Helen Hamlyn Trust and Mr S.K. Misra, Chairman INTACH graced the occasion. Films made by the students on the themes of Festivals, City, School and Family were screened. The students showed remarkable expertise in making these films and their script, screen play, music original score and acting won them accolades from distinguished guests.

The festival was attended by 300 students and by 20 teachers from different schools in Delhi. The students presented their self composed songs and poems on Delhi. This festival showcased how much the students enjoyed the creative experience of making films.

This website www.youngintach.org was launched by Ms Nandita Das, Actor and Director on 29th Jan, 2009 in celebration of theSilver Jubilee Year of INTACH.

This film series Heritage and Harmony aims at fostering an understanding and appreciation of the diverse culture of India, the many faiths and the plurality of our cultural expression be it - architecture, sculpture, paining etc. The film is designed as a teaching aid on how to involve school children in learning about the rich local, tangible and intangible heritage of their city, so as to make heritage education exciting, interactive and educational.

An interesting worksheet has been made for heritage clubs based on the website and personal research on the symbol or icon of their city. As this is a nation-wide exercise it is hoped that we would get a response which is diverse and colourful.

At the 25 years Silver Jubilee celebrations of INTACH Convenors from north India were invited to develop heritage education programmes. The suggested activities that would be funded by INTACH are:

1. Children’s heritage education programme
2. Rural heritage skill development workshop
3. Citizenship training and community based programmes

One of the successful INTACH Chapter National Heritage Awareness programmes was conducted by East Godavari Chapter, Kakinada. To create heritage awareness amongst children and the public and to encourage rural heritage they organized the following.

1. Elocution and Painting Competition for children in English and Telugu. More than 200 students from 100 schools participated. The theme was “The Impact of Pollution on People and Heritage Structures”

2. A meeting on ‘Global Warming” for more than 200 college students, 100 School children, INTACH members and local public was organized. Specialist from CII Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre, Hyderabad, Vice Chnacellor, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University and Prof. Allam Appa Rao, was the Chief Guest.

The report on Heritage Education in Asian countries was released by Mr John Stubbs, World Monument Fund and Mr S.K. Misra, Chairman INTACH. This report is a compilation of papers presented on heritage education at the Asian Regional Cooperation Conference, organized by INTACH on 2nd-4th December, 2008.

In the session on Heritage Education there were 8 participants from abroad and 10 Indian participants, and several observers. Principals and teachers from various schools and INTACH Conveners attended the conference. Over two intensive days of discussions speakers presented a stimulating range of projects from diverse venues across India, Nepal, Malaysia, Poland, Mongolia, Bhutan, Indonesia and the UK.

An Asian Heritage Council was also proposed at the Conference which could provide a useful forum for further collaboration in heritage learning. Several of the other conference sessions (which were on conservation, management, tourism,) also touched on learning skills and audience development and civic engagement.

The workshop “Media and Heritage” was organized at INTACH Multi Purpose Hall on 4th March, 2009. HECS prepared a module for the workshop for Media on Heritage. The purpose of this orientation workshop was to acquaint the media to the wider meaning of heritage, terms, references and issues so as to enable them to better cover this specialized sector.

Mr. Yogendra Narain, Member Secretary welcomed 21 participants from different media houses and division heads of INTACH attended the workshop. An introduction to INTACH was given by Mr. S.K. Misra, Chairman, on the role of INTACH. Dr. Shobita Punja, Director Heritage Education and Communication Service gave an audio visual presentation on What is Heritage? Dr. Punja talked about the Constitution and Article 51A wherein it states that it is the duty of Indian citizens to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife. It was stressed that the media could play a vital role in generating mass awareness and sensitizing people on their role as citizens.

The presentation was followed by a lively group discussion between the participants and the division heads on various issues such as community participation, proper interpretation of heritage sites and signage, archaeological and environmental impact assessment of all development projects like the metro rail etc.

To generate public awareness and sensitize the reader various suggestions and recommendations were made at the workshop.