National Service Scheme (NSS)

The National Service Scheme (NSS) is functioning under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India for developing student’s personality through community service. At St.Thomas College, Palai, the first NSS unit started in 1972.Now there are two units with around two hundred registered volunteers .Members are selected on the basis of their aptitude. Admission to the scheme is open to IDC and II DDC students only. The duration of the programme in respect of an individual students is two years .NSS activities have been divided in to two major groups: regular activities and special camping programmes .In order to bcome eligible  for the NSS Certificate the volunteers have to put in 240 hours of regular activities and  attend a seven-day special camp. The NSS units of our college are engaged in social awareness and cultural programmes. They won the University Prize for Outstanding Social Service in 1996 and the award for the best NSS Unit in 1998-1999.Dr.P D George, Programme Officer of our unit, was selected as the best unit in Mahatma Gandhi University during 2000-2001.Prof.Thankachan Augustine was selected as the Best NSS Programme Officer of Mahatma Gandhi University for the academic year  2010-2011.A Nature club is functioning in the campus under the auspices of the NSS Dr, Joben K Antony was selected as one of the  five Best Programme Officers of the Mahatma Gandhi University for the academic years 2013-2014.Mr.Mathew Thomas received the certificate of appreciation for the Best  Programme Officer for the academic year 2015-2016, and Dr. Princemon Jose consecutively received the appreciation for the academic years 2016-2017 and 2017-2018. In the last two years the activities of the NSS unit of the college were mainly focused on rehabilitation work at flood –affected areas in the state. Flood-relief materials were distributed to a number of families at Udayanapuram village in Vaikom Taluk of Kottayam District in 2018 and Olavanna in Kozhikode District in 2019 respectively. Other focused projects of the units include environment enrichment, planting of trees, campaign for plastic free villages, waste management ,blood donation camps various awareness and  training programmes and skill development programmes.