Population education through poetry

The State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) in Haryana has adopted a stimulating approach in propagating messages of population -- through poetry. Through a project called Students Poetical Symposiums, the first phase convened around 20 teacher poets to participate in a workshop. In this workshop, 300 poems regarding six population themes were developed by the teachers. In the second phase, the developed poems were finalized by the experts and 108 poems were selected for publication in a booklet. The poems were classified according to the following themes: population and its effects on resources, effects of population growth, population growth and environment, population growth and economic aspect, population and social aspect, and population and emotional aspect. Each of these sections has 18 poems. The booklet also provides the users with guidelines for conducting Students' Poetical Symposiums. In the third phase, 36 schools were selected and oriented about this project. Students Poetical Symposiums were organized first at school level and later at the district level. More than 500 student poets recited the poems on the population education themes during 42 symposiums at the school and district levels to an audience numbering around ten thousand, comprising both students and the public.