Bharat Scouts and Guides (BSG) planning to start Sea Scouts units for 3 Karnataka coastal districts

Bharath Scouts and Guides Karnataka chief commissioner P G R Sindhia said that the Bharat Scouts and Guides (BSG) in Karnataka is planning to start Sea Scouts units for three coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, and Uttara Kannada, along the lines of Air Scouts in Bengaluru and Belagavi.

Speaking on the sidelines of a workshop for officers of department of school education and literacy, taluk level nodal officers of Scouts and Guides, at the Bharath Scouts and Guides Bhavana in Mangaluru on Friday, he said the Sea Scouts will help in motivating students to join the Navy. Already permission has been received for starting it in coastal districts. Now, the Bharat Scouts and Guides is searching for a teacher to train them. If everything goes well then the Sea Scouts will be a reality from the next academic year.

It was also stated that the Bharat Scouts and Guides is planning to increase the strength of Cubs, Bulbulls, Scouts and Guides, Rovers and Rangers in Karnataka to 10 lakh from the present seven lakh. Already, the government has made Scouts and Guides mandatory in all the schools in Karnataka. The training for the department officers has been conducted in 20 districts in the state to urge them to motivate teachers to start the units in the schools and colleges. Training will be imparted for teachers of degree colleges and universities in the month of October, he added.

National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 had made Scouts, Guides, Rovers and Rangers mandatory with 50 marks. Now, with the state government scrapping NEP, we have appealed to the state government to make NCC, NSS, Scouts, Guides compulsory for the students. Taking part in Scouts and Guides helps the students to develop service attitude, discipline and learning life saving skills including CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation ).

He said that BSG has also urged the state government to reserve 500 engineering seats and 50 medical and dental seats for the Scouts, Guides Rovers and Rangers. “We have also appealed to the Higher Education Council to direct all universities to reserve seats for rovers and rangers. A few universities like Mangalore University, Davangere University have already reserved seats,” said Sindhia.

Disaster management team

Sindhia said that disaster management teams are being constituted in 11 identified districts including Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Chikkamagaluru, Bengaluru Urban, Shivamogga, Yadgiri prone to disaster. The BSG has appointed a coordinator for the 21-day long training on disaster management in these districts.