CASE STUDY

Chandrabala Modi
Academy, Ankaleshwar
‘Crossing the Narmada’
By: Sudhanshu Sharma
08/BBS/7163
“Crossing the Narmada”
Down with Drugs. Join hands to fight
against this menace

 Objective: Build awareness against drugs.

 Design: Procession of students along with parents to Narmada.
Display banners against drug use.
Pooja at river bank.
30 students to swim across the river.
Principal would lead the event.
Coverage by media for building further publicity.
Triggered by visit of Mr. Srivastava, Deputy S.P. & Mr. Srivatsan,

president of local rotary club.

School, staff & Principal
 Chandrabala Modi Academy; setup in 1992
 Co-educational, English medium, non residential school,
affiliated to C.B.S.E.
 Located in Ankaleshwar, Bharuch district of Gujarat.
 To meet needs of employees of Gujarat Guardian Ltd.
 S.K. Bhattacharya, founding principal
 His experience at Bal Bharati not exciting.
 Member of school’s cricket and football team.
 Led trekking and mountaineering expeditions as a teacher
 Staff strength: 20, all from Ankaleshwar region.
Training and Requirements:
 Alerting the police and requesting them to arrange for proper security.
 Seeking support from local fishermen community to arrange for safety
boats and support equipments.
 Identifying able swimmers to handle emergencies.
 Organizing coaching camps to identify swimmers and making them
competent.
 Practice session: 2 hours training.
Swimming pool dimensions; 15 mts. Breadth
& 9 mts. Length
o Coach: Mr. Yunus, experienced in training hobby swimmers & not
competitive swimmers.
o Informing media and publicizing purpose.
o Taking care of negative publicity and fear psychosis.
Opportunities related to event
 Building awareness against drug use.
 Inculcating spirit of adventure.
 Creating the sense of camaraderie among staff.
 Bonding of parents with school.
 Goodwill for school.
 Demonstrate meaning of commitment, stretching one’s abilities and
pursuing dreams beyond books.
 Show parents that their children are capable of larger achievements.
 Personal achievement for principal an opportunity for him to relive
childhood days, communicate to staff his style of functioning.
 Other benefits; building team culture, inculcation of achievement
orientation and nurturing favorable attitude in neighborhood towards
school.
Risks related to event:
 Principal never visited the banks of river personally.
 School lacked in experience of organizing such an event.
 Risk of students failing in making transition from the pool to
river.
 Chances of injury or losing lives if proper precautions were not
taken.
 Parents or teachers could develop cold feet and stop the show.
 Not sure of management’s reaction .
 Not sure of response of community staying on the river banks.
 Critical timing: River known for flooding during rainy season
and experienced low and high tides.
River Narmada & Ankaleshwar

 Originated in Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh.

 Golden bridge : connected banks of the river,
located 15 kms. from school.
 Bank to bank river width: 1500 mts.
Decision: NO

 The proposal to organize such event must be

rejected because it can endanger lives of
students and also mismanagement of event
or any sort of failure could bring bad name to
school.