Arun Kumar Shrivastav
Mumbai-based collaborative makers space, Makers Asylum, has kicked off the application process for its flagship program SDG School 2020. The program will be conducted online from December 9 to December 25 this year.
Like the previous years, the objective of this program is to work on solutions aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Anyone above 16 years is welcome to join this program. The last date for application has now been extended to 22 November 2020, from 10 November 2020 earlier.
For two weeks, all the participants will work on different innovation and fabrication projects to create a prototype of a marketable and scalable product. They will think like social entrepreneurs and will be exposed to global scenarios through 500-strong alumni in 25 countries.
The first edition of SDG was organized in Paris in 2016 followed by 3 consecutive events in Mumbai. This is the first time, SDG School would be conducted online.
What’s Maker’s Asylum?
Maker’s Asylum is a collaborative space for makers, innovators, and researchers. This is a workshop that has most of the tools, devices, and equipment required for product development. From 3D printers to laser cutters, metal, lathe, and wood workshops, you have everything that you may require to give your imagination and creativity a real shape and form.
People behind it
In a country starved of innovation and research, the existence of Maker’s Asylum is a pleasant surprise. It kept making news thanks to the young and dynamic leadership of Devesh Chhabra and Richa Shrivastava Chhabra. Based out of the famous South Mumbai locality Bandra, this maker space evolved into a thriving hotbed of young innovators.
Due to their passion for making and innovation, the place became an important address for all kinds of makers not only from India but also from overseas. It got a firm footing in the country’s nascent and evolving culture of scientific research and innovation.
Making a difference
Maker’s Asylum was in the news at least twice since the Covid pandemic hit the world. First, Maker’s Asylum showed the youthful energy in rising to the occasion and addressing a problem that looked to be intractably difficult. The country was awfully short of medical-grade face shields and face masks that were urgently needed in huge quantities for hospitals and healthcare workers. The young team of Maker’s Asylum whose members can be counted on fingertips took it upon themselves to provide the solution.
Driven by their belief that their little maker’s facility was capable of solving this problem, the young team began working day and night in their workshop. The team was able to establish contact with other maker’s facilities in the country who, too, were awakening to the evolving emergency that was soon to become a global pandemic of unprecedented scale.
They were able to prepare 1000 shields in about 48 hours. Those were very small numbers compared to what India needed in the hospitals across the the country. What’s more, Mumbai itself was turning out be the most dangerous place to be, accounting for the maximum number of Covid-19 cases reported within the country.
But true to the die-hard maker’s spirit, Maker’s Asylum took the leadership role in pooling in other makers’ facilities and resources in the country to prepare different parts of the medical-grade face shields and face masks, which were to be assembled and supplied to the community and healthcare workers.
The advantages of having educated and well-trained tech warriors around can be seen at many fronts. When the team faced a roadblock due to shortage of funds, it announced its intent and mission on its social media and also approached a crowd funding site.
People responded with their heart out and money was never a problem for the project. In next 48 days, the 42 maker’s spaces in the country produced and put together one million medical grade face shields and face masks. You can imagine the difficulty in the supply and transportation of these critical life-saving medical gears in the initial days of the Covid-19 pandemic when the world was still to work out the protocols for a safe living inside the homes, what to talk about how to conduct oneself outside when the modes of transportation were all shut and closed.
Moving to Goa
The second news came in about 6 months since Covid-19 hit the world. Maker’s Asylum is relocating from South Mumbai to Goa. Why? First of all, there is no hope the for makers’ community to come together for regular sessions in view of the pandemic, and the social distancing norms in place.
So there is no point maintaining the huge infrastructure in the expensive neighborhood of Bandra, Mumbai. Now, there is going to be more focus on online training, workshops, and interactive sessions. The entire pedagogy needs to be re-imagined and redrafted. Goa is a quiet place with lot of positive energy for making and innovation.
Now, Maker’s Asylum hopes to offer custom made solutions for the local Goa people while it does the same for its followers, clients, and peers through the online medium.