TAPAS Initiative

• 17 Aug 2021

Why in News

Recently, the Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment has launched an online portal TAPAS (Training for Augmenting Productivity and Services).

• The idea of TAPAS was conceptualised at a time when exploring the online medium for work and education had become imperative due to the outbreak of Covid 19 pandemic.

Key Points

• About:
  
  • It offers various courses in the field of social defence for the capacity building of stakeholders. It is an initiative of National Institute of Social Defense (NISD).
    
    • Social defence is generally understood as the protection of society against crime through a systematically organized and coherent action by both the State and civil society.
  • It is a standard MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) platform with course material such as filmed lectures and e-study material.
    
    • MOOC is a free Web-based distance learning program that is designed for the participation of large numbers of geographically dispersed students.
  • It also includes discussion forums to support and encourage interactions among students and course coordinators.
  • It will provide access to lectures by subject experts, study material and more, but in a manner that it supplements the physical classroom without compromising on the quality of teaching.
  • It can be taken up by anyone who wishes to enhance his or her knowledge on the topics and there is no fee for joining.
  • The platform has been made with a quadrant approach, which is:
    
    • Video, Text, Self Assessment and Discussions.
• Courses:
  
  • The five basic courses are on Drug (Substance) Abuse Prevention, Geriatric/Elderly Care, Care and Management of Dementia, Transgender Issues and on comprehensive course on Social Defence Issues.
• Objective:
  
  • To impart training and enhance the knowledge and skills for the capacity building of the participants.
• Significance:
  
  • In our education system, where the offline mode of teaching is so deeply entrenched, this course will lead the path of change and open up new possibilities.
  • It will enable the Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment in reaching out to an even larger number of people working in the area of social defence.
• Other Digital Learning initiatives:
  
  • SWAYAM:
    
    • Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM), was launched on 9th July, 2017 by the Ministry of Education to provide one integrated platform and portal for online courses.
  • SWAYAM Prabha:
    
    • It is an initiative of the Ministry of Education to provide 32 High Quality Educational Channels through DTH across the length and breadth of the country on a 24X7 basis.
    • It has curriculum-based course content covering diverse disciplines.
  • NEAT:
    
    • It aims to use Artificial Intelligence to make learning more personalized and customized as per the requirements of the learner.
  • National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning:
    
    • The NPTEL is a project of the Ministry of Education initiated by seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), along with the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore.

National Institute of Social Defence

• About:
  
  • It is an autonomous Body and is registered under Societies Act XXI of 1860 with the Government of National Capital Territory (NCT), Delhi.
  • It is a central advisory body for the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. It is a Centre of Excellence on research and training in the field of social defence
  • It is the nodal training and research institute in the field of social defence. It also coordinates and liaises between the government and the non-government organisations at state, national and international levels.
• Focus:
  
  • On human resource development in the areas of drug abuse prevention, welfare of senior citizens, beggary prevention, transgender and other social defence issues.
• Mandate:
  
  • To provide inputs for the social defence programmes of the Government of India through training, research & documentation.

Source: PIB