Warangal youth's 'Samskar Toy' wins E-NNOVATE Award at international show in Poland
Samskar Toy, developed by 21-year-old innovator from Warangal Yakara Ganesh, has won the E-NNOVATE Award 2021 at the International Innovation Online Show held in Poland.
By Sumit Jha Published on 2 July 2021 4:18 AM GMT
Hyderabad: Samskar Toy, developed by 21-year-old innovator from Warangal Yakara Ganesh, has won the E-NNOVATE Award 2021 at the International Innovation Online Show held in Poland. The toy teaches kids about 'good touch' and 'bad touch' in a bid to teach them about sexual abuse.
Yakara Ganesh developed the toy along with Gundu Bharadwaja, a B.Tech student at Vaagdevi College, and Dr. M.K Kaushik, the CEO of Vaagdevi Incubation and Business Accelerator (VIBA).
"We won among 183 innovations from 16 countries. We are going to attend the event which will be held in September where our toy will be displayed. We will meet investors who are interested in manufacturing our toy at the commercial level," said Ganesh.
Dr. Kaushik explained that the toy has an ultrasonic sensor with soundwave and touch-based capacitive sensor. The toy makes a sound when it detects bad touch.
Ganesh said he got the idea for the toy from newspapers and television. "We hear about sexual harassment and rape every day. We as innovators should think about social issues. So, we came up with the idea of this toy through which we intend to change the attitude of kids. We do not want to educate just girls but also boys. We want to educate boys about 'good touch' and 'bad touch' and how to behave with girls," he added.
Meanwhile, Kaushik said they had named the toy 'Samskar Toy' to bring cultural and attitudinal change among kids. "What happens in school is that the children are theoretically explained about good and bad touch. We all know that that does not create any impact. Visual elements leave a long-lasting impact on students. A student can play with toys and he/she will easily understand good and bad touch through this medium," added Kaushik.
Talking about the response to the toy, Gundu Bharadwaja said the group has conducted live interactions with students in various schools and explained the use of the toy. "The management said our toy was one of the best ways to educate children. They wanted to introduce the toy in educational institutions like schools, colleges, and anganwadi to create awareness among students," said Bharadwaja.
These young innovators are looking for government support to register their innovation and start a company. However, funds are low. "We don't have any funds to travel to Poland and showcase our innovation to the world," said Ganesh.
