National Science Centre, Delhi, New Delhi

History

The National Science Centre is the northern zonal headquarters of the National Council of Science Museums. The first Science Museum under this Council, the Birla Industrial & Technological Museum came up on 2 May 1959 at Calcutta. Thereafter another Museum, the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum was opened in Bangalore in 1962. These Museums were inspired by the vision of Dr.Bidhan Chandra Roy, the first Chief Minister of West Bengal and was encouraged by pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, who always had a soft corner for scientific temper. Dr. Amalendu Bose, a young chemistry graduate at that time, was recruited by Dr.B.C.Roy to commission the first Museum at Calcutta. Thereafter several smaller centres came up, but for over two decades, there was a lull in the science museum movement in India. The coming to power of Rajiv Gandhi saw a fresh impetus for science popularisation. The Nehru Science Centre in Mumbai came up as the third major Science Centre. During this period, the movement also witnessed a shift from traditional science museums like the London Science Museum, the Deutsches Museum etc. to what were called 'Science Centres' in the line of the Exploratorium in the USA. With Rajiv Gandhi inaugurating the Mumbai Centre, the Science Centre movement embarked on a period of explosive growth, with science centres opening in most state capitals of India. With Kolkata, Bangalore and Mumbai Centres functional, a need for a big Centre in the Nation's capital in Delhi in the north was felt, and work started in earnest in 1984. Starting with a small shed near a municipal swimming pool in R K Puram and thereafter within a shrub forest in Timarpur, the National Science Centre was conceived, designed, built and made operational in 1992. It was inaugurated on 9 January 1992 by the then Prime Minister of India, P.V.Narasimha Rao and is situated between the Gate Nos. 1 and 2 of the Pragati Maidan exhibition grounds, on the Bhairon Road, across Purana Qila, Delhi. It is open all seven days a week from 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM except on the Indian Festival days of Holi and Diwali. The building was designed by noted Indian architect Achyut Kanvinde.The Innovative approaches adopted in the Education Outreach Activities of this Centre since 2009 has been widely appreciated and has resulted in generating an annual visitor figure in excess of half a million for the first time in the year 2008-2009. Also this Centre is unique in organising such socially relevant activities as Regular visits for specially abled children, Sensorimotor development skill workshops for autistic children and those with cerebral palsy, Breast cancer awareness and early detection for destitute women, Life skill development for underprivileged children Science awareness for minority groups like madrassa students, Science versus superstition for slum dwellers in JJ clusters, Sign language science demonstration lectures for hearing impaired highly subsidised entry for children from Municipal schools, Stress management for adolescents, Astronomy awareness with special programmes for dispelling myths related to eclipses for rural audience, Basic first aid training for housewives, Special programmes for war widows in collaboration with Indian Armed Forces, Vocational training for destitute women and widows etc.