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Sewa Sadhana Varsh Pratipada, Vikrami Samvat 2066 (March 27, 2009) 3

“Our approach to rural developmentshould not aim at only materialisticdevelopment. This type of approachon the part of government agenciesand various social organisations hasmade even the deprived peopleparavalambi (dependant on others) byconcentrating only at their material-istic development. They failed to in-volve them in their activities resultingin these people not realising the needto achieve self-reliance. Therefore,the feeling of self-respect that we cansolve our problems ourselves and willnot unfold our hands before othershas to be infused into them. The workof rural development has one moredimension. All their hidden talents,qualities and habit of hard work willresurface only when they are moti-vated as per the traditional Hinduvalues of life.”

—H.V. Seshadri

The sense of self-respect hasto be instilled


SewaSadhanaVarsh Pratipada(March 27, 2009)

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Page No.The sense of self-respect has to be instilled H.V. Seshadri 3Editorial: Integrated rural development 7Service activities at a glance 8Villagers should stand on their own legs Shri Guruji 9Accept every obstacle as a challenge: Surendra Chauhan 15Show an unrivalled example of organic farming Nana Deshmukh 16Change in mentality will ensure development Premchand Goel 24Annam Bahu Kurveeta Dr R.G. Bhat 32Cow-based rural development R.S. Chauhan 34A pilgrimage to save the soul of the nation Suresh Agrawal 39Now produce paper from cow dung Muzaffar Hussain 40Converting soil into Amrit Mitti Deepak Suchde 41Why vermi compost 44Twenty reasons why one should go for Natueco farming 45Agnihotra farming: The way for making farmers prosperous 46Cow dung can convert garbage into useful manure 47Organic farming: Ensuring a balance between plants and soil 48Eighteen ways how chemical fertilizers affect us 49Myths about organic farming 50Tamil Nadu: An experiment with economic empowerment 51Karnataka: Onus of self-sufficiency lies on the villagers 54

HSP: Forty-day miraculous training 58Andhra Pardesh:

Kishtpuram: Temple becomes focal point of development 60Gurrewula: Addiction vanishes, devotion flourishes 61Kollampalli: Education eradicates superstitions 63Iskapalli: An ideal example of shakha-based development 64

Kerala: A ray of development in Agastya forest 65

Content

Mohad village of Madhya PradeshA complete laboratory of rural development

Pramod Saini in Mohad 10


West Bengal: Changing face of Maa Sharda’s leelakshetra 66Madhya Pradesh:

Baghuwar: How Bharat will become a superpower 67Jhiri: The whole village speaks Sanskrit 69Plasi/Hosangabad: SHG's infuse self-confidence 71Sundrail: Eradication of social evils 72

Chhattisgarh: Amera/Tamora: Scaling new heights 73Sonadih: A complete dispute-free village 74

Bihar: Sikariya: Computer wins, gun loses 75Jharkhand: Impact of a silent revolution —Maya Singh 76

Tilopada: A youth who made history on his own 77Uttar Pradesh: Goria Kalan: Traditional cottage industries restarted 78

Devipurva: Back to the basics 79Vantara: Organic farming: A boon for farmers 80Dorhrighat: Crematorium turns into a Sewa Kendra 81Ghumwati: A giant leap forward 82Matora Durga: All localities named after great personalities 83Nagala Vishnu: Towards total development 84Nagla Chandrabhan: Deendayal Dham: A multi faceted project 85Shivaji Nagar: “Hazratpur” becomes “Shivaji Nagar” 86

Uttaranchal:Bhigun: Change visible at every step —Vishnu Semval 87

Haryana: A unique initiative against addiction 89Rajasthan:

Kulthana: Flood-devastated village turns into a model village 90Vagadari: Change through Sant Sammelans 91Majhola: Checkdams enhance water level 92

Jammu & Kashmir: An endeavour to stop migration from rural areas 93Gujarat: Prabhat Pheri: A tool of change 94

Devgarh: SHGs: Antidote to money-lenders 95Shyadala: Where whole village drinks mineral water 96

North East: Nationalist feeling shakes the alien forces 97Maharashtra: Hadi: Treading the path of cooperative farming 98

Kanhewadi: Self-reliance through SHGs 99Mehsal: All-round uplift of the deprived 100Dhagewadi: Villagers tell the government to delete

their names from BPL list 101Baripada: Unique experiment of forest protection 102Samskrit Bharati: Sanskrit becoming language

of the masses —Shreesh Devpujari 103DRI: Converting non-economical holdings into economical holdings 106VHP: Scripting a new chapter 108Bharat Vikas Parishad: Service as duty, not as charity 110Swami Vivekananda Medical Mission:Seeking Narayana by serving Daridranarayana 112Kalyan Ashram: A revolutionary change in Vanvasi life 114

Organic farming isthe remedy K.S. Sudarshan

18

Harmoniousvillage, prosperous

village Sureshrao Joshi

21Reduce

dependence ongovernment

Sitaram Kedilaya

25

Our concept ofintegrated rural

development Surendra Chauhan

28


Help from outside willdo no good

“To try to help villagers from outsidecould do no good. How to kindle aspark of life in them that was myproblem. It was so difficult to help thembecause the people had so little respectfor themselves. ‘We are cursed’, theywould say, ‘only the whip can keep usstraight’.”

—Ravindra Nath Tagore

Gandhiji’s quest fora model village

“I know that the work (of shaping theideal village) is as difficult as makingIndia an ideal country. But if one canproduce an ideal village he will haveprovided a pattern not only for thewhole country, but perhaps for thewhole world. More than this a seekermay not aspire after.”

—Mahatma Gandhi


also. There are very influential shakhas in certain villages.This strength should be utilised for social transformationwas the primary idea. When the swayamsevaks talkabout rural reconstruction their thinking is different fromthe general concept of development as adopted bygovernment agencies, voluntary organisations or indi-viduals. While the government agencies have huge fundsat their disposal to carry out such activities, the voluntaryorganisations have enough manpower, but the involve-ment of villagers is hardly found in their activities.

When the Sangh swayamsevaks started thinkingabout rural development they decided to adopt a differentapproach while keeping in mind all the existed ap-proaches and also the approaches adopted by greatpersonalities in the past. The approach adopted by theswayamsevaks is that ‘the villagers have to develop theirvillages themselves and the swayamsevaks and all theirlike-minded organisations will work only as a catalyst’.

The then RSS Sarsanghachalak Prof. Rajendra Singhin the presence of Pejawar Swami Sri Vishveshteerthacalled upon the swayamsevaks in Mangalore in 1995 todevelop model villages across the country. He thenoutlined three priorities for them—Kshudha mukta, rogmukta, shikshayukta grams (hunger-free, disease-freeand literate villages). After that the swayamsevaks startedthis work concentrating on three points—education,health and self-reliance. With the passage of time, asthe work grew, the swayamsevaks realised the need tostart work on some more fronts such as social harmony,Sanskrit sambhashan, social security, cow protection,organic farming, workers’ training, etc. and they werealso added in the priority list.

The speed of the work through this new approachmay appear slow at the moment but the original conceptwith which the work had been started is still clear inthe minds of the activists. Before starting the work, theyinsist on forming a committee involving the people ofall sections and communities of the village. Thiscommittee basically takes all the decisions regarding

Integrated Rural Development

Some Unique Experiments

AS the number of shakhas grew in rural areas,the swayamsevaks developed a feeling that theyshould do something concrete for their villages

Editorial

developmental activities. The basic idea behind formingsuch a committee is that the people irrespective of theirnarrow thinking based on politics, castes or commu-nities, come together and jointly think of the developmentof their village. Later, some sub-committees are alsoformed on different issues such as education, health,cleanliness, organic farming, cow protection, self-reli-ance, etc.

This is truth that we did not get much success inthis field so far but the workers are seriously working.Today, villagers in 80 per cent districts of the countryhave started thinking according to this new concept ofdevelopment. There are more than 100 villages indifferent parts of the country where the developmentalactivities have shown encouraging results. Mohad villagein Madhya Pradesh has set many examples in self-reliance. People from different parts of the country gothere to practically see the change. Jhiri village in thesame state has become the village where everybodyspeaks Sanskrit. Similarly, all people of Muttoor andHosahalli villages in Karnataka also speak Sanskrit. Thereare more than 25 villages in Karnataka which have beendeveloped as model villages.

The developmental activities in the villages arecarried out in different phases. At the very first stagethe swayamsevaks take initiative from their own homes.In the second stage, they persuade the influential peopleof the village to take some initiatives—be it for health,education, cleanliness or organic farming. In the thirdstage the general farmers are motivated to involvethemselves in these activities. The complicated issues likesocial harmony or prohibition are taken up at the endwhen the people of the village have developed thementality of change.

The work has been going on for the last 15 years.It has infused a sense of confidence into the activistsand the villagers that they will certainly achieve success.We have in this issue of Sewa Sadhana endeavouredto highlight some of these successful experiments beingcarried out in different parts of the country. We hopethe readers would like it and take the inspiration toinvolve themselves in any of the activities in their vicinity.

—Editor


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101. Kerala 1477 4617 785 1016 1964 852 33 -2. Dakshin Tamil Nadu 3167 8714 922 380 7323 89 15 063. Uttar Tamil Nadu 237 1346 520 310 206 - - -

Dakshin Kshetra 4881 14677 2227 1706 9493 941 48 064. Dakshin Karnataka 2050 7431 2217 589 2350 2275 42 185. Uttar Karnataka 485 1218 151 97 286 684 - -6. Pashchim Andhra 403 731 452 53 204 22 04 037. Poorva Andhra 426 470 181 205 72 12 - -

Dak. Madh. Kshetra 3564 9850 3001 944 2912 2993 46 218. Konkan 954 1307 442 642 74 149 04 019. Pas. Maharashtra 361 679 218 353 44 64 07 -10. Devgiri 544 1262 331 312 124 495 - -11. Gujarat 429 722 275 318 49 80 09 0412. Vidarbha 308 510 171 145 138 56 - -

Pashchim Kshetra 2596 4480 1437 1770 429 844 20 0513. Madhya Bharat 2200 3595 2059 361 1028 147 19 0314. Mahakoshal 1051 1233 1109 25 54 45 18 0715. Chhattisgarh 2788 2882 2528 13 68 273 08 04

Madhya Kshetra 6039 7710 5696 399 1150 465 45 1416. Chittor 89 304 122 65 80 37 - -17. Jaipur 91 253 119 38 79 17 10 0318. Jodhpur 112 197 86 29 27 55 12 01

Uttar Pas. Kshetra 292 754 327 132 186 109 22 0419. Delhi 104 2006 598 134 534 740 - -20. Haryana 91 427 125 37 99 166 03 -21. Punjab 127 570 290 74 91 115 - -22. Jammu & Kashmir 288 328 263 11 14 40 - -23. Himachal Pradesh 46 91 64 11 04 12 - -

Uttar Kshetra 656 3422 1340 267 742 1073 03 -24. Uttaranchal 180 254 192 32 08 22 04 0225. Meerut 202 321 70 116 75 60 26 0226. Brij 310 625 142 205 219 59 10 04

Pasch. U.P. Kshetra 9692 1200 404 353 302 141 40 0827. Kanpur 191 495 192 84 169 50 15 -28. Avadh 159 413 103 205 77 28 22 -29. Kashi 113 558 124 200 200 34 21 0230. Goraksh 331 364 83 97 133 51 29 -

Poorva Uttar Kshetra 794 1830 502 586 579 163 87 0231. Uttar Bihar 48 72 24 15 08 25 20 -32. Dakshin Bihar 148 250 108 44 49 49 09 0133. Jharkhand 1272 1616 262 18 28 1308 04 01

Uttar. Madh. Kshetra 1468 1938 394 77 85 1382 33 02

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: Sewa VibhagService Activities (Till February 2009)

Types of activities

Social Self-reliance

Sl.No.

State(Prant)

No. ofplaces

No. ofactivities Education Health Uday

GramPrabhatGram


Villagers should standon their own legs

“WHEN I learnt that the villagers have joined together and with their own effortsand a true feeling of emotional unity have laid this road, then itself I had told thatI would necessarily come to this village. Your village has progressed by one step.Our country has spread from Rameshwaram to Badri-Kedar, and from Somnath to

Puri, and we Hindus are the masters of this land. The foreigners tried to divide us. Those people sowedthe poisonous seeds of differences of language, province, etc. amongst we brothers. Even afterIndependence we are quarrelling for power with the new party differences like Congress, Socialist, ShetkariKam Kari Party (The farmer and labour party), etc. No doubt, every political party has a few goodpersons, but the self-interest of their party comes in the way. Hence, everybody will be in search ofthe mistakes of the others, to accuse. How can we develop our country depending upon the foreignhelp of money or machines? All our sadhus and saints have taught us ‘to depend upon a begging bowland get burnt is the most shameful life’. The villagers should stand unitedly on their own legs and makeefforts for the development of the village. This is the noblest thing to do.”

—Shri Guruji at Shivane village near Pune in Maharashtra, 1952

34. Utkal 998 1539 459 516 184 380 10 0135. Dakshin Bengal 183 273 134 78 12 49 17 0336. Uttar Bengal 154 258 24 205 01 28 09 -

Poorva Kshetra 1335 2070 617 799 197 457 36 0437. Uttar Assam 4246 4843 231 4190 223 199 18 -38. Dakshin Assam 432 437 26 397 - 14 10 -

Assam Kshetra 34678 5280 257 4587 223 213 28 -Total Projects 26778 53279 16208 11665 16412 8994 408 66

1. Saksham - 68 06 45 10 07 - -2. Vishwa Hindu Parishad 25922 72370 25922 23204 22394 850 - -3. Vidya Bharati 9682 9682 9682 - - - - -4. Deendayal Research

Institute 729 1000 - - 1000 - - -5. Kalyan Ashram 10238 13969 3147 2741 6795 1286 - -6. Bharat Vikas Parishad - 1050 - 1050 - - - -7. Rashtra Sevika Samiti 48 461 149 41 60 211 - -8. Vidyarthi Parishad - 168 98 57 13 - - -

Total 46619 98768 39004 27138 30272 2354 - -Grand total 73397 151979 55206 38758 46674 11331 408 66

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Types of activities

Social Self-reliance

Sl.No.

State(Prant)

No. ofplaces

No. ofactivities Education Health Uday

GramPrabhatGram


Mohad village of Madhya Pradesh

A complete laboratory ofrural development

Pramod Saini in Mohad

* WITH 98 per cent rate of literacy, majority of the villagers speak Sanskrit.* There are 50 types of small and cottage industries in the village of 450 families with a population

of about 4000.* Every inch of the agriculture land is irrigated.* Majority of the farmers have said firm no to the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and

adopted organic farming.* No family uses wood for preparing food; almost every house has a bio-gas plant.* Awareness about protecting the environment is so widespread that every girl of the village ties

rakhi to trees on Rakshabandhan Day and resolves to protect them.* Every house has a tulsi plant and flower garden in the premises.* Every building has a sign of Om/Swastik and other ethical messages on the walls.* Every house has a toilet.* The village is free from theft, violence and all kinds of addictions including paan, biri, cigarette,

gutkha, liquor, etc.* No dispute of the village is pending in any court or police station.* Every family has Sangh swayamsevaks.

A view of the evening shakha in Mohad


Having gone through these highlights,you must be wondering whether it is a fairytale. But don’t be mistaken. It is absolute truthand the village is Mohad in Madhya Pradesh,where people are well aware of their duties andrights. This is manifest in the escalating lit-eracy rate, consciousness about protecting theenvironment and all-pervasive religious atmo-sphere in the village.

Born and bought up in a village I haveseen the advantages and disadvantages ofrural life very closely while doing farming tillthe age of 21 years in my village underSaharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh. Sincerural development has been the subject of myinterest, I had the desire to visit Mohad formany years. I planned it many times but everytime it had to be cancelled due to one or theother reason. But I firmly resolved to visitMohad in the last week of August and reachedthere in the morning of September 1, 2008.

slogans of various government departments,information about universe, sixteen mahadanin the life of a Hindu, messages discouragingaddiction, dowry, promoting cleanliness, pro-tecting environment, etc.

Every sentence written on the walls has anew message, samskar and information. Im-pressed with the unique collection of the in-formation, I asked Shri Chauhan from where hecollected this valuable information. He replied,“I alone did nothing. It has the contribution ofall villagers. Whosoever got the informationfrom whichever source he complied and thevillage Panchayat got it written on the walls.”

The ethical, rather I call them divine,message written on the walls of the villagebuildings appeared to have deeply been im-

A unique method toachieve totalprohibition

THOSE who took the initiative of achieving totalprohibition in Mohad had to face court cases.Though the court case was settled against theliquor mafia, several people of the village did notabandon consuming alcohol. Meanwhile, a miraclesurfaced. There is staunch devotee of GoddessNarmada, Shri Jugal Kishore Patel, in Mohad. Heregularly visits the Narmada temple for havingdarshan of the Goddess. Once, the Goddess ap-peared in his dream and told him to take her to hishome. Jugal Kishore is economically backward.How to make a temple to instal the idol of theGoddess was a big question before him. Meanwhilea strange woman approached him and offered herwhole money for building the temple. The templewas finally built. Then Jugal Kishore went toBhadaghat (Jabalpur) to have an idol of the God-dess. The idol he selected was very costly and theartisan asked Rs 18,500 for that. But Shri Kishorehad only Rs 10,000. Finally the artisan refused togive the idol in Rs 10,000. Disappointed with theresponse of the artisan, when Shri Jugal Kishoreturned to go back the artisan saw the idol alsoturning to him. The artisan understood the wish ofthe Goddess. He gave the idol to Jugal Kishore inthe amount he had. After the installation of this idolin the village, even those who had not abandonedliquor earlier stopped it.Fotunately the man behind the silent revolu-

tion in Mohad Shri Surendra Singh Chauhanwho is popularly known as ‘Bhaiyaji’, was alsoin Mohad during those days. It benefitted mea lot. Shri Chauhan is a very simple farmer, buthis association inspires everyone who comesto his contact. It happened with me also.

Mohad falls under Narsinghpur district ofMadhya Pradesh. About 20 years ago thisvillage was like any other backward village ofthe country. But now it has gone through asea change. Credit to bring about this incred-ible change goes to Sangh swayamsevaks ofthis village.

Mohad is about 100 km from Jabalpur andfalls under Kareli tehsil. It is just five km fromKareli town. After reaching the village border,one can realise the uniqueness of the village.As one enters the village, a Hanuman temple

is standing tall tobless everyone.

There is aconcrete roadfrom Kareli toMohad. But whenone reaches nearthe village onegets a feeling thatone is now goingto enter in aunique and divinevillage. This feel-ing further deep-ens when onesees the signs ofOm, Swastik, etc.on the gate ofevery house orbuilding of thevillage.

The ethicalmessages, writtenon the walls ofevery building,appear as an en-cyclopedia of gen-eral knowledgeespecially forthose who live inmetro cities likeDelhi. It appearsto be highly valu-able and importantinformation like

“We do not wish to makethe village a town. The

village will remain avillage but the technologyavailable in towns will be

brought to the villagesalso.”

Everysentence

written onthe walls has

a newmessage,

samskar andinformation.


of his farming to organic. There are 38tractors in the village and at least twofarming symposia are held every yearin which agriculture scientists are in-vited to guide the farmers. The govern-ment officers of different departmentsare also invited in the village to discussthe problems of the farmers on regularbasis.

Besides other animals, the villagehas over 3000 cows and 154 bio-gasplants. The pressure of bio-gas is morethan LPG. It is also lesser sensitivethan LPG. “Bio-gas plant has changedour life beyond imagination. Now thereis no tension of purchasing LPG cyl-inder or collecting woods from theforests. It is also cheaper. It solved allour energy and power problems,” saidseventh pass Smt. Pratibha Chauhan inSanskrit. She pointed out that the cowdung produces more bio-gas than anyother animal’s dung in the plant. Thevillagers have adopted Deenbandhumodel of bio-gas plant, which requiresless space and less cost. All plants arebuilt underground and the space overthem is used mostly for animals. Ac-cording to Shri Bhaiyaji one plant of 2,3, 4 and 6 cubic metres costs aroundRs 10,000, 12,000, 14,000 and Rs 16,000respectively. This model has provedvery successful. That is why followingrequests from other villages the arti-sans of this village go to differentstates to build similar plants. Now thework is on in the village over theexperiments of running diesel engineswith bio-gas and also storing it incylinders. Bio-gas plants have provedto be a milestone in protecting theenvironment and forests. Tying rakhion trees by girls has also been takenup as a step to protect them.

Till 20 years back, the people fromdalit communities and Vanvasis werenot allowed to even have drinking waterfrom the public handpumps and wells.But now the picture has totallychanged. All people belonging to anycommunity can have water from anyhandpump or well without hesitation.The village Panchayat has ensured at

enters in every house as if it were hisown. Every family of the village has fullfaith in him. Whatever initiative he takesis backed by the whole village. It isowing to such high regard that 98 percent of the people in the village areliterate and about one thousand peopleout of the total 4000 population are wellversed in Sanskrit.

Gaon ki pratibha gaon mein, gaonka paisa gaon mein and gaon ka paanigaon mein (talent, water and money ofthe village should remain within thevillage) is the formula on which theentire village has been developed byswayamsevaks. The village has highlyqualified people including Ph.Ds, LL.Bs,engineers, etc. Shri Bhaiyaji is himselfMA in English literature. His son ShriSangram Singh is MA (Economics) andthe second son Shri Vikram Singh isBA, LL.B. And all are doing farming inthe village. The village has two Ph.Ds,dozens of post-graduate, over 20 gradu-ates, 30 teachers, two journalists, fourengineers, three doctors, one Superin-tendent of Police, two retired and threeserving army officers.

Shri Beni Prasad is MA, LL.B butis happily doing farming. He has donea wonderful work in the organic farm-ing. He has stopped using chemicalfertilizers and pesticides and turned most

Shri K.S. Sudarshan being welcomed by village girls during his visit to Mohad

bibed by the villagers by heart. WhenI entered the village in the morning ofSeptember 1, the thing that impressedme the most was greetings of Jai SriRam and Namo Namah even by thekids of three-four years, who did notknow me at all, to me. On every stepthe village and the villagers inspire theoutsiders. Their every activity carries amessage. The word Jai Sri Ram be-came popular during theRamjanmabhoomi movement in eightiesand nineties while the word NamoNamah was adopted during the San-skrit-speaking camps organised bySamskrit Bharati.

The 75-year-old Shri SurendraSingh Chauhan, however, does not claimthe credit of the sea-change personallyand transfers it to his fellow villagers.“I am just a catalyst; the entire devel-opment work has been done by ourvillagers,” he says. He made it clearthat he does not wish to make thevillage a town. “The village will remaina village but the technology availablein towns will be brought to the villagealso,” he added.

‘Bhaiyaji’ gets the similar respectand affection from every house of hisvillage, whether it belongs to a dalit,Vanvasi family or any so-called uppercaste, as he gets in his own family. He


least one handpump at every 100-metre dis-tance. The social harmony has improved to theextent that all villagers jointly perform bhajan-kirtan in temples and take sahabhoj together.Those people who were earlier deprived ofperforming aarti during the Durga Pooja andGanesh festival now happily do it along withall other villagers. Weekly kirtan is performedin the village temple for the last over hundredyears. Kanyapujan is also held to bridge thegap between the upper and lower classesduring Navratras.

Adarsh Hindu Ghar competition is held inthe village every year. A few years back, thisaward was won by a Jatav family of ShriDevkaran. RSS Sarsanghachalak Shri K.S.Sudarshan and the late BJP leader and formerChief Minister of Delhi Dr Saheb Singh Vermajointly visited the village to present the awardto this family on April 11, 2000. Writing Om orthe sign of Swastik outside every house andhaving a tulsi plant in the premises is part ofthis 21-point programme under this competi-tion, which is voluntarily followed by all.

The village has four schools including oneSaraswati Shishu Mandir. Every child goes toschool and those who are below three yearsof age go to balwadis. All the schools beginwith Saraswati Vandana and Vande Mataram.Interestingly, even the Muslim students singSaraswati Vandana and Vande Mataram with-out any hesitation. Their parents too did notobject. They also sing Sanskrit shlokas alongwith other students. Every house has theRamayana and the Gita and the family mem-bers read them regularly in every morning. TheMuslim families read their Quran.

Special attention is paid to improve thehandwriting of village students. Apart frompersonal efforts of Shri Bhaiyaji who still writesvery beautifully in the age of 76, Shri NanaLabhe, a handwriting expert, is invited fromNagpur to teach the techniques of improvinghandwriting. So far, he has visited the villagenine times since 1996.

Mohad has set a noteworthy example onSanskrit propagation. The first SanskritSambhashan Varga was held on January 15,1996 and so far six such Vargas have beenorganised by the Samskrit Bharati. More than1000 persons including children have learntSanskrit in these Vargas. There are more than

100 minor children, who can introduce them-selves fully in Sanskrit. A woman, Smt. PramilaDevi, topped the All India Kovid Exam of San-skrit, conducted by Samskrit Bharati in 2004.

Under Udyan Utsava school children aretaken to village nursery twice a year and aretaught about grafting. According to ShriBhagvendra Patel, superintendent of the nursery,the nursery has more than two lakh saplings ofrare species. Special experiments of grafting areundertaken here. It has a variety of mango trees,which produce four kinds of mangoes—Dashahari, Chausa, Langada and Amrapali ata time.

A few years back the village had six leprosypatients and 13 patients of other infectiousdiseases. But now all have been fully cured. Theinitiative was taken by the swayamsevaks.Though, there is no health centre in the village,there are two arogya rakshaks who cater to theprimary health needs. Two camps of PatanjaliYoga training have also been organised in thevillage to teach proper yoga techniques. Thereis also arrangement of Prakratik Chikitsa.

The village is free from theft, violence andall kinds of addictions including paan, biri,cigarette, gutkha, liquor, etc. It took many yearsfor the swayamsevaks to achieve this stage.They had to face many problems including courtcases also. Once there were 22 liquor factories

The original distilled water

Smt Pramila Devi

THERE may not be many inverters in Mohad but the number of tractorsand other vehicles in which batteries are used, is more than one hundred.This is a fact that the batteries need distilled water frequently. Though,it is not very costly, the distilled water we get from the market, issometimes fake and it is difficult for a lay man to ascertain whether itis fake or original. But, Major (retd.) Prabhat Singh Chauhan of Mohadhas found a unique and natural substitute of the distilled water in whichthere is no scope of being it fake. He collected the rainwater in a potand tested it by a device developed by him. He found the rain wateras the high quality distilled water. He also tested packed distilled waterpurchased from the market and found that too fake. When he went toKareli Town to return it to the shopkeeper, the shopkeeper did notbelieve. But Shri Chauhan tested it before his eyes. Finally the shop-keeper took it back. Now Shri Chauhan has educated all the villagershow to collect and use the rainwater in batteries. Now the people ofMohad and the surrounded villages use only the rain water in placeof packed distilled water. As a result the battery using distilled wateravailable in the market runs about two years but the battery using rainwater easily runs for more than three years. This is the benefit ofretaining village talent in the village.

Talent, waterand money of

the villageshould remain

within thevillage. This isthe formula on

which theentire village

has beendeveloped by

swayamsevaks.


and was on even during the Emergency.Today, every house has at least oneswayamsevak. Three swayamsevaks arethird year trained and seven have donefirst year Sangh Shiksha Varga and over20 have done Prathamik Varga. Today,there is one evening shakha, which hasover 30 swayamsevaks including fourMuslim swayamsevaks—Habib Khan,Rashid Khan, Jumman and Rais Khan.“Basically the shakha develops thegenuine workers who are required forsuch development. The qualities andfacilities that we wish to have for ourown families should be available to allvillagers. This is our basic thinking,”said Shri Bhaiyaji.

Before leaving the village on Sep-tember 2, Bhaiyaji introduced me toMajor (retd.) Prabhat Singh Chauhanwho has settled in the village aftertaking VRS. He did wonderful work onvermiculture. “Vermi is basicallybhoomiputra and is the best friend offarmers. It is called intestine of the soil.

But the chemical fertilizers andpesticides that we use have killed it.It could become a major profession inthe villages if taken up properly andseriously,” he said. He has promotedthe use of rainwater in batteries in-stead of distilled water in the village.“This is the benefit of bringing thetalent back to the village,” Shri Bhaiyajiexplained.

Every person of the village ap-pears energetic and enthusiastic. No-body throws garbage on streets andevery family cleanses the street out-side their houses. The swayamsevaksof Mohad also inspired the people ofBaghuwar, an adjoining village, whichis also being developed on the linesof Mohad. It has also produced goodresults.

At a time when villagers are mi-grating to cities in search of employ-ment and facilities, Mohad sets anexample as to how to develop villagesand how the facilities available in theurban areas can be made available invillages. That is why the people andgovernment officials, having interestin rural development, visit the villagefrequently and learn the secrets of thisunique development. So far more thantwo hundred people including seniorleaders of RSS and many other peoplehave visited the village. Those whowish to see the practical work in ruraldevelopment visit here and watch thechange with their own eyes.

The family of Shri Devkaran Jatav showing theIdeal Hindu Family Award

Major (Retd.) Prabhat Singh receiving AllIndia Banner of NCC from Pt. Nehru in Delhi

Prominentpersonalities who

visited MohadMore than 125 great personalitiesfrom different parts of the countryhave visited Mohad so far. Besidesthe great personalities people fromvarious villages also visited thevillage to see it and emulate thedevelopmental model. Some of theprominent names are given below:RSS Sarsanghachalak Shri K.S.SudarshanFormer Chief Minister of Delhi thelate Dr Sahib Singh VermaShri Yadavrao JoshiShri Nanaji DeshmukhShri H. V. SeshadriShri K. Suryanarayan RaoShri Madhubhai KulkarniShri Sureshrao KetkarShri Thakur RamsinghShri Brahmdev Sharma “Bhaiji”Shri Madan DasSmt. Pramilatai MedheShri Kunwarji Bhai JadhavShri Sureshrao JoshiShri K.N. GovindacharyaShri Premchand GoelShri HastimalDr Shankar Tatwawadi

lems. I also tried it andfound very useful. Sincethe day I returned fromMohad I take only theKalyan Peya. It is basi-cally the mixer of severalimportant herbs andspices including Arjun,Brahmi, Ilayachi, Tulsi,Sounf, black piper,Dalchini, Sounth,Mulethi, Raktachandan,Jayphal, etc.

The Sangh work inthe village began in 1947

in the village. When the efforts weremade to close them, the liquor lobbytook some people of the village to thecourt. But after three years, the courtdecided to close the ‘factories’ andthey were finally closed down. Nowthere are milk dairies at the placeswhere once those liquor factories usedto be run.

Now a majority of the people herehave stopped even taking tea. SewaBharati unit of Mohad has producedherbal tea, named as Kalyan Peya. Itis very useful product especially forthose who have heart and gas prob-


The rural development work of the Sanghis going on under the guidance of ShriSurendra Singh Chauhan, who has him-self done wonderful work in his own villageMohad. Pramod Saini spoke to him inMohad on various issues related to ruraldevelopment. Excerpts:

From where did you get the inspirationof rural development?

As Prant Sewa Pramukh ofMahakoshal I attended a seven-daymeeting of Sewa Pramukhs at RaleganSindi, the village of Shri Anna Hazare.He has developed his village in a won-derful way. In that meeting I thoughtif Anna Hazare could do this, why can’tI? In 1994, I was called by NanajiDeshmukh in Chitrakoot where he ap-pointed me as a university adviser.That was an honourary post of pro-vice chancellor. I worked there for three-and-half years. In fact, I learnt theconcept of rural development fromNanaji. He is my sole inspiration.Whatever he taught me and whateverI learnt from him I applied in my village.What is Sangh’s concept of rural de-velopment?

Rural development is a new word.Actually speaking, village has been aself-sufficient unit of administration inour country for centuries. Village wasa family where inter-complementaritywas seen. Every house was a place forHindu culture, teaching and goodsamskars. Everybody was aware ofprotecting ecology—living with na-ture—and everybody was healthy. Thatis why we say Vishwam gramepratishthitam. Our ancient villages wereall comprehensive. We wish to recon-struct that old life in present atmo-sphere. Nanaji calls it yuganukulgramin punarrachana. Whatever in-ventions science has made for the hap-piness of humankind should be made

Accept every obstacleas a challenge —Surendra Singh Chauhan

available in villages but keeping inmind that all the activities of villagedevelopment should have their moor-ings rooted in Hindu culture. Agricul-ture, health, education, self-sufficiency,protection of social life and samarasataare the principles on which our ground-work is based.How did you start the work in Mohad?

Basically three things are neces-sary for rural development. First istemple. It is the centre of spiritual

major difficulty because we got theshakha workers in the village right from1947. Every house has at least oneswayamsevak. They do not tend to putup any hindrance in the developmentalwork. Naturally there are forces in all thevillages that enjoy in creating troublesin all good works. But we keep suchpeople in front while doing the work andalso give them full credit of the work.It makes them satisfied. That is whythere was no election in our villagePanchayat for 40 years. The major dif-

into their families also. Third is the Sanghshakha. If the shakha is influential thenthe dedicated workers, who have love fortheir village, are developed. This lovebasically makes them to work honestlyand constantly. An ordinary person can-not work for more than one or two years.He gets disappointed with growing prob-lems. Only the person, who remains com-mitted to attain the objective, can getsuccess. I started the work on thesethree foundations.What difficulties did you face in thebeginning?

Frankly speaking, I did not face any

ficulty we faced was finance. Therewere also problems in taking moneyfrom the Block. But we never paid evena single penny as bribe to anybody forgetting the funds. Utilisation of moneyhas been hundred per cent. Everybodytrusts in the character of the sarpanch.Pramanikata has been the foundationof developmental activities in our vil-lage. Every obstacle was taken as achallenge. I am not a leader. But I madeother perople leader. The most impor-tant thing is love for the people. If youhave genuine love for the people, thenpeople also love you.

chetana andplays a keyrole in instill-ing goods a m s k a r sinto villagers.Second iseducationalinstitution.When a childgoes toschool andgets propers a m s k a r sthere, thent h o s esamskars areincu l ca t ed Shri Surendra Chauhan indicating to a developmental activity in Mohad


tration alone, but were inherent in the socialmores. The majority of the population wasengaged in agriculture. The farmer, theannadatta (food-giver), was the pillar uponwhich these democratic structures rested. Evenunder foreign rule, he maintained his self-reliance.

Post-Independence, however, successivegovernments have eroded the self-reliance ofour farmers, the guardians of democracy.Western capitalism and Russian and Chinesecommunism are equally adverse to democracy.Yet Indian governments have swung like apendulum between the two. Our rulers did notmake any effort to understand the basis of ourdemocracy.

Carried away by the mantra ofindustrialisation, our governments found itnecessary to mechanise agriculture as far aspossible. Under the influence of wealthy farm-ers with large land-holdings, it tailored agricul-tural policy to suit their needs. These bigfarmers found mechanised agriculture moreconvenient and financially beneficial. Agricul-tural policy was dictated by them and Indianagriculture was rapidly mechanised.

With mechanisation, the demand for fertil-izers had to be met. Countries with a passionfor industrialisation ask for scientific reportsbefore formulating policy. In order to enhanceproductivity, they subject farm-soil to chemicalanalysis. Thus, the demand for chemical fertil-izers was created.

The effect of these chemical fertilizers ona field is a lot like the effect of alcohol on ahuman being. It feels good to begin with, butthen becomes addictive and eventually de-structive. Application of chemical fertilizers madecrops vulnerable to a host of diseases. To dealwith these diseases, chemical pesticides were

Show the world an unrivalledexample of organic farming

Nana Deshmukh

FROM ancient times, India has nurtureda democratic way of life. Democratictraditions were not limited to adminis-

applied. In this fashion, chemical-based agricul-ture became the norm in industrialised coun-tries.

Factories for the manufacturing of agricul-tural machinery, chemical fertilizers and chemi-cal pesticides were established by big busi-nessmen. As a result, the farmer has had tosacrifice his self-reliance in order to obtainagricultural inputs and has become dependenton capitalists. This form of agriculture is anti-farmer and pro-capitalist.

Wealthy western nations have accordedprimacy to industrialisation and are continuingdown that path. Farming is treated as justanother form of industry. As a result, they havebeen unable to truly understand the nature offarming.

We have an ancient tradition of farming.As a result of this long experience, our farmingpractices are in absolute harmony with nature.

Growing crops is essentially an organicprocess. It can be chemically analysed but tobase farming on chemical inputs is destructiveto all. The harmful effects of chemical farminginclude:1) It is anti-farmer and pro-capitalist.2) It erodes the farmers’ self-reliance.3) Chemical fertilizers do not boost the pro-

ductivity of land, rather they weaken itthrough over-exploitation. Ever-increasingamounts of fertilizer have to be added untilfinally, the productive capacity of the landis ruined.

4) Owing to the use of synthetic chemicals,crops are contaminated with toxic sub-stances, which have adverse impact onhuman health.

5) Synthetic and toxic chemicals pollute notonly the soil, but ground water as well.The adverse impact of chemical-based

agriculture has forced industrialised nations toalter their outlook on agriculture. Organic food

The adverseimpact ofchemical-basedagriculture hasforcedindustrialisednations to altertheir outlookon agriculture.Organic foodcrops are soldat high pricesin thesecountries. Ourmodernisation-crazy leaders,who blindlyaped the west,are now in adilemma. Butcan theyliberatethemselves fromthe perniciousinfluence ofcapitalists andbig farmers?


crops are sold at high prices in these countries.Our modernisation-crazy leaders, who blindlyaped the west, are now in a dilemma. But canthey liberate themselves from the perniciousinfluence of capitalists and big farmers?

Our Indian civilisation is unique. It nur-tures the capacity for gratitude in humanity.Indian tradition thus venerates all beneficialelements. He reveres the god-like Himalayas,the goddess-like River Ganga, the life-givingMother Earth and the bountiful cow. The ex-ploitation of nature for man’s own selfish endsis thus not a part of Indian tradition. Ratherman considers himself a child of nature, whomakes his mother happy by growing strong onher milk. Tradition has imbued the farmer witha deep-rooted love for his land. Nurtured onthe treasures he gets from his land, he workshard to maintain its fertility.

Our western-educated and wealth-hungryintelligentsia has never understood the impor-tance of our indigenous cattle. They regard thecow merely as a source of milk. In cold coun-tries, cows give a lot of milk. This productivitymakes them attractive to our people. A cam-paign to introduce the Holstein, Jersey andSwiss Brown breed of cows through artificialinsemination has been launched. Now, it is hardto find indigenous breeds. The loss to thenation thanks to this ill-conceived campaign ishard to compute.

Indigenous cows are the foundation of thetraditional Indian economy. The farmer and hiscattle have always been an indivisible unit.Cows produce milk. More importantly, they arethe basis of organic agriculture. Our western-educated intelligentsia has not realised this.

Calves obtained from indigenous cows arenot just a source of milk but a means oftransport. Bullock-carts still account for 50 percent of traffic, despite the building of extensiverailway and road networks.

Cattle are an indispensable part of organicagriculture, providing the necessary quantityof green manure. The farmer need not spendmoney to purchase this manure. Thus, cattleare fundamental to the farmer’s self-reliance.Agricultural implements were provided by thevillage ironsmiths. The farmer was not depen-dent on anybody. Thus, he was the strongestpillar of democracy.

The urine of indigenous cows has proved

effective against crop diseases. In case ofpersistent infestation, a concoction of neemleaves steeped in cow urine for ten days andmixed with four to five times its volume ofwater, has proved very effective. To improvecrop growth, strength and productivity, spraywith a two per cent solution of cow urine 15to 20 times between sowing and flowering.These are tried and tested techniques. Only theurine of indigenous cows has these properties.

Calves obtained through artificial insemi-nation of cows with semen from foreign breedare not useful in agriculture or as a means oftransport. In the west, beef is popular.

Traditionally, our farmers have practisedanimal husbandry. Until 1920, one would havebeen hard to find a farmer without cattle. Everyfarmer could offer milk, curds and buttermilk.There was no tradition of selling milk. Cattlewere the source of agricultural wealth. Theyconsumed fodder, which was not part of thehuman diet. Productivity per acre was higherthan that currently being obtained throughmodern agriculture. Documentary evidence ofthis is available. Worldwide, organic agricultureis catching on.

Our country’s youth should seize the op-portunity to demonstrate to the world a match-less example of organic agriculture.(The writer is founder of Deendayal Research Instituteand has done remarkable rural development work inUttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.)

Indigenouscows are the

foundation ofthe traditional

Indianeconomy. The

farmer andhis cattle have

always beenan indivisible

unit. Cowsproduce milk.

Moreimportantly,they are the

basis oforganic

agriculture.Our western-

educatedintelligentsia

has notrealised this.

Shakthi Sangamam in Tamil Nadu


Organic farming isthe remedy

places of the country under the Samagra GramVikas Yojna. Some activities are also beingconduced by Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi KalyanAshram and several other organisations asso-ciated with the Sangh.

We have basically kept five dimensions ofthe work before our eyes on which all devel-opmental activities are centred in villages. Itincludes shiksha, (education), swasthya(health), samriddhi (prosperity), samarasata(harmony) and suraksha (protection).

In the beginning, a Gram Vikas Samitiinvolving 10-15 people with representation fromall sections and communities of the village isformed. Then the Samiti jointly decides thepriorities of developmental works. The Samitigenerally finds a temple or a religious place inthe village or a Sewa Basti where the work hasto be done. Temple is the place of respect andfaith for all people. Sitting on the premises ofthe temple the people decide the course ofaction to achieve the developmental objectives.

K. S. Sudarshan

Now-a-days many villages face the prob-lem of drinking water. It is not good to dependupon the government for solution of this prob-lem. The villagers should themselves decidehow to solve it. It requires long-term strategies.If there is a pond in the village it should bedeepened so that the rainwater could be storedin it during the rainy season. There are someother alternatives also. In the villages wherethere is no pond the people can collect therainwater falling from the roofs during the rainyseason through cemented pipes, etc. This watercan be stored in the tanks dug near the wellsso that the well could be recharged. Thismethod increases the water level of the nearbyland.

The people involved in rural developmen-tal activities should take up at least two or threeactivities in a year in which all the villagerscome together and also have meals. RakshaBandhan, Makar Sankranti, Ramnavami, Inde-pendence Day, Republic Day, etc. could besuch occasions to bring the people together.They should be followed by sahabhoj (commu-nity meal). Women belonging to all communi-ties should prepare the food and all the peopleirrespective of their castes, creeds and commu-nities should have it together. It strengthensthe spirit of social harmony which is the pri-mary need of development.

EducationEducation is the issue that needs to be

taken up seriously. It has two dimensions. Firstis education of small children. If there is anyprimary school in the village, the people shouldsee whether the school teachers come in timeor not. In several villages it is seen that theteachers do not come everyday. They mostlycome two-three times in a month just to com-plete the attendance register and also to collecttheir salaries. They have nothing to do with theeducation of the children. In such a situation,the villagers should jointly take a decision and

THE Sewa Bharati and Sewa Vibhag ofthe Sangh are undertaking various ac-tivities of rural development at certain

A view of the Gram Swaraj padyatra taken out in villages of Uttar Pradeshby Deendayal Research Institute

The thingswhich areproduced in thevillages shouldbe fullyprepared at thevillage level. Itwould producemoreemploymentopportunities forthe rural people.Somecooperativesocieties canalso be formedto market theseproducts.


tell the teachers in clear words that they wouldinform the higher authorities if they do notcome everyday and in time to teach the chil-dren. Drawing salary without doing anythingwould not be allowed now.

At several places it has been witnessedthat parents do not send their children toschool and engage them in minor householdor agricultural activities. Such parents need tobe motivated for sending the children to school.If need arises a kind of symbolic punishmentlike fine etc. may also be fixed just to pressurisethem in this regard. If the decision is taken byall villagers together, it can work. Punishinganybody should not be the objective. We haveto somehow motivate all the families to sendtheir wards to schools.

The second dimension of education ispublic education. Apart from the minor childrenthere are young and elder people includingwomen in the village who are still illiterate.Arrangements must be made for impartingeducation to them. And this arrangement shouldbe made as per their convenience and not asper our own convenience. If some people canattend the class in the morning they should betaught in the morning itself. If somebody hastime in the noon, night or any time they wish,workers should be ready to teach them thattime. The objective of this exercise is to imparteducation to maximum people. We must makethem literate to the level that they can at leastread the religious books like the Ramayana, theMahabharata, the Bhagwat, the Puranas, etc.and can also count something.

HealthEvery village has elderly people including

old women who are aware of various domesticmethods of curing diseases. In the absence ofthis type of knowledge people directly moveto the hospitals. Whereas our centuries-oldindigenous and time-tested methods are veryeffective even today. All such formulas shouldbe collected and people should be educated totry them. Most of the health problems developdue to the use of unhygienic drinking water.Therefore, arrangements of safe drinking watershould be made with priority. There are variousmethods of making the water hygienic. Sucharrangements should also be made in schoolsand other public places.

ProsperityStopping the use of chemical fertilizers and

pesticides in agriculture is the immediate needof the hour. It is very dangerous for the healthof both—the soil and the people. According toexperts, we eat .27 milligram poison everydaywith the foodgrains and vegetables producedwith the use of chemical fertilizers and pesti-cides. It increases up to 100 milligram in oneyear. If we eat this 100 milligram at a time wedie immediately. It is because of taking it insmall form people are in the grip of variousdiseases which were never seen or listened invillages earlier. Blood pressure of young peopleunder the age of 30-35 years is increasing. Someyoungsters are in the grip of heart problems.Many have to undergo even angioplasty orbypass surgery in the very young age. The rootcause of all these problems is basically thisslow poison that we are eating everyday in ourmeal. Therefore, the use of chemical fertilizersand pesticides should be stopped immediatelyand organic farming should be promoted. Thisis a fact that the farmers would not get thedesired results in the very first year because ittakes at least three years to fully cure the soilthat has become poisonous with the use ofchemical fertilizers and pesticides. In the firstyear, the farmers should use 25 per cent organicfertilizers and 75 per cent chemical fertilizer. Inthe second year it should be 50-50 and in thethird year it should be 75 per cent organicfertilizer and 25 per cent chemical fertilizer. Inthe fourth year, only the organic fertilizer canbe used. We should use bio-pesticides in placeof chemical pesticides.

Now-a-days a new method known asprakratik kheti (natural farming), has also beendeveloped. Who uses fertilizers in the forests?Even no pesticide is used there, but the soildeveloped in the forests is very fertile. Basicallythis fertile soil develops in the forests throughthe natural ways. Tree leaves, bark of the treesand urine of animals are discharged at this landthere. All these have innumerable worms whichconvert this material into rich manure. Thisprocess takes at least one hundred years in theforests. But our scientists have developed themethods to make such fertile layer of soil onlywithin 100 days following the same method. Ifa farmer develops one thousand sq. ft. landthrough this method, he can easily produce the

Developingmodel villages

with betterutilisation ofthe available

resources,conducting

newexperiments in

agriculture,cooperating

with eachother, having

commitment tothe work,

cleanlinessand

arrangementsfor quality

education, arethe biggest

needs of thehour. The

nation will beprosperous

only if ourvillages areprosperous,strong and

healthy. Wehave to

achieve totaldevelopment of

our villages.


foodgrains and vegetables sufficient for a fam-ily of five people. Apart from it, he can alsoearn up to Rs 15000 from this piece of landevery year.

It is a known fact that deforestation hasreduced the forests cover in the country. Un-limited trees have been cut to meet the energyneeds. It should not continue. A farmer havingtwo oxen and a cow can successfully run a bio-gas plant. It can meet all his energy needs andcan also produce rich manure for the field.

Solar energy is also another alternative ofenergy. Earlier this technology could not workas it was ineffective when there were cloudsin the sky. But now a cell technology has beenadded into it which stores the energy for hours.Through this new technology we can haveenergy round the clock. Not only the smallfamilies, but we can store energy for bigfamilies or the showrooms also. It does notrequire the huge infrastructure needed for theelectricity.

It has been witnessed that multinationalcompanies have entered even in the field ofsmall scale and cottage industries. They havesnatched the employment from the hands ofrural people. There is a need to find permanentsolution to this problem. We should fullyprepare the products in village itself. Lijjatpapar, developed in Maharashtra, is todayexported to all over the world. The thingswhich are produced in the villages should befully prepared at the village level. It wouldproduce employment opportunities for the rural

We shouldkeep in mind

that thedevelopment ofvillages should

be based onthe concept of

Hindutva.Only then canwe ensure all-

rounddevelopment.

We have todevelop a

feeling of self-respect among

the villagers.

people. Some cooperative societies can also beformed to market the products. There are somany small industries that can be taken up atthe village level so that a positive change canbe brought about in the life of rural people.

SecurityThe youth should resolve to protect their

village themselves. There is also a need to thinkwhether any outsider is running any conver-sion activity or whether one is misbehavingwith the women of the village. It is not goodto depend upon the police for all such matters.The people should think of the over-all securityof the village.

Our villages will be prosperous and devel-oped if we develop them keeping in view thesefive dimensions. We call the village, where allthese five dimensions have successfully beenimplemented, a Prabhat Gram. The villageswhere only two-three dimensions have beenimplemented are called Uday Grams. Whereasin the villages where only the Gram Vikas Samitihas been formed and the people have resolvedto undertake the developmental activities arecalled Kiran Grams.

We should keep in mind that the develop-ment of villages should be based on the con-cept of Hindutva. Only then can we ensure all-round development. We have to develop afeeling of self-respect among the villagers.Developing model villages with better utilisationof the available resources, conducting newexperiments in agriculture, cooperating witheach other, having commitment to the work,cleanliness and arrangements for quality edu-cation, are the biggest needs of the hour. Thenation will be prosperous only if our villagesare prosperous, strong and healthy. We haveto achieve total development of our villages.(The writer is Sarsanghachalak of RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh. The article is based on aconversation with him in New Delhi.)

Sewa Bharati coaching centre in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu

Those parents who donot send their children

to school must bemotivated to send them

in school.


have developed due to caste-based discrimina-tion, which still appears in certain parts of thecountry. Since cities are expanding very fastdue to growing industrialisation, this problemdoes not have much impact there. But wecannot say that it has completely been eradi-cated from there too. It is still there lying deepin the hearts of people. But compare to therural areas it has low impact in urban areasbecause of uniformity of professions, modernmeans of communication and transportation.

When we look at the rural life we find thatstill the localities, streets and bastis are set upthere on the basis of castes. Even a small childof the village is aware of the fact as to whobelongs to which community. Therefore, it isa major challenge to restore social harmony inrural areas.

We find three kinds of major problems inrural areas. First is the entry of all people intemples. Second is separate crematorium cre-ated on the basis of caste. It is normally seenthat the people of so-called lower castes arenot allowed to cremate the dead bodies of theirpeople in the crematoriums made for the so-called upper caste people. It is a very heinousexample of discrimination. The third problem isrelated to drinking water. Reports of the con-flicts over these issues are very common innewspapers. This is a fact that these problemsare not very serious in the urban areas. Butwe cannot say that these have fully beenresolved there too. People in urban areas alsofeel neglected on the basis of castes and attimes they are made to realise as to which castethey belong. That is why this issue has raisedmany questions in our mind.

When the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghstarted work in this field, we took this issuevery seriously. It is our experience that if a

Harmonious village,prosperous village

Sureshrao Joshi

respected dialogue is started with the peoplein such localities, the gulf developed during thelast so many years, may be plugged consider-ably. Therefore, the people of so-called uppercastes need to behave respectfully with thepeople of the so-called lower castes and thosewho feel themselves untouchable should alsorenounce the feeling of inferiority. By and largeboth the sections will have to take someinitiatives on their parts to overcome theseproblems.

We started an experiment in Tamil Nadu.There has been a shortage of trained priestsin village temples. This is a fact that priests areextended high respect and regard. We havetaken the initiative to impart training of priestto about 20,000 persons of lower castes andalso got them appointed as priests in temples.Now the person who was untouchable forpeople is accorded high respect as a templepriest. This experiment has been very success.

Another experiment was conducted. Weorganise the functions in a manner that thepeople of all the sections, castes and commu-nities participate without hesitation. Many typesof religious functions like satsang, recitation ofRamayana and Sunder Kand, etc. are organised.This type of function attracts the people of allsections and communities.

We took another initiative. It is seen thatthe people of so-called untouchable sectionsdo not pay proper attention to education oftheir children. But we pay special attention toeducation of such children. The results of allthese initiatives have been very encouraging.This helps our workers come closer to theparents of such children.

Similarly, the experiment of SanskritSambhashan has been started. Karnataka hasdone it very effectively. Sanskrit Sambhashancamps strengthen the feeling of social harmonyvery fast. It is a very effective tool to bringpeople closer. People of all sections and castes

M ANY problems are seen at the sociallevel today. It has been our expe-rience that most of these problems

The people ofso-called uppercastes need tobehaverespectfullywith thepeople of theso-called lowercastes andthose who feelthemselvesuntouchableshould alsorenounce thefeeling ofinferiority. Byand large boththe sectionswill have totake someinitiatives ontheir parts toovercome theseproblems.


participate in such camps. We deliberatelyorganise such camps at the places where thepeople of all communities can come. The teacherconducting the camp also keeps in mind thatthe feeling of social harmony is strengthened.By and large we have seen practically thatSanskrit Sambhashan Vargas are a very effec-tive tool to strengthen harmony in the society.There is one more experience. When the chil-dren of lower castes speak Sanskrit shlokas,it leaves a very good impact on their parentstoo and the whole family develops a feeling ofrespect and happiness.

There is a large section of nomadic com-munities in the country. They are very back-ward. It has been witnessed that discriminationis not just caste based, but the system alsodiscriminates against people. These people arestill miles away from the formal education andsocial system. But they have some marvellousskills of handicrafts, etc. We promote theirskills. We feel imparting only formal educationis not enough, their traditional skills also needpolishing as per the changing time and needs.We are doing that also. Some projects havebeen started to promote their traditional skills.At this stage we cannot make any claim thatit has been started on a large scale but we candefinitely say that a concrete work has startedamong the nomadic communities. There areabout 45 such communities only in Maharashtraalone which were away from the social system.

We started work among them and I can say thatwe are successful to bring them closer to therest of the society by making them self-reliantand imparting social samskars among them.

Social harmony has another importantdimension. The well-to-do people of the soci-ety need to think of the deprived people. Onlythe monetary contribution is not enough, wehave to share their happiness and sorrows. Weorganise some events keeping in mind thisobjective so that people of all sections cometogether and the gap developed among thepeople get reduced. While working among thenomads it was felt that they worship LordShiva. Since Shivratri is the most auspiciousday for the devotees of Shiva, we celebrate iton larger scale. It produced very good results.Such events are being organised for the lastten years. A large number of people cometogether and participate in many activities. Itdefinitely reduces the gap and people comecloser from hearts. Such experiments are goingon at many places of the country.

Sahabhoj also proved an effective meansof social transformation and restoring socialharmony. Such functions are organised onreligious occasions or on any special day. Thisis a fact that organising such programmes isstill difficult in the rural areas, but it becomesan occasion to come together. Apart fromorganising sahabhoj on a larger scale, it canalso be organised individually. The workers

Strengthening social harmony through common water resources

We should evenwork beyondour capacity toget thegovernmentschemesimplementedfor the weakersections andthe deprivedcommunities.It is ourexperience thatonly aharmonioussociety cantread the pathof progressand prosperity.

Sanskrit Sambhashancamps strengthen the

feeling of socialharmony very fast.

It is a very effectivetool to bring peoplecloser. People of allsections and castesparticipate in such

camps.


may invite the people of the deprived and theso-called untouchable classes for meals at theirhome. Workers have started work in this direc-tion too.

Eradicating the inferiority complex devel-oped in some sections of the society is alsoanother challenge. The educated youth wholeave the villages in search of jobs mostlyabandon this complex after getting the job orbecoming self-dependant. But we cannot saythat they too develop the full courage. It hasbeen witnessed that the old generation is notready to accept the changes immediately butthe educated youth can easily be persuaded.We are doing it also.

Women can play a very effective role inthis work. That is why we constitute MatriMandalis. Most of the self-help-groups devel-oped in rural areas were developed among theso-called dalit women. They were helped andguided by the educated women of the so-calledupper castes. This also helps in bridging thesocial gap. We feel if the women are motivated,this problem can be solved very easily. We areinspiring the workers to think in this direction.

The government also funds several devel-opmental projects in the rural areas. But ourworkers never depend upon the governmentfor help. It is good if we get government helpin any project, but we always should remainself-reliant. That is why we make all the plans

keeping in view our own strength. We shouldnot compete with the village Sarpanch in thedevelopmental activities. All should work to-gether. We should even work beyond ourcapacity to get the government schemes imple-mented for the weaker sections and the de-prived communities. It is our experience thatonly a harmonious society can tread the pathof progress and prosperity.

Sometime the workers ask when will therural development work become effective. Therural development work cannot be bound inany time limit. Our work is fully workers based.The government can make the claim that itwould complete the work within the particulartime limit but as a voluntary organisation wecannot make any such claim. But we can surelysay if we have started moving the destinationwill definitely come.

Even the people who started individualefforts in this regard also took almost 20-25years to show the results. We can talk aboutthe time limit only in case of an individual-based project. But it is not possible when wetalk about bringing change in the form of anorganisation. The speed may be slow but thework should become an instrument to bring thepermanent change. It has always been ourendeavour.

(The writer is Sahsarkaryavah of RSS. The articleis based on a conversation.)

We can talkabout thetime limitonly in caseof individual-basedprojects. Butit is notpossible whenwe talkaboutbringingchange inthe form ofanorganisation.The speedmay be slowbut the workshouldbecome aninstrument tobring thepermanentchange. Ithas alwaysbeen ourendeavour.

A pujari training camp in Tamil Nadu


villages are developed. There was atime when the whole world recognisedIndia as a superpower. One of thereasons of it was the spiritual-basedthinking and mentality of the people.There was complete harmony and de-spite having the diverse castes, waysof worship and professions every vil-lager regarded the village as his ownfamily. This kind of thinking was spe-cial characteristic of our villages allover the country.

The whole village appeared readyto contribute in the marriage of any girlof the village. They had the feeling thatit is the wedding of a daughter of thevillage and everyone has to contributeas per his capacity. Whatever theycould provide like milk, clothes, cot,etc. they used to provide. Everybodyhad the feeling that no guest comingin the village should go back with anywrong feeling about the village. Thiskind of thinking was seen everywhereand this was the special characteristicthat impressed even the foreign tour-ists. The rich traditions, like not totouch the money of others, do notindulging in theft and cooperating witheach other, were there in every village.Basically the country got the title ofvishwaguru due to all these traditionsand high moral character of the people.

Many foreign travellers like HuenTsang etc. visited India years ago.When one of them got thirsty he askedwater from an old lady to quench thethirst. The old lady immediately went

Change in mentality willensure development

Premchand Goel

I

inside and came with a glass of milk.We knew how a guest has to be at-tended. Once, a person was going tomeet his relatives in a nearby village.His wife was also with him. The manstepped forward. He saw some moneylying in the way, as during those daysthe money used to be carried on horsesetc in sacks. The man put dust over themoney feeling that it could developallurement in the heart of the lady. Thelady was some steps behind. She lookedhim doing something. She took the faststeps and coming near to him said,“There has been Sita also in the coun-try where Lord Rama was born. Youhave put dust on the money treatingit clay. What is the need to put duston the dust?” Even a so-called illiteratelady had this kind of high thinking.

There is one more incident. Aperson in a village sold his piece ofland to another person. When theperson who had purchased the landstarted ploughing the land, he found apot full of money. He took it out fromthe land and went to the person fromwhom he had purchased it. He gave thepot to him and said I purchased onlyland from you. You may not know thatyour ancestors had put this money inthe land. Therefore, you have it. Theformer said I have sold the entire landto you and whatever it has now be-longs to you only. I cannot accept it.Can we imagine this today?

Even an ordinary person of thecountry had this kind of high thinking.We have to restore this thinking today.That is why Sewa Bharati, RashtriyaSewa Bharati and many otherorganisations are working in this direc-tion. We have selected several villagesacross the country and have starteddevelopmental activities there. The read-ers will get an opportunity to read the

T is beyond any doubt that Indialives in villages and the countrycannot be developed until the

details of such villages in this issue ofSewa Sadhana.

During the last five years I touredthe whole country. I visited many vil-lages and had discussions with thepeople of various ways of worship. Aclear change can be witnessed in thevillages where our activities are goingon. The children who once used toabuse now speak with full respect andtouch the feet of their elders. Thefeeling of cooperating each other hasincreased. The experiment of satsangby women built the spiritual atmosphere.This type of work has begun in all thestates. Now we have decided to de-velop at least one model village in eachdistrict of the country. The work hasbegun in this direction and very shortlywe shall see the results.

We feel that the whole country willbe developed if we are able to changethe thinking of the rural people andensure development in villages. It willbe an ideal situation if people cooper-ate with each other like their own familymembers. The Sewa Bharati is workingwith this objective. Readers will findthe details of several such villageswhere such activities are going on inthis issue. If you like it, you spare sometime to visit those villages and try toundertake similar activities in your ownvillage. There are still some villages inthe country where people do not havedoors for their houses. We feel if onestarts taking a positive step he willinspire others and in this way all thepeople will stand untied and all thevillages will be developed. In fact de-velopment of villages depends uponthe mentality of people. We have tobuild this mentality.(The writer is veteran Sangh Pracharak andformer Akhil Bharatiya Sewa Pramukh ofRSS)


Reduce dependenceon government

Sitaram Kedilaya

cial. A proper training needs to be imparted tothe workers in all these five dimensions, if wehave to truly develop the villages according tothe changing needs of the people and thenation. Training is basically not the thing tobe given rather it is the thing to be received.Yogi Aurobindo says in his definition of train-ing—“You cannot teach everybody, but every-body can learn.” It is the essence of training.Training is the thing that should be receivedand we can just help in this task.

EducationThe education being imparted in rural and

urban areas is uniform. One of the primereasons of backwardness of our villages todayis that the children of the villages are nottaught how to make the village self-reliant andhow to raise the feeling of self-respect. Thisis the reason why almost all the villages of thecountry are today moving towards destructionand not towards development. Therefore, edu-cation is one of the most important dimensionsof rural reconstruction.

We need to develop a new definition ofeducation in villages. People active in the fieldof education should pay attention to it. Theeducation should develop love in the hearts ofpeople towards all things of the village includ-ing land, forest, water, animals and the villageculture—jal, jangal, jamin, janwar and jan.

If we go deeper we find that people invillages do not have love for their land. If thefarmers loved their land, they would not havesold it. This is a very major problem. The ruralpeople, who once felt happy to offer water toeven a stranger, today think of earning money

by selling water even to their nearer. Is this themodern development? There was a time whenvillagers would feel grateful by offering waterto anybody. There was a tradition to offer waterto even a passerby. But today following in thefootsteps of several people in urban areas thevillagers feel why should they offer water atfree of cost. If they have to offer water thatmust fetch money. It shows we do not havelove for water. Therefore, we have to developlove for water. If we are successful in devel-oping this love, only then will water trulybecome jeevan (life).

Similar is the case with forests, which arebeing damaged by none other than the villag-ers. The feeling of earning money by cuttingtrees was developed by the outsiders but it iswe the villagers who are destroying our forestwealth for the benefits of others. The outsidersthink only of profit. That is why they allure therural people for indulging in destruction of theirvaluable wealth. Interestingly, nobody thinksof the consequences of deforestation. If thistrend continues the whole humanity will haveto face serious consequences.

There was a time when animals were ourreal wealth. Cow was the real wealth for afarmer. That is why the richness of a personin the past used to be judged by the milk-giving cows they had. But today the prosperityis judged with the money and materialisticwealth one has. Therefore, instead of develop-ing the feeling to treat the cows as wealth, adisastrous feeling is being generated that cowsare no more useful and there is no harm inearning money by selling them to butchers.Practically, farmers are selling their cows formoney, which proves we have lost love foranimals. Since the day machines have come inframing the oxen have become useless and

OUR rural developmental activities havefive dimensions—education, health,self-reliance, social harmony and so-

We need todevelop anewdefinition ofeducation invillages.People activein the fieldof educationshould payattention to it.The educationshoulddevelop lovein the heartsof peopletowards allthings of thevillageincludingland, forest,water,animals andthe villageculture.


in case of a disease. This saved themoney of the people and did not leaveany side effect. People were well awarehow to live a healthy life. This kind ofhealthy thinking has lost today. Thereis a need to educate the women ofthese secrets of keeping the family fit.The workers should be trained in thistask also.

Earlier the women used to deliverbabies at home. The old women of thefamily were expert in handling suchcases. One more benefit of this tradi-tion was that the first touch that thenew born baby got was of the grand-mother. It leaves a psychological effect.But today majority of the babies areborn in hospitals after family spendingthousands of rupees and the first touchthat the babies get is of a nurse or adoctor. Therefore, a child’s connectionwith the family disconnects right fromthe very moment he/she comes in thisworld. This is one of the reasons ofdeteriorating relations between thechildren and their parents. By and large,earlier the family was a solid centre ofkeeping the family fit. We have torestore this tradition and the moneygoing to the doctors needs to bestopped in villages itself.

Self-relianceSelf-reliance is an important issue

on which the workers need a direction.Today, every educated person is de-

they too are being sold to butchers.It is the outcome of present edu-

cation system that the rural art, sports,literature and even culture are at theverge of extinction. The modern devel-opment has poisoned the rural culture.The so-called educated youth feel itoutdated. They enjoy the cinema songsmore than the folk songs. This is ba-sically the most dangerous side effectof modern education. They are notimparted the education they shouldhave been, resulting in the fact thatthey take the rural life as a curse. Thereis an immediate need to change thedefinition of education. They should beimparted the education that developslove to the five “Js” (jal, jangal, jamin,janwar and jan). If this kind of trainingis imparted to the workers they canfurther educate the rural people. Theeducation system needs to be giventhis kind of new direction.

HealthApart from education, the new

thinking has to be developed towardshealth needs. Thinking towards healthhas today changed. In fact, the healthof a person is mortgaged at doctorsand the chemist shops. Majority of thepeople think they can have good healthon the strength of money. They aremigrating to urban areas in search ofhealth where they visit a doctor and tryto become healthy by making heavypayment as consultation fees and formedicines. As a result most of theearnings of the farmers are going todoctors.

The thinking towards health wasdifferent in the ancient time. Basically,all the older women in the family weredoctor to some extent. Majority of thethings used in the kitchen those dayswere no less than good quality medi-cines which made the human bodystronger by providing balanced diet.As a result all people were healthy andfit. Secondly, the women knew the me-dicinal use of all the things like veg-etables and herbs grown in their vicin-ity. They knew what should be taken

pendant on others. If an educated youthdoes a job in the city he becomesdependant on others and we cannottruly call him free. In the old dayseveryone in the village was self-reliant.Nobody needed to beg anything fromanyone. The cottage industries of thevillages were their backbones. What-ever things they needed for their dailylife like shoes, slipper, pots, woodenthings, etc. were available in the village.Everyone felt pride in doing his profes-sion and the villages were self-reliantin all respects. The strong economicand industrial system, prevalent due tothe cottage industries, has now beenruined by the modern education sys-tem.

This is a fact that rural self-reliancewill remain a distant dream till we donot stop manufacturing of small itemsby the multinational companies. Gandhijihad said if we have to make India self-reliant we have to make the villagesself-reliant and if we have to make thevillages self-reliant we will have torevive the rural cottage industries sothat the rural youth can get sufficientemployment in the villages itself. It isneed of the hour to develop the cow-based agriculture and agriculture-basedindustries. Many great personalitieswho worked for rural development toosaid this. The workers engaged in ruraldevelopment should be educated ac-cordingly. It will help in stopping the

Pejawar Swami Shri Vishveshteerth inaugurating the Balgokulam Balmela


does not wish to depend upon thegovernment more. In other words, if wehave to repair the village roads, templesor clean the ponds, we should not waitfor the government. We should do it byour weekly shram sadhana and by othermeans. There is a need to develop thementality of donating at least one dayof our own week for the welfare of ourown village. We should treat our villageas our own family. Therefore, whatevergood we wish for our own family shouldbe wished and done for our village too.Only then shall we be able to reducedependance on the government agen-cies and improve the living standard inthe villages.

The government too can play apositive role in this task. It can encour-age the people by honouring them ifthey have done any remarkable work. Ifwe have to save our villages, we haveto develop discipline there. When theworkers would start doing the work thepresent disappointing condition will cer-tainly improve. A glimpse of severalsuch activities going on in differentparts of the country has been presentedin this issue of Sewa Sadhana. I hopeit will become a source of inspiration forthe whole country.(The writer is Akhil Bharatiya Sewa Pramukhof RSS. The article is based on a conversa-tion.)

“I would say that if the village perishes, India willperish too. India will be no more India. Her ownmission in the world will get lost. The revival of thevillage is possible only when it is no more exploited.Industrialisation on a mass scale will necessarily leadto passive or active exploitation of the villagers asthe problems of competition and marketing come in.Therefore, we have to concentrate on the villagebeing self-contained, manufacturing for mainly use.There would be no objection to villagers using eventhe modern machines and tools that they can makeand afford to use. Only they should not be used asa means of exploitation.

—Mahatma Gandhi

among people is the ego developeddue to money. The workers engagedin this task have to see that all theiractivities going on in the villagesshould promote social harmony. Theyshould promote the temple and Gramdevata-centred life, which still preventpeople from committing any crime. Itwas because of this system that therewere very less disputes in the pastand even if any dispute developed, itwas settled sitting in the temple or inthe feet of the Gram devata. It wasvery effective system.

SocialAll the things of the village like

streets, roads, temples, schools, for-ests, ponds, etc. should always be ina perfect condition. But today verystrange mentality has developed amongthe people that all these things haveto be done by the government. Thatis why majority of the people in vil-lages are not ready to do anythingthemselves. They continue to facehardships waiting for the governmentagencies to come with any scheme fortheir welfare, which rarely happens. Infact all the villages have become de-pendant on the government machin-ery during the last 60 years. We haveto eradicate this mentality and de-velop the life which is disciplined and

money of villages in villages itself. Themoney, talent and experience which aremigrating from the villages today mustbe stopped in villages at any cost.

Social harmonyWe need to understand the rea-

sons why the feeling of discriminationand untouchbility develops. Discrimi-nation develops due to ignorance. Theonly way to restore harmony in thevillage is to eradicate ignorance andpromote knowledge. All kinds of igno-rances like money, caste, language andother materialistic things that impressfrom outside, have to be eradicated.The things that look from outside arealways against the rules of the nature.They cannot be uniform. Therefore,developing the feeling of discriminationby just having a look on outer thingsis ignorance. If we have to restoresocial harmony we need to educate thepeople to look at the internal qualitiesand strength of the persons and notthe outer things. We should have thefeeling that every person of our villageis member of our own family and he iscontributing to make our own villageprosper and self-reliant. We had com-plete harmony till the barter system wasfollowed. The day this system col-lapsed the entire balance got disturbed.The prime reason of growing ignorance


culture are alive only in the villages. Peoplethere are the living example of inter-complementarity. They are happy to welcomeeven a stranger as guest. There are still peoplein the village, whom the whole village trustsand they too remain present in all their hap-piness and sorrows. The village life is full ofhappiness rather than the life in urban areas.They may be economically backward but thevalues of Indian culture have truly been pre-served by them and are still being followed inpractical life. There is an inspiring example.

Once, Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya got downat a railway station. It was night. Since novehicle was available, he started walking to thedestination along with his associates. Whenthey felt thirsty at night, they saw a hamlet.There was also a well near the hamlet. A personwas seen sleeping on a cot. A lady was alsosleeping along with her son near him on theground. Deendayalji awakened the man andasked for the rope and the pot to take out waterfrom the well. The man immediately woke upand offered to provide water himself. As he wasto offer the water, his wife stopped him. Shewent inside and brought gud to eat beforedrinking water. This hospitality of that womantouched Deendayalji’s heart. He gave a five-rupee note for her son but the lady refused toaccept saying, “You are our guest”. Tearsstarted rolling down the cheeks of Deendayaljiafter hearing these words from that lady. Thesekinds of incidents are common in our villages.

Once, the whole village used to be like afamily and the system of panch parameshwarexisted in all villages. All disputes used to be

settled in the village itself. The rural life waswell cultured, self-reliant and a harmoniousunit. The family was a unit of the village andvillages were foundation of the nation.

Our villages were self-contained. No handwas without work. Each task had a personassigned to it. All were complementary to oneanother. There were architects and sculptors;there were carpenters for wood work, black-smiths for metal work, jewelers for makingornaments, masons for house construction,weavers for making clothes, tailors for stitchinggarments, dye makers for colouring, cobblersfor making footwear. Each of them was aspecialist in his craft. There was no service forwhich people had to go outside the village.Whether it was hair dressing or bangle making,laundering or upholstering, there were localcraftsmen available to do it. Oil, ghee, jiggery,sugar – everything was locally available. Therewere schools too – with this difference that thetutor never accepted fees. The local doctorsserved the people without fees. For exchangeor purchase there was the humble local grocer;for worship the temple; for exercise the gym-nasium. All commanded respect. There wasland for cultivation, trees for fruits, gardens forflowers, cowherds for milk, ploughs for tilling,and bullock-carts for transportation. The listcan go on endlessly.

The entire village was like one family. Fromthe sweeper to the Pandit, all were looked uponwith respect. Even the modes of addressingothers were full of regard and affection – Baba(father), Dada (grandfather), Chacha (uncle),Chachee (aunt), Bitia (daughter), and so on.All shared in joy or sorrow. A wedding in afamily was a function of the entire village.

None lived for himself. Sharing of life was

Our concept ofintegrated

rural development Surendra Singh Chauhan

INDIA lives in villages. It does not meanthat only the majority of our populationlives in villages but the values of IndianThere are still

people in thevillage, whomthe wholevillage trustsand they tooremain presentin all theirhappiness andsorrows. Thevillage life isfull ofhappinessrather than thelife in urbanareas. Theymay beeconomicallybackward butthe values ofIndian culturehave trulybeen preservedby them andare still beingfollowed inpractical life.


While all were free to do as they pleased,how come that there was such constant shar-ing of life? Who organised it all? The fact isthat each house was in fact a Samskar Kendraand Vidyalaya for ensuring that Hindu valuesare reflected in day-to-day life. From a youngage all were taught to have reverence formother, father, guests, village deity and also fornature’s elements, like trees, water, fire, motherearth, etc. It is from such villages that invo-cation of universal well being emanated. It isin such environs that high ethical norms, suchas regarding all beings as extensions of oneselfand non-coveting, were nourished. To en-noblethe entire world (Krinwantovishwamaryam) wasthe goal of our people.

It is in order to re-awaken such sentimentsthat Swami Vivekananda gave a call to socialworkers to go from one end of the country toanother, from one village to another, and makethe people aware of their duty and tell them,“Arise, awake!” And the same is the import ofMaharshi Aurobindo’s declaration that thevillage is the soul of our social life.

Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya too had ex-horted:

Grame grame sabha karyaGrame grame katha shubhaPathashala mallashalaPrati-parva-mahotsvah.(“Let there be assemblies of the wise in

each village. Let auspiciousness pervade eachvillage through Harikathas. May schools and

gymnasia flourish everywhere. Let every weekbe festive.”)

Besides it Gopal Krishna Gokhale inspiredGandhiji to study the rural life. Thakkar Bapaworked for it and Sant Tukdoji Maharaj sangthis rural development in his bhajans.

It is to regenerate that rich life Pt. DeendayalUpadhyaya drew attention to the basics—“Letthere be work for all able hands. Let each fieldhave plenty of water.” (Har hath ko kam, harkhet ko pani). He laid emphasis on localemployment using local raw-material. Only asociety which cherishes such a golden dreamcan flourish.

The legacy of savants like MaharshiAurobindo inspired the Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh to promote rural development activitiesin countless villages. He said repeatedly: “It iswhen villages become self-respecting and self-reliant that the picture of the country canchange. Change has to take place from bottomupwards, and not the other way.”

Sant Tukdoji Maharaj has very deeplythought over all aspects of rural life. SantTulsidas while elaborating Ayodhya presentedthe concept of an ideal village. Sant VinobaBhave started the Bhudan Andolan. SantPandurang Athavale of Gujarat also carriedvarious marvellous experiments in farming. ShriAnna Hajare presented an ideal example ofdevelopment in his village Ralegan Sindi inMaharashtra. Nanaji Deshmukh started variousexperiments of rural development in Uttar

the rule. Providing wells, maintaininggardens, setting up pyau by the roadsand highway – all these were consid-ered meritorious deeds. Wayfarers werewelcome to rest for a while and quenchtheir hunger and thirst.

Samskars were deeply ingrainedin the people. Soon after sunrise, thelanes would echo with greetings likePranam, Jai Sri Ram and so on. Fra-grance of sandal sticks and music ofsonorous bells emanated from thetemple. Late afternoon was a time ofentertainment and education in the treeshade, and of Ramayana or other epicreading. After sunset, people assembledin the temple for pooja, aarati andbhajan.

The legacy ofsavants like

MaharshiAurobindo

inspired theRashtriya

SwayamsevakSangh to

promote ruraldevelopmentactivities in

countlessvillages.


work in three categories. First is Kiran Gramwhere the work is at the primary stage andthe people of the village have made up theirmind to start developmental activities. Secondis Uday Gram where some activities havestarted and if some serious efforts are madethe change will be visible soon. The third isthe Prabhat Gram where the impact of the workis visible and various activities of develop-ment have produced good results.Different aspects of village development

Literacy does not mean just impartingknowledge of reading and writing. Peopleshould have knowledge of general rules, gov-ernment institutions, should read the newspa-pers and some religious books, etc. Similarlythe village should have the arrangement ofmeeting the primary health needs. Our kitchenis a mini-dispensary. The things, spices, veg-etables etc. used in the kitchen have medicinalvalue. What is necessary today is that thewomen should have the medicinal knowledgeof those things. Health check up of all thevillagers should be conducted at least oncea year. The people suffering from communi-cable diseases or any serious diseases shouldbe listed out and arrangements be made fortheir treatment. The school children should beeducated as to how to remain fit and keeptheir surroundings hygienic.

We ensure that the house of our activistbecomes the practical source of inspiration forothers. We conduct Ideal Hindu Family com-petition every year especially on Deepawali orVarsh Pratipada to encourage the people tofollow the Hindu values at home. Those whoperform the best are honoured. We believethat the village temple, school and Sanghshakha are the three basic source of provid-ing good samskars to people. Since temple isthe place of everybody’s reverence, the priestof the temple should be an ideal person,having knowledge of the shastras and beaway from party politics. All temples of thevillage are ours and they should be looked atthe source of inculcating good samskars intopeople. The classrooms should be clean andattractive. The school premises should also begood. There should be coordination betweenthe teachers, students and the parents. Sinceenvironment protection is the need of thehour, tree plantation and their protection should

Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.It is not at the individual or organisational

level alone that the rural developmental ac-tivities are going on. The state governmentstoo have started such projects like GokulGarm Yojana in Gujarat, Adarsh Gram Yojanain Maharashtra. Madhya Pradesh Govern-ment has also taken some initiatives in thisregard. But the major difference between thesteps taken by the government, individual ororganisational level is that the governmentconcentrates only at the materialistic devel-opment. This type of work has only partialeffect. No effort is made on the part of thegovernment agencies to provide samskars forfamilies, self-respect, moral education, health,etc. What the villages today need holisticdevelopment and not the partial one. Until thelife of the people living in villages is devel-oped on the basis of Indian values of life,they will not achieve all-round development.All activities of rural development inspired bythe Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh workersare aimed at achieving integrated develop-ment. Initiating the rural developmental activi-ties, the former RSS Sarsanghachalak ShriRajju Bhaiya, had declared in 1995 that theutmost priority should be at making thevillages hunger-free, disease-free and literate(Kshudha mukta, rog mukta, tathashikshayukt”).

When we select the village for startingdevelopmental activities we ensure that thevillage being selected should be small. Nor-mally the village with a population of 1000 to2500 is ideal. The first and foremost requisitefor development is that the people of thevillage have mentality of development. If thevillage has the Sangh shakha the work be-comes easier. In the beginning a Gram VikasSamiti involving the people of all sectionsand communities of the village is constituted.Since Village Panchayat is there in all thevillages to implement the government schemeswe work in cooperation of the Panchayat.Besides the Gram Vikas Samiti there shouldbe a core committee having some influentialpersons which deeply think on the activitiesto be taken up and also help in the imple-mentation of the projects. What the villageneeds first is ascertained through surveys.

We have divided the village development

We ensure thatthe house ofour activistbecomes thepracticalsource ofinspiration forothers. Weconduct IdealHindu Familycompetitionevery yearespecially onDeepawali orVarshPratipada toencourage thepeople tofollow theHindu valuesat home.Those whoperform thebest arehonoured. Webelieve that thevillage temple,school andSangh shakhaare the threebasic source ofproviding goodsamskars topeople.


“Your duty at present is to go from one part of the countryto another, from village to village and make the peopleunderstand that mere sitting about idly won’t do any more.Make them understand their real condition and say, ‘O yebrothers all arise, awake. How much longer would youremain asleep.’ Go and advise them how to improve theircondition, and make them comprehend the sublime truthsof the shastras by presenting them in a lucid and popularway. Also instruct them in simple words about thenecessities of life and in trade commerce, agriculture, etc.”

—Swami Vivekananda

Sarsanghachalak Shri Sudarshan performing gopujan at Jhiri village in Madhya Pradesh

upper castes and the so-calledlower castes should also be re-duced by bringing people of all thecommunities together. There shouldbe big events of Kanyapujan atleast twice a year (during theNavaratras) and sahabhoj duringthe public functions. SanskritSambhashan can also become aneffective tool of restoring socialharmony. There are some talentedpeople in the village like sculptors,teachers, students, farmers,labourers, etc. They should be

felicitated at least once a year in publicfunctions.

It is not expected that all activities ofrural development should be started atonce. The developmental activities can betaken up in some phases. The work shouldbe started with minor activities. The suc-cess in one project encourages people totake other projects. There should be nocompetition with the activities of VillagePanchayat. Rather we should work incoordination with the Panchayat.

(The writer is Akhil Bharatiya Gram VikasPramukh of RSS)

be done effectively. There should betulsi plant in every house as it hastremendous medicinal values. Vil-lages are complete units from allangles. Efforts should be made tostop the village money in villageitself. The highly educated peopleshould also remain in the village andcontribute in the development oftheir village. Agriculture-based ruralindustries should be promoted.

Agriculture is a criterion tojudge the prosperity of the village.We should discourage the use ofchemical fertilizers and pesticidesand promote the use of organicfertilizers. There are so many meth-ods to make organic fertilizers.Making the village addiction-free isalso at our top priority. The addic-tion becomes the reason of disputesand if we have to make the villagedispute-free we have to achieve totalprohibition. The role of women couldbe helpful in this regard. We shouldalso make all efforts so that disputesof the village are resolved in thevillage itself.

Restoring social harmony is alsoof paramount importance. No sec-tion of the village should feel ne-glected and there should be nodiscrimination against anyone. Thegap developed between so-called


change, food crunch etc., on the other sidemany such routes are also visible to find outthe salvation for many such burning prob-lems from the traditional knowledge sources.It is very interesting study for those scholarsfrom the oriental school of thoughts whohave developed a scientific temperament bythe study of modern science. For me fruitsare modern in the sense that they are devel-oped to meet modern needs and emergedfrom the current thoughts. But, at the sametime, I am very happy that now-a-days we aresearching for ancient roots where there aremany precious stones to build a temple ofdevelopment in the modern context.

Now we are in search of an alternativemodule for sustainable development risingabove the experimented, so-called such mod-ules guided by communism and capitalism. Itis very evident that swatantrya never takesplace without swadeshi. In this very thoughtprocess sewa becomes a grand unifying, all-permeating mantra. Scholars from the Vedas,Vedanga and other different branches ofphilosophy must come forward to define thisvery basic principle swam to purify the wholesocial life which comprises polity, agriculture,industry, education, religion, human relation,etc.

The Upanishadic sages were fully awareof the mundane world and transcendentalworld. Their journey started from ‘preyas’(material prosperity) and stretched to the‘shreyas’ (transcendental state). Welfare stateof mankind was duly taken care of. Undueimportance was not given to any unneces-sary things. They were aware of the fact thatmundane world is an apparent form of spiri-tual reality. When one understands thatspirituality is the real thing for him, every-thing becomes divine. This insight inspireseven an ordinary man to think somethinghigh.

In the modern world most of us are bereft

of this insight. Subject to this, artha andkaama started dominating every walk of life.The climax of this rat race is showing its uglyface in the name of global warming, climatechange, natural calamities, food crunch and soon so forth.Agriculture in its real perspective

Agriculture is considered to be a part ofthe Vedas. The Atharvaveda consists of sixty-four kalas. When we study the Vedas, inparticular the Rigveda and the Atharvaveda, wecome to know that in the Vedic era theyexperimented with an echo-friendly agro-sys-tem. According to the Rigvedic hymn inKitavasookta agriculture becomes that type ofactivity, which is essentially echo-friendly. Whilecriticising the gambling tendency of humanbeings, krishi was recommended as a positiveactivity to uplift the psychic condition of com-fort-oriented common man. Akshairmaa DeevyahKrshivit Krshasva is the statement from theRigveda recommending the positive attitude ofan agriculturist. According to the Vedic Rishi,any activity, which is not need based, but istempted by mere greed eventually disturbingthe social harmony, becomes a gambling. Thisis the essence of the ‘Kitavasookta’ in theRigveda. If we study the inside stories ofgurukulas in ‘Kritayuga’ it is evident thatstudents of gurukula were growing the grainand other vegetables for their day-to-day uses.That is how all those existing gurukulas wereself-reliant.

If we study the conditions of gurukulas inRamayana period as it is depicted in the originalValmiki Ramayana or Sanskrit dramas like UttaraRama Charitam, krishi was considered to bea part of gurukula education. Great poetKalidasa very well portrayed this very fact inhis magnum opus Abhijnana Shakuntalam.The students of Kanva’s Gurukulam were hap-pily involved in agro-oriented activities.

According to Bhrguvalli, a young manBhrgu approaches his father Varuna seeking anenlightenment about the inherent core of theapparent world. His teacher-cum-father, Varuna,instead of preaching, inspires his son to un-

Annam Bahu Kurveeta Dr Ramachandra G. Bhat

AS we ponder over the prevailingworld scenario on one side, we areafraid of many problems like climate

Grahastha inthe real sensepossessesabundantquantity offood to sharewith others.According toYajnavalkyaSmriti thathouseholderbecomeshighlyrespectableone who lovesguests comingto his house.This cultureof grhastha ismiserablymissing in oursociety day-by-day. Now thetime has cometo restate ourancient valueslike AnnamBahu Kurveetaat individualand sociallevels.


earth the reality by practicing auspicious ac-tivities (tapas). In this process of search thefirst answer Bhrgu gets is annam. Here annamis considered to be the root cause, whichfacilitates sustaining, and emergence of thematerial world. In this sense, starting from verysubtlest form, atom, to the gross world allsubstances becomes annam. Whatever eatsand is eaten that becomes annam in a largersense. This annam is nothing but manifesta-tion of Brahman.

This way the Upanishad divinises the veryconcept of annam. In another way foodgrainsare abodes of Goddess Lakshmi, the wealth.The very concept of progress or developmentis essentially spiritually rooted in the Indianconcept. Growing food and giving food isconsidered to be an auspicious act of everyhouse-holder. According to the Vedas this iscalled Ishta, Poorta and Datta duties, whichare the main duties of all ashramas.

^^vUuokuUuknks HkofrA egku~ Hkofr Izkt;k i'kqfHk%czãopZlsuA egku~ dhR;kZA**

“He becomes a possessor and an eater offood. He becomes great in progeny, cattle, andthe lustre of holiness and great in glory”(Taittireeya Upanishad 3-8).

This very statement from Bhrguvalli ofTaittireeya Aranyaka tells about the qualityand utility of the food. If agriculturists do notgrow food with this quality in abundancenormally people go to unwanted and unhy-gienic food stuffs, which harm the very systemof human body.

^^vgkj'kq¼kS lRo'kqf¼% lRo'kq¼kS /zqok Le`fr%ALe`fryEHks loZxzaFkhuka foizeksd%AA**

(NUnksX;ksifu"kr~)“When food is pure mind is pure. When

mind is pure there are recollections of positivethoughts. In this process all traumas get re-leased.”

It was very often asked by the studentsof the Upanishads that how we can relateannam to Brahman. Here the very attitudetowards the material world is suggested inthese statements. For Hindus the body is anabode of Brahman. Body is a divine instrumentfor achieving dharma. In this background thattype of food must be taken for the nourishmentof the human body, which activates the upperchamber of human body (munda). In this pre-text we realise that the food is important forintegral personality development.

In the Hindu family life, hospitality playsa very vital role. Its main characteristic issharing and caring. In the ancient system ^^èkU;ksx̀gLFkkJe%** concept was very much highlighted.Grahastha in the real sense possesses abun-dant quantity of food to share with others.According to Yajnavalkya Smriti that house-holder becomes highly respectable one wholoves guests coming to his house. This cultureof grhastha is miserably missing in our societyday-by-day. Now the time has come to restateour ancient values like Annam Bahu Kurveetaat individual and social levels.(The writer is principal, Veda Vijnana Gurukulam,Channenahalli, Bengaluru)

Body is adivine

instrument forachieving

dharma. Inthis

backgroundthat type of

food must betaken for the

nourishment ofthe human

body, whichactivates the

upper chamberof human

body (munda).In this pretext

we realisethat the food

is importantfor integralpersonality

development.

“To model such a village may be the work ofa life time. Any lover of true democracy andvillage life can take up a village, treat it as hisworld and sole work and he will find goodresults. He begins by being the village scavenger,spinner, watchman, medicine man and schoolmaster all at once. If nobody comes near him,he will be satisfied with scavenging and spinning.”

—Mahatma Gandhi


important for sustaining human life. The cowis vegetarian and provides every bit of itselfto support human life—milk, dung, urine, skin,horn, hooves etc.

Cow dung as gold mineCow dung has been considered a gold

mine due to its wide applications in the fieldof agriculture, energy resource, environmental

Cow-based rural developmentA scientist’s note on benefits of cow,

panchgavya and employment opportunitiesin this sector

RS Chauhan

not destroy the nutrients in the food. Besides,the smoke of gobar clears the air of germs.Gobar has also been successfully used toproduce bio-gas (methane) and generate elec-tricity for consumer use. Bio gas is used incooking, for lighting in homes and streets. Itcan be used for driving self-combustion en-gines for various uses like running a generatorto produce electricity. The slurry (residue) couldalso be used for production of manure, whichwhen spread on crops acts as an excellentfertilizer. Dung for bio-gas and its slurry formanure provides renewable cooking energyand slurry for compost. Cow dung is the bestfertilizer. Composting makes it even more pow-erful fertilizer. It is rich in nitrogen. Differenttypes of bio-fertilizers using cow dung andurine and vegetative waste have been devel-oped using compost method and vermiculture.Cow dung keeps the rotting compost antisep-tic. The digester turns the dung into sterilecompost and all worms get killed. With use of1 kg of cow dung with 15/16 kg of Biomas andsimilar quantity of soil from the fields, 30 kgof good compost is made. This is also ap-proved by National Bank for Agriculture andRural Development (NABARD). Vermi compostfrom cow’s dung exhibits excellent plant growthpromotion property.

Panchgavya spray has been found moreeffective on all the crops under evaluation thanthe foliar spray of recommended nutrients andgrowth regulators and found more advanta-geous since it recorded higher growth andproductivity than with no panchgavya spray.Degraded soil is improved by layer of soil andbio-mass with sprinkling of fresh dung slurryfor composting. Cow dung along with sea waterand yeast has been exploited as a liquid cata-

COWS are considered very sacred inIndian culture possibly due to the factthat they are environment friendly and

protection andtherapeutic ap-p l i c a t i o n s .Dung as fuelis well knownfor ruralkitchen. Cowdung patties(gootte) areused for cook-ing. Roastingof potato,sweet potatoin it is stillconsidered thebest fuel asagainst electricoven. Tradi-tional wisdomsays that inburning thesecow dungcakes, the tem-perature neverrises beyond acertain point,ensuring over-heating does

Indegenous method of extracting arka from cow urine


lyst. It is claimed that this is capableof greening degraded land. Not onlygood compost is made but valuableorganisms like earthworms are alsogenerated in due course which keep onworking all through. Individually orsystem as a whole, bio gas slurry withpanchgavya combination is adjudgedas the best organic nutritional practicefor the sustainability of crops by posi-tive impacts on overall performance ongrowth, productivity and quality ofcrops, the soil health and economics.Modern-day ecologists say that ascompared to chemical fertilizer, whichdamages the land in the long run, cowdung actually improves the health ofthe soil.

Covering seeds with dung beforeplanting helps protect against pests. Itis an excellent conditioner for the soil.Mixed with mud and water, it is usedto coat the floors and walls in mudhouses. As a mud additive it dries upslippery mud puddles and improveswater absorption of mud. Antisepticproperty is also the attribute of cowdung, which is mixed with clay to forma plastering medium for mud huts. Thincoating of dung for cooking place,havan kund, havan platform, mudhouse, floors, walls provides antisepticsurface. Mud and cow dung ashesbecome like cement, having improvedresistance to disintegration. It is aproven fact that mud huts plasteredwith cow dung keep insects and rep-tiles away. For this reason, people inthe countryside still store grain in hugeearthen pots plastered with cow dungand urine to keep it free from insectmanifestations. Smoldering cow pattieskeep away mosquitoes. Apparently, thetraditional Indian village system ofwiping the floor daily with a mixture ofwater and fresh cow dung assures thatflies will not settle there. Cow dung isnaturally hot and composting makes ithotter. It can be put in glass house towarm them or on run pipes to get hotwater. Pots can be cleaned using cowdung in the same way one uses brasspolish or soap. It absorbs oil and fat.

Dung ash is a very good cleaningagent for utensils and can avoid use ofchemicals like vim, which leaves re-sidual effect.

Thrown into pond, cow dung neu-tralizes acid. It possesses natural anti-septic qualities. Dung ash also helps incontrolling pests. Cow dung from asingle cow in its life span can produce4500 litres of bio gas which is equiva-lent to burning 6,80,00,000 tons of wood.This will help us save 14 crore treesfrom cutting and burning and thus giveenvironment protection. Fertilizers fromcow dung act as effective pollutioncontrollers for soil, water and air. Sci-entific studies show that gobar hasbeen found to be resistant to solarradiation. Experts say that pyramid-shaped hump of cow absorbs solarenergy. Press reports have appearedmentioning that houses coated withcow dung plaster are saved from nuclearradiation i.e. get protected from atomicemissions. Our own nuclear departmentshould experiment on cow dung in itslaboratories for the scientific facts.Dung, when sprayed on garbage andwaste dump, within a few hours makesthese free from all foul odors and evenflies are not attracted. Experiments arebeing made near Indore (MP) to fillcattle horns (of dead animals) withdung. These are buried undergroundbefore winter and in autumn they aretaken out. 25/30 gms of this enricheddung is mixed with 10 litres of rainwater and sprayed which gives goodresult.

Therapeutic uses of cow dungCow dung when mixed with crushed

neem leaves and smeared on skin—good for boils and heat rashes. It is agood alternative to toothpaste, whichis made of chemicals and bones of deadanimals causing relief in toothache.Through many experiments on cowdung the famous Italian scientist Prof.G.E. Bea God has proven that the freshcow dung kills the germs of Malariaand T.B. It has been observed thatsmoke from ashes actually increases

our eyelids to close and open so manytimes that lot of water from the eyescomes out which increases the visionof eyes of a person to old age also.Cow dung is superior to other dungbecause it is antiseptic and has pro-phylactic (disease preventive) proper-ties. It destroys micro-organisms thatcause disease, fermentation and putre-faction. Other dungs need to becomposted to be purified. It should bekept in mind that fresh cow dung ispure but once it has laid on the ground,the quality may change with the pas-sage of time. Cow dung as describedin our scriptures is definite indicationof prosperity evident from Gobar-dhanPuja, next day of Deepawali (a verypopular festival of India during Octoberor November).

Cow urineCow urine has many beneficial

properties particularly in the areas ofagriculture and therapeutics. It has alsobeen observed during the scientificresearch that the urine of Indian cowsis highly effective and interestinglyalmost nil or few medicinal propertiesare present in the urine of crossbred,exotic cows, buffaloes, etc. Recent re-search showed that cow urine enhancesthe immune status of an individualthrough activating the macrophages andaugmenting their engulfment power aswell as bactericidal activity.

Addition of cow’s urine incomposting pits led to production ofsuperior quality vermicompost withhigher concentrations of major macro-and micro-nutrients and was found tobe superior in terms of useful microflora(fungi, bacteria and actinomycetes). Ap-plication of this vermicompost in potssignificantly improved the yields ofleucerne (Medicago sativa). Cow urineacts like a disinfectant and thus purifiesatmosphere and improves the fertilityof the land. Cow urine as such and/orafter addition of neem leaves a wonder-ful bio-pesticide. Such bio-pesticidesare safe to use, do not accumulate inthe food chain and as such do not have


the harmful effects like chemical pesti-cides. In 10 litres of cattle urine, about2 kg of neem leaves are soaked withsome other vegetable matter and can beused in proportion of 1:50 for sprayingin the cultivable land. Cow dung mixedwith cow urine makes excellent manureand a natural pesticide. Pest repellentprepared from cow urine and neemleaves exhibits excellent insecticidal,fungicidal and pesticidal properties andalso exerts excellent plant growth pro-motion property. Urine utility has beenexplored for generating small power torun electronic clock and efforts are onto light torch light bulb. Cow dung andurine also mixed with mud and straw tomake dried cakes to be used as kitchenfuel. When this becomes successful,each house in rural and urban areahaving no electricity can have lightwithout any recurring cost. It is pos-sible that further intensive researchefforts may make it possible to use thissource of energy for illumination of asmall space in villages.

Therapeutic uses of cow urineCow urine has been described in

Sushrita Samhita and AshtangaSangraha to be the most effectivesubstance/secretion of animal originwith innumerable therapeutic values.Taken in measured quantities, cow urineor gau mutra has a unique place inAyurveda and is suggested for improv-ing general health. Exploring its antimi-crobial activities, it is being used toproduce a whole range of Ayurvedicdrugs. Cow urine therapy has a longhistory. Some recognised it as water oflife in Vedas, sacred Hindu writing,which is said to be the oldest booksin Asia, it is mentioned as amrita (bev-erages of immotality), the nectar of theGod. The urine of the cow contains allbeneficial elements in it. Hence it isnatural and universal medicine thatfulfills the deficiency of elements andreduces the increased elements in thebody and it is the quality of the urine,which helps in curing even the mostincurable diseases. Cow urine contains

24 types of salts and the medicinesmade from cow urine are used to cureseveral diseases. Cow urine contains 95per cent water, 2.5 per cent urea, 2.5 percent minerals, salt, hormones, and en-zymes. It contains iron, calcium, phos-phorus, salts, carbonic acid, potash,nitrogen, ammonia, manganese, iron,sulphor, phosphates, potassium, urea,uric acid, amino acids, enzymes,cytokine, lactose etc. Copper has thepower to destroy diseases and act asan antidote. Cytokines and amino acidsmight play a role in the enhancementimmune system. Gomutra alone has gotall such chemical properties, potentiali-ties and constituents that are capableof removing all the ill effects, imbal-ances in the body. Urine kills the num-ber of drug resistant bacteria and vi-ruses and cures some incurable dis-eases like cancers.

Most of the medicines are made bydistilling urine and collecting vapours.The arka (distillate) is useful for manydiseases. A number of ailments couldbe treated and this therapy is beingused even for dreaded diseases likecancer, AIDS, diabetes and skin prob-lems. Practitioners of Ayurvedic medi-cine (from India) routinely use urine asa remedy. It is anti-bacterial, anti-fun-gal, anti-viral, anti-neoplastic (anti-can-cer), anti-convulsive, anti-spasmodicand non-toxic. Improvements have beenshown or reported with those sufferingfrom flu, sinus, allergies, colds, earinfection, rheumatoid arthritis, aging,bacterial/viral infections, snake bites,chemical intoxication, chicken pox, en-teritis, constipation, edema, baldness,hepatitis, leprosy, obesity, gastric ulcer,depression, heart disease, hypertension,burns, tuberculosis, asthma, tetanus,Parkinson disease, small pox, morningsickness, fever, eczema fatigue etc. It isalso used as diuretic, laxative and fortreatment of chronic malaria, headachesand fever. It is proved to be a universalcurer of blood disorders, leucorrhoeaand even leprosy. The urine of the cowcleans the intestines and removes thedeposited material. Hence diseases like

fever, mouth and skin diseases, men-struation disorders, asthma, giddiness,increase of cough and urinary irregu-larities in man are cured by its regularuse without any side effects. The urineof cow is bitter, pungent, piquant, spicy,warm and full of all the five types ofelixirs. There is evidence that the urineof the cow works as the best appetizer.It smoothens and nourishes the heartand adds to the power of wisdom ofman, and increases their physicalstrength as well. It increases life spanand purifies blood from all sorts ofimpurities. In India drinking of cowurine has been practised for thousandsof years. It has been experimentallyproved that among all sorts of urines,the urine of the Indian cows is mosteffective thus it is universal medicinefor mankind and cures various sorts ofdisorders.

It is also very helpful in all kind ofskin problems, itching, sunburns, ec-zema, psoriasis, acne etc. It also ren-ders the hair soft and clean. Cow urineis entirely sterile after excretion and hasantiseptic effect. Cow dung and urineare the best cures for stomach dis-eases, heart diseases, kidney ailmentsand tuberculosis. Cow’s urine is pre-scribed as an ingredient of variousplasters and mixtures (sometimes withfermented wine) or alone, as an anti-dote for obesity, as a purgative; foreliminating vermin from an ulcer; vayudisorders, abdominal dropsy and manyother diseases. It can be used forstones (kidney, gall bladder etc.). Aglass of fresh cow urine should betaken as a first thing in the morning for21 days. Uric acid in cow urine dis-solves these stones to a manageablesize. For diabetic youngsters it controlssugar level and keeps fit. Daily dosesof 1 to 2 ounces of warm cow urine areused to treat cirrhosis of the liver. Urineas such and or mixed with honey/saltis also administered for Liver and otherproblems. Antimony sulfide and cowurine taken internally are used to curemalignant jaundice.


It has a cure for athlete’s feet. Ithas been observed that people clean-ing the cow milk barn by bare footdon’t suffer from athlete’s foot. Cow’surine has immunostimulant activity inplants and animals. A herbal prepara-tion popular in Nigeria is based oncow’s urine and some herbs known ascow urine concoction (CUC). Over fiftychemical compounds have been iden-tified in CUC. Its major pharmacologicalactions are anticonvulsant and hypogly-cemic effects. For the case of seba-ceous cysts (large swellings that exudea fatty liquid on bursting), incisionfollowed by washing with cow’s urineis prescribed. Another treatment is thesurgical incision and the removal of fatfollowed by cauterization of the wound.Cow urine acts like a disinfectant andprophylactic agent and thus purifiesatmosphere. A cow urine distillate frac-tion has been identified as a bioenhancerof the activities of commonly usedantibiotics, anti-fungal and anti-cancerdrugs. The activity of Rifampicin, afront-line anti-tubercular drug usedagainst tuberculosis, increases by about5-7 folds against E. coli and 3-11 foldsagainst Gram-positive bacteria. Potencyof ‘Taxol’ (paclitaxel) has been observedto get increased against MCF-7, ahuman breast cancer cell line in in-vitroassays (US Patent No. 6,410,059). (TheHindu, 4 July, 2002; The Indian Ex-press, 4 July, 2002). Bioenhancers aresubstances, which do not possess drugactivity of their own but promote andaugment the bioactivity orbioavailability or the uptake of drugs incombination therapy. Such bioenhancershave been earlier isolated only fromplant sources. It has been found thatcow urine also act as a bioenhancerand increases the efficacy of the anti-biotics against infectious agents. Bio-enhancement has also been observedwith other drugs viz. Ampicillin, Iso-niazid, Clotrimazole, Cyanocobalamineetc. Bioenhancer activity has beenfound to reduce the antibiotic dose perday and duration of treatment in tuber-culosis patients.

Cow urine possesses anti-cancerproperties. Research works carried outby Go-Vigyan Anusandhan Kendra (cowscience research centre) at Nagpurrevealed the beneficial properties ofcow urine in the treatment of cancers.Further extensive research on cow urinetherapy against fighting carried out byScientists of Central Institute of Me-dicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP),CSIR centre at Lucknow, along withcollaboration with Go-VigyanAnusandhan Kendra, Nagpur confirmedthis milestone achievement. Studieshighlight the role of cow urine in treat-ing cancers and that cow urine en-hances the efficacy and potency ofanti-cancer drugs. Recently, this signifi-cant achievement has been validatedby the grant of U.S. patent (No. 6896907)in the field of treatment of cancers(Amar Ujala, July, 19, 2005). The Indig-enous cow urine contains “Rasayan”tatva, which is responsible to modulateimmune system and act as bioenhancer.Scientists have proved that the pesti-cides even at very low doses causeapoptosis (cell suicide) in lymphocytesof blood and tissues through fragmen-tation of DNA. Cow urine helps thelymphocytes survive and not to commitsuicide. It also repairs the damagedDNA and thus is effective for thecancer therapy. The above two USpatents have attracted global attention.US patents to Indian scientists on cowurine therapy made realise that all tra-ditional practices from Indian systemsof medicine have a strong scientificbase. The cow urine, the best therapythat can cure disorders, is non-toxicand can be obtained free of cost throughdomestication of cow. It is an importantingredient of panchgavya, which hasbeen tested by various workers for itsimmunomodulatory properties and havebeen reported that it enhances bothcellular and humoral immune response.In-vivo cow urine treatment to develop-ing chicks marginally upregulated thelymphocyte proliferation activity.

The immunomodulatory effect ofkamdhenu arka prepared from cow

urine were studied in mice and it wasfound that cow urine enhances both T-and B-cell proliferation and also in-creases the level of IgG, IgA and IgMantibodies titres. It also increases thesecretion of interleukin-1 and 2. Thelevel of both IL-1 and 2 in mice gotincreased by 30.9 and 11.0 per cent,respectively and in rats these levelswere increased significantly by 14.75and 33.6 per cent, respectively.Kamdhenu arka, a drug made fromurine of zebu cattle has been reportedto be a potent and safeimmunomodulator, which increases bothhumoral and cell mediated immunity inmice. The cow urine was found to haveprotective effect on lymphocytes ofbirds undergoing apoptosis and sug-gested the exploitation through experi-mental trails for specific use of cowurine as an adjunct to vaccination. Itenhances the activity of macrophagesand reduces apoptosis in lymphocytes,thus is helpful in prevention and con-trol of bacterial infections. Thus notonly maintain the immunity of body butalso modulate it in the positive direc-tion to an optimum level. It has beenreported to prevent the pathogeniceffect of free radicals through cowurine therapy. These radicals causedamage to various tissues and attackenzymes, fat and proteins disruptingnormal cell activities or cell membranes,producing a chain reaction of destruc-tion leading to the ageing process ofa person. By regular use of cow urineone can get the charm of a youth asit prevents the free radicals formation.Beneficial effects of cow urine werereported on serum biochemical profile(total serum protein, glucose, calcium,and cholesterol) of laying birds. Itsusefulness as antimicrobial agent, posi-tive effect on body weight gain, hema-tological profiles, immunomodulatory ef-fect on both humoral and cellular im-mune responses, and healing of surgi-cal wound in experimental rats. Thecow urine has capabilities to potentiatethe egg production of the birds and itcan be used as a feed additive for layer


birds in order to get good qualityeggs. Distilled cow urine protects DNAand repairs it rapidly as observedafter damage due to actinomycin-Dand pesticides. It protects chromo-somal aberrations by mitomycin inhuman leukocyte.

For the treatment of wounds onbody surface local (topical) applica-tion of antiseptic powder or lotion isrecommended but in ancient Hindumythology use of cow urine as anti-septic is found. Cow urine is havingantiseptic properties in wound heal-ing and it is observed that the healingtime is somewhat less in comparisonto wounds on which antiseptic creamwas applied. Administration of freshcow urine orally showed added effecton wound healing by virtue of itsantiseptic and immunologically modi-fying properties in dogs, the healingprocess was observed a bit fasterthan the group of dogs which werenot given fresh cow urine orally. Urineenemas work very well in cleansingthe colon and in providing a directimmune stimulant effect. It can also beused as ear and eye drops for treatingear infections, conjunctivitis and glau-coma. Sniffing cow urine is useful insinusitis and other nose problems likerhinitis and colds. Orally taking themiddle stream of morning urine is agood tonic and preventative in minorillnesses. Gargling with urine is help-ful in throat ache and also in cold.Vaginal douche is helpful in curing ofinfections. For, massaging/rubbing onecan use either fresh or old urine. Oldurine (four to eight days) is generallymore effective in massaging and nour-ishes the body through the skin andhelps against increased heartbeat.Fresh urine as an after-shave gives abeautiful soft skin. Hair and scalpmassage can sometimes stimulatesnew hair growth. Footbaths can beused for any skin and nail problemsof the feet (athlete’s foot, ringwormetc. However, the biological activityof the cow urine needs to be exploredscientifically.

ConclusionCow is central to our life and bio-

diversity. Its progeny and panchgavyahave wide applications and have thepotential for sustainable agriculture pro-duction, health and nutrition of hu-mans, production of bio-fertilizers, pro-duction of non-conventional energy andfor maintaining the bio-diversity of theecosystem. The area has tremendouspotential which has not been exploited.By the use of chemical fertilizers, pes-ticides and exploitation of ground waterthe food grain production levels havebeen obtained at a higher cost but atthe cost of the fertility and health of

the country can be propagated in itsproper perspective. Therefore, effortsneed to be made for public awarenessabout the “virtues of cow” and its“panchgavya”. Now people need in-formation and data based on research.Most of the tested practices of cowtherapy, panchgavya, agnihotra andmilk miracles are rejected as myth ormythological adventures. It is there-fore necessary to blend science, spiri-tuality and wisdom. Such a blendinghas resulted in US patents of cowdung/urine and many more patentsare awaiting ahead. Grant of a USPatents to panchgavya products hasgiven the ultimate stamp of approvalto Indian belief. Since the livestocksector has great potential for povertyalleviation, utmost importance shouldbe given for future research in thisfield. Therefore, establishment of re-search and development centres inmedicinal, agricultural, pharmaceutical,nutritional, environmental, technologi-cal areas and socio-economic utility ofgodhan (cow and its progeny) shouldbe given priority. The panchgavyatheory of Ayurveda should gain popu-larity not only in traditional familiesbut also in highly educated and sci-entific society. An integrated approachis necessary to promote the highlyvaluable virtues and wide applicationsof panchgavya.

Thus it can be inferred thatpanchgavya/cowpathy, a new versionof ancient science, is definitely a prom-ising formulation in the years to come.Therefore, educating people about thebenefits of cow and panchgavya canprovide solution to problems of short-age of food grains, fuel, shelter, goodhealth, nutrition, eradication of pov-erty, and unemployment and as analternate source of energy. Motivationof farmers and other people should bedone to preserve and conserve theindigenous cows.(The writer is a scientist at the Centre forAnimal Disease Research and DiagnosisIndian Veterinary Research Institute,Izatnagar, Uttar Pradesh.)

soil and also the quality of the foodproduced. The only remedy to restorethe balance is organic farming and thecow and its progeny and other animalscould provide the solution. The rearingof cow and its progeny is a viablealternative for removing poverty in therural and semi-urban areas and provid-ing employment opportunities for along-term sustainable economic growth.The knowledge about cow’s contribu-tion to the economy, medicinal andscientific value of panchgavya is notknown by all besides the non-availabil-ity of the labelled cowpathy products.By following the future strategies/mea-sures, the tremendous cattle wealth of

Educating people aboutthe benefits of cow andpanchgavya can providesolution to problems ofshortage of foodgrains,

fuel, shelter, good health,nutrition, eradication of

poverty, and unemploymentand as an alternate source

of energy. Motivation offarmers and other people

should be done topreserve and conserve the

indigenous cows.


Vishwa Mangal Go Gram Yatra to begin from Vijayadashami

A pilgrimage to save the soul of the nation Suresh Agrawal

Vijayadashami Day from Kurukshetra,Haryana. It will culminate in Nagpur onMakar Sankranti after covering thewhole country in 108 days in the year2010. There will be 400 programmesduring the Yatra all over the country.The Yatra will cover a total distance of20,000 km. Some sub-yatras will alsostart from various villages and will jointalukas, districts and finally the state.There will be go poojas, culturalprogrammes, go sandeshas by gobhaktas and artists.

It is a massive movement to pro-tect the cows, to develop the villagesand bring prosperity and happiness inthe nation and the world. It is an agro-socio, economic revolution, a secondIndependence movement which willspread the message: ‘Save the cow,save the nation, save the world’. Theoverall objective of the Yatra is torestore happy life in the world. Bharatis the soul of the world, gram is thesoul of Bharat, agriculture is the soulof gram and cow is the basis of agri-culture. When we connect all theselinks we find that the cow is the soulof the whole world.

Needless to say that cow is beingslaughtered all over the world andfarmers are compelled to commit sui-cide. By and large, the whole worldappears to be treading a disastrouspath. It shows the life we are living isdisastrous and unhappy. If we have tolive a happy life, the cow slaughter hasto be stopped forthwith and the atmo-sphere of self-respect has to be devel-oped for the farmers.

Keeping in view these facts, theinfluential saints like Yogaguru Baba

Ramdev, Sri Sri Ravishankar, MataAmritanandamayi Devi, Morari Bapu,Acharya Mahaprajna, Acharya VijayRatnasunder Surishwar Maharaj,Acharya Vidya Sagar Maharaj, variousBuddhist and Sikh saints, all the fourShankaracharays and GokarnaPeethadhishwar Sri RaghaveshwaraBharati are leading this Yatra. It is thejoint endeavour of all these saints.They are going to give a joint call tothe countrymen—Chalen gay ki or,chalen gaon ki or, chalen prakrati kior, chalen gramrajya se Ramrajya ki or(Turn to the cow, village, nature and

gram rajya to Ram rajya).The saints are going to educate the

countrymen that the nation will notbecome developed and prosperous with-out the development of villages. Thisdivine message will reach over five lakhvillages. A revolution has to be createdin villages through the Yatra. In otherwords, we have to develop love andaffection in the hearts of rural youthwho are migrating to urban areas andthose who have already migrated there

have to be motivated to return to theirvillages. The work of village reconstruc-tion has to be resumed in rural areasthrough this Yatra. Infusing a sense oftrue love towards land, water, forest,property and traditional rural culture ofthe villages is the prime objective of theYatra. Basically, all these things arefacing the biggest threat in villagestoday.

This Yatra is the real freedomstruggle. The freedom that the countryachieved 60 years back was just politi-cal. Now after 60 years, the saints havedecided to recreate the similarswatantrata sangram (freedom struggle)all over the country. It is a fight be-tween villages and cities as well asIndia and Bharat. This fight has basi-cally been going on for the last 60 yearsand the villages appear to have lost it.We have to make the villages andBharat victorious in this fight.

A healthy lifestyle has to be devel-oped in the country through this Yatra.We need to return to the villages andthe nature to live a healthy life. That iswhy the whole world is today worriedabout global warming and there is amove all over the country to save theforest, water and the nature. The peopleof the world have realised that if theyhave to remain fit they will have to liveaccording to the rules of the nature.They will have to return to the villages.There is a need to carry out a fight togive a new direction to the village lifein coming days. That is why this fightis going to begin from Kurukshetra. Inthe word ‘Kurukshetra’ the word ‘kuru’means ‘do’ and ‘kshetra’ means ‘field’or ‘farm’. What we today need is tostart thinking about the field. Since itis going to begin from Vijayadashamiday, the victory is certain and it woulddefinitely bring real and healthy change.

Gokarna Peethadhishwar SriRaghaveshwara Bharati with a calf

PREPARATIONS for the VishwaMangal Go Gram Yatra are in fullswing. The Yatra will begin on


Our politicianshave committed manyblunders during thelast 60 years. The In-dian culture believesthat the real leaders oflife are saints and notthe politicians. Thesaints give a positivedirection to life whilethe politicians thinkonly about the politi-cal gains. Several greatpersonalities like DrPranav Pandya ofGayatri Parivar and thesaints are going tolead this Yatra. Manyleading and reveredpersonalities of thecountry are in theorganising committee.

Over 21 crorepeople of the countryare going to give theirascent over a memo-randum. According toan estimate more than50 crore people of thecountry are going toresolve for the protec-tion of the village cul-ture, villages and thecow.

The signaturescollected from thepeople will be pre-sented to the Presi-dent of the country.The Yatra seeks thetotal ban on cowslaughter and the sta-tus of national animalto the cow. It seeksthe implementation ofexisting laws againstcow slaughter. This isa call to the nation tounite and uplift therural India and achievenational integrationthrough gau mata.

everyday. These demands have been made in thecountry since centuries. But what is the result?Still the Government of independent India thinksnothing but to find ways to collect more revenueby exporting beef. Fact is that if we have tohonestly save the cow, we will have to increaseher usefulness in the daily life. Keeping this inview, many experiments are being conducted oncow dung and urine. By now, the maximum useof cow dung has been in the form of energy.Since the day, bio-gas has emerged as an effec-tive alternative to electricity and people havebecome serious about it. The research scholarstoo have accelerated their experiments on it. Thelatest invention in this field is manufacturing ofpaper from cow dung. Undoubtedly the require-ment of paper is increasing day-by-day but thisis also a fact that the raw material for producingpaper is decreasing gradually.

According to scientists, we need about 13trees to make one tonne paper. Now we canimagine how many trees are cut for producingpaper everyday. Presently, we have forests onlyat eight per cent land. If they too are cut withthe same speed the day is not far when it willbecome difficult for us to find trees in India. Ifwe have to save the country from turning intoa desert we will have to find an alternate rawmaterial for producing paper.

Paper is made in Australia from the dung ofKangaru and elephant. According to scientistswhat is needed the most for producing paper iscellulose fiber. The things that have thread-likefiber can be used as raw material. An organisationin Australia has been using jute and lady fingerplants for producing paper. The trees of coconuthave also been proved useful for this purpose.An Australia-based company, Creative Paper Tas-mania, has been making paper from the Kangarudung since 1992. The manager of this company,Joana Gear, was recently honoured with Premier

Now produce paperfrom cow dung

Muzaffar Hussain

Young Achievers Award for the year 2006. Thiscompany is based at Burney city in TasmaniaIsland. A company in Thailand used the el-ephant dung for producing paper.

The research proved that the dung ofIndian breed cows has more fiber than the dungof any other breeds of cow. When the dungof cross-breed cow is boiled, it produces foulsmell in the process. But it does not happenin the case of Indian-breed cows. The dung ofbuffalo also has very less fiber.

The credit to make paper from the cowdung goes to a research scholar Dr Anuradhawho belongs to Vishakhapattanam. Presently,she is teaching in a college at Rajmundari. Shewas awarded a doctorate degree in Economicsof Education under the guidance of Prof.Pullarao of Andhra University. She submittedher research paper on finance. Dr Anuradha isthe wife of Shri Ramesh Ramaswami, who isfully dedicated to rural development.

She says when she met Dr Madan MohanBajaj in Vishakhapattanam she started thinkingabout the cow. Dr Bajaj had basically exposedthe plight of Indian cows in his lecture deliv-ered there and he stressed the need that thecow could not be protected till it is connectedwith the economy of the country. He also talkedabout the dung of elephant and Kangaru in hislecture.

After hearing that lecture, Dr Anuradhastarted research on the cow dung. She mixedseveral chemicals with the dung. After sometime she successfully produced a cardboardfrom that dung. But she wanted to producewriting paper. She continued her research. Inthe beginning, the paper produced was veryweak and used to break. But she found theways to improve its quality. Now she hasproduced the same fine paper as is availablein the market. This type of experiments can onlysave the cows if we are serious to save the cowand her progeny.

THERE are demonstrations, dharnas, pro-test marches, seminars and workshopsdemanding ban on cow slaughter almost


Leaves fall off and break down; grasses andflowers grow bloom and fade; animals die anddecompose—all life adds organic matter to thesoil.

It is beyond any doubt that healthy soilmeans healthy plants. When one builds andmaintains fertile rich soil in organic matter, onelays the groundwork for thriving plants/cropsthat can develop quickly, resist pests anddiseases, and yield a bountiful crop. A goodsoil can be described as one that is live,productive and full of nutrition. We call it AmritMitti (fertile nursery soil).

Building Amrit MittiThe term Amrit Mitti is used for the soil

that contains well-composted organic parts andmineral parts in equal volume. Mineral part isrelated to available nutrient content in the soil,and the adjective nursery relates to the factor,which gives structure and form the soil. Naturehas originated and maintained the entire foodchain with the evolution of green plants. Theseplants after death and decomposition by micro-organisms have accumulated through the agesa profile called soil. To build up soil, our bestresource are the plants that can grow or aregrowing in the vicinity and our farm.

Composition of different parts of plantAny newly growing part of plant contains

all micro-nutrients and phosphate contents init because every new cell in the meristem needsall of these before it comes into existence. Thusall tender parts of plants are capable of pro-viding these micro-nutrients to us to improvethe necessary mineral contents of the soil.When new growth begins to lose its tender-ness and leaves expand the mineral nutrientsthat are necessary for this growth which arenitrogen, potash, magnesium, sulphur, ironmanganese and copper. Since these are neces-sary for healthy leaves of the plants, on recy-cling these yield minerals back to the soil.

As leaves mature with age, calcium isincorporated more and more in the cells. Whenthese leaves age and die before falling fromthe plant 70 per cent of the mobile contentsof nutrients are carried back to the plant forfurther use or as a reserve for new growth.Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium,sulphur, zinc, copper are such elements. But30 per cent of the elements like iron, manga-nese, boron, calcium are not returned to theplant as these are immobilised in the system.

Therefore we can say that to build upfertile soil one must learn the differences inmaterials composted at different periods oftheir growth. Tender leaves provide zinc, boron,phosphate and molybdenum. Matured leavesprovide nitrogen, magnesium and potash whiledried leaves provide calcium, silica, boron, ironand manganese.

So, one can now learn how on decompo-sition of tender leaves and matured old greenleaves one can get all the minerals nutrientsback for the soil. As plant grows the celluloseand hemicelluloses components of its bodybegin to accumulate. With further maturity thelignin component also accumulates. The cel-lulose (tender) and lignin (tough and fibrous)parts of plants on decomposition yield humusand ligno protein respectively. But if we returndead fallen leaves of a plant to the soil onlyiron, manganese, boron and calcium are re-turned to the soil after complete decomposi-tion.

Preparing compost soil heaps forAmrit Mitti

While preparing compost heaps we haveto remember the definition of Amrit Mitti,which says: Good Amrit Mitti=50 per centorganic part (parts of plants) + 50 per centmineral part (topsoil). So the two are combinedin proper proportion by alternating layers ofbiomass and soil in form of heaps. This heapon its own will take a long time to decompose.So we introduce a catalyst called Amrit Jal(water) to accelerate decomposition.

Converting soil into Amrit Mitti Deepak Suchde

THINK of a natural system, such as aforest or meadow: it thrives year afteryear by recycling available nutrients.

It is beyondany doubt that

healthy soilmeans healthyplants. When

one buildsand maintainsfertile rich soil

in organicmatter, one

lays thegroundworkfor thrivingplants/crops

that candevelop

quickly, resistpests and

diseases, andyield a

bountiful crop.A good soil

can bedescribed as

one that islive,

productive andfull of

nutrition.


The method of preparing Amrit MittiStep 1: Preparing Amrit Jal: Take one litre freshcow dung, one litre cow urine, 50 gram blackjeggary and 10 litres of water. Mix all thesetogether and keep for three days. Stir themixture 2 to 3 times in a day, clockwise andanti-clockwise twelve times. On 4th day, takethis concentrate mixture and mix it with 100litres of water. This preparation is called AmritJal. One gm of cow dung contains 33 croresof microbes. These multiply 17 times whenfermented for three days. These microbes ac-celerate decomposition.Step 2: Collecting top soil

What we call top soil can be found belowbig trees or under the bushes, in nooks andcorners of the path of flowing water. The topsoil should be collected by scrapping (only1cm) the layers of any unturned soil and neverby digging. This top soil is a necessary ingre-dient, because it contains essential mineralsalong with dormant forms of microbes. Byusing this top soil the bio-mass (leaves) weprovide an atmosphere to activate the dormantmicrobes. The microbes will become activewhen we mix the topsoil with the biomass.Step 3A: Collect green biomass

Collect different kinds of green biomassfrom surrounding areas. Chop green parts ofplants, leaves and let them dry. After they dry,soak them in Amrit Jal for 24 hours. Bysoaking it for 24 hours all the veins in theleaves branches get saturated with this AmritJal. This Jal also provides non-aerobic mi-crobes, which help accelerate the recomposingprocess.Preparing compost heaps: Now, on the groundput one layer of this soaked biomass and thenone layer of top soil and sprinkle Amrit Jal tomoist the top soil. Keep on alternating thelayers, until a height of one foot is reached,i.e., about 25 to 35 layers. In this way thesurface area is increased which accelerates therecomposing process. Heaps should be 3 ftbroad, 1 ft high and of any desired length. (Thequantity of biomass in the layer should besuch that it equals the mineral part after com-plete decomposition.)

During this period keep the heap moist(not soggy) by sprinkling it with Amrit Jal.Nursery soil will be ready in next 30 days.

Step 3B: Preparing compost heaps by using dryleaves

While using dry leaves for composting, wealso need to add greens. The reason for thisis that dry leaves only contain 30 per cent ofnutrition (elements), the rest 70 per cent havealready been transferred to the mother plantbefore falling from the tree. Hence to fulfill therequirement for the remaining 70 per cent ofnutrition, through experimentation we have dis-covered that we can manage by greening theheap through different types of seeds.Method: Crush dry leaves-biomass in two tothree inch. This breaks the waxy layer on theveins and ensures seeping of Amrit Jal in veinsof leaves. Arrange layers of biomass with topsoilsprinkled in between layers as explained above.On top after 25-35 layers add a layer of 2 inchesfertile soil or FYM or vermin compose or ourAmrit Mitti if have.Greening the heap: Easily available local seedsare to be collected and soaked in Amrit Jal foreight hours. All these seeds are to be mixedtogether and used to provide for greening andbasic nutrition. Use 10 gm. of all mixed seedsper sq ft. Mulching of 4" thickness to beprovided up to germinationGrain-Rice, Jowhar, Bajra, Maiz, WheatCeral-Mung, Channa, Muth, UdadOil seads-Groundnut, Till, Castor Mustard, KardiSpices-Methi, Jira, Rai, Chilly, MustardVegetable- Tomatto, Brinjal, Bean, Bitter GaudCreeper- Cucumber, Red and Green Gaud ,Turi,GalkaRoot plants– Turmeric, Ginger, Sweet potato,TapiocaFibrous plants–Cotton, Ladyfinger, AmbadiFlowering plants–Marigold,Herbal plants-Tulsi, Satavari, Ardusi,KadukadiatuLong-life trees-Subabul, Neem, Drumstick,Karanj, Mohua, Glericidia

These soaked seeds are then broadcast onheaps as explained above providing the layer of2" Amrit Mitti or topsoil or any FYM on theheap (of biomass).

The ratio is 10 grams per square foot. Theseeds are then covered by soil. The layer of soilused should be double the size of the seeds.Cover the heap by 2 to 4 inches of mulch, i.e.

The termAmrit Mittiis used forsoil thatcontainswell-compostedorganic partsand mineralparts inequal volume.Mineral partis related toavailablenutrientcontent inthe soil, andthe adjectivenurseryrelates to thefactor, whichgivesstructure andform the soil.


dry grass or dry leaves. Sprinkle Amrit Jal inorder to maintain moisture levels continuously.Remove the top mulch after the seeds germinate.Sprinkle with Amrit Jal time-to-time to maintainthe moisture of the heap.After the first 21 days interval:

During the first 21 days from germination ofseeds, the seeds would have sprouted andgrown to some height. Harvest (cut off) 25 percent of the greens, without disturbing the roots.Then allow one inch of the stem to remain onthe heap at the time of harvesting. Through thisprocess, we harvest tender leaves of the plantand they are to be used in the compost heap.After the second 21 days interval from germi-nation, i.e. on 42 day

Let the cut sapling also grow for another 21days. After which again cut off 25 per cent ofthe growth, which will consist of matured leaves.Put these green cuttings on the compost heap.After the third 21 days interval, i.e. on 63 day

Let this second time cut sapling grow foranother 21 days along with not pruned plants.On the 3rd 21st day, i.e. the 63rd day, some plantswould have started flowering. On this day re-move all the plants by cutting from stem justfrom above the heap without disturbing the rootportion. Chop them up into 2 or 3 inch piecesand spread them out on the heap of compost.Leave for 3 to 4 days till they become yellow.Then dip in Amrit Jal for 8 hours and mix theminto the heap. At this stage uproot all the rootsmixed in heap properly with deep biomass in theheap. This heap is to be kept for 30 days.However after every seven days it should betilled and kept moist by providing Amrit Jal atproper interval.

Through the greening process we start oursearch for plant nutrients from our soil andgrowing parts of the plants harvest variousnutrients grow vigorously. We can recycle thiswhole biomass to build up the all requirementof the soil. We are in sense repeating nature’sgrassland and pasture eco-system evolution inour limited space. Unless we raise such greeningwe lose our daily opportunity of harvestingsunlight that is otherwise lost for ever the verynight. We can also provide nutrition to motherearth through the six rasa (shud rus) as de-scribed in Ayurveda. This we do when we addseeds and green the heap.

* The sweet taste is provided throughVaryali or Sauf.

* The sour taste through Ambadi, Amli,Tomato

* The pungent taste through Chilli* The astringent taste through Gawar* The salty taste through Spinach,

Rajagara* The bitter taste through Methi, bitter

gourd.Through ash we provide 100 elements to theearth. On the 97th day, this will become thebest soil on the earth.* It will have proper CN ratio.* It will have 7 pH.* It will have maximum water holding ca-

pacity* It will be airy soil, which will have carbon

content of 1 to 5 per cent.* This soil will be called Amrit Mitti (nurs-

ery soil or masala soil or compost).* Microbial count will be highest.* It will have a sweet smell as it emerges

with the first rainfall on the soil.* Through cow dung, from the Amrit Jal,

life has entered.* Through tender leaves, matured green

leaves and plant when in flowering stageit is full of nutrition in available form.

* The fiber of dried leaves and stemsbecomes the structure of the soil.

Maintaining the compost heap* Every year the compost heap reduces its

volume by 30 per cent.* The 30 per cent loss is due to the

conversion of carbon into carbon diox-ide because of the heat.

* Mulching can minimise this, i.e. coveringthe heap with grass cuttings and dryleaves the loss of nutrition can be com-pensated by providing ash.

* We can also maintain the volume of thecompost heap by providing back to it,roots, leaves and branches from theplant material harvested from this heap.

* We can minimise erosion of heap by livemulching on it by growing Chana, Till,Muster, Maize, Nachni and Ragi.

To build upfertile soil onemust learn the

differences inmaterials

composted atdifferent

periods oftheir growth.

Tender leavesprovide zinc,

boron,phosphate and

molybdenum.Matured leaves

providenitrogen,

magnesiumand potashwhile dried

leaves providecalcium,

silica, boron,iron and

manganese.


foot at intervals of 100 days.Requirement for a compost heapFrom experience it has been found that acompost heap of 10 ft x 3 ft x 1 ft requires:* 80 kgs of dry leaves (approx) {depend on

quality of biomass}* 8 kgs of top soil (mineral soil)* 300 gms of seeds of different varieties for

greening* 200 litres of Amrit Jal—which contains

again dependant on quality fiber and dry-ness of biomass. Two kg fresh cow dung,two litre cow urine, 100 gm jaggery (all arevariable depending on the variety of bio-mass you use)All this is required for preparing one heapSo ten guntha or ¼ of an acre requires 75

such heaps which are to be prepared only oncein a lifetime.

A very important aspect of Prof. S.A.Dabholkar’s contribution to the science offarming is to make sure we maintain the eco-logical balance and this is done by giving backto nature what we have taken in the initialstages for preparing our soil from the sur-roundings, by an extra 30 per cent. If we donot do this then we create an imbalance in theeco-system. So on our farms or vegetablegardens whatever we produce after using whatwe need or supplying for the needs of society,the balance goes back to the heap. This alsohelp us maintain the volume of the heap. Sowe return all these things back and help recyclethem and we have indeed given back to nature.

This is a simple science providing pros-perity to all. We use nature’s bounty notdestroying mother earth and in the processgrowing organic fruits, vegetables for the fam-ily which are free from all kinds of poisons,chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The farmercan become the father of the nation in a truesense.

For further information please contact:MALPANI TRUST, Krushi Teerth, “SHARAN”, Village -Bajwada, Post-Nemawar, District Dewas-.455339 (Madhya Pradesh)

Phone: Mobile:- 9329570960, 9302271797,Email:[email protected]

Websites: - www.prayogpariwar.net,www.sharan-india.org,

www.natuecofarmingscience.com

Why vermi compost?FIRST and foremost vermicompost relies on the introduction ofearthworms from an outside source. This not only requiresreliance on an external input or market but also may introducea foreign element into the delicate local ecosystem.

Earthworms are an inhabitant and indicator of nutrient-richsoils; when such soil is created worms appear independently ofhuman involvement. Local earthworms are fundamentally soil-eaters; they can descend up to eight feet and play an essentialrole in bringing biomass into the soil and minerals to the surface;their burrows provide aeration and balanced water content as wellas providing pathways and enzymes for white feeder roots.However, worms introduced through vermicompost are biomass-eaters; they do not serve the greater and necessary role of deep-burrowing worms. Instead they essentially play the same role asthe microbes in decomposing and rendering minerals available toplants and consume more energy to produce the same result.

Vermicompost is produced away from the plants in a coveredarea—temperature and external factors are controlled. However,when this compost is transferred to the field microbes presentdo not necessarily adapt to the transition. During decompositionenzymes are released from both earthworms and microbesessential to the development of feeder roots. If composting isdone away from the field the benefits of these enzymes are lostto plants. Human labour is also wasted moving ingredients andcompost to and from the pits.

Worms greatly increase the presence of N, P, and K in thesoil; however, many more elements are necessary for plantgrowth. In addition, vermicompost is generally practiced withfallen leaves; these leaves contain only 30 per cent of the necessaryelements having transferred the bulk back to the mother plantupon drying. Therefore a traditional vermicompost heap utilisingonly worms and dry biomass is deficient in elements necessaryfor growing plants. Once soil and biomass is converted into humusby microbes in the field, the presence of earthworms is welcomeand cherished for their great contribution to the enrichment ofthe soil.

Adding ash to the compost heap* By drying the wood from the trees that

are pruned in one’s own compound andthen burning them we can obtain this ash.

* This will replace all elements in the heap,which the plants have extracted from thesoil.

* Every three months, ash is to be providedto the compost heap, this helps overcomeany deficiency of minerals and also helpsin maintaining the pH of the soil.

* 30 grams of ash can be given per square

Only bypromoting thecow-basedindustries wecan trulymake thefarmerthe father ofthe nation.


beyond the broader concepts of or-ganic or natural farming in both phi-losophy and practice. It offers an alter-native to the commercial and heavilychemical techniques of modern farming.It emphasises the simple harvesting ofsunlight through the critical applicationof scientific examination, experiments,and methods that are rooted in theneighbourhood resources. It dependson developing a thorough understand-ing of plant physiology, geometry ofgrowth, fertility, and biochemistry. Thiscan be simply achieved throughdemystification of science.

Prayog Pariwar has demonstratedthat dissemination of relevant and of-ten sophisticated science, which can beachieved in the local idioms of thecommon man. This can be very effec-tive in bringing about a ‘gray matterrevolution’. With a new techniracy(technical literacy) for the managementof soil, water and canopy of leaves, itpromises record assured yields withminimal external inputs and optimalharvesting of sunlight.Understanding Natueco farming sci-ence

Natueco farming methods go be-yond natural farming and organic farm-ing. In natural farming, farming is donetrusting nature through the empiricalwisdom of ages. However, Natuecomethods emphasise farming by know-ing nature more and more throughcritical scientific inquiries and experi-ments. It is an ever-growing, novel,unique, participatory tryst between manand nature. Moreover, Natueco farmingis no way related to the present com-mercial techniques of farming.

It has a new vision of infiniteresource potentials in nature and sun-light and promises plenty for all through

Try Natueco farming as another optionN harvesting all these re-

sources by increasing thehuman activity.

This depends on a criti-cal understanding of green-ing and recycling of biom-ass within theneighbourhood to enrichthe structure and fertility ofsoil in a calculated way. Itpromises record assuredyields in a mathematic pre-cision by understandingplant’s geometry, cycles ofgrowth, and canopy (leafarea) management with littleor no external inputs and foroptimum harvesting of sun-light. It visualises that inthe near future, the presentmoney market system willhave to give way to a neweco-economic system ofnature, i.e. energy marketsystem.Natueco farming step-by-step

Natueco farmingemphasises ‘NeighbourhoodResource Enrichment’ by‘Additive Regeneration’rather than through depen-dence on external, commer-cial inputs. The three rel-evant aspects of Natuecofarming are as below:Soil: Enrichment of soil byrecycling the biomass andby establishing a proper en-ergy chain.Roots: Development andmaintenance of white feederroot zones for efficient ab-sorption of nutrients.Canopy: Harvesting the sunthrough proper canopy man-agement for efficient photo-synthesis.

20 reasons why one shouldgo for Natueco farming1. It is a non-violent way of growing food—no tilling

and digging.2. No external additives or pesticides are required.3. The soil nourishes itself while growing food—the

method imitates natural process of top soil cre-ation.

4. Less laborious (after three years) unlike conven-tional farming.

5. Maximises yield/plant, which in turn results inhealthy plant which in turn makes it less suscep-tible to pests and diseases.

6. Maximises dry matter/sq ft of available land. Makebusiness sense.

7. Maximises nutrition per family by diverse andmulti-crop pattern of cultivation.

8. Least water intensive—just rain-fed and what weconsume for personal use.

9. Overcomes an important constraint—a need to havegood quality of top soil on existing land.

10. Dramatically reduces our ‘eco-footprint’ and ‘food-miles’—good for environment.

11. It is perfectly aligned with nature’s three cycles—of matter, energy and life.

12. Increases biomass through perfect management ofsun, soil, plant and man.

13. The only occupation to set a man truly ‘free’—free from being a slave of an employer.

14. The only dignified way to help an individual shiftfrom dependence on external inputs (like job,government help, infrastructure etc) to liberationand swaraj in real sense.

15. Provides shock absorption against ecological andpest disasters because of multi-cropping and cropdiversity.

16. The best combination of age-old natural farming andmodern scientific intervention.

17. Not an esoteric or theoretical concept and yet leadsto wholesome and spiritual experience.

18. Possible to develop new ventures and non-exploit-ative entrepreneurship abilities.

19. Generates a natural healing climate where automati-cally harmony and love evolves and greed orselfishness dissolves—no sermons or religions re-quired to preach virtue.

20. Highly integrative—reduces sense of duality.

ATUECO farming system fol-lows the principles of eco-sys-tem networking of nature. It is


are agriculture-based and the farming is calledbackbone of the economy. But today the farm-ers are very depressed and disappointed. Theyare on the path of disaster due to uncontrolleduse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Thefertility of soil is fastdeclining and the costof production is increas-ing. And what we areproducing with the useof the heavy quantityof chemicals is nothingbut poison.

A farmer knowinglyuses chemical fertilizersand pesticides in thevegetables and sellsthem in the market. Onthe other hand, a farmergrows vegetables withagnihotra method byusing bio-fertilisers andsells them in the market.The first knows that heused poison in the field and is not happy whilethe other is satisfied that what he sold in themarket is amrit. Both earn money from agricul-ture produces. But one has the pain that heis selling poison, while the other is extremelysatisfied that what he grows and sells is amrit.

The vegetables grown through theagnihotra method not only make the personwho eats them healthy, wealthy and wise butalso protect the environment. The need of thehour today is that we should go for the farmingthat not only gives money but also satisfiesthe growers. Needless to say, the agnihotraperformed properly has a healing touch. Itrequires five basic things—a container made ofcopper, dry cow-dung, ghee made of cow milk

Agnihotra farming

The way for makingfarmers prosperous

and rice, time of sunrise and some mantras.The pyramid shape container has a uniqueeffect that is why agnihotra is performed inthis container only. The dry cow-dung in smallpieces has to be kept in this container for fiveto seven minutes before conducting theagnihotra. The fire has to be lit with the helpof kapoor and even the match stick has to be

FARMING is a very important work. Thatis why a farmer is called annadata(food-giver). Most of the professions

thrown away, not in the container. At the timeof agnihotra we have to offer only two ahutisin this fire—one of cow ghee and the secondof rice. The most effective time of performingagnihotra is sunrise and sunset which couldbe different in different areas. Therefore, onehas to ascertain the time of sunrise and sunsetat the place where one has to perform agnihotra.It does not take more than 20 to 25 secondsin offering the ahutis and it hardly takes twoto three minutes to fully burn the whole ma-terial.

One basic rule of agnihotra is that itshould be performed at the correct time. Thetwo mantras to be recited at the time of sunriseare: Suryay swaha. Suryaya idam na mam and

At the time ofagnihotra wehave to offeronly twoahutis in thefire—one ofghee made ofcow milk andthe second ofrice. The mosteffective timeof performingagnihotra issunrise andsunset whichcould bedifferent indifferent areas.Therefore, onehas toascertain thetime of sunriseand sunset atthe placewhere one hasto perform theagnihotra.


Prajapataye swaha. Prajapataye idamna mam. The two ahutis have to beoffered at the time of sunset and thetwo mantras to be recited at that timeare: Agnaye swaha. Agnaye idam namam and Prajapataye swaha.Prajapataye idam na mam. The ash leftin the container after one agnihotrahas to be brought out before perform-ing the other agnihotra. The ashshould be collected in any sack orcontainer etc as it is not only a goodmedicine but also a good quality ma-nure. The ash made of dry cow dungis itself a very high quality drug. Theagnihotra increases the medicinal valueof ash many fold.Agnihotra in the field

Prepare the field for sowing theseeds as is normally done and resolvenot to use the chemical fertilizers, pes-ticides etc. at all. The organic fertilizeror vermi compost can be used. Aftersowing the seeds, perform agnihotra inthe field both the times. A platform maybe created in the middle of the field forthis purpose. Any person can performagnihotra. If one person is away for

any work the second or third personcan perform it. It has to be done fromthe time of sowing the seeds to thetime of harvesting the crop.Seed treatment

The seeds that we sow in the fieldhave to be treated in cow urine andagnihotra ash. Whatever seeds haveto be sown should be soaked in thecow urine first. They should be driedup in the shade. The seeds have tobe soaked in the mixer of cow urineand agnihotra ash. Since the seeds ofwheat, rice etc. are sown in largequantity, it is not practical to soakthem in the cow urine. Therefore, thecow urine may be sprayed over themafter spreading them over the floor.They can also be collected in a clothsoaked in cow urine. If one has suf-ficient agnihotra ash that could alsobe spread in the field before sowingthe seeds. It could be spread in anyquantity. If it is not possible to per-form agnihotra in the field the ashmust be spread. No matter whether thecrop is infected or not the ash water(mixer of agnihotra ash and cow urine)

has to be sprayed. The mixer of 100 litregeneral water, five litre cow urine andtwo kg ash makes a good quality spraywater. It should be sprayed at least twoor three times during one crop. Thedifference between organic farming andagnihotra farming is that agnihotra hasto be performed everyday.

Agnihotra may be performed athome also where it gives complete peaceand protects the house from many dis-eases. Today the farmers are pained atthe growing use of pesticides in thefield. They know that whatever they aregrowing is poisonous. It develops afeeling of guiltiness among them. Theagnihotra saves them from this feelingof guiltiness or to feel ashamed. ThisVedic method of agnihotra has beenrevived by Madhavaswami. Thousandsof farmers are today drawing benefitsfrom this method.

Those interested to have more in-formation on agnihotra can contact:

Madhav Ashram,Sihir Road, Bairagarh, Bhopal

(Madhya Pradesh),Phone: 0755-521403

garbage into useful manure. Dis-posal of garbage and medical wasteis fast becoming a severe head-ache in cities. If the medical wasteis burnt it generates air pollution,which further increases the prob-lems. The Government of India,through a notification issued onJuly 27, 1998, issued directivesabout disposal of the medical waste.The government insists on instal-lation of incinerators in hospitals to

Cow dung: Convert garbageinto useful manure

dispose of it but such incineratorshave been installed only in the bighospitals and the medical waste ofsmall hospitals and nursing homesstill remains indisposed of. By andlarge it is not the complete solutionto the problem. Experiment hasproved that this garbage and wastecan successfully be disposed ofwith the help of cow dung. Accord-ing to this method, the waste ismixed with the slurry of bio gasplant which converts it into usefulmanure. The manure produced bythis method also does not give any

foul smell. A three-centimetre layerof cow dung is spread over thiswaste. After that it is coveredwith a three-centimetre layer ofsoil. After some time some plantsgrow on it which absorb all poi-sonous extracts from the waste.Within four-six months this pit isuncovered and the manure is fil-tered. Now it will have two parts—the useful manure and the wasteof plastic, steal, glass, etc. Themanure produced by this methodis very good in quality.

Arecent experiment hasproved that the cow dungcan convert any type of


we follow the organic farming. Organicfarming is not just using the organicfertilisers, it is maintaining balance be-tween the plants and the soil.

The approach and outlook towardsagriculture and marketing of food hasseen a quantum change worldwide overthe last few decades. Whereas earlier theseasons and the climate of an area de-termined what would be grown and when,today it is the ‘market’ that determineswhat it wants and what should be grown.The focus is now more on quantity and‘outer’ quality (appearance) rather thanintrinsic or nutritional quality, also called‘vitality’. Pesticides and other chemicalresidues in food and an overall reducedquality of food have led to a markedincrease in various diseases, mainlyvarious forms of cancer and reducedbodily immunity.

This immense commercilisation ofagriculture has also had a very negativeeffect on the environment. The use ofpesticides has led to enormous levels ofchemical buildup in the environment,soil, water, air, animals and even in ourown bodies. Fertilisers have a short-termeffect on productivity but a longer-termnegative effect on the environment wherethey remain for years after leaching andrunning off, contaminating ground waterand water bodies. The use of hybridseeds and the practice of monoculturehave led to a severe threat to local andindigenous varieties, whose germplasmcan be lost for ever—all this for ‘produc-tivity’.

In the name of growing more to feedthe earth, we have taken the wrong road

Organic farming

Ensuring a balance betweenplants and soil

of unsustainability. The effects alreadyshow farmers committing suicide ingrowing numbers with every passingyear; the horrendous effects of pesti-cide sprays (endosulphan) by a gov-ernment-owned plantation in Keralasome years ago; the pesticide-contami-nated bottled water and aerated bever-ages are only some instances. Thebigger picture that rarely makes newshowever is that millions of people arestill underfed, and where they do getenough to eat, the food they eat hasthe capability to eventually kill them.Yet, the picture painted for the futureby agro-chemical and seed companiesand governments is rosy and bright.

Another negative effect of thistrend has been on the fortunes of thefarming communities worldwide. Despitethis so-called increased productivity,farmers in practically every countryaround the world have seen a down-turn in their fortunes. The only benefi-ciaries of this new outlook towards

food and agriculture seem to be theagro-chemical companies, seed compa-nies and—though not related to thechemicalisation of agriculture, butequally part of the ‘big money syn-drome’ responsible for the farmers’troubles—the large, multi-national com-panies that trade in food, especiallyfoodgrains.

This is where organic farmingcomes in. Organic farming has thecapability to take care of each of theseproblems. Besides the obvious immedi-ate and positive effects organic ornatural farming has on the environmentand quality of food, it also greatlyhelps a farmer to become self-sufficientin his requirements for agro-inputs andreduce his costs.

Chemical agriculture and agricul-ture and food distribution systems ithas developed, propagated and sus-tained—and now shares a symbioticrelationship—affects each of us in manyways.

THE Atharvaveda says: “Returnas much you take from the soil.”It can be done to some extent if

Akhil Bharatiya Gram Vikas Pramukh Shri Surendra Singh Chauhan (right) in hisorganic field in Mohad village of Madhya Pradesh


guiding principle of working the land.The emphasis today is solely on pro-ductivity-high input in exchange forhigh returns and productivity (mostlydiminishing now however for farmersworldwide). Four important consider-ations—what happens to the land, thefood it produces, the people who eatit and the communities which lose out—are overlooked.Land exhaustion: The constant use ofartificial fertiliser, together with a lackof crop rotation, reduces the soil’sfertility year-by-year.Fertilisers: High yield levels are pro-duced by applying large quantities ofartificial fertilisers, instead of by main-taining the natural fertility of the soil.Nitrate run-off: About half of the ni-trate in the artificial fertiliser used oncrops is dissolved by rain. The dis-solved nitrate runs off the fields tocontaminate water courses.Soil erosion: Where repeated deepploughing is used to turn over the

Stubble burning: In countries wherestubble is burned, large amounts ofpotentially useful organic matter disap-pear into the sky in clouds of pollutingsmoke. Loss of cultivated biodiversity: Largeand other chemical farms tend to bemonocultures growing the same cropand crop variety.Threat to indigenous seeds and animalbreeds and spices: Native cultivarsand animal breeds lose out to exoticspecies and hybrids. Many nativeanimal breeds are today threatenedwith extinction. The same holds truefor many indigenous plant varietieswhich have disappeared within thespace of one generation.Habitat destruction: Agribusiness farm-ing demands that anything whichstands in the way of crop productionis uprooted and destroyed. The wildanimals and plants which were once acommon sight around farms are de-prived of their natural habitat and dieout.Contaminated food: Food, both plantand animal products, leaves the farmcontaminated with the chemicals thatwere used to produce it.Destruction of traditional knowledgesystems and traditions: Rural indig-enous knowledge and traditions, bothagricultural and non-agricultural, areinvariably connected to agriculture andagricultural systems.Control of agriculture inputs and fooddistribution channel: The supply andtrading in agricultural inputs and pro-duce is in the hands of a few largecorporations. This threatens food se-curity, reducing the leverage and im-portance of the first and the last partof the supply chain—the farmer andthe consumer.Threat to individual farmers: Chemicalagriculture is a threat to their liveli-hoods and changes their lifestyles,unfortunately not for the better.

Eighteen ways howchemical fertilizers affect us

ground, heavy rains can carry away thetopsoil and leave the ground useless forcultivation.Soil compaction: Damage to the structureof soil by compression is a serious prob-lem in areas that are intensively farmed.Conventional tillage may involve a tractorpassing over the land six or seven times,and the wheelings can cover up to 90 percent of a field. Even a single tractor passcan compress the surface enough toreduce the porosity of the soil by 70 percent, increasing surface run-off and, there-fore, water erosion. In the worst cases,the surface run-off may approach 100 percent—none of the water penetrates thesurface.Agricultural fuel: As crop yields grow,so does the amount of fuel needed toproduce them. European farmers now usean average of 12 tonnes of fuel to farma square kilometre of land; American farm-ers use about five tonnes (1987 figures).Biocide sprays: The only controls usedagainst weeds and pests are chemicalones. Most crops receive many doses ofdifferent chemicals before they are har-vested.Curelty to animals: On most ‘modern’farms, all animals are crowded togetherindoors. Complex systems of machineryare needed to feed them, while constantmedication is needed to prevent disease.The cruelty involved in managing, breed-ing, growing and slaughtering farm ani-mals today is unimaginably repulsive andhorrifying.Animal slurry: With so many animalspacked together in indoor pens, theirmanure accumulates at great speed. It isoften poured into lagoons which leak intolocal watercourses, contaminating themwith disease-causing organisms and con-tributing to algae-blooms.Imported animal feed: Many farms arenot self-sufficient in animal feed; insteadthey rely on feed brought into the farm.This often comes from countries whichcan ill-afford to part with it.

TODAY’S chemical farms havelittle use for the skilled hus-bandry which was once the

Bio-pesticide fromcow urine, neem and

tulsiCOW urine is antitoxic. It is bothantiseptic and antibiotics, as it killsthe germs. Add 50 gm garlic, one kgneem, aak and tulsi leaves in 10litre cow urine and leave it in acontainer for 15 days after tighten-ing the cap. After that, boil it till thecow urine reduces to five litres.Then filter it and preserve in a glasscontainer. The mixer of one litrepesticide in 100 litre water can besprayed on the crops as pesticide.It does wonder.


farming, however, the concept of feed-ing the plant does not exist. The at-tempt here is to feed the soil, keep ithealthy and living and keep a processin motion. Much of the work is doneby the numerous soil organisms andmicroorganisms that thrive in ‘living’soils. The various practices of organicfarming ensure that soil fertility ismaintained and this symbiotic relation-ship is kept alive and vibrant. Theanalogy we can think of is meetingyour day’s entire nutritional require-ments (calculated for you by a dieti-cian) by swallowing a few tablets andcapsules. Your nutritional needs aremet, but will you remain healthy?There is big money in organic farm-ing: A myth propagated by over-enthu-siastic supporters perhaps. So far inIndia, most organic farmers have turned(or in some cases remained) organicbecause of their beliefs. The ‘organicmarket’ exists for a small number offarmers who have access to a fewspecialised outlets. Otherwise, till peoplewake up, it is difficult to see everyorganic farmer getting a premium for his(undoubtedly superior) product. An op-tion for exports has also opened in thelast decade, which organic farmers canexplore only if they are ‘certified’ asorganic. There are a few internationallyrecognised agencies operating fromIndia who inspect and certify organicfarms.The non-use of chemical fertilisersand pesticides is organic farming: Thelast important myth is that simply avoid-ing the use of chemical fertilisers andpesticides is organic farming. That isnot so. While organic farming is allabout maintaining soil health (‘feedingthe soil’ rather than ‘feeding the plant’),it entails producing the highest yieldspossible, in a sustainable, eco-friendly

manner using a number of techniques.Indeed, for any agriculture system tosucceed, it must take a responsibilitytowards feeding the earth. Organic farm-ing entails a lot of hard work and evensystems like do nothing (or natural)farming—as used so effectively byBhaskar Save at his Gujarat farm—entailtremendous understanding of nature,natural agriculture, the local ecosystemand require a little hard work even thoughthe name may suggest otherwise!

External inputs, even if eco-friendlyor bio-degradable are ecologically ques-tionable and commercially unsustainablefor an organic farm. Work is hencerequired on-farm to produce inputs suchas composts and bio pesticides.

Myths aboutorganic farmingSome of the more common ones are:

Yields in organic farming are lowerthan chemical farming: Not so. Whenproperly followed, yields in organicfarming are, in the long run, far greaterthan those obtained by chemical farm-ing. In horticulture crops, the effectsare even better. A look at agriculture inPunjab tells the full story. In the originof the ‘Green Revolution’, Punjab’s ag-ricultural yields have remained the samefor the past many years while thequantity of agro-chemicals required tomaintain these static yields havesteadily increased.

In the case of a chemical farmconverting to organic, however, there isoften a loss in yields and it takes a fewyears before yields increase andstabilise at a level often higher thanthat achieved under a chemical regime.It is therefore recommended to convertgradually over a period of three to fouryears if income from the farm is a keyissue.Organic farming is not economical:Again, not so. While certain practicessuch as composting and mulching doentail greater costs on account oflabour, the overall cost of cultivation isusually lower than chemical farming.An important point to note here is thatthe farmer has to be self-sufficient inhis requirement for composts and pestcontrol measures (easily done), other-wise economics do get skewed.You can’t supply enough nutrients byusing composts: This is a commonargument put to use by all detractorsof organic farming, especially academi-cians. If one calculates the percentagesof nitrogen, potassium and phospho-rous in fertilisers and composts, thedifference is indeed vast. Going bythese ‘scientific’ calculations, one mayfind that in lieu of say 200 kg of mixedfertilisers, one needs over 30 tonnes ofcomposts, fairly impossible to supplytwo or three times a year. In organic

Miraculous manureCOULD you believe that only 25gm manure is sufficient for oneacre agriculture field? But it istrue. The technique to make thesoil fertile by using this muchmanure has been developed by DrRajesh Dube, director of Biody-namic Technology PropagationCentre, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.He has named it as ‘BD 500’.Take a horn of the died cow toprepare this manure. Burry thehorn (after filling cow dung intoit) in a two-feet-deep pit duringthe month of September-October.Sufficient moisturizer has to bemaintained around the pit. Takeout the horn from the pit in themonth of March-April and storethe manure from it in an earthenpot at any cool place. Mixer ofthis 25 gm manure in 13.5 litrewater can be used in one acrefield.

THERE are a number of mythsthat surround organic farming,both in favour of and against.


remotest Vanvasi village in the WesternGhats is not spared. Women sitting ina circle as if they are playing thefamous “Passing the parcel” game. It isnothing but the weekly meeting of SHGwomen, held on the same day of everyweek, mostly held in the afternoons.For the members of the group themeeting is more important than theirfavourite TV serials, because it is apath to self-reliance. All the days ofdependance have gone and the SHGwomen having regained the glory ofVedic period. For, the SHG scheme islike a Kalpataru—the epic tree that iscapable of giving everything the ownerneeds. The coming generations willnever fail to worship the inventor ofthis twenty-member “wonder machine”.

Economically described as “themicro-credit delivery system”, the SHGscheme is a system, leading to the bestform of savings one could have, thebest loan facility one could avail, andthe best way to improve economicesteem. The interest, the members ofthe SHG pay for their loans, is the profitthey get when the group ripens. Inaddition SHGs empower women, en-lighten them intellectually, and organisethem to avail the advantage of func-tioning as a group. Without SHGs thesewomen might not have excelled thetechniques of banking—depositing andwithdrawing money and dealing withthe negotiable instruments like cheques,promissory notes etc. The SHG schemehas emerged as an invincible programmeto reap the best out of even an unedu-cated rural or Vanvasi woman, and hasattained a culminating point even ex-ceeding the forethoughts and visionsof the founding fathers of the scheme.

Sewa Bharati. After a decade it hasbecome a silent revolution of economicempowerment and socio-political sys-tem of the state. Since 1999, SewaBharati has been working in this microcredit delivery system, which has at-tracted the attention of the entire na-tion. To start with the scheme has beenimplemented for women and now it isgetting popularity among men too. SewaBharati alone is guiding more than 4000women SHGs throughout the state andabove 400 men SHGs.The scheme

SHG is nothing but a small coop-erative unit comprising of 20 or lessernumber of people. They are organisedin a group with a name and three officebearers who manage the group andmaintain the accounts and bank opera-tions. Each member is made to savemoney on a regular basis and thecollected saving money is given asloan to the members at a nominal in-terest. The entire transaction is trans-parent and properly audited. After run-ning with their money for six monthsthey are eligible for financial assistancefrom banks or any other financial insti-tution. The interest on this financialassistance is very low so that themembers of the group get rid of theirhigh interest borrowings. The membersof groups are encouraged to start theirown business or production unit sothat they get profit. For this purposebanks are readily extending advanceswith appropriate subsidies.

It has become a regular scene inalmost every village in Tamil Nadu. The

In a village called Thirparappu,SHG was formed by Sewa Bharati, whichcomprised of 18 women belonging toone particular caste and two membersfrom another caste. The caste associa-tion of that village advised the womenof their caste to remove the womenbelonging to the other caste and runthe group. They refused bluntly andfirmly. The caste association temptedthem with an interest-free loan of onelakh rupees to the group to remove thetwo women belonging to the othercaste. The SHG members turned downthis offer and defied any discriminationin the name of caste among them. Thistrend is getting momentum among theSHG members with amity and benevo-lence.

Organised mode of operationstrengthens the society. It has alwaysbeen a difficult task to organise womenof the society but the SHG scheme hasmade this dream come true. In a remoteVanvasi village called Kodithuraimalai,SHG women resolved to execute a nobleidea. After every weekly meet all themembers gathered to work in the farmof one member of the SHG without anypayment. The owner of the land offeredthem lunch and evening tea. The nextweek the same activity happened in thefarm of another member. This rotationof work is carried out in the farm of allthe members in a regular turn. Theresultant yield of self-reliance is prom-ising both materialistically and socially.

Alcoholism is a menace in oursociety and it is very difficult to doaway with it. The SHG women achieveda few victories in this field too. In avillage called Thenkarai a liquor shopwas situated near the only pathwayleading to the village. This resulted ina lot of hardships to the school goinggirls returning from the school in theevening. The women returning fromtheir workplace were put into trouble

Self-Help Groups in Tamil Nadu

An experiment witheconomic empowerment

Kesava Vinayagan

S elf-Help Group (SHG) is aprogramme implemented in TamilNadu about 12 years back by

Tamil Nadu


by the behaviour of alcoholics whoused to come to the shop in a largenumber especially in the evening. Thevillagers, took up the matter with theauthorities concerned, several times di-rectly and through various associa-tions, but the shop was not shiftedfrom the place. The SHG women of thatvillage informed about the difficultiescaused by the liquor shop to SewaBharati activists. The women wereadvised to present the matter beforethe District Collector under the SHGbanner in person. The gravity of theproblem expressed by the SHG womenwas appreciated and the District Collec-tor ordered to shift the government-owned liquor shop to another place.And it is no more an arduous task forwomen to approach the bureaucraticsystems, to derive the needed resultsin order to eradicate social evilsafflecting the society.

The village called Maruthancodewithnessed a unique revolution. TheSHG women ruined one production unitof spurious liquor under the banner ofAyurvedic medicines established in theirlocality by some antisocial elementsthereby manufacturing large quantitiesof intoxicating drink called Arishtam,which was sold at a cheaper price. Thedrink worked as a slow poison for thepersons who consumed it resulting in

incapacitation. Some persons even diedof various unknown ailments causedby it. Since the unit was situated neara temple and a bus stop, the problemscreated by the presence of the unit tothe women going to the temple andwaiting for a bus were concerned withtheir security. Sewa Bharati SHGs forwomen in the village decided in one oftheir weekly meetings to root out themenace of the spurious liquor-produc-ing unit. On 22-02-2003 all the membersrounded up the unit and staged ademonstration. The owner of the unitlocked the building and ran away. Thecrowd was persuaded by Sewa Bharatiorganisers to disperse and a complaintwas lodged in the Police Station con-cerned. The police were reluctant totake any action on the ground that theowner possessed a license for the unit.The SHG women with much persever-ance and belligerence knocked the doorsof local Court and filed a law suit, tounravel the mysteries and mischief inissuing such licenses, and proved theviolations of the terms of the license byall such license holders in black andwhite and managed to get a decreedated 07.01.04, in their favour. Thisjudgement proved to be a yardstick forthe entire state of Tamil Nadu. Duringthe entire processes the goondas hiredby the owners of the unit threatened

the women. Now the village is free fromthe menace of the spurious liquor,thanks to the efforts of the SHGs andSewa Bharati. The women are up inarms to fight the social evils. Theowners of such units presented thedetails of this case and a paper regard-ing the menace of Arishtam before theMadras High Court where the criminalpetitions were filed against the Districtauthorities to get a judgement banningthe production and sale of Arishtamthroughout the entire Kanyakumaridistrict.

In the suburbs of Nagerkovil townthere is a small village calledSarakkalvilai, wherein one Shanthi aged23 years who is a widow having athree-year-old female child happens tobe the daughter of a member by nameBhathirakali belonging to BuvaneswariSHG. The SHG members took into con-sideration the future of Shanthi in oneof their weekly meetings and decidedto arrange for her remarriage. Every-thing was planned and executed in afantastic way. On 10.06.03 Shanthientered a new life with an understand-ing partner Somalingaom. The SHGsfunded and organised the marriagefunction. The people of the village wereastonished by this activity of the SHGand extended all their support. Duringthe visit of the Sewa Bharati office-bearer the mother of Shanthi, SmtBathirakali, was in tears while describ-ing the incident.

In a village called Aramannam nearKulasekaram the incident was even moreappalling. One widow lived inAramannam working as an agriculturecoolie and her two adolescent daugh-ters, namely Kalarani and Anitha,worked in a private firm in AndhraPradesh. She died of cancer leavingbehind the two daughters as orphansafter spending all her earnings on hertreatment. The two daughters who cameto take care of their mother in thehospital were left with nothing but thecorpse of their mother. There wasnobody to help even for the funeral.The Sewa Bharati SHG members tookthe initiative and arranged for the fu-

Meeting of a Vanvasi women SHG in Kanyakumari district


neral after performing all the last rites.They arranged for a safe place for theirlivelihood with suitable jobs, and tookall initiatives to arrange for their mar-riages. One Panchayet member of thelocality took the lead and with thegenerous contributions from all theSHGs across the District and variousother organisations the marriage ofKalarani was arranged with Iyappan on07.02.02 and that of Anitha with Ganesanon 03.11.03. Many women belongingto Sewa Bharati SHGs attended thefunctions. Even the minister belongingto the district graced the occasion andalso contributed for the function.

Helping the needy is another im-portant social change that is happeningalmost everyday in the district throughSHGs. Financial assistance for the sickpersons, accident victims, victims ofcalamities like fire accidents, have be-come a normal routine for the SHGs.

In a village called Anchukandarainear Kulasekaram one Shri Raju suffer-ing from heart disease was very sickand needed a surgical treatment ur-gently. The surgery had been arrangedat the Medical College Hospital inThiruvananthapuram. The SHGs in thevillage resolved unanimously to con-tribute the needed amount of Rs 5000from each member belonging to all theten SHGs of the village. The amountwas presented at the annual day func-tion to the eight-year-old daughter ofthe sick person who received theamount with moist eyes. Raju has sur-vived surgery and is doing well evennow.

In Thadikkarankonam, a beautifulvillage situated near Western Ghats,live many plantation workers, some ofwhom migrated for the sake of employ-ment and have settled there temporarilyin huts made of thatched roofs situatedin the village. A family comprising of anold widow lady, her daughter, who isalso a widow, and her three-year-olddaughter, migrated from a distant placeand settled in Thadikkarankonam in athatched roofed hut. The young ladywas employed in a local farm and withher meager income they were running

the family. The lady joined a SewaBharati SHG as a member. On a fatefulday, their hut caught fire and they wereleft with nothing but the clothes theywere wearing. The magic of SHGsworked in the favour of the helplessfamily. All the members of the SHGscontributed and bought all the neededconstruction materials, and with theirphysical help they constructed a newhut for the family within a day. Theyalso provided them with the cookingvessels and a set of dress to eachmember of the family.

tural produces of the land owned bythis Vanvasi family. After joining theSHG, Seethai wanted to release theirland from the clutches of ThavasiMuthu. By this time the Group wasready for getting loan from their bank.The bank sanctioned the loan worth Rs60,000 to this SHG. Seethai approachedThavasi Muthu, and asked for theaccount of their loan so that she cansettle the account as soon as she getsthe loan from the SHG. Thavasi Muthucalculated for three days and said thatshe had to pay Rs 60,000 for the returnof their land again. She informed thisin SHG meeting and the members unani-mously decided to give away the entirebank loan amount of Rs 60,000 as aloan so that, she is released from theborrower and she again became theowner of her father’s property. Nowwith the income from the land she isrepaying the loan regularly and havingsurplus money for savings.

These are a few examples of thesocial engineering that has been pos-sible in the name of Self-Help Groups.Similar incidents are a routine whereSewa Bharati SHGs are functioning.The SHGs have contributed to theservice projects carried out by the SewaBharati especially in the case of AnbuIllam (an orphanage), which was inau-gurates on 02-05-2004 and accommo-dates 18 children now. Sewa BharatiSHGs have become the rice bowl forthe poor and the needy by which thesewomen contribute rice exclusively notonly to Sewa Bharati Anbu Illam butalso to four other orphanages function-ing in Kanyakumari District. This ricecomes as a share from the rice takenfor cooking by the SHGs women mem-bers everyday which is collected at theweekly meets and the scheme is named“Sharatha Devi Pidi Arisi Thittam”.

In short, the wonder that is Self-Help Group is creating a niche for itselfto attain gender equality, empowermentand justice preserving our cultural andtraditional values.

(The writer is general secretary of SewaBharati, Tamil Nadu.)

The experience of Seethai, a mem-ber of Sree Mutharamman SHG, in aVanvasi village called Kadapparai nearPatchiparrai in the Western Ghats isreally thought provoking. This par-ticular village has to be reached onlyby foot, that too by climbing steepcliffs. Sewa Bharati constituted a SHGin that village. In these villages thepeople who lend money to those whoare in dire need of money, the moneylenders, taking undue advantage oftheir miseries, enslave the Vanvasis inexchange of money. One particularmember of this SHG Smt Seethai’sfather borrowed Rs 10,000 twenty yearsback from one Thavasi Muthu, a mon-eylender. He took away all the agricul-

In short, thewonder that is

Self-Help Group iscreating a niche

for itself to attaingender equality,

empowerment andjustice preservingour cultural andtraditional values.


Vishveshteerth blessed 31 village Pramukhs inthe presence of the then RSS SarsanghachalakShri Rajju Bhaiya. These villages were selectedto be developed as Swavlambi Grams, i.e. self-sufficiency in three basic requirements of life,namely food, education and health. Under thisscheme, villagers come together to discuss anddecide about these spheres and resolve to beself-sufficient. The resources are mobilised bythe people themselves through daily savings/offerings of mushti dhan (handful of rice/pulses/ cereals) and/or golak (one coin perday).

This experiment produced good results ina number of villages and transformed theproject into Gram Vikas Yojana. With the pas-sage of time the approaches were also modifiedviz. Shiksha, Swasthya, Sanskar, Samriddhi,Samarasata and Suraksha (education, health,samskar, prosperity, social harmony and secu-rity). Depending upon the requirements and

Onus ofself-sufficiency

lies on villagersDURING the year 1995 at the congrega-

tion of Samarasata Sangam held inMangalore, Pejawar Swami Sri

Karnataka

availability of resources, both human and mon-etary, priority is given to a particular subject.Some villages have been raised to the statusof Prabhat and Uday Grams all over the state.

Fourteen Prabhat Grams in MangaloreVibhag, three in Shimoga Vibhag and one inTumkur Vibhag have been developed inKaranataka by October 2008. While there are38 Uday Grams in Mangalore Vibhag and fourin Shimoga Vibhag.

The Prabhat Grams under MangaloreVibhag include Bedagudde, Konaje, Kerekadu,Nitte, Thekkatte, Kanyadi, Kodmannu, Arala,Neththarakere, Punacha, Kalladka, Idkidu,Palthady, Kalanja. The number of Uday Gramsin this Vibhag are: Palapachchery, Eniyarpu,Prathapnagar, Peruvody, Kinya, Kompadavu,Malali, Kallabettu, Sanooru, Hebri, Mudradi,Koteshvar, Siddapur, Aajri, Uppunda, Gangolly,Shibaje, Maladi, Kalmanja, Miththabagilu,Andinje, Pharangipete, Ammunje, Sangabettu,Devasya Moodooru, Kavala Padooru, Vogga,Kumbdelu, Maani, Narikombu, Savanooru,Punachappady, Kadaba, Ajjavara, Jalsooru,

A woman making a bombooo basket in a village in Karnataka

FourteenPrabhatGrams inMangaloreVibhag, threein ShimogaVibhag andone inTumkurVibhag havebeendeveloped inKaranataka byOctober 2008.

Peraje and Ubaradka.

Prabhat Grams under ShimogaVibhag are Maththooru, Karanagiri andHelegaru. There is one Prabhat Gramin Tumkur Vibhag. Uday Grams inShimoga Vibhag are Indiranagar,Mallapura, Maruthipura andNagalapura. There is no Uday Gram inTumkur Vibhag so far.

BedaguddeBedagudde village is situated

along the border of Kerala devoid ofany basic amenities such as roads,water and electricity. The villagerswere under the clutches of Muslimmoneylenders for their monetary re-quirements.


Education: The village today has two pri-mary schools and one high school. It also hastwo government-run Anganvadis. Passing per-centage, which was below 80 per cent, hasincreased and now it is above 90 per cent.School children actively participate in publicfunctions. Van Mahotsav is organised in thevillage for the last three years. Water conser-vation has also commenced. Economically-de-prived students are provided with books, schooluniform, school bags, etc. due to which atten-dance in schools has increased. All personsbelow the age of 35 years, can now read andwrite. Hence, there is no illiterate in the village.

Health: Since awareness about cleanlinesswas very low, hygiene consciousness wascreated by continuous counselling. Similarly,concern for environment has increased. Earlierpeople used to go out on nature’s call. Nowall houses have been provided with toilets.Problem of potable water scarcity was solvedthrough government-sponsored water supply.

Medical camps of various departments,namely general medicine, eye camp, etc., areorganised. Sickness and allied problems havereduced (except epidemic Chikunguniya whichis now under control). A blood donation campis organised in which 28 persons participated.A blood donors’ list is also maintained with 12persons opting to donate blood whenever needbe. Medicinal plants have also been grown.

Samskar: Due to Balagokulam, MatriMandals, Satsang and Bhajan Mandal, desiredchanges can be witnessed among children,women and general public. Bhajan, eveningprayers, atithi satkar and concern for the poorcan be seen. Tulsi plants have been plantedin front of all the houses. Temple premises arewell maintained. All these activities are re-flected in reducing bad habits. Consumingliquor, playing cards, lottery, chewing gutkha,smoking, etc., have been reduced considerably.

Prosperity: Six self-help groups (two formen and four for women) with membership of78 persons are being operated in the village.The members have started business, openedshops and are actively participating in socialand cultural activities. Shram sewa is a regularfeature. Roads are repaired, temples and schoolsare cleansed through shram sewa. Rural arti-sans are encouraged. Carpentry, jewellary, ag-

ricultural labourers, bidi rolling etc. are majoroccupations. Main crops of the village arerice, areca and coconut. Growing vegetablesis encouraged. Mechanised farming is prac-tised to some extent. Ploughing with ox andbufallos is still in practice. Human resourcesare also made use of. Saavayava krishi isbeing popularised. Twenty five per cent ofagriculturists are using organic manures. Waterconservation programmes of various typesare conducted. Rainwater harvesting is beingpopularised. Rainwater harvesting is prac-tised in around 20 per cent houses.

Social harmony: Untouchability is notparctised in public places like temples,schools, hotels and water resources. Skir-mishes among various communities have re-duced. People are awakend to fight for Hinducause. Borrowing money from Muslim mon-eylenders has reduced considerably. Similarly,rampant selling of cows to butchers has alsoreduced. Gram suraksha team has beenformed. The team has started functioning andawakening people against anti-social elements.The exercise has started producing goodresults.

KonajeKonaje village is situated on the hilly

area in the outskirts of Mangalore city. Thisis a place where the Mangalore Universityhas its headquarters. Sangh shakha is regu-larly conducted in the University campus.

The population is mainly comprised ofconstructions workers. Two temples and acommunity hall (total estimated cost exceedsRs. six lakh) have been constructed entirelywith shram sewa. Only the expenditure onbuilding material was incurred. More than fivekm of road was constructed. A small bridgeconnecting two parts of the village has alsobeen constructed. House repairs for the poorand other allied works have been undertaken.A pond, which is the water resource for acresof paddy fields has been desilted throughshram sewa.

Entire village folk participates in thesahbhoj (mass feeding) arranged after publicpoojas. Youths have intercepted vehicles car-rying cows to slaughterhouses. The culpritshave been apprehended by the police withthe help of the local people.

Economically-deprived

students areprovided withbooks, school

uniform,school bags,

etc. due towhich

attendance inschools has

increased. Allpersons belowthe age of 35

years can nowread and

write. Hence,there is noilliterate inthe village.


NitteDevelopmental work is being conducted in

association with Nitte Education Trust andJustice KS Hegde Foundation in the village. Aproject named Nerekare Kshema in which 10-15 houses are constructed as a cluster has alsobeen started. One person is selected from thecluster and he instils a feeling of swabhimanand swavalamban into the village folk and alsooversees the project. They are guided andmonitored by senior workers. This helps therural people in their basic education and alsoin acquiring professional qualification and skills.

This village has educational facility fromShishu Mandir to Post-Graduation. Two ShishuMandirs, two non-formal education centres. aprimary school, a high school, a Jr. college, afirst grade college, an polytechnic, an engineer-ing college and a post-graduation college arealso there in the village. About 120 students(including 25 in engineering college) are study-ing in different schools and colleges withconcessional fees. After the 10th standard theyare offered various job-oriented courses viz.,turner, electrical winding, electrical wiring, com-puter basics, tailoring and vehicle driving, totake up self-employment. A total of 34 girls fromthe North-East have also been provided withfree hostel, boarding and education.

Training camps in organic farming are

The village has two Shishu Mandirs, fiveprimary schools, two high schools, two col-leges and four Anganwadis. The school drop-out rate, which was 25 per cent, has beenbrought down to five per cent. Passing per-centage has gone up to 75 per cent from 65per cent in government schools and to 95 percent from 90 per cent in private schools.Twenty-five per cent to 30 per cent of schoolchildren participate in social activities.

People are switching over to Ayurvedafrom allopathic medicine system. A blood do-nors’ list of 50 persons is maintained. When-ever hospitalisation is required, free treatmentis arranged.

Fifty-five self-help groups with 400 mem-bers have been promoted for swavalambanamong women. Water conservation workshopsare organised. Desilting of village lake andwater conservation programmes are undertaken.This benefits 50 families which were faced withthe problem of scarcity of water during sum-mers. Now they are getting potable water forthe entire year.Kodmannu

Kodmannu is a remote village in Bantwaltaluk far away from a town. Bidi rolling andagriculture are the major occupation in thevillage. Self-help groups are promoted to en-

The schooldropout rate,which was 25per cent, hasbeen broughtdown to fiveper cent.Passingpercentage hasgone up to 75per cent from65 per cent ingovernmentschools and to95 per centfrom 70 percent in privateschools.

conducted with the assistanceof the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh.Rainwater harvesting work-shops are organised in differentparts of the village. Training isalso imparted in a special typeof paddy cultivation, i.e. “ShreeSystem” in which less water isrequired and more output isgained. Six wells have been dugin water scarcity areas and theyare maintained by local peoplefor keeping water clean.

ThekkatteSewa Sangam Shishu

Mandir is the focal point formanifold activities conductedthrough which the dream ofattaining social transformationis setting foot firmly in Thekkattevillage.

A project for small children by Hindu Seva Pratishthan


courage the habit of thrift. Rice, areca andcoconut are the major crops of the village.Farmers are switching over to organic farmingand vermiculature. Rainwater harvesting is prac-tised for agriculture. About 25 per cent of thefarmers are having desi breed of cows.

AralaSeventy-six self-help groups with a mem-

bership of 798 are operating in Arala village.Nine months’ tailoring training was arranged inwhich 18 women were benefited. About 50 percent of the peasants have taken to organicmanure. About 50 per cent of animal husbandryand dairy development works are Swadeshi.Out of three milk societies one is Mahila Co-operative Milk Society and is working well.Farmer’s meet is regularly held and experiencesare exchanged. Shram sewa in village templeis a regular feature. On an average five timesin a year 60 persons offer five hours’ shramsewa in the village temple. The village templehas been reconstructed and 40 persons offeredshram seva every week. ‘Mushti Dhan’ and‘Golak’ have been arranged for the financialsupport.

IdkiduIdkidu when translated to local dialect

could be understood as one which is thrownaway. In fact this was the case when villagere-organisation was undertaken. However, dur-ing birth centenary year of Dr K.B. Hedgewar,this village was chosen for Gram Vikas. RSSSarsanghachalak Shri K.S. Sudarshan visitedthis village during December 2007. Hundred percent attendance was recorded in the GramSamiti meeting. Gram samavesh was also held,where people participated with full enthusiasm.Sahbhoj was arranged in the temple.

All types of rural-related problems did existhere. But owing to concerted efforts new build-ings, play grounds and other facilities havebeen arranged. Arrangements have also beenmade to enroll dropouts into the schools.

More than 175 self-help groups are oper-ating in the village. Three co-operative societ-ies are catering to the economic needs of thevillage. All the three co-operative societies arerendering exemplary services. They have jointlyconstructed a small bridge at a cost of Rs50,000 across a rivulet dividing the village andit reduced the distance to the nearest town

Vittal, by five kms. A road about 1.5 km longhas been constructed by the people themselvesby shram sewa.

Three co-operative milk societies functionin the village. About 50 per cent of the houseshave cows. The milk supplied to KarnatakaMilk Federation by these three co-operativemilk societies is around 2200 litres per day,which is an all-time record for the whole taluk.Cow dung has helped in increasing bio-gasplants and bio-manure.

There are approximately 750 families in thevillage. Volunteers have visited 712 houses andcreated awareness about need for water con-servation. Initially the response was poor. Aveterinary doctor of this village prepared atopographical model depicting the borewells,open wells, and other water sources and dem-onstrated to the villagers about the wastage ofwater. This made the people realise the calamitythat is going to happen if water is not con-served. Now, about 200 houses are practisingwater conservation.

PalthadyTwenty per cent of the population in

Palthady village is from sewa bastis, who issocially and economically backward. Consum-ing liquor, gambling, eating beef and similarvices were common. There were no schools inthe vicinity of six kms two decades ago. Chil-dren had to walk five km for lower primary andseven km for higher primary schools. Duringrainy season, the village is divided by a rivuletflowing in the middle of the village, causingmore distress. In the year 1989 a Shishu Mandirwas started. Later, due to the concerted effortsby the committee, initially, a government schoolwas started. Now, there are two lower primaryschools, two higher primary schools and a highschool.

Sewa basti people who consist 20 per centof the total population were eating slaughteredcow meat. Now, owing to various programmesthey are assimilated with others. Untouchabilityis totally eradicated. People move freely in allfunctions and houses for sahbhoj. No consid-eration of caste and creed is found in any place.Efforts made to fish in the troubled water bysome Leftist organisations, were foiled by thelocals.

Threeco-operativesocieties are

catering to theeconomic

needs of thevillage. They

are renderingexemplary

services. Thesesocieties have

jointlyconstructed asmall bridgeat a cost of

Rs 50,000across a

rivuletdividing the

village and itreduced the

distance to thenearest town

Vittal, by fivekm. A road

about 1.5 kmlong has beenconstructed by

the peoplethemselves byshram sewa.


that it was a woman. She was anenergetic and enthusiastic young lady.In this competitive world of businessI had to appreciate her entrepreneur-ship. What did I come to know whenI was searching the secret of her suc-cess? She was a sewavrati, trained byHindu Seva Pratishthan (HSP). Eventoday, she believes the secret for hersuccess lies in the training she receivedfrom the HSP.

Hindu Seva Pratishthan

Forty-day miraculous training Dr Shikaripura Krishnamurthy

distant north-eastern states and servedthe people there. They are spread out inalmost all villages/towns and cities ofKarnataka. Those who have retired fromfull time service activities have nowsettled down as home-makers and apartfrom inculcating the rich ehtos and valuesof our enriched culture in their familiesthrough cultural transformation theyhave taken up leadership in differentsocial service activities too. They allhave a single-voiced opinion that theextremely useful training they receivedfor forty days helped them in living on

women, who have learnt Sanskrit, natu-rally speak Kannada in a more culturedway and effectively than the commonpeople. During the training period theelder sewavratis (sisters) help themcorrect their behaviour and pronuncia-tion. The “oral instructions” like this isessential for all and is a must particu-larly to those who are interested in thesocial work. Singing songs helps inimproving the clarity of expression andfine-tuning the tone and modulation ofthe speech. When the young traineessing songs and shlokas in monotone,

I came across an enterprise, whichhad given jobs to forty persons.I searched for its owner and found

Another story isthat of a woman whowas facing indifference,neglected and disap-pointing situation in herhusband’s house. Shewas running a smallshop and turned it intoa strong financial/emo-tional base for her fam-ily through hard workand enthusiasm. Shewas able to transformthe drunkard husband,married her sisters-in-lawand helped in improvingthe living standard of her family. WhenI tried to find out her background, itwas revealed that she had worked asa sewavrati with the HSP for fouryears. She owes all her success to theforty-day training she got from theHSP. If we go on searching, we maycome across hundreds and thousandsof such examples. It is heartening tonote that this is the biggest achieve-ment of the HSP in its 25 years ofexistence.

The forty-day training along withvarieties of smaller duration of trainingshave taken the capabilities of theseyoung women to greater heights. Thereare brave women who had gone to the

a life full of entrepreneurship and alsofull of adventure and moulded theminto an extraordinary woman.What is in the training?

In the forty-day training, all theessential requirements for leading agood life are included. Yoga and medi-tation, which gives peace to the mindand body; route march, folk dance withsticks, plays, karate etc. energetic ac-tivities to strengthen the physicalstrength, are all included in the training.The eternal excellent language, whichgives enormous scope to express one’sthoughts, is Sanskrit. The speciality ofthe training is inclusion of training/practice in spoken Sanskrit. The young

one can observe the dis-cipline of a regimentedarmy. There are separatesessions meant for prac-ticing the modulation inclarity of pronunciation insmall groups. Similarly, thesessions to practice spo-ken Sanskrit, singingsongs, etc., help in en-hancing and incustomising special skillsin the young ladies. Alongwith oral communication,ability to write is also es-sential. When hand-writ-

ing of some of the trainees is not goodenough, it will not attract to anyone tolook at even though the contents mightbe informative and excellent. For thispurpose there are sessions for improv-ing the handwriting also.Self-motivated and moving camp

The entire programme is plannedand conducted by the trainees attend-ing the camp absolutely themselves, indifferent groups. The cleanliness groupkeeps the camp absolutely clean daily.They themselves clean their stayingplace, toilets, bathrooms, surroundingsof the camp and keep them neat andtidy. There are no servants in the camp.All the trainees work in different groups,

Women Sewavratis at a training camp of HSP


empowered to face anything and every-thing in their future life. In the campthey practice extempore speeches, groupdiscussions, giving lectures, etc., apartfrom practicing delivering neatlyspeeches for welcoming, introducing,conveying vote of thanks, etc., to thosewho visit the camp.Refinement of inner mind

Still the scope for refinement re-mains to and brighten the artistic tal-ents of the trainees in painting, draw-ing, dancing, singing etc. There is agood opportunity of watching, observ-ing and learning the varieties of pureforms of Indian arts. In the forty-dayperiod they learn enough subhashitas(shlokas/words of wisdom) in Sanskrit,apart from practicing some Veda man-tras, along with their meanings. Thereis a saying regarding SanskritSubhashitas Sangrahi navasidathi,meaning “the person having thoroughknowledge of subhashitas can neverface defeat”. This training gives perfectsolutions to problems, such as disillu-sionment/lethargy/hesitation/indiffer-ence/aversion/postponement of work,etc., that are faced normally in one’sfield of activity.

Development of mental facultyDaily in these classes guest lectur-

ers are invited, who apart from deliv-ering lectures, also involve trainess indiscussions, conversations, questionand answer sessions, thereby help thetrainees improve/acquire their knowl-edge. They are exposed, to start with,to some knowledge about Veda,Upanishads, epics the like Ramayana,the Mahabharata, Puranas etc. andmove on to the recent science innova-tions, arts, technologies, social studies,history etc. In this fashion they getaccustomed with many subjects andget an insight into knowledge-bank.Another speciality of this training aresessions where they are made to learnabout the working techniques andorganising skills. Many capable andproven leaders from the Sangh-associ-ated organisations visit the camps.Personality development

Some of the subjects/points cov-

ered under the personality developmentcourse include: what leadership means,its concepts, ways and means of devel-oping the leadership, introduction toresources, mobilisation of speciality ofhuman resources; identification, compi-lation, development and proper/methodi-cal usage of valuable national wealth;goals/targets for personal life, an insightinto the personal capabilities, informa-tion regarding their strengths and weak-nesses, sources influencing the person,boundaries which are of consequences,methods of getting forward with self-valour/courage keeping aside the divinepower, developing characters of identi-fying the others and universal gather-ing, methods of dealing with otherswithout a quarrel, planning for achievingeven the impossible things, courage tomarch ahead by breaking the irrelevantand old barriers, identifying the excellentuniversal practices and follow the same,awareness regarding the successfultraditional and scientific Hindu method-ology of living which have not beenaffected/destroyed by the efflux of time,the effects and disadvantages of illegal/immoral methods/violations of the tradi-tions, co-ordinated development of allthe four parts of personality— physical,mental, philosophical and educational,art of convincing, method of achievingself-confidence, twelve secrets of suc-cess, surrounding walls of inspirations,methods of commencing activities leav-ing behind the lethargy, taking decisionsafter effective group discussions, etc.

The biggest wealth acquired by thesewavratis from this training is that,when they become aware of the slip-pages they switch on to self-controlmodes and protect themselves. In thecircumstances, there is no necessity forthese youth, when they move from oneplace to another for social work, to leadthem by holding hands or spoon-feed-ing. They are courageous youth. Manyother institutions and the government,who have seen/observed these trainings,send their teams to Hindu SevaPratishthan for getting training for em-powering the woman.(The writer is a professor in Mangalore andHRD expert.)

i.e., residential groups, security groups,food/catering groups, guests/visitorsgroups, medical groups, training groupsetc., and by the time the camp isconcluded they would have worked inall the groups and become an expert inall the fields. Their specific jobs/re-sponsibilities are assigned to them inthe meetings held at the beginning ofthe camp. These self-motivated youngladies complete all the tasks in thecamp in an orderly way without anysupervision. This itself is a lesson forthose who visit the camp. Even thosewho do not do such things in theirhouses do it here happily. This isknown to all those who have been inthe camp and those who visit the campalso. The educative slogans on thewalls, the hospitality shown to theguests, expert and experienced personswho come for lectures to share theirexperiences all have been unanimousabout the eminence of the hospitalityshown in the camp.Development of philosophical attitude

The philosophical culture is prac-tised by these youth during theirevening bhajan sessions. Without dis-criminating between the Gods, here theequality amongst all castes and creedsis witnessed in prayers to Gods. Which-ever festival falls during the period ofthe camp, arrangements are made tocelebrate them with joy and fervour.The participants are given an insightinto the meaning (both social and re-ligious) and the importance of the ob-servations of the festivals.Self-confidence through speeches

The only way to increase the self-confidence of a person is by deliveringspeeches or developing speaking skills.All require the skills to talk in front ofpersons unhesitatingly and coura-geously. There are persons who havesomething in their mind and talk some-thing else on the stage and become amatter for laughter due to stage fear.Most of the people when asked tospeak on the dais becomes nervous.Whereas, the trained sewavratis cancourageously speak at length, withclarity, depending on the circumstances/propriety. On account of this, they get


Andhra Pradesh KishtpuramTemple becomes focal point of development

town of Andhra Pradesh. Sangh shakhabegan in the village 15 years ago. Sincethen many swayamsevaks have com-pleted Prathamik, Pratham, Dwiteeyaand Triteeya Varsha Sangh ShikshaVargas. We always used to discuss thepractical and direct impact of shakhawork on society. Finally we have started,initially in a small way the followingsewa programmes.

The ancient Sri Ram temple of thevillage has become a motivating pointto improve the relationship between thevillagers. The villagers have decided toconstruct a Hanuman temple. All theswayamsevaks performed kar seva andcontributed enthusiastically in the con-struction work. Now this temple is thefocal point for all activities.

Many people in the village aredaily earners and small farmers. SreeAnjaneya Grameen Vikas Samiti was

started for the purpose of encouragingsaving and utilising the same money ina proper way. In the beginning, theorganisation was started with 60 mem-bers. Because of efficient management

and responsive, friendly behaviour ofthe swayamsevaks, the membershiphas now increased to 140. SreeAnjaneya Grameen Vikas Samiti alsostarted an office in the village. A plothas been purchased in a sewa bastito construct a shed and runningschool there. A homeo dispensarywith free supply of medicines, a li-brary and also a tuition centre in thevillage have also been started.

All the second year SanghShiksha Varga trainees visited thevillage in May 2008 and observed thedevelopmental activities. AkhilBharatiya Gram Vikas Pramukh ShriSurendra Singh Chauhan also visitedthe village at that time and observedall these activities and later guided theworkers in respect of future course.With the support and co-operation ofall the swayamsevaks, the villagersare successfully running all theseactivities.

Ponnaganti Joga Rao

K ISHTPURAM village is lo-cated in Khammam District,about 10 km from Sathupalli

People in Kishtpuram village performing gaupujan

Meeting of the Gram Vikas Samiti


Gurewula

Addiction vanishes, devotion flourishes

Samanam manah saha chittam esham

(May the thinking among all of you besimilar; May all your decisions be unani-mous. May the same thoughts occupy yourminds; May all have like-minded attitudes.)

The desire to enrich life in the villageson such firm foundations led to an inspiringdevelopmental project in a remote region ofSouthern Bharat. Gurewula is a village deepinside the dense forest region of WesternAndhra Pradesh. Swayamsevaks reachedthat village in the eighties. But no work waspossible for several years because of ad-verse circumstances. Almost after a decadein 1991, a Sangh Pracharak went to settlethere. He happened to belong to the sameregion originally.

When he arrived there he saw that thevillage was in the grip of Naxalites. Theterrorists also enjoyed the confidence ofsome families of the village. In fact the writof the terrorists ran large in the surroundinghundred-kilometer-long stretch. The villageis almost 150 km from the district head-quarters, Warrangal. Even the divisionalheadquarters, Eturanagaram, is about 35 kmaway and could be reached only on footor through an occasional tractor. Even thisaccess was cut away in the rainy season;boats plying across the Godawari Riverwere the only means of transportation.This situation naturally proved to be ablessing for uninterrupted Naxalite activi-ties.

Because of the distant location of theschool and lack of transportation facility,80 per cent of the people were illiterate,and many took recourse to drinking and allother evils. Inter-community quarrels werecommon. There was a school up to 5thstandard for the namesake. Neither teachernor students were there, and none cared toenquire what was happening.

There was an old and dilapidated Ram

Mandir. But when people were indifferenteven towards themselves, who had time forGod! But the surprise is that even in sucha setting there used to take place bhajansonce a week. The village had a populationof about 1,500, including a sewa bastiinhabited by about 300 people. The silverlining was that some years ago governmentestablished a post office and a primaryhealth centre and a police station. Therewas a branch of Punjab National Bank too.

There were two youths who had re-ceived First Year Sangh training but who,naturally, had kept themselves aloof be-cause of Naxalites’ dominance. So, as a firststep, efforts were made to trace them. Theiravailability helped the initial work.

date. In the wake of all this, Ram Navamiwas celebrated with great fervour and ju-bilation. There was an impressive shobhayatra (procession) in the village. It was forthe first time that such a procession alsopassed through the sewa basti. It waswelcomed warmly by the basti-dwellers.The event radically changed the atmospherein the village.

Soon people started discussing mea-sures for improving the conditions in thevillage; thus house-to-house contacts started.A meeting of the Gram Vikas Samiti wascalled, in which women and basti-residentstoo participated eagerly. Committees wereformed for different purposes such asMandir maintenance and Mandir manage-ment. Bhajan began on every Saturday, theday sacred for Lord Hanuman. The hardwork of the school committee resulted intransformation of the school. When due totransfer of the only two teachers the schoolwas teacherless, three youths of the villageworked as makeshift teachers so that theschool could function uninterruptedly. Intwo years time the school was placed ona firm footing. Inspired by this experience,interest in school education came to berevived in the neighbouring villages too.Once interest was generated, karyakartaslost no time in interacting with the people.This resulted in increase in attendance inschools.

A youth organisation, Veer HanumanYuvak Sangh, was formed. It carried on acampaign for planting a large number offruit-bearing and other useful trees, andagainst proliferation of harmful crops liketobacco. The ecology of the village im-proved. People now have plentiful suppliesof vegetables. The habit of mutual co-operation received a boost. People alsobegan to reflect: What do we need themost? How can it be secured? Because ofsuch responsiveness, work progressedsteadily. To add further impetus, theVijayadashami day was utilised.

Conquest over stagnation

Naturally, the Ram Mandir was the

A well-known verse of the Rigvedasays:

Samano mantrah samitih samanee

Temple brings about a sea-change

All the old and new karyakartas mettogether on the auspicious day of VarshaPratipada in 1991. All offered reverentialhomage to the Sangh founder and, asswayamsevaks customarily do, recited theEkatmata Stotra comprising the names ofnation-builders and eminent savants bothpast and present. After exchange of viewsthey all decided to renovate the Ram Mandirbefore the ensuing Ram Navami, which wassix months away. Because of the mood ofenthusiasm and involvement they were ableto complete the Mandir even before the set

At present there areabout fifty

karyakartas who forma cohesive team.

Different committeesmeet every month.Refresher trainingprogrammes forworkers are held

every three months.


centre of all activities. It was with thetemple restoration that the social recon-struction initiative had commenced.Vijayadashami symbolises the victory ofthe good over evil. It is considered auspi-cious to begin any task on the Vijayadashamiday. The villagers decided to strengthen theeducational work began earlier. The percent-age of literacy grew from 10 per cent to60 per cent. Most of the youth had alreadylearnt to read and write. However, specialeffort was needed to develop the youthcoming from sewa basti. Not only didliteracy spread; evils like untouchability toohad disappeared in a most natural way.

The Yuvak Mandali ran a Bal SamskarKendra in the evenings at the temple itself.They also added a Samskar Kendra for girls,which functioned in the afternoon everyFriday. Thus, education and the task ofimparting samskars progressed simulta-neously.

Health care

It is well known that a sound mindneeds a sound body. With this in mind, ahomoeopathic dispensary was started. Itsoon became quite popular. If any villagerfell ill, the villagers no longer worriedbecause of their inability to pay exorbitantmedical bills. They had their own dispen-sary and a doctor to care for them. How-ever, preventive health care is more impor-tant than curative measures. This wasachieved through a daily shakha and agymnasium.

Despite all this, some deep-rootedproblems still remained to be tackled. Con-sumption of distilled liquor was still aproblem. To wean people away from thisaddiction proved a major challenge. Bystrenuous efforts, a lot of persuasion andthe willing co-operation of the youths ofsewa basti, the making and selling of liquorwas stopped eventually. Even ‘customary’drinking during festivities ceased, becauseof increased awareness. On the positiveside the regular bhajan mandali, Ramayanareading sessions, mass programmes on RamNavami, Navratri, Ganeshotsav, etc., had a

salutary influence on the minds of thepeople.

Women in the vanguard

Women too did not lag behind, whetherin acquiring education or absorbingsamskars, whether in celebration of reli-gious festivals or shramdan (communitylabour). Women of the village made theirown significant contribution to cultural re-newal through activities like sacred bath inthe river, fasting on prescribed days, DeepaPooja, orderly maintenance of the house,etc., all in a manner designed to reflectHindu samskars.

Moulding the intellect

Intellectual cultivation too has to ac-company moral samskars. People also needto be made aware of day-to-day happeningsin the country. For this purpose, twolibraries named after Saraswati andVivekananda were started to serve men andwomen of the region, facilitating the bor-rowing of books for reading at home. Areading room too was started in the RamMandir where, in addition to daily, weeklyand other periodicals, magazines dealingwith agriculture, health, etc., were alsomade available. This is an activity servingpeople of all ages.

Shramdan

Alongside this, the importance of vol-untary contribution of physical labour forcommunity causes was also emphasised.The primary school was functioning in athatched hut. People instinctively felt thatthe school deserved a better place. All thevillagers joined hands, and a beautiful build-ing came into existence within a couple ofmonths. As wood was easily available, itwas extensively used. In monetary termsthe building would perhaps be worth morethan Rs. one lakh, which, of course, doesnot include the cost of labour voluntarilycontributed by the residents. After thisadded facility was made available, the schoolwas extended up to 8th standard. Apartfrom the school, a gymnasium and a Sanghshakha too function in the same premises.

Developmental efforts need an economicbase too. While the people are willing towork hard, there is dearth of land. Manytherefore are engaged in collecting tenduleaves from the forest which has a goodmarket.

Savings

As activities grew, the importance ofsaving too dawned on the people. Soon thePavani Bachat Sangh was established with85 members. The number has now in-creased to 200, and deposits have crossedRs. five lakh. Each member has to deposita minimum of Rs. 25 every month. Loansfor emergencies are given to poor peopleat a nominal interest rate. The Bachat Sanghpromises to grow in size in future.

Savings are useful for both individualand community purposes. Utilising theirsavings, the villagers constructed a BhajanMandap auditorium adjacent to the Mandir,equipped with a loudspeaker and otherfacilities. The Bhajan Mandap is now thevenue for not only regular bhajans but alsofor all community programmes.

Workers training

When all is said and done, much hingeson the availability of dedicated karyakartas.At present there are about fifty karyakartaswho form a cohesive team. Different com-mittees meet every month. Refresher train-ing programmes for workers are held everythree months. There are separate trainingprogrammes for new workers from time totime. It must, however, be said that the realtraining is what has been transpiring in theminds of the people because of all thisactivity.

As a consequence of the change thathas taken place in the minds of the people,the Naxalites quietly withdrew from thisarea. They no longer receive any sympathyin this region. Even the neighbouring vil-lages are now comparatively free from theNaxalite menace. Thus, constructive workdone in Gurewula has set a trend for othervillages to follow—a consummation de-voutly to be wished.

As a consequence of the change that has taken place in theminds of the people, the Naxalites quietly withdrew from thisarea. They no longer receive any sympathy in this region.


are many ponds around the village, it becamepopular as Kalnulpalli (village of ponds) andthis Kalnulpalli later came to be known asKollampalli. There are many temples in eachlocality of the village. Though, agriculture isthe main profession, people are engaged in alltypes of activities. Some are engaged in beedimaking. Most of the agriculture is rain-based.

There is a Sangh shakha in the villagesince 1977. The work of rural development alsobegan at the almost same time. After the year2000 it is being carried out under the bannerof Aditya Gram Vikas Samiti.

Earlier, the children of only upper castesused to go to school. A Shree Keshav ShishuMandir was started with nominal fees for thechildren of economically backward classes,sewa bastis and Vanvasis. The arrangementsfor imparting good samskars were also madethrough Adult Literacy Centre, Periodical Lit-eracy Centre, Coaching Centre, Bal SamskarKendra, etc. There are plannings to take upmore activities for literacy.

People had many health-related problemsdue to consumption of many kinds of tobaccoproducts. Most of the women were anaemicdue to the bad habit of addiction. The GramVikas Samiti organised periodical discussionson health, diet, hygienic drinking water, andalso organised health check up camps forthem. The sapling of Tulsi was planted inevery house and people were educated to takebenefit of the domestic methods of treatment.People were in the grip of many bad habits likeplaying cards the whole day, consuming liquor,smoking, gutkha etc. People were mobilisedwith the help of Shishu Mandir, bhajanmandalis, saving groups, festivals, communitylabour, etc. and now majority of the people

have said no to the addictions. There areplanning to start more projects to achievecomplete prohibition. Earlier Hindus too usedto visit a nearby dargah and it was a customto offer sacrifice at the dargah before startingany auspicious work. They also used to par-ticipate in Moharram processions. But nowmajority of the Hindus have stopped visitingthe dargah and participating in Moharramprocessions.

Women of the village did not have thehabit of participating in the festivals or unitingat one place. With the efforts of theswayamsevaks they started gathering at thetemple once a week. The cutting tailoringcentre, saving group, Matri Mandli etc gener-ated a feeling of self-confidence among them.Now they are ready to participate in any publicfunction.

Apart from promoting traditional agricul-ture, people were imparted training in incensesticks making, detergent power, bathing soap,etc. Farmers are being educated to stop theuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides andadopt organic farming.

A training camp was also organised withthe help of CAPART for the protection ofenvironment. More than 150 toilets were builtin the village and saplings of various treeswere planted at both sides of the road. It alsoenhanced the beauty of the road.

Untouchability in the village was to theextent that there used to be separate cups andglasses for the untouchable people at hotelsand restaurants. Now it has been stopped.Earlier, dalits were not allowed to enter temples.But now people of all the communities as-semble in the temples of sewa bastis. Theworkers have meals in the families of sewabastis and people of all the communities par-ticipate in the public functions.

Kollampalli

Education eradicatessuperstitions

Untouchabilityin the village

was to theextent that

there used tobe separate

cups andglasses for

theuntouchablesin hotels and

restaurants.But now it

has changed.Earlier, dalits

were notallowed to

enter temples.But now

people of allthe

communitiesassemble inthe temples

of sewabastis.

KOLLAMPALLI is a village with 6000population under Palmur district ofwestern Andhra Pradesh. Since there


IskapalliAn ideal example of

shakha-baseddevelopment

the village is Sri Ram temple of the village. In the beginningsome people used to disturb, torture and threat them. Onceall the villagers jointly retaliated, which resulted in the goonsnever turning back.

Three is every effective Sangh shakha in the village.The number of trained swayamsevaks is more than 80. Thereare 60 ghoshvadaks in this village alone. Forty-eightswayamsevaks have done first year Sangh Shiksha Vargawhile 21 did second year and eight received the training ofthird year. The number of uniformed swayamsevaks is over350. Five Pracharaks and three Vistaraks also came out fromthe village. Almost every house has swayamsevaks. Ashakha is conducted at the village school premises. It isa very inspiring example of shakha-based rural development.There is one morning and two evening shakhas in thevillage.

Before the beginning of the rural development activities,a Matasyakarasai Kshetram Samiti was constituted toorganise all the fishermen. Its members formed youth groupsto carry out various activities. The people assemble at theDurga Mandir in the evening and sing bhajans everyday.Some times this bhajan programmes are carried on over-night. Most of the bhajans are sung in Telugu and Hindi.A unit of Durga Vahini has also been constituted. There isa separate cutting-tailoring centre in which over 200 girlslearn cutting-tailoring. There are 63 self-help groups forwomen to ensure self-reliance. There is one matri mandalialso.

The community centre has been constituted with thehelp of local people, which cost around seven lakh rupees.A health centre has also been set up by collecting Rs 25,000.The health centre meets all primary health needs of thepeople.

The local festivals like Ganesh Puja, Durga Puja,Ramnavami, etc. are celebrated jointly. Over one thousandpeople of the village between the age of 12 and 35 yearsdo not smoke at all. The anti-addiction and anti-corruptioncampaigns have been launched by the women in this village.There is complete harmony in the village. Some Christianmissionaries had made efforts to convert some Hindu, whichwere foiled. Both internal and outer atmosphere of thevillage is according to the ideals of the Sangh. This is oneof the Prabhat Grams.

A little help changedthe life of a child

to us and repeatedly requested us to purchase the hairpins.He said if we purchased the pins from him he would be ableto purchase a pencil for writing. Hearing this, I wished toknow more about him. I asked him whether he would reallypurchase a pencil from this money. He confidently said yes.We then purchased some pins from him. We told him to cometo his school.

After a few days we found some time and reached hisschool. It was the time of interval. Then also the boy wasfound selling hairpins outside the school. We went to theschool principal and enquired about the boy. The principalcalled his class teacher too who said the boy is talented andis serious about his studies. He belongs to a nomadcommunity and is economically very backward. We told theprincipal that we wish to make arrangement for his furtherstudies. The principal too was happy to hear this proposalfrom us.

After one week, we again visited the school and takingthe principal with us went to the post office and got anaccount opened in the post office. We deposited someamount in that account. We requested the principal to carethe boy properly.

After a few days we went to his house also. It was verypoor family but was happy to get financial help from us. Hismother told us about sending the second child also to schooland she would work hard for it.

There are so many children who can grow if get somesupport. Therefore, as a social activist we should always bevigilant and try to help the needy.

—Kumari Indira, Sewavrati, Araindagi, Tamil Nadu

Computer training centre run by Sewa Bharati at a village in Tamil Nadu

ISKAPALLI is a village of fishermen with 8000 popu-lation. It is situated at eastern coast of Andhra Pradesh.The basic source of all the developmental activities in

ONE day a teacher of a project and I were going tosee a service project by bus. A small boy of 9-10years of age was selling hairpins in the bus. He came


the Western Ghats. It is believed that thisforest was blessed with the footprints ofthe great saint. There are 27 settlementcolonies in this forest inhibited by Kanicommunity. One has to travel 36 km by busand then 16 km on foot to reach thesesettlements.

Two primary schools from Arun tofourth standard were started here by SewaBharati to provide education to the childrenof these settlements. The first school wasstarted in 1984 at an interior place knownas Aamala. Owing to various problems anddangerous trekking for reaching this place,the school was shifted to a place knownas Pothode in 1991. This school covers ninesettlement colonies.

In 1994, a sub-centre was started inKamalakam, which covers eight settlements.Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (Vidya Bharati) syl-labus has been adopted in these schools.Children have to walk two-three km toreach these schools daily.

Apart from normal studies, Balagokulam,bhajan, Matri Mandalam, parents commit-tee, pooja, medical camps, rice and clothdistribution are some of the other activitiesdone by the Sewa Bharati in this region.Maha Shivratri, Janmashtami, RakshaBandhan, Guru Dakshina, Deepavali, Inde-pendence Day, Ramayana Paravm are alsocelebrated to instil the Bharatiya value andfeeling of patriotism into the people around.

At present, four sewavratis are servingin these two schools. There are 30 childrenstudying in Pothod school and 38 study inKamalakam school. Local Vanvasi people

Kerala

A ray of development inAgastya forest

fully cooperate in all the activities of the schools.Sewa Bharati is proud of its achievements

during these 24 years hard work. Many childrenhave passed plus two standards. They haveachieved self-confidence to meet the challengesof time. But still some parents do not send theirchildren to schools due to some misplacedbeliefs. Some do not have enough cloth andfood. They are reeling uder high poverty. SewaBharati is trying to help them out of theseproblems.

We believe that we have to overcome manyhurdles to uplift these people. Sewavartis likeShobhana in Kamalakam and Sivashankari inPothod are toiling very hard to instil a feelingof oneness into them. Solar energy is used tosupply electricity for them so that they canwatch television and listen radio.

Some days children cannot attend theschools because their dress is washed and itdoes not dry up the other day. They have onlyone set of dress to wear. Our sewavratis triedto collect clothes and supplied them. Many dayssome reach school without having their break-fast. Though they are poor, many shy to expresstheir feelings of not having their breakfast onthat day. We ask the children in the morningwhether they had their breakfast. We supplyKanji (rice boiled with water) to those whocome without breakfast. Some feel shy to tellthat they did not have breakfast continuously.But we understand their feelings and help them.We arrange to prepare food to help thesechildren.

We earnestly appeal to all those with a kindheart to come forward with assistance so thatthese under-privileged Vanvasis can stand sideby side with self-pride and confidence.

(Sreekrishna Bala, Samskara Kendram,Kamalakan, Thiruvananthapuram)

IN the southern district ofThiruvananthapuram, there is a hillforest named after Maharshi Agastya in

In 1994, asub-centre

was startedin

Kamalakam,which

covers eightsettlements.

VidyaBharatisyllabus

has beenadopted in

theseschools.

Childrenhave to

walk two-three km toreach these

schoolsdaily.


very positive change and are on the path ofdevelopment.Ichapur

Ichapur is a village under Asansol districtwhere most of the inhabitants are economicallyand socially backward. The village was deprivedof health, education etc. Vivekananda VikasParishad, Durgapur, started service projects forimproving the life of villagers. Vivekananda

Kendra, Swamiji Sishu Kendra, Free CoachingCentres for V to VIII classes, Dr Hedgewar Chari-table Dispensary, Library, Jhola Pustakalaya, BookBank, Ma Sharada Matri Mandali, etc. Apart fromthese activities they also organise distribution ofclothes amongst distressed old women and chil-dren, distribution of water at the time of GajanMela, Annual Function, Rakhsha Bandhan Utsavetc.Pichakhali

Sunderban is famous forest in India for itsnatural beauty and royal Bengal tiger. Pichakhali,

Changing face of MaaSharda’s leelakshetra

West Bengal

Shishu Sanskar Kendra andPathdan Kendra (coachingcentre) have imparted moraleducation and are able toinstil the sprit of patriotisminto the students. These stu-dents also now influence theirparents on similar lines andthe parents are ready to joinhands with the Parishad.

The late Malay RoyTailoring Training Centrebenefitted more than 200women. Parishad is pleasedwith the fact that many ofthe pass-outs from this train-ing centre spend time to volunteer for the centreto achieve its mission of self-reliance. Ma MansaSelf-Help Group for men and Ma Durga Self-Help Group for women are running accordingto their own skills and capabilities.Tajpur

Tajpur is a village under Tarakeswar districtand is situated in the middle of SwamiRamakrishna Paramhansa’s and Ma Sharada’sbirth places. These two places are recognisedas holy places not only in West Bengal but alsoall over India. Tajpur village is Leelakshetra ofMa Sharada.

To make Tajpur a model village the villagersformed Ma Sharada Gram Vikas Samiti andstarted various projects like Dharma Jagaran

a remote village of theSunderban area, is situated bythe side of river Piali and 26km away from Canning Town.

It is a village of about 800people. Shri Srijan Hazra, SahSewa Pramukh of SunderbanDistrict, started Ma AnnapurnaGram Vikash Samiti a few yearsback. A shakha is runningregularly here now. Shri Hazratook Homeo Arogya Mitratraining and started firstHomeo Sewa Kendra and af-terwards Bhagini NiveditaSishu Sanskar Kendra, Jhola

Pustakalaya, Bhajan Mandali, primary school, chil-dren health checkup, arrangement of vermi com-post training etc. A specialist homeo doctor DrGopal Kar also visits Sewa Kendra once in twomonths for treatment of critical diseases. Out of250 families more than half are able to make toiletswith the help of local Panchayat and as a resultthe village is becoming prosperous. Gram VikasSamiti holds meeting every month. It has createdfund by collecting token money from members ofthe Samiti and the same is spent for developingthe village.

The people of these villages have beenbenefitted by various ongoing activities of thearea and are motivated to participate in the sewaas well as developmental activities.

SAMAJ Sewa Bharati, Paschimbanga Prant,has selected some villages for total de-velopment. These villages have witnessed

Out of 250familiesmore thanhalf are ableto maketoilets withthe help oflocalPanchayatand as aresult thevillage isbecomingprosperous.Gram VikasSamiti holdsmeeting ev-ery month. Ithas createdfund bycollectingtoken moneyfrom mem-bers of theSamiti andthe same isspent fordevelopingthe village.


Baghuwar

How Bharat willbecome a superpower

tained village, just two km away in thewest of Mohad. The style of develop-mental activities adopted in this villageneeds to be emulated if we really wishto make the country a superpower. Thevillage has presented an example worthemulating in respect of utilising thegovernment funds granted to the vil-lage Panchayat.

With the entry into the village onefinds that it is really a unique village.A big board has been installed at themain entry point proudly displaying theinformation that every house of thevillage has a toilet. From this point theroad divides into two streets leading todifferent localities. Both the streets arefree from potholes and dust, i.e. well-maintained streets.

Following a similar well-maintainedstreet we reached the house of deputyvillage chief (upasarpanch) ThakurSurendra Singh. What wondered methe most was the well-maintained streetending with the beginning of his house.His house is about 10 meter inside thestreet. That length of the street is stillkuchcha. Entering his house, the firstquestion I asked him, “You have donea very remarkable developmental workin your village, but why is this shortlength of the street still pending nearyour own house?” What he said openedmy eyes. He said, “This is my personalwork which cannot be done by thedevelopmental fund of the Panchayat.I will get it done from my own pocketwhen I have money.”

This answer from the deputy vil-

lage chief made me understood thereason why elections for Sarpanch andthe Panchayat had not been held in thisvillage since Independence. Every timethe whole Panchayat is elected unop-posed here. The party politics is seen

A prabhat pheri is taken out in thevillage early in the morning for the lastmore than 50 years. People singingbhajans, keertan walk around the wholevillage. People from all communities,castes, and sections participate in theprabhat pheri without any hesitation.“The prime objective of the prabhatpheri is to motivate people for doinggood works,” says Shri Narayan PrasadNarolia, a third year trained

DURING my visit to Mohad, Ihad an opportunity to visitBaghuwar also, a well main-

dominating other villages during theelections of Parliament or Assembliesand the people are seen divided evento the extent that they treat each otheras real enemies. But during any of theelections in Baghuwar only one tableis kept outside the polling booth andthe representatives of all parties sittogether. How we can ensure betterdevelopment in our village dominatesthe agenda in carrying out develop-ment works. Therefore, there is no dis-crimination in the village in carrying outdevelopment works.

Prabhat pheri since 50 years

Madhya Pradesh

Pramod Saini

From right, Thakur Surendra Singh, Shri Narayan Prasad Narolia,Shri Surendra Singh Chauhan and Shri Ramesh Singh

swayamsevak of the village who hasretired as principal from a school. Simi-larly akhand Durga path is held in thevillage during navaratris for the last 50years.

It has become a habit of our peopleto usurp money from the developmen-tal fund granted by the government.The late Rajiv Gandhi and now his sonRahul Gandhi admitted that hardly 15paisa reaches the real beneficiaries andthe rest amount is usurped by themiddlemen and the officers involved inthe project. But Baghuwar village isdifferent. Nobody can here even imag-ine of such swindling. There is a tra-


dition in the village to add someamount of money by the villagers(mostly similar to the amount sanc-tioned by the government) in thefund granted by the government andthat the whole money is spent in theproject. Shram sadhana has becomea habit in the village. Sometimes if thegovernment has sanctioned Rs twolakh for any project the villagersthrough their contribution enhancesthis amount up to six lakh. For ex-ample, the government granted Rstwo lakh for building communitycentre, but the villagers having col-lected their contribution spentRs five lakh on this project. One moreinteresting thing is that the commu-nity centre was built in Harijan bastiof the village. Similarly, the Panchayatreceived Rs 2.5 lakh for stop dam butthe villagers spent Rs five lakh. Rs 1.5lakh were received for the ManasSatsang Bhavan but the villagersspent more than rupees five lakh.Similarly, Rs 1.96 lakh were receivedfor upgrading the school up to highschool level but the villagers spent3.5 lakh. Spending the governmentmoney in this way is a samskar that,if adopted by the whole country, canreally make India a superpower evenwithin one decade.

The money speaksThe every penny spent in devel-

opment of the village catches theeyes. For example the school buildinghas been built so beautifully that oneis moved from heart. The atmospherein the school appears very marvel-lous. One who enters the schoolpremises does not wish to go back.The awe-struck paintings and generalknowledge written on the walls at-tracts every visitor.

There is a toilet in every house.There are underground water chan-nels for drainage with chambers builtat certain distance for cleaning. Theunderground channels have been con-nected with old well so that the waterlevel gets recharged. Nobody in the

village encroaches the street or theroad. All the localities have been de-veloped with planning. The beauty ofHarijan basti attracts all. It is the mostbeautiful locality of the village. Allvillagers wish to go to it for a walkeveryday. All the localities have entrygates which have been built by thevillage Panchayat.

All walls appear preachingLike Mohad, all walls of the houses

in Baghuwar teach the villagers tobecome a good citizen. Highly valu-able information on morality, environ-ment, prohibition, universe and the

nation, teachings from religious booksetc. can be seen on any of the wall. Theinformation is so useful that when thelocal Collector Shri Manish Singh vis-ited the village he described it as a‘marvellous’. He opined that all thestudents preparing for Union PublicService Commission examination mustvisit this village before appearing forthe exams. Following his advice, twobatches of such students visited thevillage. The building of villagePanchayat has complete information ofthe village including the details of thetalented people of the village. Principal,

deputy director agriculture, captain inthe army, wing commander, MBBSdoctor, three BAMS doctors, threePh.Ds and more than 20 graduates arethe people of the village who earnedpride for the village. Wherever theywork, they do not forget their villageand also ensure their contribution inthe developmental activities.

Free from disputesNo dispute of the village ever

reached the police station. They areresolved in the village Panchayat itself.No dispute of the village is pending inany court. There is a Ramayana group

in the village, which conducts RamayanaPath on every Tuesday and Saturday.There are about 35 tractors, 51 bio-gasplants, 25 handpumps, 20 compost fer-tilizer plants in the village of about 1600people.

According to Shri Narayan PrasadNarolia there is at least one person inevery house who is active in any of theSangh activities. The village has alsobagged many awards. The President ofIndia honoured it with the award ofNirmal Gram. The work on water har-vesting has also been started in thisvillage.

The community centre built in the Harijan basti of Baghuwar


lems like in any other village but thisvillage has a distinguished identity. Itis because of this identity that the RSSSarsanghachalak Shri K.S. Sudarshanvisited this village on February 10 thisyear.

What makes this village so specialis that all people of the village speakSanskrit. The educated, illiterate, farm-ers, women and even minor childrenspeak Sanskrit fluently. This is the onlyvillage in north India where people insuch a large number speak Sanskrit.The credit to bring this change goes toSamskrit Bharati that has been con-ducting Sanskrit Sambhashan classeshere for the last six years. Earlier somepeople of the village knew Sanskrit butthe efforts of Samskrit Bharati trulymade Sanskrit language of the masses.

During his visit, theSarsanghachalak started his speech inSanskrit. He performed go pooja. Healso felicitated the Samskrit Bharatiactivist Vimla Tewari who played a keyrole in helping the villagers to learn anduse Sanskrit in their daily conduct. The

whole proceedings of the functionwere conducted in Sanskrit. ShriSudarshan expressed satisfactionover the integrated rural develop-ment activities being conducted inJhiri by the villagers. He appealedto the villagers to start organic andnatural farming and stop the use ofchemical fertilizers and pesticides inthe farming. “After Sanskrit, Jhirishould become a model village inthe use of organic and natural farm-ing so that we can proudly present

Jhiri

The whole village speaks SanskritJHIRI is not an ordinary village of

Madhya Pradesh. There may bepoverty and many other prob-

this village as a model in the country,”he said.

Jhiri falls under Rajgarh district ofMadhya Pradesh. The total populationof the village is 976 and all of themspeak Sanskrit in all their daily conduct.Samskrit Bharati activist Vimla Tewaricame to this village in the year 2002 andstaying here taught SamskritSambhashan to the villagers. She notonly taught the divine language butalso developed interest for the lan-guage. Now she has become daughterof the whole village.

The villagers greet each other withNamo Namah. Their morning beginswith Suprabhatam and the day endswith Shubhratri. Special classes forteaching Sanskrit are organised in thevillage every morning and evening. Notonly Jhiri, but the people from someadjoining villages, such as Mundalaand Susahedih also come to attend theclasses. Anybody who reaches thevillage feels thrilled.

There is a small waterfall (jharna)in the village, which actually becamethe reason of naming this village asJhiri. The swayamsevaks started the

Elder people of the village speak fluent Sanskrit

Children learning Sanskrit at a school in Jhiri


rural developmental activities in thevillage about 12 years back. The workbegan on Makar Sankranti Day. Thereis one influential shakha today. Morethan 25 activists are Sangh ShikshaVarga trained. The village shakhadeveloped the workers up to theVibhag level. Some youth also cameout as Pracharaks and Vistaraks.Veteran Sangh Pracharak and the thenAkhil Bharatiya Pracharak PramukhH.V. Seshadri also visited the village.

The first task that was taken upby the villagers was to resolve thedrinking water problem. The wholeregion was facing a draught-like con-dition due to lack of rains. The waterlevel too was fast going down. Therewas big problem of water during thesummers. The people did not havewater even for the animals. The vil-lagers visited the officials and politi-cians many times for a solution butgot nothing except hollow assurances.Then the villagers decided to resolvethe problem on their own. They col-lected money and got a tubewell dugup. Fortunately the experiment provedto be a success. A fund was thencreated to provide drinking water inevery house with the help of a pipe-line. The villagers who were strug-gling for even a drop of water gotplenty of water.

Everybody was happy. But thena new problem unfolded. The peopledid not realise the importance ofwater and it was seen flowing in thestreets creating mud. The Gram VikasSamiti then met again and decided toconstruct a water channel to releasethe waste water. The villagers thenperformed shram sadhana. The wholewaste water was collected in a tankoutside the village and was utilisedfor irrigation. It improved the produc-tion of crops. All these efforts andtheir success infused a sense of self-confidence into the villagers.

A feeling that we have to de-velop our village ourselves devel-oped in every villager. They decided

projects for making the women self-dependant were also started by startinghandicrafts and embroidery trainingcentres. When the Garm Vikas workerswent to Bhopal to purchase the tenthembroidery machine the shopkeeperasked: “Is there really consumption ofso many embroidery machines in sucha small village?” All this happened dueto the efforts of the villagers. Now thesituation is that the girls of the relativesof Jhiri villagers come to the villageduring summer vacations to learn allthese things. The village turns into abig camp during holidays and summervocations. The girls not only learnembroidery and cutting-tailoring in thetraining centres but also get variouskinds of samskars.

All these efforts have been madeto make the people of the village self-reliant. To make it more effective theyouth were imparted many kinds oftraining like electric motor winding,carpenter, blacksmith, barber, etc. Someyouth of the village were sent to citiesfor getting expertise in these trades.Now they do not let the villagers goto cities for all these services. Thissaved the village money in villageitself.

to take up some more projects. All thewater channels were made pucca. Atemple was built and the foundationstone for a community centre waslaid down. But after some time an-other problem surfaced. Since waterlevel declined due to lack of rain, thetubewells too stopped taking out ad-equate water. Again the governmentofficials and political leaders werecontacted but in vain. But the villag-ers were not discouraged. Theystarted building stop-dams to storethe rainwater. This experiment worked.It not only stored the rainwater butalso recharged the water level of theland. The whole water that was storedin the stop-dams was used to re-charge the wells. It proved so suc-cessful that not only the tubewells ofJhiri, but the wells, handpumps, wellsof the adjoining villages under theradius of three km were recharged.

Apart from all these projectssome different kinds of activities werealso started in the village. The teach-ers of the village got the villageschool converted into a privateschool and made endeavours to enrollthe drop-out children and personsincluding girls and women. Some

Sarsanghachalak Shri K.S. Sudarshan accepting greetings of villagers in Jhiri


They never dream for the basic facili-ties in life. Getting the meals of boththe times is their only dream. Similarwas the condition of majority of thefamilies in Plasi village underHosangabad district of Madhya Pradeshabout five years back.

But today the village has set anexample in the field of self-employment.Nobody is unemployed in the village atthe moment. That is why the state

Plasi, Hosangabad

SHGs infuse self-confidence Lakshmi Lata Singh

three months. The success stories ofself-employment and problems ofwomen in Hosangabad district are car-ried in the newsletter.

About five years back the labourersof the village used to go to othervillages for work where they got mea-gre money, hardly Rs 20 to 25. Once,working in field the activists of GramSewa Samiti motivated a woman labourerChhotibai to form her own self-helpgroup and also told her various meth-ods to increase her income with thehelp of the SHG. The idea clicked

readymade garments. By and large eachwomen of the group started earningabout Rs 75 per day. Seeing their hardwork and success, some landlords of thevillage donated five acre land to them.This encouraged some more women toform their own group. Not only thewomen but men too formed their ownSHG.

Even the girls going to schoolformed their own SHG and collected Rs1200. This money is given at the interestof Rs 5 per cent. The money earned fromthe interest is spent on purchasingbooks, dress, etc. for the economicallydeprived children. They also help theunemployed youth who are searchingjobs.

The Jagriti SHG helps the needypeople of the village. The group notonly made the women self-reliant butalso helps them in getting education.The women of this group have formedAnnakosh in their village. Every womenof the village contribute one handful offoodgrain and two rupees on 10th dayof every month. The foodgrain collectedin the Annakosh is distributed amongphysically-challenged and economically-deprived people and the money col-lected is spent on meeting medical needsof needy sick people. With the help ofthe village Panchayat they have nowstarted a school up to the eighth stan-dard. There are three teachers in theschool. If there is no teacher the edu-cated girls teach the children.

By and large the people of thisvillage have set an example of self-employment. Now they do not needanybody’s help rather they help others.If the people of other villages emulatethis example they can also contribute intheir development.

NOTHING could be unfortunatefor the labourers if they do notget work in their own village.

government felicitated the village withthe model village award in the year2003.

It is due to self-employment thateverybody has any work today. No-body sits idle. The women of the vil-lage too have received respect andrecognition since the day they startedearning money. Everybody in the vil-lage is literate now. Women bring outtheir own newsletter, Binna, with thehelp of Gram Sewa Samiti and HungerProject. It is published once in two or

Chhotibai and she started the processof forming a SHG. She is just thirdstandard pass. She contacted thewomen of her village Plasi and moti-vated them to join the SHG. After muchpersuasion only 13 women could bemobilised. She formed her SHG andnamed it Jagriti Self-Help Group. Thesewomen started contributing Rs 20 permonth. With the help of SHG the womenstarted growing vegetables in the fields.Some started the work of making paparand several started the work of selling

A meeting of rural SHG members in Madhya Pradesh


main profession is agriculture. There are29 temples in the village. Farming isdone in the village with modern tech-nology. There have been diesel enginesin the village for irrigation since 75years. Irrigation is also done with elec-tric motors for the last 43 years. Nowthe facility of irrigation by NarmadaRiver has also been there for the last25 years. The village Panchayat waselected unopposed from 1952 to 1977.

Presently, the animal market ofSundrail is among the very big marketsof the state, where two oxen were soldat Rs 76,000 and a mare was sold at Rsone lakh five thousand. Traders fromRajasthan, Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra and Gujarat visit the mar-ket on every Thursday to sale andpurchase the animals.

Sundrail has always been forwardwith regard to education. The first schoolin the village was set up by DharProvince in the year 1900. A middleschool was set up in the fifties and asecondary school began in 1972. Nowthere are separate schools for bothboys and girls up to the secondarylevel. A public school, AshokMontessori School, was set up in 1983.This school is not run by any caste,section, group or organisation. It is runby the villagers jointly. It is an examplein the whole Indore region. Two moreschools—Surya Vidya Niketan in 2000and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (Englishmedium school) in 2006 were started.The village has been honoured by thestate government for excellent womeneducation in the year 1986. At that time,the state government had granted Rs25,000, a memento and a citation as theaward. Many of the youths of thevillage are working abroad. One youthis IAS and many others are doctors andengineers. By and large there is 87 percent literacy in the village.

After going through this detail, youmust be thinking that it is a very pros-

Sundrail

Eradication ofsocial evils

perous and modern village. Undoubt-edly it is a prosperous village, but notmodern. It was in the grip of varioussocial evils. There was a tradition in thevillage to feed meals to thousands ofpeople after the death of any familymember. Many families had to borrowmoney from the moneylenders at aninterest rate of Rs 5 to 10 per cent permonth.

About eight years back, theswayamsevaks decided to eradicate thisevil. They formulated a strategy withthe help of villagers. They conducteda signature campaign against the eviland over 75 per cent of the youth notonly participated in the campaign butalso submitted their signatures againstit. They also persuaded others to givetheir ascent.

After the signature campaign, themajority of the people assembled at thevillage temple premises and resolvedthat neither would they feed meals toanyone in case of death in the familynor would they go to have this kind ofmeal in future. The village elders rathertook the decision to visit the family inwhich somebody passed away, to consolthe family member.

It was not easy to implement thedecision. Once an influential person ofthe village did not accept the decisionof the village elders and got preparedmeals for over 2000 people after a deathin his family. The village committeemembers visited every house of thevillage and persuaded the each membernot to participate in the feast in theinterest of the village. As a resultnobody turned up to have that mealand the whole meal had to be fed tothe animals. After that incident, nobodyin the village dare disobey the village

committee. Now a new tradition hasbeen started in the village that if any-body wishes to spend some money inmemory of their beloved one, eitherthey donate anything in the temple orhelp in making furniture, etc. of theschool. The Sangh shakha has beenruning in the village since 1940.

The habit of resolving their prob-lems at their own has taken deep rootsin the village. To resolve the drinkingwater problem the villagers laid seven-km-long pipeline to bring the Narmadawater up to the village. This work wasdone by the village Panchayat with thehelp of a bank. It was first of its kindexperiment in the whole state. Now thevillagers get sufficient drinking waterand they regularly make payment of thebills. Nobody stops the payment ofelectric department. Every house has avalid electricity connection and the billsare paid in time.

The villagers also have taken aninitiative to upgrade the breed of ani-mals. They rear good quality bulls andspecial building was constructed in2003 for keeping such bulls. A ShivMela is organised in the village toencourage the villagers to rear cattle.The winners are also felicitated.

The farmers use high-qualityseeds. The sugarcane fields of thevillage attract the attention of all.There are two sugarcane crushers andtwo sugar mills also. The culturalactivities of the village are very fa-mous. The artists of the village wereonce honoured by Dhar Maharajbefore 1947. At that time the Maharajhad given Rs 701 as prize money. Thepresent government too honoured theartists and they are invited to performin big events.

THERE are people of 29 castes inSundrail, which lies under Dhartehsil of Madhya Pradesh. Their


ChhattisgarhAmera Vanvasi village

Scalingnew heights

Lonhadipur (now Pachrahi) temple isabout 1.5 km from this village.Majority of the people in the villageare Vanvasis. The total population isabout 600. The village was verybackward with regard to education,which was exploited by the Christianmissionaries. They opened an ashramin the village to carry out theirnefarious design of conversions. Notonly in Amera, but the conversions ofpeople in surrounding villages had alsostarted.

It was at that time that aswayamsevak Shri Phulchand Jainstarted Vanvasi Ram Primary Schoolthere. After some time the MahavirBaiga Ashram and Buddhadev PrimarySchool were also started to impartgood samskars among the people. TheSangh shakha, began in the village onSeptember 15, 2001, has today twosecond-year, two first-year and tenPrathamik Varga-trainedswayamsevaks. Now there are regularmorning and evening shakhas. Prabhatpheri is taken out in the morningeveryday. The Ramayana mandaliorganises weekly path on everyTuesday. Dharma Raksha Sena hasalso been constituted. There is onemahila mandali also. Youth haveformed a ‘Bol Bum Samiti’ to bringholy water from Amarkantak to offerat Budha Mahadev in Kavardha.Amarkantak is about 200 km fromKavardha and these youth cover thisdistance on foot. Ganesh festival andNavaratris are also organised in thevillage. Earlier, there was no public

celebration of festivals. Rather peopleused to participate in the prayer meet-ings of the church.

Villagers do traditional farming.Now a women SHG has been formed.A ‘Ramkothi’ has been formed tocollect foodgrains for the needy people.There is one skilled carpenter whomakes very beautiful furniture. Peoplefrom surrounding villages also comehere for getting the furniture made.The cow urine is collected from thevillage and is supplied to Mahavir BaigaAshram for extracting arka for pro-ducing bio-pesticides. Many people ofthe village have now been impartedtraining of extracting arka from thecow urine and they are successfullydoing it.

Presently, there is no feeling ofuntouchability among the villagers. Allpeople participate in the religious, fam-ily and public functions. Once thevillage was completely illiterate. Buttoday one youth has completed twelfthand many students are studying in 10th,11th and 12th. Study classes are con-ducted to eradicate illiteracy completely.A girl looks after the work of Anganwariafter completing 10th standard. Nowthere is one government girls’ schoolalso in which about 100 girls study.

Health check-ups of the villagersare conducted once a year by BharatmataSewa Samiti. They are provided freetreatment on every Sunday. There arearrangements of treatment by tradi-tional herbs. There is complete prohi-bition in the village. No dispute ispending in any court. The work in thevillage has also inspired the people ofother villages and they have startedtaking similar constructive initiatives.

TamoraTemple:

Harbingerof change

THE Sangh shakha is the sourceof all developmental activities inthis village. It is about seven kmfrom Balod town. The shakhahas been going on here for thelast six years. A Dharma JagaranSamiti has been formed, whichorganises mahaarati in the localtemple. This aarati is basic foun-dation of awareness in the village.All the villagers assemble near theMahamaya temple at 7 am onevery Sunday and perform themahaarati. The aarati is followedby speech of a dignitary. Afterthat people take prasad and goback to their homes. All thosewho participate in the mahaaartidonate something in the templeand the money collected is spenton constructive activities likehelping the orphans, etc. Thetemple has adopted some orphangirls.

People of all the communitiesfreely participate in the aarti.Sometimes sahbhoj is alsoorganised. About 400 peopleparticipate in the aarti on everySunday, which has left a goodimpact on the people of othervillages. The Samiti with the helpof the villagers planted saplings ofvarious useful trees on the banksof the village pond. Some ar-rangements of irrigation have alsobeen made by making a checkdamon the canal.

AMERA village is about 40km from Kavardha town.The Mahabharata fame


on the banks of Lilagar river. Earlier,the villagers were not able to haveeven one crop in a year due to lackof irrigation. The villagers then builta dam over the small rivers origi-nating from Dalha mountain and byconstructing a 600-metre-long ca-nal they stored the rainwater in thepond of the village. Some newponds were also built and the oldones distilled. It is due to theseefforts that ninty per cent of theagriculture land here is now irri-gated and farmers can easily havetwo crops in a year.

Education: Since there was onlyone government-run primary schoolin the village, the literacy rate wasvery low and there was completelack of higher education. The vil-lagers formed a Siddheshwar GramBharatiya Shikshan Samiti and starteda high school. The educated peopleof the village made some additionalarrangements to help the school-going children. That is why thestudents have now been performing

well in the board exams for the lastthree years. There are efforts to starta residential school in the coming days.Environment: Though the village issituated in Dalha mountain range ofGoddess Vishekhari, the region had lostmost of the trees due to illegal defor-estation. The government planted treesat 72 acres of land in 1988. Thevillagers decided to protect those trees.Besides the government arrangementsof protecting the trees, the villagersalso appointed additional guards. Themonthly honorarium of the guards wastoo paid by the villagers. They set upa public fund to meet these types ofexpenses. Today the trees worth billonsof rupees are available in this forest.The tradition of planting saplings atdifferent places still continues here.Social harmony: All deities of thevillage are worshipped jointly. Thetemple of Mata Chaura Devi is amongthe most revered places where specialpooja is offered on every Thursday.Keertan is performed in the evening.Special arrangements of pooja aremade in the temple during theNavaratras. Besides the kalash yatra,kanyapujan and sahbhoj, the women

Sonadih

A complete dispute-free villageabove the age of 60 years areoffered special respect under theprogramme of matripooja. Rangolicompetition is organised on everyDeepawali. There are efforts tobuild a Hanuman and a Sri Ram-Janaki temple in the village.

A management committee in-volving all sections of the village hasbeen formed to look after variousdevelopmental activities. This com-mittee also resolves the disputes. Asa result no dispute of the village hasbeen registered in the police stationor any court for the last 10 years.There are also different committeesfor education, agriculture, forest,health etc.

Recharging water levelthrough wells

THE rainwater which flows out of the village can recharge the water levelif stored properly. If this water is stored in a pit, dug about three metre awayfrom the well, this can successfully recharge the water level not only of thewell but of the whole adjoining area. The pit should have about three metrethick layer of sand concrete, small stones and then a layer of sand. Duringthe rains if the water is stored in such pits, it reaches down into the landthrough the well. Farmers in Ratlam, Mandasore and Neemach in MadhyaPradesh have done it successfully. It is a very simple and cheap way ofrecharging the water level.

Unique wayof electricitygeneration

PEOPLE do not believe that elec-tricity can be generated with thehelp of bullocks. But this is true.This wonder has been done byKanpur Goshala Society. The So-ciety even wondered the scien-tists of Indian Institute of Tech-nology, Kanpur, by demonstratingthis experiment of electricity gen-eration through traditional meth-ods. In this method, two bullocksmove a machine connected with adynamo, which can generates twoKW electricity. This two KW elec-tricity can light two bulbs in 60houses. If this method is adopted,no village will remain without elec-tricity.

SONADIH comes underJanjgir-Chanpa district ofChhattisgarh and is situated


Even the police used to avoid going there. Themeaning of going there was nothing but sui-cide. The region had been a stronghold ofMaoist Communist Centre (MCC) for decades.The MCC cadre ruled here under the leadershipof Dr Binian. Innumerable innocent peoplewere killed in the Naxalite violence. “About 48massacres were reported in this region from1980 to 2002, which, according to governmentstatistics, claimed the lives of over 600 inno-cent people. The actual figure of the victimswas more than 1000. But now the picture ofSikariya has changed. A new hope of peaceand progress is surfacing in the village,” sayslocal journalist Mritunjaya Kumar.

This hope of peace and progress wasbrought about by the village chief Shanti Devi.She belongs to the section of the societywhich is called ‘deprived’. She has not onlychanged the picture of her village but alsopresented a unique example before the wholecountry. She says, “MCC, violence, killing andguns have become the things of past in Sikariya.Now the villagers think nothing but education,development and non-violence.”

Shanti Devi is completely illiterate. Herhusband Raj Vallabh Prasad too had educationup to primary standard. He is a daily labourerand lost one of his hands in an accident. Thefinancial condition of the village is not better.Despite all these problems development of thevillage is Shanti’s priority. She represents thesociety whose almost one generation wasbrought up playing with guns and bullets. Itis due to her efforts that the children of thevillage now have pen in their hands instead ofguns. They go to school and learn computerand internet. Installing computers in the village

Naxalite-affected Sikariya village

Computer wins,gun loses Ashish Kumar ‘Anshu’

Bihar

where even the electric poles are yet to beinstalled cannot be seen as a minor develop-ment. Not to speak of providing electricity,many villages in the Jehanabad region havenot yet been provided with even electric poles.The villagers in Sikariya have made arrange-ments for a generator to run the computer.“When I was to come here from Patna to teachcomputer I was afraid. But when I came hereI found a totally changed picture,” says AshuKumar who teaches computer to the children.

The main agenda of Shanti Devi is edu-cation, health and cleanliness. It is because ofher efforts that every house has a toilet. Shenot only persuaded people in this regard butalso provided money to certain families fromthe Panchayat fund. Self-help groups (SHGs)were constituted to financially help the women.Now many of them have started their ownbusiness. She has also started campaignsagainst superstitions prevailed among thepeople.

It was not an easy task for an illiteratehousewife to lead the village and not justleading but making the village a role model inwhole Bihar. She gives credit of all this cour-age to her husband who supported her in allcircumstances. She does not want to rememberthe problems that she faced and the threatsshe received from the Red goons. She onlythinks of peace and progress.

Shanti Devi is an inspiration for the womenwho feel that they are housewife and cannotdo anything. Those who know Shanti Devi,say she was entirely a housewife and a verysimple lady before becoming the village chief.But now she is leading the whole villagesuccessfully. She has proved that if one hascommitment and firm determination, no hurdlecan stop the way.

SIKARIYA village under Jehanabad regionof Bihar was known for the extremeNaxalite violence till seven years back.

Shanti Devi

The mainagenda of

Shanti Deviis education,

health andcleanliness. Itis because of

her effortsthat every

house has atoilet. She

not onlypersuaded

people in thisregard but

also providedmoney to

certainfamilies from

thePanchayat

fund.


Impact ofa silent revolution

Maya Singh

Jharkhand

comes only when the workers adoptthe method from heart and dedicatethemselves to it. Though it takes timeto mould the society as per the method,the change we then see is lasting andhas impact for long time. Such a changehas come among the women of Self-Help Groups in Jharkhand. Though theSewa Bharati is serving the societythrough various other activities also, Iwish to mention only the change ap-peared through the SHGs, because I amclosely associated with them for a longtime.

There are over 1400 SHGs inJharkhand. Every group has 15-20women. This number goes over 25,000.Today these women are writing a newchapter of change after achieving self-respect and self-dependence with thehelp of SHGs.

SHGs have brought about a sea-change and awareness among thewomen. SHGs not only developed afeeling of taking group decisions butalso to get rid themselves of theclutches and atrocities of private mon-eylenders. They not only changed theirown life but also extended a helpinghand to the needy persons of thesociety. Women of a group in Ranchihelped in an eye operation of a minorchild at Shankar Eye Hospital inChennai.

The women in the group of Meera,Rani and Neetu make bari, papar, pickle,spices, juit bags, etc. Arati, Anuradhaand Sanyukta impart training of makingcandles, growing mushroom, makingjam and jailly and also sell the goodsmade by them. Malati and Keshwantiof Tupudana received the training ofmaking bangles of lakh and goods ofjuite from Jaipur. Now they not onlymake all these things themselves but

also impart training to other women.They organise stalls of the goods madeby them under the banner of SewaBharati in various fairs and exhibitions.Some try to sell the products in localmarkets while some move up to Delhito participate in the trade fair organisedat Pragati Maidan every year.

The group of women led by Malatiof Tupudana purchased a tractor withthe help of a bank and earned moneyby running it on hire. When the Block

Namkom jointly got a wedding cer-emony stopped as the groom was ad-dict. They also forced the groom’sparents to pay the expenditure of thebride’s family on the marriage. Theylater married that girl with a suitableboy after some time.

The women of Bokaro who mostlywork as midwives helped their hus-bands who are mostly rickshaw-pullersand work as collie, to learn at leastdoing signature. Now they proudly saythat nobody in their group is illiterate.They are also very punctual in theiractivities, which is praised by all.

Sumitra Devi and Manodevo ofDhanbad admit that their life haschanged considerably after joining theSHGs and Samskar Kendras run by theSewa Bharati. They not only felt thechange in their individual life but alsogot more respect by their husbandsand the society. The women of Gumlapurchased foodgrains in bulk and saleit after some time, which helps them inearning good profit.

A girl of Gumla was not going toher in-laws’ house. She had the badhabit of fighting with everybody. Sheput various allegations against her hus-band and every time refused to go withhim. The women of SHG persuaded herhusband and sent her with him. Theyalso got the promise of her full securityfrom her husband. The women of Pakuddistrict organised a mass marriage cer-emony and got married 125 pairs.

Such change comes silently andleaves lasting impact. All this has beenpossible only due to the involvementof the workers with the projects fromhearts.

THE process of social change isvery slow and it goes on forlonger time. The lasting change

Development Officer of Khunti mis-guided Mateshwari Devi regarding thetime of foundation stone laying cer-emony of a road at 6.00 am in themorning, she, along with other women,went to the spot at 4.00 am and blockedthe road to protest against the BDO.Finally, Malati got the contract ofmaking that road and she did the workwith dedication. The SHG of women ledby Arati of Namkom purchased an auto-rickshaw and got contracts of buildingroads, ponds and government build-ings.

The women take part in socialactivities also with full activism. Sarikaof Khunti district foiled the game planof a married person who was going tomarry another woman despite havingone wife. She earned praise from thepeople through this conduct. Similarly,Arati, Sanyukta and Anuradha of

SHGs havebrought about

a sea-change andawareness among

the women.


respect. No great personality or political,social or religious leader is behind this revo-lution but a very simple rural youth whocould not even complete his education hascaused it. The youth—Gopi Chaki—is 22years old, who has given a new direction tothe rural prosperity and agriculture on thebasis of organic fertilizer. Gopi has educatedthe farmers of his village how to earn moneyeven without having any modern knowhow.Born and brought up in avery poor Vanvasi family GopiChaki has not only improvedhis living standard but alsoshown a new path to theyouth of his village.

Tilopada is a very smallvillage under Chakrapur dis-trict of Jharkhand, about 42km from district headquarters.This village does not haveeven a road or electricity.Majority of the people arefarmers and their agricultureis based on rains. That iswhy they hardly grow thefoodgrains to earn two square meals. Hisfather has about five acres of land but hecould not fulfill even basic needs of hisfamily. The poverty is to the extent that Gopihad to discontinue his education for sometime. But today Gopi can easily earn aboutRs 10,000 per month through organic fertilizer.Not only the farmers but many voluntaryorganisations and forest department are nowhis clients. Gopi supplied organic fertilizersworth Rs one lakh only to the forest depart-ment in three months. He has just receivedthe demand of over seven lakh, which he istrying to meet with the help of the youths of

Gopi Chaki of Jharkhand

A youth who made historyon his own

his village. He not only manufactures fertilizer butalso markets it himself.

This change in the life of Gopi came afterjoining Ekal Abhiyan of Birsa Sewa Sansthan.After completing matriculation from the Sansthan,he joined it as an Acharya. The Sansthan is runby its associate organisation, the VanbandhuParishad. It is at this Sansthan that Gopi receivedthe training of making vermi compost. After thetraining he started his own plant after purchasingworms worth Rs 1500 from the Sansthan. WhenGopi used to collect animals dung in the village,people used to laugh at him. They used to say

if the dung can be put in thefield directly what is the need forsuch a lengthy procedure. Thisdiscouraged Gopi for some timeand in this process some of theworms also died. He realised theimportance of it when somepeople belonging to anorganisation approached him forpurchasing worms. By that timethe 1500 worms had multipliedinto over 10,000 worms. He sold5000 worms in Rs 2500. Afterthat he never looked back andstarted working on war-footing.

Today he is able to makeabout 35 quintal vermicompost every month. It issold at Rs 5 per kg. He not only increased theproduction of his own field with the help ofvermicompost but also made one of his barrenpieces of land fertile. Now he and his friendspurchase dung full of trucks. It has increased theincome of all those who rear cow and her progeny.

Now Gopi has resolved to create a team ofsimilar youth in the vicinity of 30 villages whomake organic fertilizers themselves and furthertrain more youth. Now Gopi is doing graduationin history. Vikas Bharati has honoured Gopi withSwami Vivekananda Sewa Samman.

TILOPADA—a Vanvasi village ofJharkhand—is scriptig a new chapterin the field of self-reliance and self-

This changein the life

of Gopicame after

joining EkalAbhiyan ofBirsa Sewa

Sansthan.After

completingmatriculation

from theSansthan, he

joined it asan Acharya.

TheSansthan is

run by itsassociate

organisation,the

VanbandhuParishad. It

is at thisSansthanthat Gopi

received thetraining of

makingvermi

compost.


five years back. The population of the villageis about 10,000 and people of almost all com-munities live here. The main profession of thepeople is agriculture. There is one sewa bastialso where mostly the landless labourers live.There are three temples which were renovatedby the Gram Vikas Samiti.

Before starting the developmental activi-ties the Gram Vikas Samiti listed the prioritiesand decided what to be taken up first. Everythird Saturday of the month was fixed forshram sadhana. It was very difficult to enterthe village during the rainy season. Now withthe initiatives taken by the Gram Vikas Samitinot only the main road, but most of the streetsof the village have been repaired and brickshave been laid. The discharge of waste waterfrom houses has been connected with thewaste water channel built both sides of themain road. Therefore, there is no mud any-where in the streets. Keeping in view therequirements of the village, the Gram VikasSamiti formed some sub-committees also forcleanliness, health, awareness, education,Dharma Jagran, agriculture, cottage industries,etc.

Earlier there was not even a primary schoolin the village and the children had to go to anearby village for studies. Therefore, only afew children could go to school. The ShiksaPrasar Samiti took an initiative and the Samitihead Shri Ramprakash Vajpayee donated hisland for the school which now provides edu-cation up to the eighth standard. This schoolhas recently been transferred to Vidya Bharati.There are plannings to upgrade the school upto 12th standard.

There is one Samskar Kendra where chil-dren come for two hours to get moral educa-tion. A bhajan mandali has also been formed

which perform bhajan-keertan on every Tues-day.

The health committee organises healthcamps every year to conduct health check-upof the villagers. The cooperation of Dr TusharRastogi, Dr Vivek Vaishya and Dr Vijay Guptais noteworthy in organising such camps. Theswayamsevaks also made arrangements fornecessary medicines. The knowledge to stay fitby changing the lifestyle and keeping thesurroundings clean is imparted through theseminars and symposia.

The sub-committee constituted for cottageindustries decided to revive the traditionalcottage industries of the village. A villager ShriVishwanath Vajpyaee used to make chak in thevillage. But he had shut down the work. Nowthat work has been restarted. There are abouteight families of potters who had also stoppedmaking earthen pots. Now they all had startingworking as labourers. The sub-committee re-solved their problems and persuaded them torestart their work. Now they are earning goodmoney from this business. A self-help grouphas also been constituted. It has received amonetary help of Rs 30,000 from a local bank.

There is a planning to start a group indus-try with the help of this money. The SHG issoon going to start a milk dairy. There areefforts to start the work of making pickles,sauces, jams and jellies, etc. in the village. Thelocal Fruit Promotion Officer has been con-tacted for it. After imparting training to somepeople this work will be started on individualor group level. The small farmers are beingencouraged to start farming of medicinal herbs,spices, vegetables, etc.

The agriculture committee has been en-couraging the farmers to adopt organic farming.Symposia are held to educate the farmers of theside effects of chemical fertilizers and pesticidesand the benefits of organic farming.

Uttar Pradesh Goria Kalan

Traditional cottage in-dustries restarted

GORIA Kalan comes under Sitapur dis-trict of Uttar Pradesh. It was selectedfor rural development activities about

It was verydifficult toenter thevillage duringthe rainyseason. Nowwith theinitiativestaken by theGram VikasSamiti notonly the mainroad, but mostof the streetsof the villagehave beenrepaired andbricks havebeen laid. Thedischarge ofwaste waterfrom houseshas beenconnected withthe wastewater channelsbuilt bothsides of themain road.


everywhere. But since the day the farmers started organicframing the picture started changing. The organic farming isthe method of farming in which the farmers have to investthe minimum—no need to purchase seeds from the market,no need of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, therefore noneed to take loans from anywhere. The people of urban areas,who are afraid of growing diseases due to chemical fertilizers,are the new consumers of their products. They are ready tobuy organic products even by paying more.

The farmers have realsied the benefits of organic farming.When the young farmer Bhagwan Deen detected insect in thefield of chilly, he sprayed jeevamrita (mixer of cow dung, cowurine, gud, pulses of moong and urda and flour of grams)on the field. He could have used pesticides also but he didnot. He is now happy not because all the insects died buthe did not need to spend even a single penny. Right fromthe beginning he did not need to purchase anything from themarket. Now the crop is ready to harvest and he will savewhatever earns. In such cases if there is any natural calamity,his labour may go waste but now he will not suffer anyeconomic loss as he did not spend anything on it. He didnot join the list of the farmers who commit suicide due toheavy loss in the farming. Secondly, this illiterate farmerdischarged his duty to the nature. He also did not let his landgo non-fertile due to the use of chemical fertilizers.

Bhagwan Deen is not the only farmer who is doingfarming like this. The list goes endless. When these farmersstarted the experiment of organic farming some people ques-tioned whether they will be able to produce what can beproduced with the help of modern machines and chemicalfertilizers. But the final outcome proved that they earned morethan those who used chemical fertilizers. The farmers produceeverything whatever they need today in their fields. Thescientists of IIT Delhi and Kanpur praised their method offarming. Kanchan Chaudhary of Jyotibaphule Nagar says thatthe chemical fertilizers have made their land almost barren andthey can now grow nothing without increasing the quantityof fertilizers every time. The chemical fertilizers and pesticideskilled all the useful earthworms. But the result of the organicfarming is different. The farmers in Devipurva have alsoadopted the model of cooperative farming. Many scientistsvisit the village to encourage them and also to guide. If thesame method is adopted by the big farmers also this mayproduce unbelievable results.

Devipurva

Back to the basicsIT was impossible to think of reforms in Devipurva

village of Unnao district just two years back. Overeighty per cent illiteracy, no school, mud on the streets

Surabhi Shodh Sansthan, Varanasi

Convert Karuna Kendrasinto Kranti Kendras

other animals are facing an extremely serious threat ofextinction. Neither cows nor other animals were being repro-duced in the proportion in which they are being slaughtered.There are 268 animals against 100 people in developedcountries. While in India there are only 38 animals on 100people. The number of cows in these 38 animals is just nine.The goshalas could have been very helpful for their pro-tection, but nothing to this effect happened. That is whyMahatma Gandhi had said that those who run goshalasshould have more expertisation, specialisation and courageto conduct new experiments than the traders and entrepre-neurs.

The conveners of Kashi Jeevdaya Vistarani Goshala andPashushala of Varanasi have shown some courage which notonly helped in protecting the animals but also protectedother creatures. An energy plant was set up in California toproduce energy from the dung of 30,000 old, handicappedand unfertile cows. It not only produced 15 MW energy butalso produced 160 lakh tonne manure and 60,000 gallon cowurine for bio-pesticide. The scientists have admitted that cowdung absorbs radiation and that is why radiation-free tilesare being produced from the cow dung.

If goshalas motivate the people in each and everyvillage of the country to take full benefit of the cow urineand dung, more than half the country’s population can getessential energy. It will not only protect the animals but willalso stop deforestation. It has been proved beyond anydoubt that many critical diseases have been cured with themedicines produced from cow urine. The animals which onceused to provide milk worth Rs 600,000 crore, transportationworth Rs 500,000 crore, organic fertilizers worth Rs 300,000crore, bio gas worth Rs 300,000 crore and saved thepetroleum worth Rs 300,000 crore, have been rendereduseless by the inventions of modern machines being usedin farming. The Non-Conventional Energy Ministry, Agricul-ture and Animal Husbandry departments must pay attentionto these facts.

The merciful people should admit that if they convertthe Karuna Kendras into Kranti Kendras they can infusea new life into the Garm Lakshmi, Gram Saraswati and GramDurga. The balanced, all-round and lasting development ofthe world depends only upon the cow-centred lifestyle, cow-

THE compassionate people provided shelter to old,sick, injured and handicapped animals includingcows by opening goshalas. But today cows and


based agriculture and cow-based industries. The power-centred development has justbenefitted the World Bankand World TradeOrganisations and these eco-nomic powers have convertedthe whole world into a marketas well as the people intoconsumers. Only the cow-based comprehensive devel-opment can save the worldfrom the destruction.

Surabhi Shodh Sansthanhas set up a Surabhi Gram atNational Highway No 7. It isnear Dagmagpur Railway Sta-tion, 45 km from Varanasi and25 km from Mirzapur. About29 hectares of barren landhas been made fertile here bystoring rainwater. Besidesgrowing various kinds ofcrops, some medicinal herbs,forestation and bee-keepingwere also done. The villagerswere provided free saplingsof neem, papaya, banana etc.for the protection of environ-ment. The people were im-parted training in cow-basedintegrated rural developmentby organising agriculture andcow-rearing seminars.

The other projects takenup by the Sansthan includedwater harvesting, soil test-ing, protection and promo-tion of Gangatiri breed ofcows, manufacturing and test-ing of organic fertilizer, pro-duction of vegetable, spices,medicinal herbs, Graha-Nakshtra Vatika, etc. TheSansthan conducts variousexperiments with the activeinvolvement of local people.It has also been proved thata family can easily surviveon one acre of land if thefarming is done with the helpof the cow and her progeny.

liquor. Not only men, but women toowere involved in this trade. The casesof fighting and violence were commonin the village due to liquor. In the year1982, a person known as Ramesh Bhaiyacame here, who changed the life of thevillagers. He used to live in Chhitepurvillage. After completing the tenth stan-dard he started giving tuitions to thechildren as he had to bear the expensesof the education of his younger brotherstoo.

After collecting some money herestarted his education and completedLLB. While pursuing his studies hedeveloped a feeling of meeting VinobaBhave as he was very impressed withhis views and the initiatives. He went toMaharashtra along with his friend andgot the opportunity to meet Vinobaji.Vinobaji asked him what he wanted tobecome in his life. He said, “A success-ful advocate.” Vinobaji said if you be-comes a lawyer you will always prayfor more conflicts in the society so thatyou get more cases. What if you changea village by your efforts to the extentthat not a single conflict takes placethere?

These words of Vinobaji movedRamesh. After sometime he got marriedwith Vimla. After the wedding, bothstarted educating people of new methodsof farming. When they reached Vantarain 1982, the situation there was verydisappointing. He decided to stay in thevillage. When the villagers did not givespace to live, they made a hamlet nearthe crematorium. His wife Vimla startedimparting training of cutting-tailoring and

embroidery to the women and Rameshtaught the farmers about new methods offarming. The farmers had sufficient land.What they needed was motivation. Theywere taught the benefits of organic farm-ing. They were also advised to work ingroup so that they can grow more cropsin a season. He motivated the people notto consume liquor.

There was a piece of land which hadbecome non-fertile due to a brick kiln.The District Administration consulted theagriculture scientists to make it fertile.The scientists prepared a package of fouryears to make it fertile. When Rameshjiwas consulted he claimed to make itfertile only within one year. The DistrictCollector said if he makes it fertile in oneyear the entire piece of land would betransferred to him. Rameshji accepted thechallenge. He first collected all the strayand injured cows in that land so that theirurine and dung could be mixed in the soil.He did it for about six months and theland became fertile even before the comple-tion of one year. As per its commitment,the District Administration decided totransfer the land to Rameshji. But he didnot accept the land rather got it trans-ferred to Vinoba Sewa Ashram. Nowthere are about 250 injured cows in thisAshram. Over 6000 quintal of organicfertilizer is made from their dung everyyear in this Ashram.

More than 35 women of the villageare now associated with the Ashram andhelp in making organic fertilizer and bio-pesticides. The state government also sentRameshji for training in Agriculture Man-agement Programme at IIM Ahmedabad.The effort of one person changed the lifeof the whole village. Rameshji did nothingbut motivated the people.

Vantara

Organic farming:

A boon for farmers

VANTARA is near Shahjahanpur.During 1980s the whole villagewas involved in making spurious


near the Sarayu River. Their firm deter-mination has today resulted in a miraclethat the people, who used to fear vis-iting this place even in the day, nowvisit it even at night to get mental

tures like fishes, crocodiles, tortoiseetc. On another side of this ocean thereis a 10-feet-tall idol of Lord Shiva alongwith different forms of Goddess Parvati.There are 12 Shivlingas around the idolof Lord Shiva. Ganga River has alsobeen seen originating from the hairs of

DohrighatCrematorium on the bank of Sarayu

turns into a Sewa Kendra Yashodanand

peace.This crematorium

is in Dohrighat villageunder Mau district ofUttar Pradesh. It is anancient place where itis believed that LordRama and Parasuramhad met. It is becauseof the meeting of twoharis (gods) that theplace was named asDo-hari. It is situatedon the Azamgarh road.

The swayam-sevaks first met thevillage Pradhan ofDohrighat and re-quested him to help in the project.Then they met the then VibhagKaryavah Shri Jitendra Rai and soughthis help in the transfer of land. Somelocal farmers also helped in this task.Today, this crematorium has become avery big Sewa Kendra where peoplefrom far distance come. Impressed withthe beautification of the spot, two filmswere also shot here.

It is sprawling on two hectare land.A beautiful garden has been created allaround with a variety of trees andflowers. A 20-feet-high statue of BharatMata has been installed within the mapof Akhand Bharat. There are mountainsand a mini form of ocean too. The“ocean” has different maritime crea-

Lord Shiva. Bhagirath is seen walkingahead of the Ganga playing shankha.All the idols are very tall.

A big auditorium has been built inthe premises with the capacity of 500people. Some ethical messages havebeen written on the walls of all build-ings. Daily yoga classes are conducted

in the auditorium inwhich presently 80people take part. Thepeople coming withdead bodies also takerest here. Some specialghats with proper shadehave been built at theRiver.

The crematoriumhas been developed ona bigger scale where 50dead bodies can be cre-mated at a time. Deadbodies from far-flungareas like Mau andAzamgarh are alsobrought here for crema-tion. On one side of the

Agroup of swayamsevaks oncedecided to improve the condi-tion of an ancient crematorium

premises there is a big sanctuary wherevarious kinds of animals have been keptand are looked after properly. Especiallythe injured animals are looked after here.An eye donation centre has also beenbuilt. At least five or six workers remainround the clock to look after the arrange-ments of the premises.

Sarayu Mahotsava is held once ayear in which thousands of people par-ticipate. This function goes on for threedays. By and large this project hasemerged as an effective centre of social,religious and environment protection ac-tivities in eastern Uttar Pradesh.(The writer is Prant Sewa Pramukh of GorakashPrant)

The crematorium issprawling on twohectare land. A

beautiful garden hasbeen created all

around with a varietyof trees, flowers. A-20-

feet high statue ofBharat Mata has been

installed within themap of Akhand Bharat.

The statute of Bharat Mata built at the crematorium


goes to sleep. The bullocks graze idly along-side. When an outsider passes this way, heshould be lucky to leave with his clothesintact. Walking alone on the road after duskis quite risky. It does not need much imagi-nation to infer that the village had fallen onbad times.

Ghumwati in Muzaffarnagar district ofUttar Pradesh was once such a village. Aswayamsevak who had undergone the secondyear training of the Sangh and was entrustedwith the responsibility of Mandal Karyawahdecided to change the profile of the village.At first he started a shakha. Youths partici-pated enthusiastically. Gradually he cultivatedthe households. The organised strength ofthe youths had its own influence on thevillage. When the Sangh swayamsevak startedpersuading and talking to the goonda ele-ments, the latter reacted differently. Somesaid, “It will be better for you to keep awayfrom rowdies.” Others asked, “Are you plan-ning to get elected as village chief?” Even hisown father advised him, “You are taking a bigrisk. Times are bad.”

But the karyakarta was not frightened,and persisted. His undeterred work yieldedfruits. The goondas gave up their bad ways.He was able to win the hearts of the youth.Work started, slowly at first. Through volun-tary labour the roads and drains becameoperational. The Gram Pradhan himself be-came a swayamsevak and initiated a cleanli-ness drive from his own doorsteps. Soonothers too responded and the village beganto look clean. These steps had an impact onthe minds of people too. None now fearedthat they might be looted on the road as inthe past. All can now move about freely. Now,elders are respected and people from outsideare warmly received. It is no longer a degen-erate village that it was. Of course, it is justa beginning. A lot remains to be done.

small fields. They are the biggest supportfor the small farmers. They are the bestmeans of pollutionless and low costfarming. They are useful in transportingthe agriculture produces. Even today sev-enty per cent of the total transportationin rural areas is done with the help ofbullocks. According to a study, there are7.40 lakh bullocks in the country. Theaverage horse power of a bullock hasbeen recognised from ½ to ¾ and theycan work at least 1000 hours in a year.According to an estimate, the energy of

driven tractor. It is as useful as thediesel-driven tractors. It is driven bybullocks. Not only a trained person buteven by an old man, women, or thechildren who do not know at all plough-ing can also use it. One also does notneed to move on foot as is done whiletraditional ploughing. It has a chair tosit on. Not only this, it has a shadealso so that the work can be done inscorching sunshine heat or in raining.There is a place to keep a water bottlealso. Almost all the works of farmingcan be done by adding additional toolsin it. The total cost of this plough isRs 17,000. But it is sold to farmers at

Bullock-driven tractor:Advantage galore

C

Ghumwati

A giantleap forward

ONSIDER this picture of a village: Afarmer, tired, instead of working onthe field he rests under a tree and he

THE importance of bullocks can-not be undermined in the coun-try like India where people have

Rs 9000 by Bharatiya Animal WelfareBoard.

A tractor normally works for about1000 hours in a year and consume about5000 liter diesel. By and large a tractorconsumes diesel worth Rs one lakhevery year. Its performance is equal tothat of four bullock-driven tractors. Notonly diesel, one has to spend money onits maintenance, etc. Whereas a pair ofbullocks consumes fodder to the tune ofRs 14,600 per year and the moneyspent on fodder of four pairs of bul-locks is Rs 58,000. The farmer whokeeps four pairs of bullocks instead ofone tractor can save money to a greatextent. It will not only save money butalso help in preserving the animal wealth.The dung and urine that the bullocksdischarge would be an additional sourceof organic farming.

the total bullocksin the country isequal to 1.5 croretonne petroleumenergy. The mar-ket cost of thisenergy is morethan Rs 8000 crore.In other words wesave this muchforeign exchangewith the help ofthe bullocks everyyear. It also helpsin controlling pol-

lution which is generated through the useof petrol and diesel.

According to an estimate about 2.5lakh tractors are sold in the countryevery year and with the use of onetractor four bullocks become useless. Thescientists of Jodhpur Drought ResearchInstitute recognised the reduction of thesetraditional means in farming as the mainreason of repeated drought. The machineslike tractors not only damage the fertilityof soil but also ruin plants which protectthe environment from droughts. Thegovansh is the worst affected by tractorsas about 25 lakh bullocks are rendereduseless and are sent to slaughterhousesevery year.

Bharatiya Govansh SamvardhanPratishthan in association with theSantosh Engineering Company,Bulandshahar, has produced a bullock-

A bullock-driven tractor in Bhilwara, Rajasthan


begun in many villages, the mention ofa few villages is relevant here. All arePrabhat Grams and the impact of thework is clearly visible there.

The first village is Matora Durga.It falls under Dhampur district and hasthe population of about 1800 people.The village has both the RSS andRashtra Sevika Samiti shakhas. TheGram Vikas Samiti as well as some sub-committees for education, health,Dharma Jagaran, agriculture, women andfestivals have been formed. There is aSaraswati Shishu Mandir which has

agitation. Now all the guests are wel-comed with the dishes prepared athome. All posters of films have beenremoved from the houses. Women per-form weekly keertan in the temple onevery Monday. Majority of the houseshave been persuaded to construct toi-lets and girls of the village wear onlydescent dress. They have said a firm

Matora Durga/Sitapur Lotani Alawalpur

All localities namedafter great personalities

There is one Bal Samskar Kendrawhere the presence of maximum chil-dren is ensured. There is one cutting-tailoring centre. Women conduct weeklykeertan and deeppuja on SharadPurnima. Bhajan-keertan is held in allthe houses for all nine days during thenavaratris. The experiments of organicfarming have begun. Health check-up is

become a very effectivetool for inculcating goodsamskars among the vil-lage children.

There are six locali-ties in the village and allhave been named aftergreat personalities includ-ing Dr Hedgewar, DrAmbedkar, SwamiVivekananda, MadhavSadashivrao Golwalkar,Subash Chandra Bose andHakikat Rai.

The Gram Vikas Samitiensures cleanliness in thevillage through shramsadhana. All the houses have the signsof ‘Om’ on the gates. Tulsi has beenplanted in all the houses under a cam-paign. One street has a very impressiveline of flowers at both sides. All thepublic places have been repaired withthe help of shram sadhana. The nameof the village was got corrected ingovernment records from Matora Dargato Matora Durga. Rakhi is also tied totrees on Rakshabandhan Day everyyear and people ensure protection ofthose trees throughout the year. Underanother campaign the Peepal trees wereplanted in the village and also tensurrounding villages.

Women of the village got all theshops of liquor closed through an

no to skirts, jeans and T-shirts.The other Prabhat Gram is Sitapur

Lotani. It has the population of about1300 people. The Sangh shakha is runregularly in the village. A yoga class ofwomen is also conducted everyday.Gam Vikas and other Samitis have alsobeen formed. Four localities of the villagehave been named after great personali-ties. Kanyapujan is done every year.Vijayadashami festival is celebratedtogether in which the all villagers cometogether and have sahabhoj. ‘Om’ iswritten on the gates of all houses.Every house has tulsi plant. A book,Sangh Gatha, was distributed in all thefamilies. Eye camps are organised regu-larly.

conducted regularly anddiscussions of farmers isalso held with the agri-culture scientists and ex-perts. Vermiculture andcompost are made in thevillage itself. Regularsahabhoj is also con-ducted. Annual functionof the school is con-ducted. Different kinds ofcompetitions are alsoheld among students andthe winners are grantedprizes. The katha by aleading saint is organisedat least once a year and

the recitation of Sunder Kand is alsoheld every month.

The third village is Alawalpurunder Baghpat district. The Sanghshakha began here in 2000. Theswayamsevaks first built boundary wallaround the village temple with shramsadhana. A farmer Shri Dharmpal at-tended the training camp of organicfarming and started work on it. A totalof five Self-Help Groups are going onin the village. The women group ofSHG conducts weekly keertan in dif-ferent families. There is one SamskarKendra also. Akhil Bharatiya GarmVikas Pramukh Shri Surendra Chauhanvisited this village on September 26,2006.

THE rural development activitiesin Meerut Prant are in fullswing. Though the work has

Akhil Bharatiya Gram Vikas Pramukh Shri Surendra Singh Chauhanguiding the villagers of Matora Durga


Nagla Vishnu

Towards total development

greet one another heartily. In manyhouseholds elderly women narrate in-spiring mythological stories like that ofPrahlad to the young ones. The Holiritual also symbolises offering oneselfin total dedication for a cause. In thevillage Nagla Vishnu under Agra dis-trict too the Holi festivity was in fullswing. All were no doubt performinghavan and proclaiming “Prahlad KiJai”. But one individual began to in-trospect – “Am I living a worthy life?”His name is Nahar Singh.

As is customary, people were busygreeting one another; the young soughtblessings of the elders. Amidst all therevelry Nahar Singh declared in public:“On this holy day, I am taking a solemnpledge never to drink again. May theFire-God Agni be my witness.”

All the people present were over-joyed. But the surprise of the eldersknew no bounds. They wondered: “Thisperson has been such a habitual drunk-ard. What has now made him give updrinking?” The answer was plain. Whathad inspired him was the exposure toSangh samskars. Some felt that hewould soon return to his old ways. Buthe proved them wrong. In fact he thenmade it his concern to persuade otherstoo to give up drinking. Such is the far-reaching effect of the samskars in Sanghshakhas.Unfailing source of samskars

It was not long before people ofthe village began to gather in the localtemple not for worthless chatter, but forconstructive discussions and people ofall castes came together as never be-fore—Thakurs, Jatavs, Valmikis andothers. They chose a senior collegelecturer as the coordinator of village

development efforts. A weekly satsangon Tuesday, the sacred day of LordMahavira, has now become a regularfeature.

A day-long training programmewas arranged to improve the skills ofkaryakartas. Over fifty persons fromvarious sections participated in it.Committees were set up for differenttasks. Education, cleanliness, promo-tion of dharmik temperament, environ-mental conservation, agriculture, free-dom from addictions—these were iden-tified as priority issues. All the elevenmembers of the committee on addic-tion vowed in the meeting itself to giveup smoking and consumption of to-bacco, etc., in any form. Three shop-owners vowed not to sell such prod-ucts. By now, liquor consumption and

almost 65 per cent of children began toattend the school. The quality of theprimary school was also improved byinteracting with the teachers. SantDoodhadhari Maharaj, who has estab-lished an inter college a kilometre away,has his Ashram in the village andcontinues to provide spiritual guid-ance. Swayamsevaks started holding acoaching class after the morning shakhaevery day.Women’s constructive role

Soon, the truth of the adage thatthe mother is the first Guru of a childcame to be reflected in the village. Thewomen began to bestow greater carenot only on education and upbringingof the children but also on maintenanceof the households. Work of the RashtraSevika Samiti too commenced. Thosewho have had exposure to the joy oflearning are being emulated by others.Women of the village meet every weekin the temple for exchange of thoughtsand planning the activities. Naturallygirls’ education has picked up.A changed scenario

In most villages the situation is sodepressing and the lack of basic facili-ties so pronounced that the youths areeager to move away to the cities ratherthan stay in the villages. But the situ-ation is changing rapidly for the better.Not only are basic facilities like goodroads, medical care and education avail-able locally; increased awareness aboutthe evils of addiction has made lifemore refined. Occasional quarrels aresettled locally. One youth, by giving upsmoking and saving that money, wasable to buy an almirah in a year’s time.Instances like these are looked up toby others. Milk dairies are providingsubstantial local employment to many,and this is a major step in making thevillage self-sufficient.

HOLI is a season when thecourtyards and roads arecolourfully decorated. People

gambling had already decreased. Sincethen, addiction has gone down by over80 per cent. The effort are still contin-ued.Education, the trigger of development

Education is the cradle of culture,and is in fact itself an index of culture.It was therefore decided to take it upon a priority basis. Initially, childrenbetween the ages of five and sevenwere targeted. A campaign was takenup to impress on elders the need tosend their children to the school. Soon,

People of the villagebegan to gather in the

local temple not forworthless chatter, but

for constructivediscussions. People of

all castes cametogether as never before.


setter in this regard is the village calledNagla Chandrabhan in Mathura Districtof Uttar Pradesh. The village is nowfamous as Deendayal Dham, namedafter the reputed scholar and socialworker who articulated the philosophy

now. Similar Saraswati Shiksha Mandirsand single teacher schools have beenstarted in other villages of this Block,which are attended by 1,690 childrenfrom 55 villages. The vast network ismanned by 46 teachers and coordi-nated by an organising committee.Jan Shiksha Kendra

As the activities grew in the re-

Nagla Chandrabhan

Deendayal Dham:A multi-faceted project

these are attended by about 100 chil-dren every day.Inculcating samskars

Most Shiksha Mandirs run SamskarKendras in the sewa bastis in theirregions. About 250 boys and girls aremaking use of these Kendras. About150 of these are basti dwellers. SamskarKendras have an important role in kin-

of EkatmamanavDarshan (Integral Hu-manism) as an answer tohumanity’s varied prob-lems. He was a saintlyperson, an exemplar ofplain living and highthinking. He believed inaction rather than merewords. Uplifting the bot-tom most segment of so-ciety was his life-longpassion. Many are theinstitutions and develop-mental projects that heinspired. Among theseare the plethora of activi-ties centred in this vil-lage which happened to be his birth-place.A unique memorial

A memorial building in his namehousing a pictorial exhibition relating tohis life work and a library were set up.This complex was the venue for all theendeavours initially; now, however, eachsector of activity has grown immenselyand has its own separate structure.Earlier there was only a primary school.Now it has grown immensely, and aSaraswati Shiksha Mandir and aSaraswati Vidya Mandir have beenadded. Over four hundred children fromabout 25 villages attend these schools

gion, an apex body to coordinate edu-cational efforts was formed. Throughthis ‘Jan Shiksha Samiti’, 250 singleteacher schools, 280 Shiksha Mandirsand 60 Vidya Mandirs are functioning.Over 1,600 teachers are involved. Theseschools are together catering to theneeds of 48,544 children from 2,607villages. The apex committee functionsfrom Deendayal Dham. In order to de-velop occupational skills, a vocationaltraining centre too has been started.This is being developed as a fully self-contained residential facility for about50 students. Two Samskar Kendras arefunctioning in two sewa bastis, and

dling interest in educa-tion.

Owing to manyyears’ efforts, DeendayalDham village now hasalmost 100 per cent lit-eracy. The literacy driveis being extended to 63other villages in theBlock.

There was no facil-ity for High School edu-cation for girls. To fulfillthis need, the DeendayalUpadhyaya KanyaMahavidyalay wasstarted. This will meet the

requirements of girl students from about100 villages. The Smarak Bhavan in-cludes a library and a reading-roomwhich proved very popular and is veryuseful medium of awareness building.Health care

The memorial runs a dispensary forthe benefit of all the surrounding vil-lages. The periodical eye camp per-forms 200-250 operations and provideseye glasses to the needy. Likewise,every year tricycles are given to thehandicapped. Keeping in view environ-mental health, varieties of trees havebeen planted. There is also a nurseryfor distributing saplings.

R EJUVENATION of the villagesis obviously the key to steadynational development. A trend-

Distinguished guests inspecting a science exhibition at Deendayal Dham


Drinking-waterAs water in most wells was salty,

women had to fetch drinking water fromthe only sweet water well which was agreat distance away. Fortunately, twobore-wells dug by the Memorial yieldedsweet water. The villagers’ joy knew nobounds. By their own hands they laidthe pipe-lines and a dozen outlets wereconveniently located. The women arefreed from the travails of carrying headloads of water everyday. The mainte-nance is done by the villagers them-selves.Women’s training

Recognising that women’s economicand social security is the foundation ofa healthy society, a tailoring trainingcentre for women was started. Usingthis as a focal centre, several samskar-giving activities have been started.Women attending the centre are alsoactive in spreading literacy. A shakha ofRashtra Sevika Samiti also functionshere. Till now, some 750 women from 20villages have completed their trainingand have improved their living stan-dards.Many sided activities

In addition to tree planting, trialsare being conducted to explore whatvegetables and other plants can begrown in the briny water here. One ofthe cottage industries of the region isthe manufacture of Ayurvedic prepara-tions, namely Chyavanprash, Triphala,etc. Bee keeping is another local occu-pation. To encourage self-employment,the Vidyalaya provides training in themaking of candles, soaps, wheels, etc.The response has been encouraging.One family produces a ‘surf’-like deter-gent, and the entire production is boughtby local residents within two or threedays. It has been planned to introducecomputer training. As cattle are basic torural economy, a goshala is being de-veloped. Bio-gas production is alsobeing encouraged. The residues will goto make excellent compost manure. Tra-ditional methods of using cow’s urine incertain medical preparations are beingtried.

ronment and some external assistance.When all these factors synchronise,progress is fast-paced. Hazratpur is avillage with a mixed population ofsome 1,200, just three kilometres fromBulandshahar. When theRamjanmabhoomi movement swept thecountry, this village too energised it-self. The karyakartas stepped up theiractivities so as to divert people’s en-thusiasm in constructive directions.

They asked the villagers: “Do youhave at least a mandir to express yourreligious sentiments? Is the atmospherehere conducive to progress? Don’tyou want to change?”

This set the people thinking. Asa first step, they decided to build atemple. Because of their determination,a Devimata Maindir·was.ready withinfive months. This demonstrated that agreat deal could be achieved throughharmony and co-operation. Religiousfeelings became strengthened. Regularsankeertan began to be held everySaturday. On Sunday mornings peoplegathered for shramdan (communitylabour).

Men, women and youth—all joinedto make the temple a live centre. Theyequipped the temple with a loudspeakerand other facilities. Through shramdanthe main roads were made tidy, givinga new look to the village. An eveningof sports was organised for the youths.This led to the formation of a shakhasoon. More and more youths wereattracted to Sangh work. Now there arefive karyakartas who have undergoneSangh Shiksha Varga training, one of

whom is a Tehsil Karyawah.Development picks up momentum

The environment for all-round de-velopment was thus created. Thekaryakartas first concentrated on ac-tivating the primary school. After thevillagers tidied up the place, they helddiscussions with the school teachers.

The village Sarpanch made avail-able a part of his own house for theuse of school. A Saraswati ShishuMandir was started there. House-to-house contacts increased. This led toactivities like satsang, medical camps,community gatherings, etc.

The enthusiasm of women resultedin starting a tailoring training centreand weekly meetings. They started dis-cussing how to make the home and thevillage clean and beautiful. Any out-sider passing this way can now see thedifference between this village and theothers.Education, the nucleus

State-level functionaries of Sanghtoo began to visit the village from time-to-time. The villagers expressed thedesire for a full-fledged school, andmade available over a three-acre of landto Vidya Bharati. Through the com-bined efforts of the villagers, a SaraswatiShishu Mandir and a regular VidyaMandir up to 12th standard have comeinto being. Not only the local children,but also those from about 20neighbouring villages attend the school.The villagers decided that in order toreflect the inspiration behind all theseactivities, the Shishu Mandir and theVidya Mandir should both be namedafter Chhatrapati Shivaji. The villageitself has now come to be known as‘Shivaji Nagar’.

Shivaji Nagar

‘Hazratpur’ becomes‘Shivaji Nagar’

DEVELOPMENT needs a posi-tive attitude on the part of thepeople and congenial envi-


pilgrimage place in the Balganga Valley.The famous Bal Khileshwar temple,where Balkhilya rishi is believed tohave performed tapasya to appeaseLord Shiva is also very close to thevillage. The place where sage Bhriguhad performed tapasya is about one kmfrom this place. It is now known asBhriguvan. Bhrigu Mountain and BhriguKunda are also visible from here. It isbecause of its association with thesage Bhrigu that it has been enjoyinga distinguished place since ancient time.Many reputed astrologers have beenhere. By opening a Sanskrit school inthis village Shri Sapteshwar NandShastri, whom the Tehri king ShriNarendra Shah used to extend highregard, connected many scholars withthe village. That is why Bhriguvanvillage enjoys high respect in the wholeregion.

At the time when people in thisregion were struggling for food, clothesand houses, the people of Bhigun hadconstructed a 2.5-km-long canal forirrigation through shram sadhana in1922. The canal brought a revolution-ary change in the farming of this re-gion.

Since the region was deprived ofeven the primary health facilities during1988, the people had to go to Tehri andChamba for the treatment of even minordiseases. The Christian missionariesexploited this situation and started dis-tributing free medicines in the villages.The missionaries appointed health as-

sistants and provided them both medi-cines and the Bible for free distribution.They had to face strong opposition inBhigun. The opposition was so strongthat the missionaries had to suspendtheir activities for some time in thisregion. The villagers could collect thestrength to oppose the missionariesbecause of the patriotic spirit devel-oped among them by the Sangh shakha.

When this matter went to the thenPrant Karyavah and patron ofUttaranchal Utthan Parishad DrNityanand, he was very much impressedwith the courage the people of Bhigundemonstrated. He visited the village onAugust 22, 1989. The whole road wasdamaged due to heavy rains but DrNityanand reached Bhigun even afterwalking on foot for many kms. Headdressed a gathering of the villagers.He then selected the village to start all-round rural development activities un-der the banner of Uttaranchal Utthan

Parishad.The first meeting of the Gramotthan

Project in the village was held onDecember 31, 1989 and a committee wasconstituted. There are only 920 peoplein the village. But they were divided.First of all the Gramotthan projectdecided to remove the feeling of divi-sion and several activities successfullyunited the people. After that the projectconstituted several sub-committees topromote social harmony and also startedseveral other activities.

Pravasi Panchayat: Many peopleof Bhigun work as astrologers andkarmakandi pandits in plain areas ofthe country. The Pravasi Panchayatwas constituted to connect them ac-tively with the village. These peoplestill extend full cooperation in ruraldevelopment activities of the project.

Mahila Mangal Dal: The contribu-tion of women is always more than themen in the protection and preservation

Uttaranchal

Bhigun village, Tehri Garhwal

Change visible at every step Vishnu Prasad Semval

BHIGUN comes under Tehri dis-trict of Uttaranchal. It is in theeast of Budha Kedar, a holy

An organic fertilizer training centre run by Utttaranchal Daivi Apada Peedit Sahayata Samiti


of forests and water. The practicalexample of it is the shining 15 sq. km-long forest which is protected by thewomen of Bhigun. It is because of theefforts of women that this forest couldcome up. Earlier there used to be hardlyany tree on this land. Bhigun VillagePanchayat was honoured on August15, 2003 by the Divisional Forest Of-ficer for this outstanding work. Earliertoo the women group of this villagehad been granted a memento by theforest officer.

The role of village deity has beenvery crucial in the protection and pres-ervation of this forest. When the womendecided to protect this forest, all thepeople took a pledge before the village

More than 25,000 patients have beenprovided medical treatment so far bythis dispensary. An eye camp wasorganised at Binakkhal in which 32patients were successfully operated

deity not to damage theforest at any cost.Though, the people ofBhigun did not damagethe forest due to thefear of village deity, thepeople of other villagesdid everything to dam-age the forest. Then, thewomen of the villageappointed forest guardsat their own expenses.

Prohibition: Peoplein all the villages ofUttaranchal are in thegrip of addiction. Ma-jority of them consumeliquor. Bhigun was alsono different from them.The workers ofGramotthan Project opposed all thepeople indulging in making liquor. Theywith the help of women and youthcompletely closed down the liquorplants. Today, nobody in Bhigun con-sumes liquor. It is a major achievement.

Health: Dr Hedgewar Trust do-nated a mobile medical van to Bhigun.It was flagged off by the late BhauraoDeoras. This van started treatment ofpeople at 25 places of Bhilangana andBalganga valley. Later, Bhrigu ArogyaDham Charitable dispensary was set upto provide permanent medical facilities.

upon.Environment protection: During a

picnic programme organised in 1993 theworkers found deforestation on largescale in the region. They, with the helpof over 400 women tied rakshasutrasaround the trees with the help of LokJivan Vikas Bharati, Budha Kedar, sothat deforestation could be checked.And this idea worked.

Education: A Saraswati ShishuMandir was started in the village toprovide quality education to the chil-dren. A villager donated land for the

school. The help from other people wasalso sought for constructing the schoolbuilding, Mahila Milan Kendra, etc. Atemple was also built in the village toinstil spiritual samskars into the people.

The pravasi peoplehelped generously inthis project. The idolswere brought fromJaipur to install in thetemple. The annualfunction of the templeand gramotsava arejointly organised onJune 9 for the last 15years. All people ofthe village participatein the event. A weeklyRamayana path isorganised so that thepeople could keep theirhouses and the villageclean. The project runssix Self-Help Groupsof women and savingaccounts of all the

groups have been opened in thebanks.

Besides Bhigun, Dr Nityanandhas started many rural developmentalactivities in Uttarakhand. He hasstarted a similar comprehensive ruraldevelopment project in Maneri wherethe positive changes in the area areclearly visible. His efforts of ruralreconstruction have received ac-claimed from all. Dr Nityanand hasalso been honoured by manyorganisations for his outstanding workin rural development.

Besides Bhigun, Dr Nityanand has started many ruraldevelopmental activities in Uttaranchal. He has starteda similar comprehensive rural development project inManeri where the positive changes in the area areclearly visible. His efforts of rural reconstruction havereceived acclaimed from all. Dr Nityanand has alsobeen honoured by many organisations for hisoutstanding work in rural development.

Dr Nityanand welcoming Sarsanghachalak Shri K.S. Sudarshan at Maneri project


practical message to those who are inthe grip of addiction that if he cansurvive without anna (foodgrains) whycan’t they survive without liquor andother kinds of addictions. Everybodyknows addiction is a bad habit but theaddict does not want to abandon it.

A unique initiative against addiction Prof. Suresh Singhal

Haryana

Kabir Basti in Charakhi Dadari on theoccasion of birth anniversary of SantKabir. Besides the activists of AryaSamaj and Sewa Bharati, various distin-guished people of the village were alsopresent on the occasion. The side ef-fects of addiction were highlighted.The people of Kabir Basti also prom-ised to render all kinds of help in thistask.

A committee has also been formedin Kabir Basti with the efforts of ShriRajesh Kumar, Shri Omprakash and ShriNaresh. This committee decided toperform Nasha Mukti Yajna on everyAmavasya. Besides this, another com-mittee—Jeevan Jeene Ki Kala Samiti—performed a yajna in the village andmotivated people against the addiction.

By now, the whole Hadoda village

A nasha mukti yajna being performed at a school in Haryana

Working on thisissue for the last tenyears without eatinganna, the Sewa Bharatiactivist Shri RamnivasHarodiya formed aNashamukti ChetanaYajna Samiti. The Samitiorganises yajnas withthe objective of motivat-ing people indulging inaddiction to abandonthe bad habits.

The first yajna un-der the banner of thisSamiti was held in vil-lage Hadoda under theguidance of ShriMeghraj Arya. Villagechief Shri Vijay Singh became theyajman along with his wife. After per-forming the havan a discourse washeld highlighting the side effects ofaddiction. All people of the villageassured the Samiti and the Sewa Bharatiworkers that their efforts would not gowaste and they would help in thisendeavour. Those who are in the gripof addiction also wish to abandon itbut are not able to leave it. The villag-ers assured to help such people so thatthey can live a peaceful and happy life.

The second yajna was held at

A 21-member Nasha Mukti ChetnaYajna Samiti was formed in Hadodavillage under the chairmanship of vil-lage chief Shri Vijay Kumar. The Samitihas decided to perform yajna on everyAmavasya and it has unanimously beendecided that nobody in the village willconsume liquor on that day. The yajnawas performed at the samadhi ofDadabhai in which Shri Chandra Singh,Shri Hiralal, Shri Omprakash, ShriRamesh Kumar and Shri Rajkumar re-solved to abandon addiction. It was thefirst victory of the Samiti.

has become addictionfree. People in adjoin-ing villages too haveresolved to abandonthis bad habit andthey are still livingwith their resolve.Some more peoplehave abandoned con-suming liquor butthey have not de-clared their names sofar. Some more peopleare trying to aban-don this bad habit.

By and largemany kinds of activi-ties are going on inthe villages of

Haryana. Besides eradicating the socialevil of addiction some people at Kanalasivillage of Yamuna Nagar district areworking to promote eye donation. Theyhave filled up forms expressing theirresolve to this effect. Even women ofthe village, elder people and childrenhave filled up the forms. This work isgoing on in Kanalasi village and peoplein the adjoining villages too haveshown interest and they have con-tacted Sewa Bharati activists to start asimilar activity in their villages.(The writer is state general secretary of SewaBharati.)

ABOUT ten years back a persondecided to survive only eatingfruits so that he can give a


Rajasthan Hansera

SHGs: Impetusto development

Bikaner. The population is around 1500.The village was afflicted with all theproblems such as illiteracy, unemploy-ment, health, etc. Here too theswayamsevaks of the local Sanghshakha resolved to change the pictureabout five years ago.

The swayamsevaks while involv-ing some youth of the village formeda Self-Help Group. All the membersdecided to deposit a certain amount ofmoney with an authorised person. Thisamount is given to a needy person on

interest. But everybody who takes theloan returns it in time. There are sixSHGs in the village and 70 families areassociated with them. These groupshave distributed Rs three lakh for loan.Impressed with the success of thesegroups the local branch of a bank hasstarted giving loan and grant. The groupmembers have started manufacturingdental powder, soap, incense sticks,and utensils cleaning powder in thevillage. Rajasthan Go Sewa Ayog hasimparted the training of making all these

things. The swayamsevaks, through thisway, have successfully connected thevillage development with the cow.

In order to increase the greenerycover in the village the swayamsevakshave set up a nursery. Saplings of tulsiand fruits have been planted in majorityof the houses and people have beeneducated with medicinal values of tulsiplant. A library has been started in thevillage so that the people get healthyand latest books for reading. It hashundreds of valuable books.

HANSERA village is situated atNational Highway No. 15 whilemoving from Lunkaransar to

KULTHANA had suffered heavylosses during the devastated floodof 1989. A total of 84 families hadtotally been ruined in the floods.The Sangh swayamsevaks of thedistrict took it as a challenge anddecided to not only rehabilitate thevillage but also to make it a modelvillage. The task of rehabilitationand reconstruction was assigned toSewa Bharati.

The flood had destroyed theonly one source of water, a pond,also. The government officialsassured the villagers to dig up thepond again but nothing happenedeven after running pillar to post formonths. The Sewa Bharati activistseducated the farmers that the pondwill never be dug up waiting forthe government and it is better they

IT will be a revolution if the water fromthe well reaches the field without elec-tricity and diesel engine. A farmer ofAlwar, Rajasthan, has done it. He hasinvented a ‘machine’ which is driven bya camel or a bullock. He has named itmodern rahat. The farmer claims that hecan draw more than 16,000 litre waterfrom a 60-ft-deep well within an hourand the field can be irrigated with thiswater by installing 8-19 fountains. ShriSube Singh Chaudhary of Sodabas vil-lage under Mundavar tehsil has devel-oped this technique and he is success-fully drawing water from his well forirrigation. This animal-driven machinedoes not need petrol or diesel at all. ShriSube Singh claims that if rain gun foun-tain is fitted with the water tank it canirrigate two bigha land in six hours. Thismachine basically has a wheel, pulleyand ring, which were purchased from ajunk dealer.

SodabasEco-friendly

pumpsets

KulthanaThe flood-devastated villageturns into a model village

should do it themselves. The peopleunderstood the apathy of the govern-ment and started shram sadhana.Finally the pond was dug up withina very short span. It is now the mainsource of water for the whole village.

After solving the problem ofwater the villagers started work onenvironment protection and arrangingemployment opportunities. More than200 trees were planted. It includes20 trees of apple-shaped ber (plum).Now farmers are taking their com-mercial benefit. A Homeopathy healthcentre has also been started by theSewa Bharati. There is one balwadi.Bhajan sandhya is organised regu-larly. The villagers perform shramsadhana at least once a month. Byand large Kulthana is moving towardsbecoming a model village.


EVEN after Independence, only those places,which were politically significant, received theattention of the policymakers for development.Not only the villages, even districts remainedbackward due to this type of negligence. Whenthe Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh started de-velopmental activities in such areas some seniorRSS functionaries made such backward placesas their permanent karmabhoomi. Dungarpur isthe district in Rajasthan, which has been ne-glected both politically and administratively.Vagadari village comes under this district. Peoplewere in the grip of superstitions and producingand consuming liquor was a profession. Boththe man and woman used to consume liquortogether. This was the best medium of entertain-ment for them after the whole day’s hard work.When parents were busy in consuming liquor,who cares for the children?

It was in this situation that theswayamsevaks formed Jagaran Jansewa Mandalfor the all-round development. The Mandalstarted the first project in the village in May2001. Former RSS Pracharak Shri MoolchandLodha is head of this Mandal. Some santsammelans were organised to change the men-tality of the villagers. The workers are of theopinion that if villagers abandon the bad habitof consuming liquor the process of developmentwill be accelerated. Apart from educating thepeople about the bad effects of liquor they wereadvised not to attend the sant sammelans afterconsuming the liquor.

Health has always been connected withsuperstitions in the village. There has been atradition in the village to cure all the diseasesthrough superstitions. But now the Mandal hasstarted a health centre and people were per-suaded to take its benefit. The villagers werealso imparted training of conducting new experi-ments in agriculture. A night hostel has alsobeen started in the village where the studentsof 20 families study at night. A centre to improvethe breed of animals has been started too. Allthese projects have brought about a positivechange in the mentality of the villagers.

BhemaiAn exemplary work

of development

Vagadari

Change through sant

sammelans

village had started thinking about development soon after gettingIndependence, it received a new direction after the constitution of thecommittee. The political rivalry had a deep impact in the village, whichbecame the reason of various problems. But the swayamsevaks took itas a challenge and moved the developmental activities forward. In thebeginning ethical messages were written on the walls of eight houses.Then the villagers were requested to rear cows. In the beginning therewere 15 cows but now there are over 80 cows in the village. All the 150families have tusli plants.

The road of the village was made of concrete with the help of thePanchayat. Some people made the arrangements of discharge of wastewater by laying a pipeline on their own expenses. The main road of thevillage was widened and the unused well of the village was covered. Thewater management committee started a project ‘Apana Gaon, Apana Kam’and made the arrangements for sufficient water. The village bus standwas beautified.

Some people of the village donated Rs 3.60 lakh for building aSamskar Kendra. The work is on over this project. All members of thecommittee not only perform shram sadhana but also make some monthlycontribution regularly. Sahbhoj is shared by all the people on festivals.People do not discuss the disputed issues on that day, which helps inmaintaining harmony.

Apart from organising monthly meetings, satsang and keertan arealso performed by the Mahila Samiti. Discourses by saints are alsoorganised. A big public meeting is organised in the village on Deepawaliday everyyear in which the complete account of all the Samitis ispresented before the public and plans are made for the next year. Thepersons who contributed remarkably in the rural development work arefelicitated. Some farmers have organised their fields through mutualexchange and roads to reach the farms have also been made throughshram sadhana.

Mass-wedding ceremony has been organised in the village twice anda Ganga Jal Kalash Yatra is organised by those people who go forpilgrimage. Apart from the government efforts the villagers also have donetree plantation, water harvesting, etc. The saplings of medicines and fruitshave been planted in the school and other public places.

Vivekananda Navyuvak Mandal organises sports competitions ofkabaddi and volleyball at the village and district level. Special cleanlinesscampaigns are undertaken on Holi, Deepawali, Navaratris etc. Most ofthe youth of the village are free from all kinds of addictions. The peopleof the village who are working in the Gulf countries also contributemonthly for the development of their village. There are bio-gas plantsin 70 families. It has put a check on deforestation also.

GRAM Vikas Samiti was constituted in the village on VijayadashamiDay about seven years back. This was the beginning of devel-opmental activities in the village. Though some people of the


Rajasthan. About one decade back itwas known for wrong reasons. All theinhabitants are Vanvasis. There was aprimary school but only 112 studentsused to attend it, whereas there wereover 500 children in the village at thattime, who could have gone to school.There are conflicts in the village everyday and some influential people usedto charge money from both the partiesfor resolving the disputes. There wereso many bad habits and social evilsdue to illiteracy. People in almost all thefamilies used to consume liquor. Themaximum use of Mahua was for prepar-ing liquor.

It was very difficult to bring achange in the condition when liquorused to be produced and consumed inevery house and crime had become apart of people’s daily life. It became

things together. Earlier very few peoplehad employment, but now majority ofthem have some sorts of job. SinceMajhola is near the city some villagershave started growing vegetables andselling them to the city. It increased theincome of the farmers. Those who wereengaged in producing liquor also stoppedit and have started other works.

At this stage people also thoughtabout improving their farming. Sincechemical fertilizers and pesticides arevery costly and harmful for the agricul-ture, they started using manure made ofcow dung and bio-pesticides made fromthe cow urine. It not only reduced theexpenditure but also increased produc-tion. The feeling of cooperation devel-oped among the villagers and somefarmers started doing farming work to-gether.

The involvement of the people hasincreased in social activities. Bhajan-keertan are organised on everyAmavasya and Poornima days at thevillage temple. A community centre wasbuilt with the contribution of Rajya SabhaMP Shri Kanakmal Katara. Shri SomajiBhagat of the village donated land forthe community centre.

The villager jointly installed thestatute of Swami Vivekananda at thecrossing of the village. The statue wasdonated by Shri Shankarbhai Gehlot ofMumbai. The land for installing thestatue was donated by Shri Limba Balat.Not only the community centre but alsoa concrete road and a check dam on theriver were built with the joint efforts ofthe villagers. The check dam helped inincreasing the water level of the villagewells. Those who were in the grip ofaddiction have abandoned the bad habit.The impact of superstitions and socialevils has decreased. Two Bal SamskarKendras have been started to impartgood samskars among children. Thecelebration of birth anniversaries ofSwami Vivekananda and Guru GovindSingh, and Ganeshotsav were alsostarted. Sports and some other compe-titions are organised in which majorityof the students participate.

ALL the developmental activities havebeen carried out in Manpur with thehelp of the villagers. The village hasthe population of 500 people. There isa swayamsevak in every house and theshakha is conducted regularly. There ishundred per cent literacy in the village.The farming of wheat and soabean isdone without chemical fertilizers andpesticides. Only the swadeshi seedsare used. Over 75 per cent of thefarming is organic. The village youthorganise weekly ‘Sunder Kand’ recita-tion and women conduct aarti everyday.

Over 70 per cent of the familieshave toilets, which helps in ensuring

Majhola

Check dams enhance

more difficult when they were told toshut down the liquor producing plants.In this situation the Sewa Bharati work-ers started the work with organisingsatsang. With the involvement of thevillagers it was decided to organisesatsang on Amavasya and Poornimadays. With the passage of time thepeople were motivated for developmen-tal activities. Since the number of chil-dren going to school was very less, itwas decided to send the maximum num-ber of children to school. It was decidedthat those who attend the satsang mustsend their children in the school. Whenthe number of students grew the schoolwas also upgraded. As a result thosestudents who stopped studying after 5th

standard also resumed their further stud-ies. Today, there are more than 450children in the school.

When education spread, it left agood impact on their parents too. Thevillagers started sitting and discussing

M AJHOLA village comes un-der Dungarpur, a Vanvasi-dominated district of

ManpurComplete ban on plastic

cleanliness. The villagers have built apond through shram sadhana. It hasbecome a major source of water in thevillage. The villagers have completelybanned the use of plastic. There is atradition of mass marriage and manyfamilies follow it. Bio-pesticide is madein the village with cow urine. Mosquitocoil is made from the cow dung. Thereare more than 300 boxes of bee keeping.The village is completely free fromloans. Whosoever takes the loan, re-turns it timely. There is no police casein the village and no case is pendingin any court. Even there is no politicalrivalry. The villagers have made a two-km-long road through shram sadhana.

water level


share “agricultural activities” with theirfamilies or are not interested in carringon their forefathers’ profession anymore. This thought has gone deep intotheir minds due to urbanisation andeasy money received by them by sell-ing their ancestral land. This wrongperception has to be got cleared fromtheir minds. The movement of youthfrom rural areas to cities in search ofjobs or livelihood has to be stopped asearly as possible otherwise this down-ward graph may lead the country to thedoorsteps of a disaster.

To overcome this menace somecultivable area needs to be selectedwhere the misguided youth can bemotivated by imparting proper guid-ance/demonstrations in respect of cul-tivation of high yielding varieties, latestknowhow assistance and guidance from

production, vegetable cultivation, agro-forestry, ornamamental plantations com-post fertilizer, vermiculture, etc can beincluded in the youth awarenessprogramme. Owing to the scarcity ofwater in the area, rainwater harvestingtechniques also need to be initiated for

Jagriti Project of Sewa Bharati

An endeavour tostop migration from

rural areas

Jammu & Kashmir

IT has been observed that theunemployed rural youth who arenot well qualified generally do not

An office was also established at Siotand all the members of local committeeas well as the members of Sewa Bharatiwere present on bhumi pujan ceremony.

Three experts from AgricultureUniversity of Jammu were invited togive proper guidance/demonstrationsin allied activities such as vermiculture,

promoting veg-etable production.

The work un-der Jagriti Projectwas started by acommittee of fivelocal members fromSiot tehsil andseven membersfrom Sewa Bharati.Along with 2.5 acresof land at Siot, oneacre land was ac-quired by SewaBharati for demon-strative activities.

composed fertilizer, mushroom and sea-sonal vegetable cultivation. Two acreland was tilled properly where wheat wascultivated with the help of enthusiasticyouth of the local area. At the demon-strative land mustard, carrot, cabbageand seasonal vegetables were cultivatedwith the help of local farmers.

In a shed, mushroom and dhingrihave also been grown for demonstration.While discussing the irrigation sourcesthe Sewa Bharati was told by the com-mittee members that the water level isvery low there. So, it was advised by theexperts to install a boring motor pump forregular water supply in the farm, whichmay cost Rs 2.5 lakh as a permanentexpenditure. It also requires fencing ofthe total area under cultivation. Thevermiculture and compost fertilizerprojects have also been started.

the experts adopt-ing allied agricul-ture activities forsustainable pro-duction and finallymore and regularmoney generationper unit area.

Apart fromgrains/cereals cul-tivation, allied ac-tivities likegoshala, flowercultivation, mush-room cultivation,cut flower, beekeeping for honey Rural youth working in the field

A team of Jagriti Project


couraging results. Today, there are threePrabhat Grams and 32 Uday Grams inthe state. The impact of the work isclearly visible in all the Prabhat Grams.Whereas in the Uday Grams the devel-opmental activities have begun veryeffectively and very soon they wouldproduce desired results. Over a dozenvillages among the present Uday Gramsmay soon convert into Prabhat Grams.The Gram Vikas Vibhag has decided todevelop at least one Prabhat Gram ineach district of the state and the workhas already begun in that direction.

The villages that have been devel-oped as Prabhat Grams include Devgarh(Vyara), Kathada (Surendranagar) andKerali (Gondal). The Uday Grams in-clude Shengava (Valsad), Mandir(Navasari), Patelvadi (Surat Mahanagar),Bhankhetar (Bharuch), Soliya (Narmada),Amalpur (Chhota Udaipur), Kothav(Vadodara), Danteshwar (VadodaraMahanagar), Manli (Dahod), Jotwar(Panchmahal), Umeta (Anand), Vamali(Khera), Ramdevnagar (Paladi), SanjayNagar (Naranpura), Indiranagar(Sabarmati), Sankalchandani Chali(Maninagar), Shahvadi (Amraivadi),Janata Nagar (Bapunagar),Khodiyarnagar (Naroda), Tintsar(Modasa), Malpur (Himmatnagar),Bhadrada (Patan), Kotada (Palanpur),Gochnad (Radhanpur), Jashapur(Jamnagar), Sapar (Surendranagar),Rapar (Morabi), Gotamnagar (RajkotMahanagar), Bileshwar (Somnath),Umethi (Junagarh), Phulpur (Amareli)and Thadaj (Bhavnagar).Kathada

It will be relevant to mention herethe developmental activities being car-ried out in Prabhat Gram, Kathada. Thisvillage comes under Dasada tehsil of

Surendranagar district. It is just sevenkm from the district headquarters. Atotal of 1766 people, including 884 manand 882 women, reside in the village.Their main profession is agriculture.There are some farm labourers also.There is a primary school and two BalMandirs. There is one Ayurvedic dis-pensary. An Ayurvedic Medicine Box isalso available from the Sewa Vibhag ofthe Sangh. There is a big pond in thevillage. A tubewell has been dug up toprovide drinking water to the villagers.

The Sangh shakha had begun inthe village in 1983. It is the basicinstrument of bringing change here.There are separate bhajan mandalis ofmen and women and a prabhat pheriis conducted in the village every morn-ing. Many festivals like procession ofJanmashtami, Jandarshan Ekadasi,Satyanarayana Katha, Ramdev Mela,etc. are celebrated to strengthen social

harmony. There is a Samaj Mandir builtby Sewa Bharati in the village.

According to Shri Danubhai H.Parmar, a member of the Gram VikasSamiti, the Samiti took up various de-velopmental activities in the village after1988. Some activities include familysurvey, ban on the use of gutkha,prohibition, blood test, writing ethicalmessages on the walls, writing ‘Om’ or‘Vande Mataram’ on gates, providingthe list of Swadeshi goods in everyhouse, making arrangement for drinkingwater at the bus stand, bathrooms forwomen, providing some amount to girlsat the time of admission in a school,decorating houses on the new year,organising discourse of saints, Sanskritsambhashan camps by Samskrit Bharati,training camps for workers, resolve toprovide work for the artisans of thevillage in village itself, bus and traintime table, animal hospital, donation

Gujarat Prabhat Pheri:Tool of changeTHE rural development work is

not very old in Gujarat. But ina short span it has shown en-

A woman in Kutch doing the embroidery work


lage used to make and sale liquor. Naturally,after consuming liquor fights erupted almosteveryday and sometimes it used to take afatal turn.

Sometime back a school teacher, Shri RaiSingh, started a Sangh shakha in this vil-lage. When he realised that the youth of thevillage are fully in the grip of liquor tradeand have no future, he started opposing theproduction and sale of the liquor. In thebeginning he had to face stiff oppositionfrom some people. But after sometime somefamilies, which had been ruined due toliquor, started supporting him. All theswayamsevaks attending the shakha alsosupported this move. The liquor lobby didnot expect the unity of the youth in sucha large number. Finally the production ofliquor was stopped. It was a very big suc-cess which encouraged the swayamsevaks.

After this success the swayamsevaksrealised that the farmers are not able to havesufficient production from their fields due tolack of money at the time of sowing the

crops. If they are timely provided with moneythey can grow more and good corps. Keepingthis in view they started a Self-Help Group,which collected about 1.25 lakh rupees withintwo years. Encouraged with this success aseparate SHG for women was also createdwhich collected Rs 41,000 only in a span of lessthan one year. The direct benefit of these SHGsproved that the farmers did not need to go toprivate moneylenders for borrowing money atthe time of sowing the crops. Since the farmersgot money timely and without any trouble theypurchased good quality seeds and manurewhich increased the production of their crops.

The swayamsevaks then formed a peeyatmandali (water group) to ensure water forirrigation. The group educated people aboutthe need of water harvesting and rechargingwater level of the land. They also installedabout 80 bio-gas plants in the village, whichmade the life easier. Watching the activenessof the youth, women also came forward andby forming the Gayatri Mahila Griha Udyogthey started manufacturing incense sticks.

box for prabhat pheri,cleanliness drive, homemade dish competition,survey of illiterate per-sons, medical camps,literacy camps, VedicMathematics camps,tree plantation, blooddonation camps, BalSamskar Kendra, farm-ers meetings, etc.

There is a shakhaof women also which isrun by Rashtra SevikaSamiti. There are threesaving groups. Thereis a fodder committee,which makes arrange-ment of fodder for theanimals.Naye Thorana

There is a villagecalled Naye Thorananear Rajkot. The youthsof the village were fullof enthusiasm andorganised programmeslike medical camp, fit-ness competition forboys, exhibition ofgymnastic exercises,and a dispensary. En-couraged by public re-sponse, they undertooka campaign againstaddiction. To awakenreligious feelings theyorganised discoursesof saints. They alsoheld a children’s rallyto inculcate samskarsin them.

As a result, in thecourse of a year, manyyouths and elders be-came associated withsewa karya. After thepeople’s involvementbecame strong, variousconstructive activitieshave gained momentum.

Devgarh

SHGs: Antidote tomoney-lenders

village underSurat district arenow very happy.They are living asatisfied life. Butthis had not beenso for a longtime. It startedonly a few yearsback. A few yearsback the villagewas a prime cen-tre of liquorsmuggling. Manypeople in the vil-

TH EVanvasisof this

Women learning cutting-tailoring with the help of SHG at Devgarh village


drinking water, there is a village,Shyadala, under Surat district of Gujaratwhere all the villagers drink mineralwater. The people of this village havejointly installed a mineral water plant inthe village. People in the village do notwaste their time in petty politics ratherthey engage themselves in construc-tive activities. Many people have settledabroad but they have not forgottentheir responsibility to their motherland.One such NRI helped in getting themineral water plant installed. This plantproduces about 2.5 litre mineral watereveryday and it is provided to all thepeople at a cost of 25 paisa per litre.A family is provided maximum 20 litrewater per day. The plant is managed bya committee of five youth. The people

Shyadala

Where whole village drinks mineral watercable TV network of the village is alsomanaged by a committee of five per-sons. Not only this, the people haveconstructed a road through shramsadhana.

Politics could never dent this co-operative system. No strike was ob-served in the sugar mill so far. Theshareholders of the mill have also nowbuilt an eighty-bed hospital, whichserves the patients of about 50 villages.The milk production is also managedon cooperative basis. The whole sys-tem has been computerised. Peoplemake organic fertilizers also from thewaste of sugarcane and sell it to thevillagers on a nominal price only. At atime when cooperative system is get-ting failed at certain parts of the coun-try, there is a need to draw inspirationfrom this village.

AT a time when more than 40 percent people of the country donot get adequate hygienic

of the village had also set up a sugarmill about five years back. After thesuccess of this mill, the people thoughtof installing a mineral water plant. The

Politics could neverdent the cooperativesystem in this village.

No strike was observedin the sugar mill so

far. The shareholdersof the mill have also

now built an eighty-bedhospital, which servesthe patients of about

50 villages.

A village thatsaves 1000 cows

If the stray cattle including the cows areprotected jointly by the people it can savethem from going to slaughterhouses. Peopleof Mukam village under Bikaner district ofRajasthan proved it by opening a goshalawhere more than 1000 cows and their prog-eny are being protected. The villagers firstformed a committee and with the blessingsof Mukam Gaddi Peethadhishwar ShriRamanand Acharya started the work. Thevillagers also extended full cooperation to thecommittee. An animal fair is organised hereafter every two years. The Samiti has alsostarted the efforts to save those cows whichotherwise would die during the draught.

Mustard oil asalternate fuel for

vehiclesFARMERS need diesel to run tractor or any otherengine and they have to run pillar to post to get diesel.It becomes an uphill task during the summers whenthere is high demand of diesel. RSS activist ShriShankarlal has found an alternate of the diesel. Hesuccessfully demonstrated it before the public by usingmustard oil in the vehicles like tractors, buses, trucks,etc. Many farmers are now running their vehicles withthis fuel. Shri Shankarlal claims that the mustard oilproves very cheaper than diesel and does not increaseair pollution. He demonstrated it before the then UnionHRD Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi and shown hima jeep running on the alternate fuel. If this experimentworks, it will not only save the foreign currency butalso increase the income of the farmers.


have attracted the attention of people andmany activities of education, health, samskar,agriculture, self-reliance and cow protectionhave been started in many villages. The pro-cess of Kiran Gram has been completed in 15villages. Village committees, comprising of atleast seven persons in each committee havebeen formed. Some sub-committees for educa-tion, health, samskar, self-reliance, agriculture,cow protection, etc. have also been formed.Out of these 15 villages, two villages are inTripura, four in Manipur and nine in BarakValley of Silchar, Karmkunj and Haflang Vibhagof Dakshin Assam. Now the process of turningthese Kiran Grams into Uday Grams has beeninitiated and very soon the positive result willbe visible.

The committees constituted to spread theeducation have contacted more than 2000people. These committees are going to start atleast one coaching centre in all the 15 villagesby March this year. Different kinds of compe-titions to encourage education among thepeople have also been planned in comingmonths.

Under the health scheme, Arogya Rakshakcamps are regularly held in the whole regionand people are educated about health needs.The Arogya Rakshak scheme has proved to bea hit in the north-east region. Arogya Kendrashave been started in all the 15 Kiran Grams.

The training of embroidery and cutting-tailoring is imparted in seven Kiran Grams toinstil a feeling of self-reliance into women.These seven villages include Leimarang underVishnupur district of Manipur, Tispari villageof Senapati district, Khonod village of Ghobaldistrict, Uribam village of Imphal district,Sonapur in Hailakandi district, Muktsara villagein Lakhipur district and Tinkhal village inShribhumi district. Three special training campsfrom June 17 to 26, 2008 in Teenkhal village,from November 7 to 17, 2008 and a ten-day

Nationalist feelingshakes the alien forces

North-East

North-East

camp in Koyar Tea Garden were held to imparttraining in embroidery and cutting-tailoring. PrantPracharak Shri Balram Das Rai, North East embroi-dery and cutting-tailoring training incharge ShriJaikumar Sharma and Prant Sewa Pramukh ShriSubhash Nath were also present at the camps. Smt.Jumanath and Smt. Alonath, two female activists,imparted the training of cutting-tailoring. A totalof 99 trainees participated in the camp. Besides theprofessional training, the trainees were also im-parted the knowledge of Bharat Mata Vandana,Saraswati Vandana, songs, etc. Discussions onan ideal Hindu village, Hindu women, Swadeshiand current situation of the north-eastern regionwas also held. Two similar camps at Kalkalighatvillage under Shribhumi district (from December 22,2008) and at Ningadhirvang village of Vishnupurdistrict (from January 2, 2009) were also held.Trainings camps at Jaipur and Sonapur villages inSilchar and Dhurmatnagar of Tripura will be heldin March this year.

With the beginning of these activities anatmosphere of social harmony is being developedin the whole region. People now share each other’shappiness and sorrows. The response to theseactivities is producing positive results. The ruraldevelopment work is generating patriotic spiritamong the people and the anti-social elements willhave to leave the region shortly.

Sewa Bharati activists ata training camp inShribhumi district

THE work of rural development is slowlygetting momentum in the north-easternregion of the country. The activities

The responseto these

activities isproducing

positive results.The rural

developmentwork is

generating apatriotic spirit

among thepeople and the

anti-socialelements willhave to leave

the regionshortly.


2000 population. Sixty per cent of this popu-lation are women. Since people do not havework in the village for the entire year theymigrate to Mumbai and other cities in searchof jobs after the paddy crops and only women,children and elderly people remain in the vil-lage. Most of the people here are below thepoverty line.

There was one more problem. Almost allthe anti-social elements, who were expelledfrom Mumbai, started living here. As a resultviolence, dacoity, terror, smuggling of liquorand various other anti-social activities wereflourishing in the village. It was putting the lifein danger to reach the village after sunset.

It was in this atmosphere that Dr Dihoji,Tehsil Sanghachalak of RSS, started his weeklydispensary in this village in 1980. He alsostarted a weekly shakha. After hard work ofone year this shakha became daily and startedproducing various active workers. After sometime the shakha became very influential andvarious Sangh functions were started to becelebrating.

During the year 1995, the Sangh decidedto select one village for development from eachdistrict of the country. Hadi was also selectedfrom Sindhudurga district. The Shivsfurti GramVikas Mandal was formed to start these activi-ties. In the beginning the streets of the villagewere repaired with the help of weekly shramsadhana. Then people were guided about clean-liness and hygiene so that diseases can beprevented to break out. Some functions werealso started to be observing. One of them wasShivjayanti. The rural developmental activitiesreceived a boost after the visit of Akhil BharatiyaGram Vikas Pramukh Shri Surendra Chauhan inthe year 2000. After his interaction with thevillagers a new energy and enthusiasm devel-

Maharashtra Hadi village in Konkan Prant

Treading the path ofcooperative farming

oped among them and their participation indevelopmental activities increased consider-ably.

Shri Chauhan again visited the village in2005 and till then the situation had improvedto a great extent. After his guidance the GramVikas Mandal started meeting regularly. Theprominent workers started sitting together atleast once a week. Training camps were alsoorganised. Now a coaching centre is run fortwo months every year for the help of thestudents appearing for tenth standard exami-nation. Now there is a gym also in the villageand sports competitions are held regularly.Medical examination of the children going toschools are conducted regularly. They areregularly immunised. There is one bhajanmandali in all bastis for promoting spiritualfeelings. There are eight saving groups—fourby women and four by men. More than 80families of these groups have started theirown employment activities with the monetaryhelp of these saving groups.

In order to earn more profit from thecrops the farmers of the village have nowstarted selling the agriculture producesthrough cooperative system. The experimentof cooperative agriculture has also beenstarted. About ten families now grow veg-etables, groundnut, etc. under this group.This experiment has been a success and thenumber of such groups is increasing.

The activities of anti-social elements havebeen curbed by the villagers jointly. Theynow fight unitedly against all such activities.The villagers have resolved that no anti-social activity would be allowed in theirvillage. The mentality of villagers has changedremarkably. This is the reason the villagershave now started resolving the local disputein village itself and no case is allowed to goto the police station or the court.

H ADI falls in Sindhudurga district ofMaharashtra. Out of its 11 localities,two are in a gulf which have about

The activitiesof anti-socialelements havebeen curbedby thevillagersjointly. Theynow fightunitedlyagainst allsuch activities.The mentalityof villagershas changedremarkably.This is thereason thevillagers havenow startedresolving thelocal disputein villageitself and nocase isallowed to goto the policestation or thecourt.


Kanhewadi

Self-reliance throughSelf-Help Groups

There are mountains around the village. Thepopulation is around 2500. Some Vanvasi fami-lies also live on the nearby hills. The entire landof the village is stony andthere is no permanent sourceof water. The atmosphere wasfull of illiteracy, conflicts,infightings and poverty. Buttoday it is a model village.The villagers have changedthe total picture of the vil-lage.

There has been a saint,Mahant BhuvneshwarMaharaj, in Kanhewadi. Hemet the then RSSSarsanghachalak Shri Gurujiduring the Goraksha move-ment in sixties. He developeda feeling of starting a Sanghshakha in the village. Herequested the Sangh func-tionaries to start the shakhaby sending any trainedworker. It was on his request that Shri Nimasejiwas assigned the task of starting the shakha.The shakha began and soon attracted themajority of the village youth. During the birthanniversary year of Dr Hedgewar in 1989 theswayamsevaks decided to install a statue of DrHedgewar at the Panchayat Bhavan.

The party politics had till then surfaced thevillage. The village sarpanch was a Congresssupporter and he opposed the installation ofthe statue. It angered the swayamsevaks. ThePanchayat elections were approaching. Thevillagers decided to field Nimaseji and someother people of the village in the election.Fortunately, all these people won and Nimasejiwas unanimously elected sarpanch. Having

been elected the sarpanch the first thing thatwas done by this team was to install the statueof Dr Hedgewar.

After the installation of the statue theswayamsevaks realised their responsibility. Theythought that the village in which the statue of

Sangh founder had beeninstalled must be a modelvillage. The efforts in thisregard began right fromthe first day of the in-stallation of the statute.First of all Shri ShivshaktiGram Vikas Mandal wasformed and majority ofthe youth were made itsmember. The Mandaldecided to make arrange-ments of water for irriga-tion. It was decided tomake small dams to storethe rainwater. The activ-ists stored the water ofa small water channeloriginating from a hill.The experiment proved asuccess and arrange-

ments for irrigation of the crops were made.After the success of this project the workers

decided to build a school. All the peopleoffered shramdan. The building was built andthe people contributed shramdan worth Rs twolakh. After constructing the school building theyouth ensured that every child of the villageshould go to school. Special attention was paidon the Vanvasi children living on the nearbyhills. Their parents were persuaded to sendthem to school. Even a road was made throughshramdan for these children to reach the school.This conduct of the villagers proved that thewhole society is ours and we all have to uniteit. The local Sangh shakha has swayamsevaksfrom all sections of the society.

K ANHEWADI falls under Khed tehsilof Pune district. It is about 50 kmnorth of the district headquarters.

Afterconstructing

the schoolbuilding the

youth ensuredthat every

child of thevillage shouldgo to school.

Specialattention was

paid on theVanvasichildren

living on thenearby hills.

Their parentswere

persuaded tosend them to

school.


was highly neglected before 1958. Afterthat the sugar mills set up in this regionhelped in improving the income of farm-ers. It made the people prosperous. Buta section of the village, Harijans, re-mained untouched from this develop-ment. Most of these people did noteven have two square meals. Theirfields were mortgaged with the privatemoney-lenders and they had to workwithout payment at their home as wellas in their fields. Even the people ofupper castes too used to force them towork for free. These people had neitherhouses to live in nor clothes to coverthe body.

This condition of his fellow villag-ers moved Trayambak Mahadev Deval,son of a local landlord, who had justreturned from England after completinghis studies. He decided to improve thecondition of these people. He formed acooperative society of landless peopleand decided to set up a dairy project.The problems began right from thebeginning. The bank was not ready togive them loan without a guarantor.Trayambak Mahadev himself gave theguarantee of these people. Finally 90per cent of the Harijan families pur-chased she-buffalos. Then the problemof fodder for animals developed. Theydecided not to have meals of afternoonfrom the landlords in exchange of fod-der for their animals. But the idea didnot work for long and it was essentialfor them to have their own land back.When government records were seen itwas found that the government hadallotted some pieces of land to certainpeople of Harijan community near the

village river but they were still occu-pied by the local leaders and thelandlords. Besides this, about 40 acresof their land had been mortgaged withthe moneylenders. Over Rs 1.5 lakhwere needed to free this land from themoneylenders. Shri Deval appealed tothe villagers to deposit their savingswith the society. The appeal workedand very shortly the society collectedRs 1.25 lakh. Remaining Rs 25000 weredonated by some people and finallythe loan of the moneylenders wasreturned and the lands of the Harijanswere freed.

It was the beginning of good daysfor them. Besides growing fodder at 10acres of this land, farming was startedat the remaining 30 acres of land.Within several months the society notonly returned the money collected fromthe villagers but also purchased addi-tional 30 acres of land with the moneyearned through dairies. Now theseHarijans are earning handsome moneyby growing grapes in their fields. Thepeople who once did not have eventwo square meals are living a happylife.

After improving the income of thevillagers, Shri Devale is now workingon the project of providing houses toall. The model of the houses that hehas prepared for them includes notonly the residential rooms but alsorooms for the animals and a bio-gasplant. The manure produced by thebio-gas plant will be purchased by thecooperative society. These efforts havenot only brought a healthy change inthe life of the deprived people but theyhave also imbibed a sense of self-confidence among them.

After these activities theswayamsevaks decided that no dis-pute of the village should reach thepolice station or the court. There-fore, they formed a Nyaya Samiti andit was unanimously decided thateverybody will respect the decisionof the Samiti. After 1989 Nimasejiwas unanimously elected sarpanchof the village. He voluntarily relin-quished the responsibility in 2000.The village today has complete unityand all sections of the society areinvolved in the village developmentactivities. Now the people are work-ing for achieving complete prohibi-tion.

The villagers thought that it isnecessary for all-round developmentof the village that the money, talentand water of the village should re-main in the village and efforts shouldbe made to make the people self-reliant. The Reserve Bank of Indiahad started the scheme of self-helpgroup. Later, it was merged with theSwarna Jayanti Gram SwarojgarYojana of central government in 1999.Under this scheme a group of 10-20persons is created and they contrib-ute some money every month. Themoney is later granted to the needymembers on easy interest rate. SuchSHGs were formed in Kanhewadi.When the groups worked well thelocal bank started giving loans forsome activities. The women startedgrowing vegetables and fruits withthe help of the bank loan. They alsostarted weaving clothes and alsocutting-tailoring. It helped them fi-nancially.

In order to protect the environ-ment the people banned cutting thetrees. As a result there is a goodcover of greenery around the village.Regular health checkup of the villag-ers is conducted. Every house hasbeen provided with toilets. Everyhouse has electricity connection. Ina nutshell, one statue of the Sanghfounder changed the picture of theentire village.

Mehasal

All-round uplift of thedeprived

MEHASAL is a small village,about 28 km from Miraj townof Maharashtra. The village


state, Kalasubai, lies in this region.Dhagewadi is a village in this region,thoroughly deprived of basic facilitiesincluding roads, etc. It was difficult toreach the village even by foot. Thereare about 300 people of 75 familiesbelonging to Mahadev Koli Vanvasicommunity. Only 148 of the total 371hectare agriculture land was fertile. Thepersons, who had played a key role inthe army of Chhatrapati Shivaji, werefacing a very tough time due to defor-estation. Since land was not plain therainwater did not stop and it was dif-ficult to have more than one crop in ayear. The production was very lowwhich was insufficient for the wholeyear. That is why the male people ofthe village used to go out in search ofjobs, leaving the children, women andolder persons behind in the village.

The school-going children had togo out of the village after the fourthstandard. Just a distance away from thevillage there is a Vanvasi Kalyan Ashramhostel in Akola. A child, BhaskarParadhi, of this village went to thehostel for his studies. After completingmatriculation residing in the hostel hedeveloped feeling to do something forhis village. His friends living in thevillage also agreed with him. But no-body knew how to do this.

At the same time, Suyash Chari-table Trust of Pune organised a 40-dayfarming training camp. Bhaskar Paradhiparticipated in the camp. This trust wasformed by Shri Mohan Ghaisas,Mahanagar Sanghachalak of Pune, withthe inspiration of the then organisingsecretary of Kalyan Ashram the late KBhaskar Rao. After receiving the train-ing of growing vegetables, animal hus-bandry, how to get benefit of the

Now the villagers realised the needto have a good quality road. Thepeople performed shram sadhana andmade the road within one weak. Theroad helped the people take the agri-culture produces to market easily. Theyalso built four small dams with shramsadhana. Six check dams were alsoconstructed with the help of the gov-ernment. Now the water stored in thedams was sufficient till February. Im-pressed with the initiatives of thevillagers, the government also pro-vided fund for digging three wells. Adam was also built with the help ofSuyash Trust. The water harvestingand with the use of modern agriculturemachines it became easy for farmers totake three crops in a year. It alsoincreased the production.

All these activities encouragedthe people to take up more develop-mental projects. They started abalwadi for the children. Bio-gas plantswere installed. Shram sadhana once aweek continued. Dairy was also startedby purchasing 30 cows. Finally thepeople stopped going outside thevillage in search of jobs. Some reli-gious activities were also started.Satsang and bhajan mandalis wereformed. Harinam Sankeertan isorganised every year in which peoplefrom 10-12 adjoining villages partici-pate.

Now the villagers of Dhagewadihave taken a very interesting imitative.They have requested the local admin-istration to delete their names from theBelow Poverty Line (BPL) list as theirfinancial condition has improved. Thischange presents an exemplary exampleto be emulate by the entire nation,especially at the time when people arebecoming more dependent on the gov-ernment and are ready to shed bloodfor seeking reservation.

government schemes, etc, Bhaskar re-turned his village.

The whole village was below thepoverty line. But the villagers had somevery rare qualities like no fighting, nopolitics, no habit of consuming liquor, etc.Bhaskar Paradhi himself started rearinggoats and conducting some experimentsin the field. He also educated the villag-ers. They also worked on water harvest-ing which helped in agriculture. New ex-periments were started in the agriculture.About ten years back the farmers startedgrowing tomato. Suyash Trust providedgood quality seeds of tomato and alsotaught them how to grow the saplings,how to use the pesticides and manure,how to irrigate, and finally how to sell theproduces in the market. The activists ofSuyash visited the village every week tohelp the farmers. The experiment workedwell and the farmers started getting hand-some income. Meanwhile, they developeda problem of selling the produces in themarket. They decided to make tomatosauce in the village itself and market thaton good prices. When RSSSarsanghachalak Shri K.S. Sudarshan vis-ited the village they presented one bottleof sauce to him, which he later presentedto the then Prime Minister Shri Atal BehariVajpayee. Shri Vajpayee acknowledged thereceipt of the bottle through his letter tothe villagers.

It was at this stage the villagersdecided to work for their village develop-ment. They took up the Harigarh Project.They selected 22 acres of barren land anddecided to grow trees in it. They planted5000 trees of Neelgiri around a piece ofland so that the pressure of wind couldremain slow. In the middle they planted1500 saplings of cashew and amala. Theyirrigated the saplings by bringing waterfrom two km distance during the summersseason. This experiment too proved to bea success.

Vanvasis of Dhagewadi tell the local administration

“Delete our names from the BPL list”SOME areas of Nagar district in

Maharashtra are Vanvasi domi-nated. The highest place of the


Baripada

Unique experiment of forest protection

INDIA became self-sufficient infoodgrain production after the GreenRevolution. Now a bio-diesel revolu-tion has been started to produce alter-native fuel from vegetables and botani-cal products. Since we have to exportmost of the petroleum and diesel, thisbio-diesel revolution, if proves suc-cessful, can make us self-sufficient inpetroleum field too. It can also proveto be a milestone in the developmentof our villages. The scientists havefound the plants of Ratanjot, Jatrofaand Karanjia very useful for bio-diesel.These plants can be produced even onthe barren land and its trees can pro-duce fruits and seeds for a long period.The research wing of Indian Oil Corpo-ration has grown the plants of Karanjiaon a 70-acre piece of land. Head of thiswing Shri D K Tuli collected someseeds of Karanjia and used their oilwith the diesel in his own vehicle. Thisexperiment proved to be a success.Interestingly, there is no need to makeany alteration in the engine to use thisfuel.

Bio-diesel: Heralding a new eraFinding it very useful the central

government is promoting the researchin this field. The Indian Railways toohas agreed to work on a similar projectin collaboration with the Indian OilCorporation. According to the projectdetails, the Railways would grow thetrees of Jatrofa on 500 acres of land andthe seeds of these trees would bepurchased by the Indian Oil Corpora-tion. The bio-diesel, produced from it,will be supplied to Indian Railways.

Similarly, the seeds of Ratanjot arealso being used for producing bio-diesel. These trees can also be grownon a barren land. Once grew, they cangive seeds for 40-50 years. This tree isnot eaten or damaged by the animalsand its oil can be extracted through thetraditional machines used in villages forextracting mustard oil. Impressed withits usefulness, some farmers in MadhyaPradesh and Uttar Pradesh have startedgrowing these trees.

Apart from the seeds of Ratanjotand Karanjia the scientists have also

successfully produced bio-diesel frommolasses of sugarcane. They have namedit ethanol. The Government of India hasmade the mixing of ethanol in petrolcompulsory in nine states and four UnionTerritories from January 1, 2003. Theproduction of ethanol at Sangali, Miraj,Nasik of Maharashtra and Barellie ofUttar Pradesh has already been started.

Like Green Revolution, the bio-dieselrevolution may also prove to be a goodsign for the farmers and the people livingin villages. It will strengthen the ruraleconomy. Today we have over 10 crorehectare barren land in the country. Ifthese trees are grown only at three crorehectare barren land it will produce ninecrore tonne seeds which will producetwo crore tonne bio-diesel. This bio-diesel can be extracted by the farmers attheir villages themselves and it can besold at the grocery shop. There will beno need to install refinery and petrolpump for its cleaning and distribution. Itwill also generate more than one croreemployment opportunities in rural areas.

Baripada, a Vanvasi village inMaharashtra, had all the problems, likeilliteracy, health, unemployment etcwhich are found in other villages, justabout ten years back. The people weredisappointed to the extent that theyhad stopped dreaming of a happy life.In this situation an activist Shri ChetramPanwar reached the village. He is postgraduate. When he saw the conditionof the villagers depending upon thegovernment for even the minor work,he too once became disappointed. Heformed a Self-Help Group involvingcertain youth and gradually developedthe feeling among them that they wouldachieve nothing if they continue todepend upon the government. If they

have to bring any change in their lifethey will have to act themselves. Fi-nally, some youth joined him and thisis how some activities were started.

The life of Vanvasis is closelyassociated with the forests. But theuncontrolled deforestation had ruinedthe forest itself. The villagers weremotivated to first protect the forest andthen plant new saplings. As a result,greenery resurfaced in the ruined for-est. The efforts of Shri Chetram Panwarand the villagers of Baripada wererecognised even by the Frorest Depart-ment by felicitating them publicly.

Apart from the protection of for-ests, some other activities were alsostarted. A Kabaddi competition is

organised in the village every year inwhich all villagers participate. It isfollowed by sahabhoj every year. Teach-ers should come to the school in timeis not monitored only by the villagersbut the students too remain vigilant.Today, the village school has hundredper cent attendance. The people havealso jointly set up a sugarcane crusherand rice mill.

Shri Chetram Panwar inspired thevillagers to develop their village them-selves. Now the villagers do not de-pend upon the government for anywork. Even the village security is en-sured by the villagers themselves. Allthe disputes of the village are settledin the village itself.


taken by swayamsevaks across thecountry. This experiment has provedvery successful in propagating Sanskriteven in the remote villages. There area number of villages in the countrywhere all daily conducts of life areconducted only in Sanskrit. The promi-nent villages in this group are Muttoorand Hosahalli in Karnataka and Jhiriand Mohad in Madhya Pradesh whereSanskrit has truly become language ofthe masses. More than 95 per centpeople of Muttoor and hundred percent people in Jhiri speak Sanskrit.Muttoor, Karnataka

Apart from Muttoor, Hosahalli andJhiri, Mohad and Baghuwar in MadhyaPradesh and Ganoda under Banswaradistrict of Rajasthan are also the vil-lages where Sanskrit is spoken bymajority of the villagers. Not only forasking well being of each other buteven while ploughing the fields, talkingon telephone, purchasing goods fromthe grocer’s shop, getting the hair cutat barber’s shop, preparing food inkitchen etc. people freely speak San-skrit. The containers having spices andother things in the kitchen too containthe names in Sanskrit. Nobody in thesevillages thinks what will happen bylearning Sanskrit. Whether it will helpin getting a job or not. It is our lan-guage and we have to learn it is theonly feeling amongst them.

Muttoor, the village of about 2000inhabitants, is located about 8 km southof Shimoga. The Tunga river flows

gently on one side of the village square.Its fame as the Sanskrit Gram has spreadfar and wide. Sanskrit is the spokenlanguage of over 95 per cent of thepeople here. Soft and dulcet, a conver-sation sounds like a Vedic recital.Though it is a journey, which beganabout 500 years ago, Sanskrit has beenmodified as per the modern needs hereby Samskrit Bharati. As one enters the

premises clean’, ‘keep the river clean’and ‘trees are the nation’s wealth’ arealso written in Sanskrit and painted onwalls reflecting ancient values. Thereare families who have written on theirdoors—‘You can speak in Sanskrit inthis house’. This is basically to tell thevisitors that in case they are fluent inthe language they can talk to them inSanskrit. Perhaps this inspired the se-

Samskrit Bharati’s efforts bearing fruits

Sanskrit: Language ofthe masses in villages

Shreesh Devpujari

SANSKRIT sambhashan is one ofthe prominent aspects of ruraldevelopment work being under-

village he is greeted withbhavatha nam kim? (Whatis your name?), coffee vachaayam kim ichchhathibhavan? (What will youhave, coffee or tea?). Thepronunciation of Hari Ominstead of ‘hello’ andkatham asti instead of‘how are you?’ are com-mon here.

Everybody—men,women, children, literateor illiterate—freely speaksSanskrit. Even the Muslimfamilies speak Sanskritwithout hesitation and ascomfortably as is spokenby the Hindus. Their children are foundin the streets reciting Sanskrit shlokas.Even while fighting and playing cricketin the grounds children freely speakSanskrit. When one walks down a fewpaces from the school where onetouches the ratha veethi (car street)and graffiti on the walls what grabs theattention is: Maarge swachchatayavirajate, grame sujanaha virajante(Cleanliness is as important for a roadas good people are for the village).Other slogans like ‘keep the temple

nior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj to de-liver a 20-minute power-packed speechin Sanskrit when she visited the villageduring campaigning for Shimoga by-election.

Study of the language here beginsfrom Montessori level, where kids aretaught rhymes and told stories in San-skrit—even Chandamama and comicsprinted in Sanskrit are available here.While the hoary language is a compul-sory subject in schools, teachers andeven students talk to each other in it.

New generation grows up speaking Sanskrit in Muttoor


Muttoor is not a cloistered hermitageshy of the outside world. Many of itsyoungsters have moved to cities insearch of greener pastures in pursuit ofhigher education. Some are teachingSanskrit in universities across the stateand more than 150 youngmen andwomen are in the field of IT as softwareengineers. Many foreign students alsovisit the village to learn Sanskrit andstay with them in true guru-shishyatradition.

For more than 25 years now thevillage has been in the forefront of amovement to keep spoken Sanskritalive. And one can notice the differencefrom the minute he steps into the vil-lage. According to Shri M.B. Srinidhi,Dakshin Karnataka secretary of SamskritBharati, the seed for change was sownin 1982 when Samskrit Bharati organiseda 10-day Sanskrit Sambhashan camp toteach the villagers spoken Sanskrit andpeople in this primarily agriculturalsociety eagerly took part in the camp.In the local Sharada Vilasa High School,Sanskrit is compulsory till class VIII toX. So, the present generation too haslearnt to speak it. Mothers taught thechildren Sanskrit at home.

The credit for this silent revolutionsurfacing the country to popularising

Sanskrit goes to Samskrit Bharati. Thou-sands of its activists are burning themidnight oil to move forward thismovement. According to information,about 1200 sambhashan vargas hadbeen held in rural and slum areas of thecountry since 2005 and thousands ofpeople learnt Sanskrit in them.

It is not necessary for a person tobe literate for learning Sanskrit. Un-doubtedly, a literate person can pick upthe language easily, but an illiterateperson too can learn it. There are thou-sands of people who were earlier fullyilliterate but now speak fluently in

in Delhi, Haridwar, Meerut and Baraut.Now he teaches Sanskrit to his fellowvillagers. All his family members toospeak Sanskrit.Jhiri, Madhya Pradesh

Jhiri comes under Rajgarh district ofMadhya Pradesh. Total population of thevillage is 976 and all the people includingsmall children, women, elder people,school-going children, literate and illiter-ate speak fluently in Sanskrit. SamskrtiBharati had started conducting SamskritSambhashan camps in the village in 2002through an activist Vimla Tewari. She hadcome here only for one year. But in thatone year she developed so much interestof the villagers to the divine languagethat everybody in the village turned tolearn Sanskrit. Now all the villagers loveVimla as their own daughter. RSSSarsanghachalak Shri K.S. Sudarshanvisited this village on February 10. Hewas so much impressed with the com-mand of the villagers over Sanskrit thathe, while touring the village, touched thefeet of elderly women at four places andsought their blessings. The morning ofthe people in this village begins withNamo Namah and ends with the greet-ings of Shubhratri. Shri Sudarshanhonoured Vimla Tewari for her outstand-ing performance in propagating Sanskritin the village. The Sanskrit Sambhashanclasses in Jhiri are conducted both in themorning and evening. Impressed with the

People of Jhiri welcoming Shri K.S. Sudarshan by showering flowers

Children of Mohad who speak Sanskrit fluently

Sanskrit. Onesuch example wasseen in Baoli vil-lage underBaghpat districtof Uttar Pradeshwhere a 50-year-old ShriJaiprakash speaksfluent Sanskrit.Shri Jaiprakashhas never been toschool but helearnt Sanskritonly in four campsof SamskritBharati organised


noble command of the villagers on thedivine language the people of someadjoining villages like Moondala andSusahedih also come to Jhiri to learnSanskrit. Anyone who visits this villageis thrilled seeing all people speakingfluently in the God’s language.

Ganoda, Rajasthan

Ganoda is a village under Banswadadistrict of Rajasthan where a large num-ber of people speak Sanskrit. In thisVanvasi-dominated village, Sanskrit isslowly becoming a way of life. Slogansin Sanskrit make the village walls, thelanguage spoken in practically everyhouse and every school-going childrattling off a few sentences. “Almosteveryone can speak or understand San-skrit in this village,” says Naresh Doshi.About ten years ago Ganoda was likeany other village of Rajasthan but nowit has special place. Now all the Sanskrit-speaking people in this village haveresolved to make Sanskrit the secondlanguage of the Wagdi-speaking popu-lation. “My mother cannot speak San-skrit very well but everyone else man-ages. Now I have attended a fewSambhashan Vargas and we are slowlytrying to teach others,” says 14-years-old Dharmesh Joshi. The ultimate aim ofthe people here is to make Ganoda aunique and model Sanskrit village. Theirpunch line is “don’t say hello, say HariOm.”

Mohad andBaghuwar, MadhyaPradesh

The total popu-lation of Mohad isabout 4000. Butmore than 1000people speak San-skrit. SamskritBharati organisedsix sambhashanvargas in the vil-lage resulting in notonly the small chil-dren but even theold women speak-ing Sanskrit flu-ently. PratibhaChauhan is just seventh pass but canspeak Sanskrit freely. Now she hastaught Sanskrit to all her family mem-bers. The village Panchayat takesspecial steps to popularise Sanskrit inMohad. Even Scheduled Castes &Scheduled Tribes and Muslim fami-lies speak Sanskrit without hesitation.Similar picture can be seen inBaghuwar village, which is nearMohad. In Jhiri, the farmers whileploughing their field even order theiroxen in Sanskrit and the oxen toofollow those instructions.

This movement by SamskritBharati will move further more effec-tively in coming days. Work is going

Ahmedabad, Pune, Bengaluru,Vijayawada, Chennai and Thrissur.

A Saraswati Sewa Yojana has beenstarted to translate important books ofother languages into Sanskrit and thetranslation work of 350 books is underprocess. A shabd shala has been set upin Tirupati to develop new words keep-ing in view the new inventions in thefield of science, etc. The experts will coinnew words according to the Panini gram-mar, which can be used by all. A websiteof Samskrit Bharati,www.samskritabharati.org/sbindia, isunder process and will be inauguratedsoon. The talks are going on for produc-ing audio books as the youngsters andcorporate people do not have sufficienttime to read books.

A samvad shala has been started inDelhi for those who want to speak San-skrit fluently. People come to samvadshala for a-14-day residential training.People from all states excluding ArunachalPradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura andPondichery have taken part in the samvadshala. Participants from 18 countriesincluding USA, Russia, China, Germany,Canada, Australia, New Zealand, SouthKorea, Poland, Ireland, Ukraine, Trinidad,Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambo-dia, Nepal and Bhutan also participatedin it.(The writer is Akhil Bharatiya Prakalp Pramukhof Samskrit Bharati)Women of Jhiri talking to each other in Sanskrit

on at variousprojects topopularise thelanguage. Corre-s p o n d e n c ecourses are of-fered in eight lan-guages includingHindi, English,Gujarati, Marathi,Tamil Kannada,Telugu andMalayalam. Theeight centres thatrun the coursesinclude Delhi,J a i p u r ,

Shri K.S. Sudarshan felicitating Smt Vimla Tewari in Jhiri


India has to become a developed and pros-perous nation, the 6.5 lakh villages have tobe developed and made prosperous. Keep-ing this into mind Deendayal ResearchInstitute (DRI), set up in 1968, is currentlyworking to validate Pt. DeendayalUpadhyaya’s philosophy of ‘Integral Hu-

Kendras (KVKs) located at Satna in MadhyaPradesh, Chitrakoot and Gonda in UttarPradesh and Beed in Maharashtra are involvedin promoting sustainable agriculture throughintroduction of improved farming technolo-gies. After Independence, our agriculturalpolicies were influenced greatly by the needsof big landlords. As a result, the needs of thelarge majority of small peasants were ne-glected. That is why even after 63 years of

profit-making ones is through intensive useof land through diversification of crops. So,in order to improve the economic and socialstatus of these targeted groups of farmingcommunity, an effort was made byDeendayal Research Institute to developsome technologies for the benefit of mar-ginal farm families. In this regard, a 2.5 and1.5 acre horticulture-based farming systemmodel has been formulated and tested at the

Deendayal Research InstituteConverting non-economic holdings

into economic holdings Amitabh Vashistha

I NDIA is a country of villages. It isin the villages of India that her moral,social and economic strength lies. If

KVK farms with the objective of pro-viding sustainable food and nutritionalsecurity along with sufficient income.After the success of these models at theKVK farm, the models have been rep-licated at farmers’ fields for furthervalidation and to help spread it to otherneighbouring farmers.

More than 85 farmers are practis-ing 2.5 acre and about 16 farmers arepractising 1.5 acre farming system modelin the district. The model has not onlyprovided food and nutritional securityto the farm families but also providedsome savings (Rs 5000 to 26000 per

manism’ under the inspirational guid-ance of Padma Vibhushan Shri NanajiDeshmukh. Models for rural develop-ment have been developed to achieveoverall socio-economic developmentand reconstruction of the Indian soci-ety. The development programmes havebeen carried out at various centres,namely, Gonda, Chitrakoot (UttarPradesh and Madhya Pradesh), Nagpur,Beed (Maharashtra).

DRI’s Chitrakoot project is aself-reliance campaign, an integratedand holistic model for the developmentof rural India. Foremost among theaspects covered in self-reliance cam-paign is income generation. This is achievedby introducing watershed and soil manage-ment techniques wherever necessary; newand improved farming technologies through2.5 and 1.5 acre model farms that enablesmall and marginal farmers, who account for80 per cent of the rural population, to lookafter the family needs plus savings; and byincreasing non-farm sector income throughentrepreneur training and the formation ofincome-generating self-help groups (SHGs)that both stand alone, and vertically inte-grated.

Agriculture is the mainstay in villages.Development of agriculture in villages canbring perceptible change in the life offarming communities. However, the condi-tion of farmers is miserable, owing to verylow productivity of crops and livestock. Toenhance the productivity and make thesevillages self-sufficient in food production,Deendayal Research Institute’s Krishi Vigyan

Independence, three-fourth of our agriculturalland remains uneconomical. Because of thislacuna in our agricultural policies, small farm-ers remain below the poverty line, and ourcountry has not prospered agriculturally. Morethan 80 per cent of Indian farmers own twoand half acre or less land. Their share ofcultivated land is about a third of the totalavailable agricultural land in the country. Overthe time, owing to high population growththat caused a division of land holdings, anda very slow growth rate of the rural economy,the pressure on land has been steadily increas-ing and the number of small and marginalfarmers has been growing. These farmers canplay a leading role in the development of thecountry by contributing to the nation’s capitalformation, if their uneconomic holdings areconverted into economic ones. However, withthe traditional cropping system, small andmarginal farmers are finding it difficult toproduce adequate food to feed their families.The only way to convert these holdings into

annum after meeting out their family re-quirements and expenses) besides, increas-ing farm employment from 56 to 115 days.

DRI validated the model on 1.5 acrein Dewara village in Majhgawan Tehsilbetween 2005-06 and 2006-07. The resultsobtained on the 1.5 acre farm of ShriAnsuiya Kushwaha corroborate the con-cept of farm planning on a small-landholding as per family requirement.

Shri Ansuiya Kushwaha of villageDewara in Majhgawan Tehsil, having sixfamily members possess 1.5 acre of land.A detailed survey of the farm family con-ducted in the year 2005 revealed that thefarmer despite having 1.5 acre of land anda well–perennial source of water, was notin a position to earn enough to feed hisfamily well. The causes of low income werefound to be under-utilisation of availableresources and traditional system of farming.The cropping pattern being adopted by the

Nanaji Deshmukh participating in the yatra


farmer was paddy-wheat.The farmer was getting 31.80 quintal

yield with gross income of Rs. 19,682.50by investing Rs. 2,453 on purchase ofcritical inputs (seeds, diesel, fertilizers andpesticides). Whereas, the annual familyexpenses (food, clothes, education, housemaintenance, social functions and miscella-neous) were calculated at Rs. 37,339.00,thus showing a net deficit of Rs. 20,109.00per annum.

With a view to converting uneconomi-cal landholding into economical one, inten-sive cultivation on one and half acres ofland was undertaken with the active par-ticipation of farm family between 2005-06and 2006-07 in line with the concept of 1.5acre land holding utilisation, the croppingpattern being followed by the farmer waschanged. The planning and layout of fieldwas done on the basis of food requirementof the family. The area under each crop wasallotted on the basis of average productivity

of crop in the region. Crop calendar for thewhole year was prepared to enable thefarmer to perform various cultural opera-tions timely as shown in the above layoutplan.

This resulted in substantial increase inyield and income over the traditional sys-tem of cropping. Shri Kushwaha has har-vested 13.22 and 13.35 quintals foodgrains;3.48 and 3.81 quintals pulses; 3.19 and 3.14quintal oilseeds; 54.49 and 60.93 quintalsvegetables; 5.38 and 5.89 quintals spicesduring the year 2005-06 and 2006-07 re-spectively, which is more than his annualfamily requirement of foodgrains (12.65quintals), pulses (1.74 quintals), oilseeds(2.87 quintals), vegetables (6.55 quintals)and spices (1.50 quintals). The productionof vegetables throughout the year (47.94and 54.37 quintals) was so more than therequired one (6.55 quintals) which gave ShriKushwaha an opportunity for earning cashthrough sale of the surplus vegetables.

Layout and planning of fieldKharifPaddy (JR-353) – 0.5 acreSoybean Brinjal Tomato Okra Lobia Spinach Radish(NRC-37)- (Kashi (Kashi (Kashi (Kashi (All (Pusa0.25 acre taru) amrit) Vibhut) Unnati) green) Chetki)-

0.03 acre 0.1acre 0.06 acre 0.03acre 0.03acre 0.03acreBlackgram(PU-30)- Chilli(Kashi Anmol) 0.1acre Cucurbits- Turmeric (shoruma)- Zinger (Nadia)-0.25 acre 0.08 acre 0.01acre 0.05 acre

RabiMustard (NDR-8501) – 0.25 acre Gram (JG-63) - 0.25 acreWheat Radish (Japanese Pea Tomato Potato - 0.13 acre Cauliflower Carrot(WH- White)-0.05 0.05 0.03 (K-1)- (Pusa3020) – acre acre acre 0.05 Keshar)-0.5 acre acre 0.01acre

Coriander- Onion (ALR)- Garlic- Turmeric Zinger0.03 acre 0.05 acre 0.05 acre (shoruma)-0.01acre (Nadia)-0.05 acre

ZaidMoong – 0.25 acre Fallow - 0.25 acreFallow- Lobia (Pusa Tomato Fallow Cucurbits - Okra Fallow-0.5 acre Komal)- 0.05 acre 0.03 0.13 acre (VRO-6)- 0.01acre

0.05 acre acre 0.05 acre

Radish – Spinach- Corinder - Fallow-0.01acre Fallow-0.03 acre0.05 acre 0.05 acre 0.05 acre

Spices production was to the tune of 3.88and 4.39 quintals during the year 2005-06and 2006-07 respectively, which again of-fered scope for cash earning. The farmerobtained gross income of Rs. 65,417 and Rs.76,662 from the same holding by investingRs. 7,640 and Rs 5,670 on purchase ofcritical inputs (seeds, diesel, fertilizers andpesticides). After excluding all the annualfamily expenses, a net saving of Rs. 18,095.00and Rs. 29,049.00 was achieved during theyear 2005-06 and 2006-07 respectively.

Deendayal Research Institute is confi-dent that this horti-based farming model forconverting non-economics holdings into eco-nomic holdings (small and marginal landhold-ings) is both sustainable and replicable. It canbe a remedy to the agony of the millions ofsmall and marginal farmers. DRI’s confidencein this model is reflected by the recognitionprovided to this model by Indian Council ofAgricultural Research (ICAR).


and people enjoy playing cards rather thandoing any job and the school-going childrenbring liquor for them. Once, the picture ofKalpguru village in Andhra Pradesh was likethat. The village falls under Medak district ofWestern Andhra. Though, there was aVishveshwar temple in the village, but whotakes care of the temple when people do noteven take care of themselves? Nobody wasthere to give a direction to the village till 1988.It is in this condition the Vishwa Hindu Parishadresolved to change the life of the villagers.

In the beginning the village temple wasrenovated with the help of some villagers. Butsome influential people of the village startedopposing the efforts of VHP. Those who wereinvolved in renovation of the temple were eveninsulted. The villagers were told as to howthese outsiders can renovate our temple. Whatwill happen if the temple was renovated? Theyouth working with them are wasting their timeand they should engage themselves in otheractivities.

But the VHP workers were fully aware thatthe beginning of the reconstruction of thevillage will begin with the renovation of thetemple as majority of the people in the villagewere religious. When the renovation work wasstarted these religious people joined the activ-ists as per their capacity. Some donated moneywhile some offered labour. This unity of reli-gious-minded people in the village was a be-ginning of a bright and secure future. Whenthe renovation work completed those who wereonce opposing the work also got silent. A totalof Rs 48000 were collected from the villagers.This amount was spent on the renovation ofthe temple. An idol of Lord Kashi Vishveshwarwas installed there. Only the renovation of thetemple changed the mentality of the peoplewho used to waste their time in playing cards.The children who once used to bring liquor forthem also started going to school straightway

Vishwa Hindu Parishad

Scripting a new chapterand the atmosphere of conflicts and fightingconverted into mutual respect and brother-hood. Meanwhile, a Sangh shakha also beganin the village.

With the construction of the temple, bhajan,keertan and satsang began there. Women toostarted visiting the temple to perform regularpooja. After that Sri Kashi Vishveshwar Samitiwas constituted to carry out various develop-mental activities in the village. The VivekanandRural Saving Group was constituted in 1994 tohelp the economically deprived people of thevillage. Many people started own businesswith the help of the loan taken from the savinggroups. Now the group has more than four lakhrupees as saving amount. A Saraswati ShishuMandir was started up to the fifth standard.Now more than 300 students study in theschools.

With the help of the Sangh swayamsevakssaplings of tulsi plants have been planted inevery house. Though all these efforts took 15years to show the results, the change surfacingin the village is very effective. Impressed withthe positive change visible in Kalpguru, peopleof the surrounding villages have also expressedtheir desire to start similar activities in theirvillages.

This is just a glimpse of the sewa workbeing done by Vishwa Hindu Parishad in ruralareas. The VHP’s service activities began in1966 with the formation of a hostel at Talasariin Thane (Maharashtra). It was the first serviceproject by VHP. But today it has created a hugenetwork of service activities across the country.The Sewa Vibhag of the VHP was basicallyformed after the infamous incident of massconversion in Meenakshipuram. Today, theSewa Vibhag runs more than 72,000 serviceprojects through more than 200 different trustsand organisations. The total projects include26,000 educational projects, 23,204 healthprojects, 850 self-reliance projects and 22,394social welfare projects.Bal Kalyan Ashram

When the whole society thinks about the

WOULD you like to stay at a placewhere there is dirt, filth, foul smell,complete disorganised atmosphere,

Though allthese effortstook 15 yearsto show theresults, thechangesurfacing inKalpguru isvery effective.Impressedwith thesepositivechanges,people of thesurroundingvillages toohaveexpressed thedesire to startsimilaractivities intheir villages.


HostelsThere are 105 hostels and 15 residential

schools in different parts of the country. Thesehostels have proved to be very useful for theVHP to get large number of fulltime workers.Some of them have become Pracharaks andVistaraks in the Sangh. For the benefit of thechildren of leprosy-affected people there is onehostel in Gulbarga (Karnataka), one inKotkapura under Faridkot district of Punjaband two projects are in Haridwar. There are 16hostels and 19 schools in the north-east.Health

Sanjivani hospital of Ahmedabad, eye hos-pital of Pune and Ashwini Hospital of Karnatakahave earned a good name and reputation in thefield of medical science. Modern treatment isprovided there with state-of-the-art technol-ogy. The cost of treatment is more than 50 percent less than the market prices. In specialcircumstances free treatment is also provided.There are also some small medical centres. InOrissa, the Vanvasi boys and girls are providedprimary health training under the Charak HealthScheme and then they are appointed at thevillage Panchayat level to look after the healthneeds of the local people. A total of 133workers are today working at 111 villages in16 districts of Orissa.

A new project known as ‘Rugnashrya’ hasbeen started for the attendants of the patientscoming for treatment at Goa Medical College.

In the first phase, the arrangements for 25patients were made and the building to accom-modate 100 such people is under construction.There are centres for the deserted women inMangalore, Goa and Nagpur.

The Banswara and Beawar projects inRajasthan have proved to be a hit. Under theseprojects more than 650 schools are being runin the Vanvasi areas. The areas, which oncehad the influence of Christians and Muslims,are today echoed with the slogans of Jai SriRam and Bharat Mata ki Jai. Not only this,more than 70,000 people of these regions havereturned home, i.e Hinduism.

More than 250 self-help groups, run inKerala, have proved to be very helpful inmaking the women self-reliant. Ayurvedic GramYojna is also being run in 13 districts of thestate. The work on planting more than 10 lakhtrees of Ayurvedic herbs at 30 acres of landby Vishwa Bheshjam Service Society isunderprocess.

Work in sewa bastis

Many Bal samskar kendras, balwadi andcutting-tailoring centres are being run in thesewa bastis of Nagpur, Kanpur, Prayag, Thaneand Portblair. They have proved to be veryhelpful in eradicating untouchabilty andstrengthening social harmony.

orphan children, how can theybe called orphan? It is with thisthinking that the orphanagehomes were renamed as BalKalyan Ashram. One such BalKalyan Ashram was started atFonda in Goa about 30 yearsback. Today, this project hasbecome very popular and manyrenowned people of the societyhave associated themselves withit. It is basically an effort tomake children self-reliant. Wed-dings of the children of Fondaand Belgam Ashram are alsoperformed to give stability intheir life. A total of 14 BalKalyan Ashrams are being runand there is a move to openone such Ashram in every dis-trict.

The SewaVibhag of the

VHP wasbasically

formed afterthe infamous

incident ofmass

conversion inMeenakshipuram.

Today, theVibhag runs

more than72,000 service

projectsthrough more

than 200different trusts

andorganisations.

Pazhassi Bala Mandiram, Kerala


political, socio-cultural voluntaryorganisation. It is dedicated to thedevelopment and growth of thecountry in all fields of human en-deavour—cultural, social, academic,moral, national and spiritual—bypromoting a sense of patriotism,national unity and integrity. Its visionis swasth samarth sanskrit Bharat,i.e. physically, economically and mor-

Bharat Vikas Parishad

Service as duty, not as charitytrue spirit of our cultural traditiontreating service as worship.Samarpan (commitment): All thesemaxims are indispensable for propergrooming of the citizens and theirfamily members towards the serviceof our motherland.

The Parishad is a service-cum-samskar oriented, socio-cultural fam-ily-based voluntary organisation,where both husband and wife joinas members to serve the society. Themembers meet their own expenses

programmes is executed through thefollowing sutras (maxims):Sampark (fellowship): Identify andestablish personal contacts with thepersons who will enroll themselvesas members to accept responsibilityand render effective assistance inParishad’s activities.Sahyog (cooperation): Enlist activeco-operation and support of influen-tial persons and give them respon-sibility.

ESTABLISHED in 1963, BharatVikas Parishad is a service-cum samskar-oriented, non-

ally strong India.Its objective is to

organise the elite, intel-lectuals and the well-to-do people and to moti-vate them to serve thepoor, disabled, illiteratebrethren not as an actof charity but in thetrue spirit of our cul-tural tradition of serviceas duty. On the birthcentenary of SwamiVivekananda, i.e. onJanuary 12, 1963, theCitizens Council set upby leading industrialistsand social reformerssuch as the late LalaHans Raj and Dr SurajPrakash, initially tomobilise citizens’ efforts to fight theChinese attack, was renamed asBharat Vikas Parishad (BVP). It wasregistered as a society under theSocieties Registration Act 1860 onJuly 10, 1963. Bharat Vikas Parishadis thus motivated and guided by theideals and teachings of SwamiVivekananda.The maxims

The action plan for implementa-tion of Parishad’s policies and

Samskar (moral orientation): Edu-cate and orient members and well-wishers by inculcating in them apositive awareness of the noblestaspects and the spiritual values ofour heritage.

Sewa (service): The logical culmi-nation of efforts put in during theforegoing stages is service—selflessand dedicated service—not as an actof charity, condescension or favourconferred on the recipient, but in the

while participating in itsactivities and also con-tribute towards admin-istrative expenses of theorganisation. Funds col-lected for projects andprogrammes are keptseparately and are spent100 per cent exclusivelyfor the designated pur-poses. The Parishad laysemphasis on developingthe competence of thebeneficiaries throughtheir involvement so thatthey are no longer de-pendent on charity andlead a dignified andhonourable life.Samskar

Under the activitiesaimed at imparting samskars theParishad conducts nationalsamoohgan competition, Bharat koJano (Know your Bharat), GuruVandana Chhatra Abhinandan, per-sonality development, Bal SanskarShivir, folk song competition, cel-ebration of birth and death anniver-saries of great personalities, adultliteracy camps, etc. The nationalsamoohgaan competition is conductedat three stages in Hindi, Sanskrit and

Winners of Bharat Ko Jano competitions


regional languages. The biggest char-acteristic of this programme is thatall the artists participating in theprogramme wear only Indian dressesand use the Indian musical instru-ments. For the competition—Bharatko Jano—the Parishad has publisheda book providing extensive informa-tion about the glorious achievementsof ancient India, Indian culture,dharma, Indian great personalities,pilgrimage places, etc. Both theprogrammes have instilled a feeling ofpatriotism into the participating stu-dents.Helping the physically challenged

Helping the handicapped personsto fully participate in social and na-tional life of the country is one of theimportant programmes of the BharatVikas Parishad. Beginning with theestablishment of its first Viklang Centrein Delhi in 1990, there are now 13Viklang Sahayata Kendras in variousstates, which provide artificial limbsfree of cost to the needy personsthrough their centres as well as byorganising camps.

These centres provide artificiallimbs, calipers, hearing aids, medi-cines, special shoes, and tri-cycles. Inaddition, there are mobile workshopswhich manufacture artificial limbs.Some of the centres have taken upspecial programmes to help poliovictims by organising their operations.

It may be mentioned here that thecentres are equipped with the mostmodern equipments to manufactureartificial limbs and other attachments.The trained technicians at these es-tablishments, through R&D, have de-veloped improved limbs, which arenot only very light but also highlyefficient. The limbs manufactured bythe centres are rapidly fit, cosmeti-cally and functionally close to humanwalking, running, climbing, swim-ming, driving, etc. The disabled per-sons, after the fitment, can even liftheavy weights and work in work-

shops and farms. Bharat Vikas Parishad is the only

non-governmental organisation thatrenders service to the largest numberof handicapped persons in the coun-try year-after-year. The Parishad hasso far provided artificial limbs, tri-cycles, wheelchairs and hearing aidsto about 2.65 lakh handicapped per-sons costing over Rs. 32 crore freeof cost.

Apart from providing artificiallimbs and other aids to the disabledpersons, Bharat Vikas Parishad isnow actively working for their re-habilitation so as to enable them to

scale. The presence of so manypeople in this programme alsosymbolises the acceptance of theParishad’s work in the society.”

The services rendered to thephysically-challenged persons havereceived kudos from all. The Presi-dent of India honoured the Delhi andLudhiana Chapters for the outstand-ing services. Prime Minister DrManmohan Singh too felicitated theLudhiana Chapter in 2007.Rural development

The work of comprehensive ruraldevelopment is done by the Parishadwith the financial support of Dr ShivJindal and Smt. Sarita Jindal (JindalFoundation, Canada). The projectshas been implemented successfullyin Sundernagar (Uttar Pradesh),Dunera and Lohat Baddi (Punjab),Khajjiyar (Himachal Pradesh),Ikalaspur (Andhra Pradesh),Mohabbatpur (Haryana), Kalivas(Rajasthan), Ilbosa (West Bengal),Kumbarakoppalu (Karnataka), Dunge(Maharashtra), Rampur Garwal(Jammu & Kashmir), Konothukunnu(Kerala), Bangar (Madhya Pradesh),Bornalkola (Assam), etc. Under thisproject every selected village is pro-vided Rs 18-20 lakh annually. By andlarge, the Parishad has adopted 850villages and slums for development.

The Parishad also runs manyprojects for the help of Vanvasis.Many hospitals, schools, libraries,samskar kendras, hostels, archerytraining centre, vocational trainingcentres etc. are run in north-easternstates of the country. Differentbranches of the Parishad runs over1100 permanent projects across thecountry. Over 1.5 lakh saplings areplanted every year by the Parishadactivists. Today the Parisahd hasabout 1100 branches with more than77,000 members. The Parishad hasdivided the country into 17 regionsand 52 prants and today it has workin all the prants.

live an independent life. A number ofsuch centres are functioning invarious parts of the country.

Union Minister of Social Welfareand Empowerment, Smt. MeiraKumar, attended one artificial limbsdistribution function in Delhi lastyear. She expressed wonder over thedistribution of artificial limbs on sucha large scale. She said, “Today, I amconvinced that Bharat Vikas Parishadis the organisation working for theuplift of the society. The limbsprovided by the Parishad are not onlyvery useful but are also very strong.Earlier I did not know that theParishad is working on such a large

The work of integratedrural development isdone by the Parishad

with the financialsupport of Dr Shiv

Jindal and Smt. SaritaJindal (Jindal

Foundation, Canada).By and large, the

Parishad has adopted850 villages and slums

for development.


of Swamiji to seek Narayana by serving thedaridranarayana. This home of service cameinto being as a small free dispensary in abuilding donated by the late freedom fighter AVRadhagopi Menon of Muttil. It soon developedinto a charitable hospital with the generoushelp of funds and equipments from SwamiVivekananda Medical Mission, Mumbai, andphilanthropic trusts and the well-wishers ofWayanad, the Vanvasi district of Kerala. TheMission workers under the guidance of veteranSangh Pracharak, the late K Bhasker Rao,collected funds and medicines throughout thestate. It is registered under the Societies Reg-istration Act, 1860 and is managed by a com-mittee of 15 members. It is also exempted underSection 80 G of the Income Tax Act. DrDhananjay Sagdeo arrived from Nagpur inSeptember 1980 offering free services and thisgave a fillip to the Mission’s activities.Major facilities

The main facilities available in the MedicalMission are out patient department, In-patientward (30 beds), maternity ward, well-equippedlaboratory, pharmacy, X-Ray unit, ECG, EEG,ultrasound scan, gastro endoscopy, TB micros-copy and treatment centre, pain and palliativecare clinic, sickle cell anemia diagnostic, coun-selling and treatment centre, multi specialtyclinics for medicine, ENT, skin, gynecology,dental, pediatric, surgery, eye and finally theambulance service.

The hospital has three full-time residentmedical officers, ten visiting specialists andnecessary para-medical staff. All Vanvasi pa-tients reaching the hospital are given freetreatment. The in-patients are given food also.High protein diet is provided to TB patients andchildren suffering from malnutrition. Routine

Swami Vivekananda Medical Mission, Kerala

Seeking Narayana byserving Daridranarayana

investigations in the laboratory are also carriedout free-of-cost.

With the help of the Comtrust Eye CareSociety, Calicut, screening camps for cataract areconducted regularly at the Mission Hospital atMuttil and its rural centres. Confirmed patientsare taken to Calicut for operation. All these areprovided free to all Vanvasis.

The incidence of sickle cell disease (SCD)among the Vanvasis of Wayanad was found outby Dr DD Sagdeo of the Mission and it wasbrought to the notice of the Government and theAll India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)New Delhi. This led to the initiation of Sickle CellAnemia Control Programmes of the Institute. Thediagnostic, treatment and counselling centreprovides counselling to the patients and theirparents. Pre-marriage counselling, drugs (includ-ing hydroxy urea) and all connected investiga-tions (including x-ray and ultrasound scanning)are provided free-of-cost. A monthly free clinicfor SCD patients is organised at Mananthavadysub-centre also.

The Mission organised South India Confer-ences on Sickle Cell Disease in 2005 and 2007 inwhich experts from Delhi, Pune, Vellore etc. anddoctors from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Keralaparticipated. This conference was attended byWHO expert Dr Graham R Sergent of Jamaica,West Indies. A separate Trust by name SCARFwas formed to continue the campaign against thisdreadful genetic problem.

Mobile unit

The mobile unit of the Mission looks aftersix sub-centres in different parts of the districtand conducts diagnostic and treatment camps inVanvasi areas, schools and hostels for Vanvasichildren thus taking medical care to the verydoorsteps of the ailing.

These activities enabled the Mission toreach its health services to more than 90,000

SWAMI Vivekananda Medical Mission,Muttil, Kalpetta, was established in 1972under the inspiration of the rousing call

The mobileunit of theMission looksafter six sub-centres indifferentparts of thedistrict andconductsdiagnosticandtreatmentcamps inVanvasiareas, schoolsand hostelsfor Vanvasichildren thustakingmedical careto the verydoorsteps ofthe ailing.


patients last year. (Hospital 60,000, mobile units18,000, Swasthya Mitras 12,000).Other projects

The Mission is the mother NGO forWayanad district under the RCH Programme ofthe Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,Government of India. It also participates inAYUSH, a holistic project of utilising the dif-ferent systems of medicines—Ayurveda, Yoga,Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy—introducedby the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.This includes awareness campaign, cultivationof medicinal plants, conducting yoga classesin schools and arranging Ayurvedic and Ho-meopathic medical camps in selected villages.

The Mission was awarded the Certificateof Appreciation of the State Government as thebest NGO participant in the implementation ofRevised National Tuberculosis ControlProgramme in 2002. It continues its activeparticipation in the Programme as a Micros-copy and Treatment Centre. Pulse polioimmunisation is another government project inwhich the Mission Hospital is an active par-ticipant.

The Bamboo Craft Training Centre whichwas started for the rehabilitation of SCD pa-tients unable to take up any heavy work hastrained 180 patients and it continues its activi-ties. The Swasthya Mitra Project of the Mis-sion was initiated for training the health work-ers to visit Vanvasi areas and look after thehealth care of the people and guiding them inconducting their lives in a clean, neat andhygienic way. They also distribute simplemedicines. Ninty-eight trained workers are nowin charge of 148 Vanvasi localities. Periodicalrefresher courses are also arranged for them.

Bal Samskar Kendras have been organisedin 100 localities, where children meet once aweek and receive instructions on right conduct,moral education, music and cultural activities.The total numbers of children are attendingthese Kendras are 1425.

Grameen Vidya Kendras are functioning in100 Vanvasi colonies where school-going chil-dren up to the seventh standard and dropoutsare brought together in the evenings and giventuition. A total of 2541 students are attendingthese Kendras. Children are provided nutritiousrefreshment also. According to the teachers ofthe regular schools those attending the Kendrashave improved their standards remarkably. Read-

ing rooms and libraries have been arranged infour sub-centres of the Mission. The VidyaKendras also provide mobile library service.

Self-help groups have been arranged forVanvasi women in colonies where GrameenVidya Kendras are functioning. The SHGs areaimed at consolidating and improving thewomen power of their villages. The membersmeet once a week and discuss ways andmeans of improving their villages with activi-ties such as cultivation of vegetables, con-ducting awareness classes and improvingtheir saving habit by depositing weekly col-lections in banks. Micro Insurance (JeevanMadhur Policy of LIC) is propagated by theMission to develop savings habits among thepeople. The Dhanwantari Mandir at the Hos-pital campus provides consolation and peaceof mind to the patients and bystanders.

The extensive service activities of theMission throughout the district have resultedin the Vanvasi brethren seeking medical aidwhen any illness troubles them instead ofleaving it to fate as in former days. This alsois an encouragement to the Mission to offerits services with renewed dedication.Recognition

The contribution of the Mission in pro-viding health services to the Vanvasi brethrenwas recognised by the State Government in1981-82 by sanctioning an annual grant. TheMinistry of Tribal Affairs, Government of In-dia, began its financial assistance for themobile unit in 1991-1992 and the hospital unittwo years later. The Tribal Integrated Devel-opment and Education, Mumbai, is aiding theprojects of Swasthya Mitra, Grameen VidyaKendras, Libraries and SHGs.Awards

The Janakalyan Samiti, Pune, honouredthe Mission with Shri Guruji Puraskar in 1996and the Government of Madhya Pradesh se-lected the Mission for its first national award,Thakker Bapa Sewa Samman in 2008. TheMission had the blessings of several greatpersonalities, namely Swami Ranganathanandaof Sri Ramakrishna Ashram, SwamiVishveshteerth of Pejawar Math, former RSSSarsanghachalaks Shri Rajju Bhaiya, Shri K.S.Sudarshan, Kalyan Ashram founder the lateRamakant Keshav Deshpande, the lateDattopant Thengadi, Shri Nanaji Deshmukh,and Shri Dharmadhikari Virendra Hegde.

Thecontribution

of theMission in

providinghealth

services tothe

Vanvasibrethren

wasrecognised

by theState

Governmentin 1981-82. The

JankalyanSamiti,

Pune alsohonoured

it withShri

GurujiAward in

1996.


Haryana, Delhi and Pondichery they canbe found in all the states. There areabout 600 Vanvasi communities in thecountry and unfortunately all live in avery miserable condition. They are veryinnocent by nature which became thereason of their exploitation by somealien forces. The most painful fact isthat even after Independence no con-crete action plan has been formulatedfor their betterment and whatever hasbeen done is mostly on papers, nothingon the ground.

Pained at this miserable conditionand exploitation of a large section ofVanvasis the late Ramakant KeshavDeshpande, having worked with the lateThakkar Bapa for several years, foundedthe Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi KalyanAshram on December 26, 1952 with thesole objective of their total uplift. Thethen Maharaja of Jashpurnagar ShriVijaybhushan Singh Judev generouslyhelped in this pious task. With thepassage of time many service projectswere started with the objective of unit-ing the Vanvasis, making them prosper-ous and instilling a feeling of patriotismso that they could feel themselves to bea part of the greater Hindu society.Schools

Kalyan Ashram basically runs twokinds of educational activities—formaland non-formal. By and large over 28,000educational projects are being run allover the country in which more thanone lakh Vanvasi students study. Theformal schools include Ekal Vidyalaya,night schools, adult literacy centres,samskar kendras, etc. These centreshave created an educational revolutionamong the people and they are nowvery serious not only to send theirchildren to schools but also about study-ing themselves. Many children whostudied in Ekal Vidyalayas have nowcompleted higher education.Hostels

Kalyan Ashram also runs over 200hostels at different places of the coun-try. Over 8000 students study whilestaying in these hostels. The childrenwho are not able to continue their

Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram

A revolutionary changein Vanvasi life

Kripa Prasad SinghKalyan Ashram workers rushed to thespot. When the vehicle could not reachthere they walked for three hours andprovided medicines to all the people.When the government doctors werecontacted by the villagers they saidthey would not go till adequate secu-rity arrangements are made for them.Since diarrhoea had broken out due tounhygienic drinking water, the KalyanAshram workers installed 23 handpumpsfor the villagers.Sports

The Eklavya Sports Project wasstarted to promote the sports skill ofVanvasi youth. So far, five nationalsports meets in Mumbai (1987), Indore(1990), Udaipur (1995), Ranchi (2001)and Amarawati (2007) have beenorganised by the Kalyan Ashram withthis objective. From Sardar Milkha Singhto Limbaram, many national and inter-national-level sportspersons have par-ticipated in these national sports meetsand guided the Vanvasi youth. ShriBudhva Bhagat inaugurated the na-tional sports meet of 2001 in Ranchi.The Sports Authority of India (SAI)sent its representatives at the meet andselected hundreds of sportspersons forits projects. At the Amarawati sportsmeet, held in 2007, the army officersselected nine Vanvasi sportspersonsfrom the meet itself.Self-reliance

The Kalyan Ashram has startedthousands of self-reliance projects invillages. Self-help groups have beenstarted in over 1500 villages. More than1000 cutting-tailoring centres are beingrun. Harinachapur village under Gumladistrict has been developed as a modelvillage. The change in the village isclearly visible.(The writer is national joint general secretaryof Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram.)

THERE are about 10 crore Vanvasisamong the 100 crore populationof the country. Except Punjab,

education due to poverty and other rea-sons are kept in these hostels and ar-rangements are made for their education.Apart from education they are also im-parted good samskars and the feeling ofpatriotism. Many students who studiedin the hostels are now active workers ofthe Kalyan Ashram. There is a village,Akola, under Ahmednagar district ofMaharashtra. A youth, Dashrath Kekare,studied at the Muhak Students Hostel upto 12th standard. He has now become anorthopaedic surgeon. Though he runshis own nursing home in Pune, he is anactive worker of Kalyan Ashram.

Forty-two developmental blocks inChhattisgarh are affected with Naxal vio-lence. Four years back 376 children ofthis region became orphan. Their parentswere killed by the Naxalites. Fifty chil-dren of them were admitted atMatrichhaya Vanvasi Students Hostel inDurg district.Health

The condition of health is very poorin Vanvasi areas. The traditional knowl-edge of treatment used in the past in therural areas is now disappearing. Manypeople die due to lack of timely treat-ment. Under the health projects, varioushospitals and dispensaries have beenopened by Kalyan Ashram and severalmobile dispensaries have also beenstarted. Health camps are also organisedas per the requirements. Last year morethan 12 lakh patients were treated atvarious health projects run by KalyanAshram. Educated youth of villages areimparted training of first aid and areprovided with medicines to cure the pri-mary diseases in their villages. Besidesthis an Arogya Rakshak scheme hasbeen launched in 30,000 Vanvasi villages.When diarrhoea broke out in eight vil-lages under Hailakandi district of Assam,which claimed the lives of 19 people, the

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