Pragathi's Recent Visit all over India for 20 days
This is a short tour (20 days) in India where I got the opportunity to meet various NGOs and prominent personalities regarding the sustainable rural development and cluster village development in India .Mr Prasad Reddy Maruri, volunteer of Pragathi also joined the part of the tour.
Dr Jayaprakash Narayana - Setting up of Citizen Help Center
CHC - Citizen Help Center in every Mandal head quarter - This ensures the better service to the common man from the government and others if any.JP suggested to start this with a computer center where it generates some limited income to the people work for this good cause.Income(non profit) would be generated through various training programs for the life skills development.We are going to start this very soon.
Mr Krishnan,Chennai(retired from Army) Brother of Dr Raj Rajaram
Mr Krishnan is a Satya Saibaba devotee who believes in LOVE ,HUMILITY ,SURRENDERING COMPLETELY to the LORD within us to serve better and help solve many problems in the society.
Skill Development Training - L&T Chennai - Mr V.S.Ramana
I got the opportunity to meet Mr V S Ramana, general manager of L&T ECC division in Chennail He is asking the help of NGOs to get the rural unevemployed youth trained in Construction and other related skills development.I have been campaigning this to all NGOs and prominent people to spread this message to help many unemployed rural youth.The message is under the way which was passed to many of the people I met(I mentioned below)
Education in the villages
During my visit to the schools in our village where I find lot of confusion in the people about the education to their children.
Everyone who can able to spend to their children primary education are fond of English Medium and dont mind spending for that.My visit is going to help solving couple of issues like toilets usage pending for several years and tuition to the high school students. We are heading in the direction to provide better education to the students of ZPH School. We are also planning to implement the suggestions of Dr Bhamy to teach the children about extra curricular activities and personality development which he implemented in some schools in Karnataka.BCT's model school give great message to the society through their songs and stage shows about meaning of education, kinds of poverty, spiritual songs etc.Libraries set up by Aid India are worth to set up in every village to help the children get reading habit.Waste paper recycling can be set up(as done by Techknow in one school in New Delhi) in a school in every Mandal.
My opinion about Improving education in villages : It is better to set up some better english medium schools with qualified and well trained teachers and help the aspirations of the parents to pursue education of their children in English Medium. Infact, mother tongue is the best medium to do education and till the student get maturity to understand and study in English Medium.But, It is hard to convince the people about the education in mother tongue when everyone is interested in english medium.
Visit to Gajapathi Nagaram - Dr BSR Murthy's work
Dr B S R Murthy's excellent work in family planning - He invented forceps which help vasectomy and tubectomy operations in less time.They are doing wonderful community work in education, nursery,vermi composting,health care and livelihood with the help of Lions Club.Dr BSR Murthy's family is unique in having every family member with a great service attitude and service as a way of life. All the family members of Dr BSR Murthy are doctors except Mrs.Sai Padma who is pursuing her Chartered Accountancy. They have lot of knowledge and are very much interested to network with like minded NGOs to help see a great change in India especially in the rural areas.
Arghyam - Bangalore- Spoke with Mrs.Sunita Nadhmuni(the reference from Dr Raj Rajaram) who is showing interest to fund the projects related to water and sanitation management.I find there is a lot of need in water and waste management in India.
Vizag : Mr Anand and Saipadma Murthy - Gloabal Aid (to help the chanllendged children and youth)
They are a great couple who have been serving India for a longer time.Infact Mrs Saipadma's words in the IDC America meeting in the year 2007 lingers always in my mind and drive me.She told the audience that 'When I am able to do this much to the society, every other human being can do the same or more than this'.This couple is helping me by sharing their knowledge and we are going to work together for the sustainable development of India.
BCT India –Yalamanchili,Vizag: Dr Parameshwara Rao and Srinivasa Rao (brother of Dr Parameshwara Rao)
I felt blessed to meet Dr Parameshwara Rao garu who is a great example for selfless service and humanity. Any a word to express about his great service may not be enough when the people of the villages regard him as their Lord who changed their lives.I got the opportunity to visit the villages Mamidi Vada,Panchadarla,Dimili,Model School and Elementary Schools.Though I interacted with only few people, I could get a gist of how their lives got changed from nothing to stand on their own feet.Now the villagers got the capacity to question any one about their issues.People undertand the need of trying to solve their problems on their own.This is a great model to the real empowerment of villages in India where the people are educated to solve their problems on their own which was preached by Swami Vivekananda. Wherever I visited in BCT, I showed the video on meditation to them and requested to add this item in their list.I reminded everyone about Swami Vivekananda's message - DO MEDITATION AND PRANAYAM EVERY DAY.
Activities of interest in BCT
· Waste land development or around 100 acres.Dr Parameshwara rao challenged the government and made this into usable land growing great nursery of different plants and fruit crops.
· Krishi Vigyana Kendra - Government of India(Indian Council of Agricultural Research) gave the opportunity to many NGOs to own and implement KVKs for certain period of time. The focus is to provide training to farmers in various agriculture crops for better crop yielding.Employment generation to the rural masses is also one of the activities of KVK.There are lot of funds from the government to take these activities forward.High technology(VSAT) like connecting the centers to various departments in India through satellite internet is in the process.It is going to have all the training and infrastructure for the people in the rural areas for a better life.
· BCT Model School - TTD(Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam) gave some kind of training to the students of the school in playing small stage shows with songs etc .These children help other students in other schools to extend the cultural activities as part of education..Education in this model school teaches about the real importance of education, seven kinds of poverty, need of the educated person to help the other needy, help creating a better society, help building good world and help building character in man. This way it is helping build
· Model Village : Spirituality added to the NGO activities is a better alternative which I experienced in the model villages of BCT. This helped in effective implementation of various rural programmes like sanitation, better health care, education and livelihood. I find this idea very interesting which help motivate and involve the villagers in developmental activities.The spiritual activities implemented here are Bhajans, Pallaki Seva, Rs.3,000 to the villagers upon successful implementation of the TTD program and spiritual visits to other villages. When I talked to the villagers - Dr Parameshwara Rao is regarded as their lord to them Dr Parameshwar rao taught or educated the villagers to fight for and solve their problems on their own in a peaceful way.
Aid India work in Srikakulam(www.aidindia.org) :
Libraries, Easy cooker, NREGA, Kitchen gardens are some of the important activities taken up in Srikakulam through Aid India.
The team has been working hard to educate the children and get them nutritious food. Aid India team helped many people to get employment through NREGA .Easy cooker was invented by Ravi Kuchimanchi and other team members from Srikakulam which help conserve fuel by 50% and useful to keep the cooked food warmer for 5 to 7 hrs.
A team had explained us about how they are using the waste wood to manufacture educational toys, furniture items and other tools of educational importance.
I felt there is a great need of Rain Water Harvesting in these villages. The villagers do not have proper water facility and drinking water.
Visit to Technow office, New Delhi
Visited the Technow Office in New Delhi which has been working on the solid waste treatment which is using the great knowledge and expertise of Dr Raj Rajaram. Discussed with the team working on sustainable environment and waste paper recycling. We are going to implement the waste paper recycling in some of the schools in Kukatpally,Hyderabad and in our Mandal at chagantivaripalem. The team is very interested to help us in the sustainable development programmes.
Visit to Sehgal Foundation,Haryana
Spoke with Mrs Puja in Sehgal foundation and came to know about the cluster village development and Green Building which are great examples of the sustainable development.Mr Lalit from Sehgal foundation is interested to visit our villages and help us in water management programs.
Visit to Village Pachayat Trust, Kuthambakkam,Tamil Nadu
Pragathi visited Kuthambakkam village 3 times and met Mr Elango Rangaswamy, the chairman of the Trust – Village Pachayats. Mr Elango graduated from IIT in Chemical Engineering.He served for 12 years in various industries in the Government of India.Mr Elango left his luxurious job and chose to serve the villages(has been serving for the past 14 years)especially where more poverty and ignorance remain for centuries. Mr Elango could inspire 300 Panchayats in Tamil Nadu who is helping those Panchayats become self sustainable. We agreed to work together for the development of villages in India and see the poor get benefitted.
Project Krushi(www.projectkrushi.org) in Medchal near Hyderabad
Saikorians are helping the street children to come out of the poverty and child labour. They have formed an alumni who has been together for the past 50 years and continuing their relationship.
Visiting Mr.Narasimhulu from Wipro
Mr Narasimhulu has been working for the past 14 years with Wipro Technologies and now a Delivery Manager.Being born in a poor family from a village, he got all his classmates from LKG to 10th class together after 25 years of their separation.Mr Narasimhulu wants to serve the villages and to see a developed India very soon.
Lead India 2020 : Mr Sudarshan Acharya(www.leadindia2020.org)
Mr Sudarshan Acharya's team has researched for 6 years and designed several training programs in the guidance of his Excellency Dr Abdul Kalam.This team has been imparting the change in the youth mainly the school children(6-10th standard) to see the children become responsible and empowered citizens to see India grows while they grow. Mr Acharya is a selfless soul who dedicates for the development of India and to see a developed India by 2020.All the schools in the state of Andhra Pradesh are now being trained which is slowly spreading all over India.
Prominent people or people having expertise in the rural development I spoke with or met during my visit to NGOs and also about the cluster village development are as follows.
My opinion after visiting the NGOs, their works and discussion with them : I felt there is only a fraction of the visible development except in BCT ,Kuthambakkam,and Sehgal Foundation where pioneering work has been done for several decades. There is a great need of more volunteers(part time paid) to work for the rural development. Lot of waste management is yet to be done in the rural areas which is limited to Urban areas at present. The cluster village development by Sehgal foundation is unique in its objective to expand the metro facilities to rural areas. I strongly feel this is the best solution(as of now) to dissipate the employment, educational, industrial and livelihood opportunities across which help stop migration of the rural poor and low income groups to the urban areas, help reduce lot of traffic problems in the urban areas, stop pollution and help smooth functioning of various activities in the urban areas.
Also, there is a great need of a channel or separate TV for NGOs activities where the works of the good NGOs are exhibited to the people. If this is done, there would be a great possibility of getting more volunteers to participate in the sustainable rural and urban development of India.
In urban areas, there is a great need of rain water harvesting and water management apart from waste management(paper recycling, water recycling etc).
My learning after the tour : I find India is growing rapidly where communication through various means like telephones, cell phones( mainly sms messaging), internet(limited to urban areas only at present) etc playing a very key role. There is more need of various experts in Development alternatives like cluster village development with solar energy, waste management, manufacturing, water, better education, better health care management and infra structure development. Though many of the NRIs and Indians have been working constructively for the development of India for a longer time, there is more necessity to have a great team of execution at the local level. I feel this is lacking every where I visited. I felt like we(NRIs) are able to influence the change in India like a drop in the ocean and lot more yet to be done to add more drops to the ocean. The North South Foundation created so many intellectuals. We are going to get the alumni of the beneficiaries of NSF where networking of them plays a very crucial role in the sustainable rural development of India. Everyone we spoke or met is interested to help us in some way for the cluster village development which sounds very interesting to them.
The Kuthambakkam model of development by Mr Elango Rangaswamy is approved by the world where low cost housing take very prominence.For housing where every hut can be made into a pucca house, this model is ideal.Education through eLearning is another model coming up in Kuthambakkam which is necessary to see developed India very soon.
Saikorians from Sainik School,Korukonda formed into an organization called Saikoraian who have been working together for the past 50 years for the development of the street children and to eradicate child labour