| 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 |