Empowering Villages

Pilot teams of students as well as a couple of faculty members have been visiting the village for the past year to do the groundwork on the geographical,socioeconomic and cultural status of the village. Earlier recces of the village reported that short-term projects such as tree plantation,awareness campaigns for health and hygiene,educating the villagers on micro-financing and modern means of agriculture,providing educational support systems will help uplift the socioeconomic status of the village.

The actual implementation of the project ,however,will begin this week.

“ The students have been divided into batches to address various aspects such as education,farming and self employment. They will interact with government as well as local non-government organisations to provide an impetus to channelise the present man-made and natural resources,” Murthy said.

The five-year project will involve the students visiting the village at least once a year to a keep a track on the implementation of the action plan.

“ My current perception of village life is based entirely from what the movies project. Badly lit streets and homes ,poor general infrastructure and a general lack of facilities. However,over the past few months after several discussions and briefings among ourselves,we feel the village social structure is strong and the village community can achieve self-sufficiency through appropriate channelising of materialistic as well as human resources. In this case,‘Svayam’ is playing the role of an external impetus,” said Gaurav Jagiasi,a student.

The project will be funded by the school management and is termed a ‘reflective assignment’. “There will be no grading system for this project. We hope the students look at this as a selfless step in doing something for the society and the country at large,” said Murthy. After her recce trip to Lakhania,student Anica Chaturvedi returned with an enriching experience.

“We met many ambitious village children who wished to pursue careers in medicine and science but owing to lack of opportunities,they had to stick to farming to earn their livelihood as that’s what their families demanded. This is our way of giving back to society and bring about whatever positive change we can.”