So we have this forum/community in IIT called the GRA. It stands for Group for Rural Activities. GRA has a simple yet very powerful purpose. It aims at giving rural exposure to the enthu IITian... We at GRA believe that our country will develop & move forward when our villages develop & move forward. To be a part of this, we first need to understand rural life firsthand, not through media or hearsay. So during the semester, we have many talks & presentations by people who are actively working in some rural area in some part of the country & we also make small visits to rural or related projects in and around the beautiful city of Mumbai. Apart from this, our main attraction if you will, is a 4-5 day camp at the end of every academic semester, where we actually pack few sets of clothes and a brush (some get soap too :P) and go live in a rural setting. We normally visit villages where significant development has been or is being done in a sustainable manner. Last year we visited Ralegan Siddhi, the village of Anna Hazareji, stayed there for 3 days & also visited a few projects related to watershed development in & around Pune.
This year, We visited 3 places over a period of 5 days. The first place we visited was an NGO named Shashwat in Bhimashankar, Maharashtra. It is run by an IIT alumnus & his wife, Mr. Anand Kapoor & Kusum taai... It was really inspiring to see an IITian (IIT Kgp, BTech Civil with Honours) living in a tribal area for so many years & serving the nation & its people. It was started for the victims of the Dimbhe dam construction. The tribals of that area were relocated very nicely on paper, but practically they were landless & had no water for irrigation. Kusum taai used to randomly go into the tribal lands & just live with a family & do all their general housework. She soon had an excellent rapport with them & soon she and Anandji started working there fulltime. Anandji made an excellent point... Never work "for" the people. Work "with " the people. You are not doing anyone a favor here. Its every citizen's duty to give back to his nation & people. We all are happily sitting in the comfort of our homes/ hostels enjoying uninterrupted power & water... We have no idea who is paying for it & how much.
We visited their tribal school & stayed the night with the children there. The school was really inspiring. They take in dropouts from other schools & turn them into educated responsible people. The kind of challenges they faced were immense & it was a real humbling experience for all of us.
We next visited a village called Hivre Bazar in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra. Its a model village & one of the best. As we entered the village, we thought we were entering some university campus!!! :P It was that good... The person responsible for this village's present is its ex-sarpanch Shri Poppatrao Pawar. We were fortunate enough to meet him inspite of his extremely busy schedule. One thing I got from his speech was that he was extremely forceful & ambitious. He never feared any challenge. He was unanimously elected sarpanch for many terms & united the village & brought about many excellent reforms socially, economically and morally. We then roamed the village interacting with the villagers. We could see the difference in the attitudes of urban people & rural people. I was really impressed with rural India :) We asked a group of young guys if they never had any problem with so many rules... They gave a weird look & said ki "yeh apne liye hi toh hai. Isse humme hi faidha ho rha hai. Problem kyun hoga???" When we asked what happens if someone breaks a rule, they said its immediately reported & the person is fined or some action is taken. When asked if this doesn't cause strained relations, they again gave us those weird looks & said "kyun? kuch galat kiya toh fine dena hi hai na... Aur kuch sochne ke liye hai hi nhi..." :) I remembered Kusum taai's words, "I first had to unlearn all the horrible things I learnt in the city after coming here. Then I was happy once more & we could start working".
Next we visited an NGO called Snehalaya in Ahmednagar city. This visit probably touched the deepest regions of our hearts... It was an experience at a level beyond the mind or intellect. The NGOs focus is on women & children in red light areas & slums. They also help in treatment & rehabilitation of HIV affected people & children. The level of commitment & dedication of the volunteers was truly amazing. Some of us had tears in our eyes while we were visiting the projects & listening to the volunteers speak. They have many centres in slums, red light areas and in 2-3 different parts of the city where the children are kept in excellent living conditions & holistic development. The children were extremely happy & we couldn't see ny lack in them at all. We were told that they were put in the top schools of the city & were topping there too :) It was a really touching experience. One of the most active volunteers there who was overlooking the construction of a major HIV research facility & rehabilitation center was himself a HIV patient. It was great to see his gratitude t oSnehalaya in saving him & his positive approach to life. He knows he is going to die in few years. Yet he's doing great work for others like him & the organization. We also visited their childline office & got to hear some really interesting incidents they went through to rescue children.
All in all, it was a great visit, very very inspiring & humbling. We learnt to appreciate our lives much much more & got a sense of our responsibilities & duties... I'm looking forward to the next GRA camp eagerly... :)
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Nice !
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