Tuticorin District TN
The staff of Vidiyel Trust took me to the different project sites. Of the total of 10 projects, 6 projects were fully underway. The pot-in-a-pot project and drip irrigation projects were delayed due to heavy rains in October and November.
Pictures on the right - top to bottom
1.0 We found a smaller version of the pot-in-a-pot produced in the neighbouring district of Thirunelveli. These pots are priced around Rs 60 and have been marketed for some time. We will select a group of families in one of the cluster villages, sell at a discounted price of Rs 25 or so. This will help us to test the concept and see how the pots will help in preserving the freshness of vegetables for a longer time.
2.0 One the SHG (Self Help Group) named 'Chembaruthi' has constructed a vermicomposting unit and a vegetable garden. This picture shows the group members in the garden.
3.0 Inside the hut that houses the vermicomposting unit. The worms cannot be exposed to direct sunlight. There are 4 pits inside the hut
4.0 Another SHG group comprising of all men, which is rare. All the members are farmers. They intend to use the manure produced by the vermicompost unit in their farms.
5.0 Gopalakrishnan from Tiruchi, an expert on Vermicomposting, hand carried a bucket of worms and put them into the vermicomposting pits created by the male SHG group.
6.0 One of the members grows hare for export.
7.0 Another group of 4 women are learning tailoring. Vidiyel Trust is working with this group to sell their products.
8.0 A desilting and dredging project at a nearby water tank ("Oorani").
9.0 Planting a tree along the boundary of the "Oorani". A fencing along the boundary was under construction.
Contact information:
Vidiyel Trust
1/38, Madurai Road
Vilathikulam, Tuticorin District
Tamil Nadu, India
Telephone:
Office: (463)-823-3674
Residence: (463)-823-3090
E-Mail address
vidiyelrurdev_ngo@yahoo.co.in
Haripuram A.P
I wanted to stop in Haripuram on my way to Bhubaneswar. My flight from Chennai to Vishakapatnam was delayed by 2 hours. It was about 4:30 PM when I finally reached BCT in Haripuram. It was good to see both Sreenivasa Rao and Parameshwara Rao after a gap of 15 months.
Dr Parameshwara Rao was able to spare some time to inform me about recent developments at BCT. He appealed to the NRI community to approach the Government and take up 'water' as the primary issue across the country.
Pictures on the right..
1.0 A new school is being added. This is an outdoor school consisting of a number of conical-shaped huts.
2.0 A night school in progress.
3.0 Teaching crafts
4.0 School for the challenged - donated by a few NRI well wishers
5.0 With Parameshwara Rao and Sreenivasa Rao (picture taken during my Sept 2003 visit to BCT)
Contact information:
Bhagavatula Charitable Trust
Haripuram 531 061 Rambili Mandal
Vizag District, Andhra Pradesh
Telephone:
Haripuram office - (08924) 253770
E-Mail address
vsrbtula@yahoo.com
bctrust@satyam.net.in
www.bctindia.net
Bhubaneswar Orissa
Thanks to Dr S.K.Dash of Minneapolis, one of the organizers of the FIRST Pravasi Uthkal Divas (PUD), I visited Bhubaneswar, Orissa for the first time. I took the Coramandel Express from Vishakapatnam and reached Bhubaneswar by 5:15 AM.
The PUD was attended by almost 100 NRO's (Non Resident Oriyya's). The full day event consisted of different panels of speakers on various topics on how NRO's can help Orissa, mostly Bhubaneswar. Both the current Chief Secretary as well the just retired Chief Secretary to the Government of Orissa attended the event.
The last key event was the present Chief Minister Patnaik's speech.
Sudanshu Mishra of St.Paul also attended this event.
Contact information:
DR S.K.Dash
UAS Labs
9953 Valley View Rd, Minneapolis, MN 55344
Telephone:
Office: 952-935-1707
E-Mail address
dash@uaslabs.com
West Midnapore,
West Bengal
On Dec 19, 2004 Sunday morning, I reached Kharagpur by train (Sri Puri Jagannath Express from Bhubaneswar). This was my first opportunity to see the famous long platform No.1 in Kharagpur. Atma Sarogi and Bhandari arrived from Howrah. Bibek Ray took all of us to his village of Gohaldanga in West Midnapore district. This was about a 2 hour drive from the Kgp station.
Bibek and Poornima have created a 'seva kendra' (community center) that provides various services to the people in the village. There is a compound wall surrounding the premise but it is open to the public using 2 or 3 gates. The pond occupies almost 70 percent of the premises. The pond contains a growing population of fish. Surrounding the pond, Bibek has grown a vegetable garden with various vegetable and fruit trees. He has also introduced certain varieties that he has taken from USA.
Bibek came back to his native village a few years ago to fulfill a personal committment he made to his mother. With the help of his nephew and many residents of this village, his dream of 'giving something back' to his native village is now a reality
Pictures on the right..
1.0 Bibek Ray with visitors Atma Sarogi and Vijay Bandari
2.0 The pond grows fish. It is filtered often. We got up at 5:00 AM to witness fish being 'harvested' from the pond. Two large baskets of fish was collected and taken to the market. Bibek estimated the market value of this catch to be Rs 2,500.
3.0 The kendra has arranged for a homeopathic doctor to come once a week and provide medical services. This service attracts a long line villagers.
4.0 Children from the local community attend music classes offered in the 'kendra'
5.0 Classes 1-4 are offered in the kendra. A local retired school headmaster, a retired engineer and 1 younger staff form the staff of this school. Each class has about 10-15 students. There is a tutorial coaching class to train senior students. The center charges Rs 200 per student per month. There is a growing demand from the local residents to admit their children at the kendra as they perceive the kendra classes to be better.
6.0 The kendra offers a 30' by 40' dance teaching area to a local dance teacher. About 15 children are currently learning dance. Along with the children, their mothers often come to see how their children are progressing.
7.0 A 'padasala' (school) in the neighbouring village
8.0 A distant view of Belur Mutt. Bibek took me to the Ramakrishna mutt in Belur.
What Bibek and Poornima have achieved in 3 short years is phenomenal. They have earned the respect of the villages. The native son has returned.
Contact information:
Gohaldanga Ramkrishna-Sarada-Vivekananda (RSV) Sevakendra
P.O. Gohaldanga, Pin. 721232, West Midnapur
West Bengal, India
(March to August)
3658 Garden Court
Oakdale, MN 55128
Telephone:
Phone (USA): 651-748-8066
Land (India) 91-3225-260-427
Cell-(India) 94332-76076
E-Mail address
labcin@uwyo.edu
Kharagpur, West Bengal
We had requested Prof Pandey of the Rural Development Centre (RDC) of IIT Kharagpur to meet Bibek Ray. He was kind enough to arrange this meeting attended by the staff of RDC and some of the faculty from the Department of Agricultural Sciences.
Bibek Ray presented an overview of the activities of the 'kendra' in the village of Gohaldanga.
The RDC faculty promised to interact with Bibek as well as explore the possibilities of using some of the testing facilities available at the RDC center.
Contact information:
Prof.K.P.Pandey
Head - Rural Development Center
IIT Kgp Kharagpur 721 302
Telephone:
Office: 91-03222-283-106
Residence: 03222-283-107
E-Mail address
pbsb@agfe.iitkgp.ernet.in
Kolkatta,
West Bengal
Thanks to Atma Sarogi, himself a Rotarian, Bibek and myself were invited to participate in the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Calcutta. About 40+ Rotarians representing various business sectors attended this lunch meeting.
Bibek Ray described his 'Seva Kendra' and related activities in the Gohaldanga village. Ram showed a short video on watershed management produced by DHAN Foundation.
Atma Sarogi was making plans to take a number of interested Rotarians to a visit to Gohaldanga and show the kendra to the Rotarians.
Notes from the meeting written by a staff of the Rotary club.
Gandhi Peace Institute - Atma Sarogi
Atma had arranged for a group of grass roots rural development workers to meet Bibek and discuss mutually interesting issues. Discussion evolved around - how to mobilize village action, role and effectiveness of panchayats, vermicomposting and rainwater harvesting.
B.Prasad Chatterji (writer, education, youth camps)
Chandan bal (Gandhi Peace Foundation),
Boshu (Shiksha Niketan),
Goranga Rajak (villager),
R.K.Sinha (NRI, Biologist),
Dr. Thushar Kanti (Center
for Total Development),
Ahbad bai (Taj Mission)
Shoshantu Mishra (Statesmen),
D.N.Banerjee (Retd. chief
Secretary to WB Govt) attended this meeting.
Contact information:
name address
Telephone:
Office:
Residence:
E-Mail address
atma@gmcindia.com
New Delhi
Over 2,000 IITians from across the world had gathered at Pragati Maidan- New Delhi to attend the two-day PANIIT conference and exhibition titled ‘Empowering India’ on 24th & 25th December 2004. The Pan IIT meeting was also attended by the Directors of all IIT's and other prominent movers and shakers of the country's technocratic community. The theme for this meet was the role of IITians in empowering our nation.
Mr. Sunil Mittal- Bharati Telecom Ltd inaugurated the conference & exhibition. Mr. Mittal told the audience that infrastructure development & rural transformation hold the key for development of India. He urged IITians to bring about technological advances for the agriculture sector.
During the inauguration session Prof. Misra- Director IIT Bombay delivered the keynote address on behalf of all 7 IITs. Through his presentation he highlighted the progress & achievements of IITs in the last 54years.
In spite of his busy schedule and earlier commitments, the President of India Dr. A.P.J. Kalam found time to join the gathering of more than 2000 alumni and other invitees, in the late evening on 24th December and spent nearly two hours laying the road map to India's all-round development.
Fifteen sessions were held on various topics in two categories, IITians Empowering India: Global Competitiveness & IITians Empowering India: Towards a better India. All seven IITs had participated in the exhibition, along with many other organizations & enterprises set up by IITians displayed their achievements & products.
Each IIT had its own break out session to meet with its alumni. The last 3 pictures on the right show the IIT Madras alumni meeting.
More information at : http://www.paniit2004.org
Contact information:
Telephone:
E-Mail address
http://www.paniit2004.org
http://www.iit.org
Chennai TN
By now everyone knows fully well the devastation caused by the Tsunami waves that hit coasts along the Indian Ocean. I was in Pune when the Tsunami hit on Sunday Dec 26th at 8:30 AM. Two more secondary waves hit at 10:30 AM and 12:30 PM on the same day.
In India, the eastern coast of India comprising of the state of Tamil Nadu was hit hard. The towns of 'Cuddalore' and 'Nagapattinam' were hit the hardest. Immediately south of Nagapattinam, a section of the Tamil Nadu coast - Ramanathapuram and Tuticorin districts were saved the devastation, thanks to the island of Sri Lanka taking the brunt of the waves and acting as a shield. 'Kulachel' area of Kanya Kumari district was hit hard also.
I reached Chennai on Dec 29th evening, 3 days after the Tsunami. With my friend Venkat Subramanian (San Jose CA - IITM), we went straight to the Marina Beach in Chennai. We could see some evidence of the destruction brought by Tsunami but most of the beach seemed almost normal. We met with fishermen and enquired about how they braved the waves.
On Dec 31, 2004, my friend Krishna Prasad and 4 colleagues from his Company in Chennai collected relief materials (a vessel, a plate, rice, dhal and biscuits), loaded 2 cars and drove to a coastal village called 'puthiya pattinam' near the Kalpakkam atomic energy plant.
We delivered the materials to a group of volunteers working for AID-India and the Tamil Nadu Science Foundation under the leadership of Balaji Sampath (IITM).
Contact information:
AID-India
Old No 132, New No 242,
Avvai Shanmugam Road
Gopalapuram, Chennai – 600 086
Telephone:
Office: AID Chennai Office – 044-28350403, 55615629
E-Mail address
balaji_sampath@hotmail.com
Chennai TN
Four years ago, the IITM campus decided to extend their 2 month summer vacation to 4 months. Why? Not enough drinking water for the hostels. There are 12 hostels with an average of 250+ students in each hostel for a period of 9 months of the calendar year. At a minimum of 45 litres per day per student, that works out to 135,000 litres per day. This demand was met by each hostel buying 2 water tankers everyday at about Rs 1,000 per tanker.
The monsoon and non-monsoon rain in Chennai during 2001 and 2004 was close to the average of 51" per year. But the rains of 2002 and 2003 failed completely.
The technique of rainwater harvesting is now installed in each hostel. The collected roof rain water is piped into a nearby well. There are 4 large agricultural type wells (about 40 feet in diameter and 40 feet deep). These wells allow water to be collected as well as recharge the underground.
I wish to thank Prof. R. Dhamodharan, Prof. M. P. Maiya and Dr. Sekhar Raghavan (of Rain Centre )for the initial guidance and continued committment. The first pilot projects for Narmada and Tapti hostels were partially funded by IITM alumni. On successful completion of these 2 projects, IITM extended the RWH techniques to the remaining 10 hostels. The leadership and support provided by our Director and the Institute was vital in extending the program to all the hostels.
I visited the campus and the hostel sector on Jan 2, 2005. As of January 2005, 2 months after the monsoon rain in October, the 4 wells are still full of water. The well water (collected Rainwater) is filtered through a 4 stage filter and the resulting water is purer than 'aqua fina' by Pepsi immediately after the rain upto about few days. But after the contact with the well surface consisting of inorganic substances, it slowly turns salty due to dissolution of inorganic salts from the rocks.
"At present the rain water is used to augment the corporation water supply in Alakananda, Jamuna, Ganga and Mandakini - all from Alakananda well; The water from Saraswathi well is used for Krishna, Cauvery and for all of the drinking water supply to the hostels using the modified RO plant located near Tapti. The Brahmaputra well is full and this water is the reserve water that will help us to produce drinking water during summer" ..Prof Dhamodharan.
"It can't be denied that RWH has gone a long way in enriching the ground water reserves in the hostel sector and is readily available for us to draw on demand."
By the month of May, we may be forced to purchase outside water from tankers. If this takes place, rainwater harvesting would have supplied 6 MONTHS of water demand in the hostel sector. We can work further to make the supplies last a whole year.
Contact information:
IIT Madras
Adyar, Chennai 600 036
Rain Centre
No 4, Third Trust Link Street,
Mandavelipakkam, Chennai 600 028.
Tel: (011) 2461-6134
www.raincentre.org
E-Mail address
rkrishnan46@yahoo.com
Chennai TN
Kuthambakkam village is located about 40 km from Chennai on the Chennai-Bangalore road. It also shares its border with the city of Chennai.
Elango Rangasamy, the panchayat leader of Kuthambakkam is forging ahead in bringing development to his village. Around October 2004, Elango opened the 'panchayat academy'- an effort to bring panchayat leaders from different districts and teach them about 'panchayat raj'.
The pictures on the right show various 'income generation' opportunities...
1.0 Elango Rangasamy, the panchayat leader of Kuthambakkam.
2.0 Entrance to the new 'panchayat academy' quarters.
3.0 Oil press machine helps to make oil from groundnuts.
4.0 Sudhir Krishna and Seetharaman (IITM alumni) viewing the low-wattage street lights assembled by the SHG women of this village.
5.0 Soap making.
6.0 Seetharaman interacting with a family in this village.
7.0 Brick making - sun dried.
Contact information:
Panchayat Academy
Kuthambakkam
Thiruvallur District
Tamil Nadu
Telephone:
Office: (044) 2501-6595
Residence: (044) 2681-1247
Cell: 98411-13814
E-Mail address
panchayat@vsnl.net
http://www.modelvillageindia.org
Mumbai MH
Source: Rediff.News
The Third Pravasi Bharatiya Divas took place in Mumbai on Jan 7-9,2005. The third edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, that much vaunted social, cultural and economic annual jamboree for Non-Resident Indians or People of Indian origin, has been held captive to the South Asian tsunami.
PBD 2005, unlike its predecessors, opened in Mumbai to a muted response. All the elements of celebration – like evenings of folk music and dance, the Naval Band display, cocktails and "thanks giving" dinner were cancelled, save for a delightful Bhimsen Joshi - Balamurali Krishna jugalbandi held under the aegis of a joint committee of the Government of India and FICCI.
The evidence of the enthusiasm among overseas Indians can be gauged from the fact that as many as 1902 delegates registered themselves for participation for the 2005 edition of PBD at Mumbai, out of which 1400 are Overseas Indians from as many as 60 countries including the US, UK, Canada, South Africa, Malaysia, Mauritius, Singapore, Surinam and the Gulf countries.
This is viewed as a significant increase in participation of Overseas Indians as compared to last year when only 800 Overseas Indians got registered themselves.
The session on Rural Development
On the second day of the event on Jan 8th,2005, a special session on Rural Development with a theme of "water management and Income Generation". About 75 people attended this session.
Three sub-sessions were held as follows:
Session 1: Overview of the Issues
Water Harvesting by Dr Rajinder Singh (TBS)
Income generation in rural India by Namrata Bali (SEWA)
Dato Sahadevan - National Land finance - Malaysia
Session 2: Success Stories
DHAN Foundation by M.P.Vasimalai
KVIC - Ms Maya Sinha
MSSM - Vijay Borade
IndiCorps - Gaurav Parnami
Dr Gurdev Gill- Indo-Canadian Friendship Society
Raju Rajagopal - Indians for Collective Action
Jay Sehgal - Sehgal Foundation
Session 3: Action Plan and Sign-up
Pilot project in 5 regions of India - Ram Krishnan
Networking sign-ups
Concluding remarks by the Session Chairperson
Contact information:
FICCI
Tansen Marg
New Delhi
Telephone:
Office:
Residence:
Web address
http://www.indiaday.org
Tuticorin District TN
Murthy Sudhakar (Pasadena) joined me on this train ride from Chennai to Kovilpatti by the Pearl City Express. Since my visit to Vilathikulam during the week of Dec 12, 2004, the entire state of Tamil Nadu was working on the relief efforts after the Tsunami disaster on Dec 26th.
During the 4 days - Jan 12th to Jan 15, we visited some of the SHG project sites. A group of 9 panchayat leaders from the Vilathikulam village cluster region visited the Vidiyel Trust offices. In the Phase 2 part of this project, we are hoping to create a few projects where the panchayat leaders will play the key role.
On Jan 16th Sunday, we welcomed Dr Kesavulu from Houston Texas to see the projects. Dr. M.Arivazhagan from Ramakrishna Seva Nilayam of Tenkasi and his assistant joined us for the full day. Sudhakar and Madhuri Menon had reached Vilathikulam earlier. Arihara Suthan from Kanya Kumari joined us.
We took our volunteers and visitors to see the Oorani project in Velayuthapuram and few project sites in the Vilathikulam area.
Jan 17th, 2005
We left Vilathikulam on Jan 16th night by car to Arivazhagan's NGO in Tenkasi. Madhuri Menon and myself, visited two schools being operated by the Ramakrishna Seva Nilayam.
I had originally scheduled to stay in Tamil Nadu till Jan 23rd. I wanted to visit the 4 neighbouring districts of Ramanathapuram, Viruthunagar, Thirunelveli and Kanya Kumari to look for NGO's similar to Vidiyel Trust. However, a family emergency nesseciated my earlier return. I took an Indian Airlines flight at 1:30 PM from the Madurai airport to Chennai to Mumbai to Amsterdam to Minneapolis.
Contact information:
Vidiyel Trust
1/38, Madurai Road
Vilathikulam, Tuticorin District
Tamil Nadu, India
Telephone:
Office: (463)-823-3674
Residence: (463)-823-3090
E-Mail address
vidiyelrurdev_ngo@yahoo.co.in
