Madhukar and Pushpa Deshpande

Vikram Akula

Anand Shah

Gurumail Singh & Raghbir Singh

Pailia Reddy

T.S.Ananthu and Jyoti

Sam Kannapan

Jagadish Shukla

Virendra 'Sam' Singh

Vidya Nand Singh

Sri Sridharan

Bibek and Purnima Ray

Suri Sehgal

Manish and Shilpa Jain

Vinod Sarla Prakash

Nanaji Deshmukh

Umesh Rashmi Rohatgi

Dr Ajai Kumar

Sam Pitroda

Nirupam Bajpai

Anil Rajvanshi

Pradeep Kashyap

Abraham George

Murthy Sudhakar

Franklin Gummadi

Rajiv Tandon

Raj Varadarajan

The ties that bind and grow

From water-harvesting to science education to agriculture, Vidnyanvahini's all-round efforts create vibrant communities, and inspire others to pursue similar paths.

March 2003 - Ashok Rupner hails from Surodi village, in the district of Ahmednagar in Maharashtra. Typical of that part of India that has still to see the light of development, Surodi is a village with no doctor, no school and no post office. The approach road to this village of 600 people is in poor condition. Most importantly, there is no tap water here, and the wells dry up with the advent of summer. For a major part of the year, the villagers have to depend on tankers for water. In this scenario, Ashok Rupner decided he would do something - to improve at least the water situation in his village. He found support for this endeavour from Vidnyanvahini, a Pune-based non-profit organisation, of which he is a fulltime member. Vigyanvahini is the brainchild of Pushpa and Madhukar Deshpande, a couple who came back to their homeland after a three-decade-long sojourn in the United States.

The Deshpandes returned with a resolve to throw themselves into voluntary work, and one of the activities that they successfully undertook was bridging the gap between urban and rural education in Maharashtra. Realising the sorry state of science education in in the villages due to a lack of laboratory apparatus, Vidnyanvahini came up with the novel idea of a Mobile Science Laboratory (MSL) in 1995. This provided the village kids with the opportunity to perform scientific experiments that were hitherto unavailable to them because of poor resources

Villagers prepare small stones using a blasting machine from an old mine.

Rupner is an invaluable member of the Vidnyanvahini Dialogue and Action Group and a regular worker on the MSL project. He was fully aware that though Vidnyanvahini's primary function was to spread science awareness among rural children, it also supported other development efforts. Consequently, he thought of channelising some of the group's efforts towards watershed development in his village. Vidnyanvahini arranged for some of the villagers to be taken to Ralegan Siddhi and Hivre Bazaar, considered model villages for their community development activities. On listening to eminent personalities like Anna Hazare and Popatrao Pawar, the villagers of Surodi realised that similar watershed activities could be carried out in their village too in order to harness rain water. Vidnyanvahini then approached the Association for India's Development for funding support, and AID's Pittsburgh chapter provided $6000 for this effort.

It was decided to begin by rebuilding some old and worn out bunds and then build new ones. This would trap rainwater that could percolate and recharge dried up wells. Vidnyanvahini's MSL visited Surodi in January 2002 and brought engineers to survey the proposed bunds. Digging began for the bunds and then the actual construction. The villagers not only participated in the planning and discussion of the project, but also chipped in with actual shramdaan, with the result that 65% of the proposed bunds have now been constructed.

"We haven't been able to see much visible impact of our work, because last year the village received only two inches instead of the usual 12 inches of rain," says Madhukar Deshpande. "But the wells had water till much later than usual, and that was one sign that we had been successful," he continues. "What is really commendable is that people participated whole-heartedly. Not only did they contribute their labour, but also went around and collected an amount of Rs. 25,000," he points out.

The whole exercise was also instrumental in evoking a sense of self-pride amongst the villagers. They decided to participate in the Sant Gadge Maharaj Gram Swachata Abhiyaan, a cleanliness drive initiated by the Maharashtra State Government in the rural areas. The villagers cleaned the village, plucked out poisonous weeds, cleared stagnant water, and were for their efforts were awarded the first prize in their group. They notched up Rs. 10,000 and the money was again directed towards village improvement activities.

"The villages around seem to have been inspired by all this happening at Surodi," says Deshpande. A number of villagers from the neighbourhood have asked for assistance to set up similar watershed development activity in their villages. "But we are cautious about taking it up; there needs to exist visible participation from the people and the gram panchayat." The government did not take much cognisance of the work going on at Surodi till the end of the shramdaan. "It was only then that they came up and organised a gram sabha to speak out about our work. The local MLA donated one lakh rupees for the renovation of the village's gram panchayat building," adds Deshpande.

While Surodi's watershed development work has been Vidnyanvahini's first endeavour to support development work undertaken by local participation, its Mobile Science Laboratory (MSL) has been functioning without a hitch for the last eight years. In this period of time, it had been successful in its mission of taking science to the very doorstep of village schools and enabling the children there to perform experiments. Today the Tata Model 609 bus-chassis, furnished with laboratory, audio-visual equipment, countertops, cupboards, a water tank, and a generator, which embarked on its first journey in 1995 completes a remarkable 140 school visits per year in about 10 to 12 districts of Maharashtra. Over 100,000 students have been able to experience science firsthand thanks to the MSL. After eight years of continuous journeying in rugged terrain, the old bus gave way to a new one just a month ago. The MSL makes two visits to each of its chosen schools per year.

Vidnyanvahini's mobile science van	Science experiments inside the van

Vidnyanvahini, along with another non-profit organisation called Hello India, is now working on a permanent science centre at Audur in Osmanabad district. "We hope that students from the neighbouring schools will visit the centre a number of times a year to perform experiments or carry out some continued project of their choice. We also envisage this as a discovery kind of museum in which the villagers can gain some insight into science. Another area we hope to include there is agricultural advice to farmers on different aspects of farming such as water and soil testing," says Deshpande.

With each new step, the Deshpandes' dream of giving back something to their homeland comes even more true

. Rasika Dhavse March 2003

Vidnyanvahini can be contacted at:
701-B, Kshitij,
Plot No. 87 A-1,
Sahakarnagar No. 2,
Pune - 411009.
Phone: 020-4222127/4224865
Email: (Dr. Madhukar Deshpande) madhu36@vsnl.com
Website: http://members.aol.com/Vvahini.

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Telugu bidda from upstate NY

The poverty in India is disconcerting," says Vikram Bayana Akula. "I just thought I must do something." That's how this story began in the interiors of arid Andhra Pradesh.

In 1990, Akula moved to Zaheerabad in Medhak district to work with Deccan Development Society, an ngo. "When you see the people suffer, make sacrifices, and when you experience the unstated intimacy of this suffering, only then do you realise the brute reality of poverty," he recollects. "I didn't speak Telugu, nor did I understand village life.

By the end of it I had picked up Telugu. Nothing was hidden from me."

Akula, who grew up in Schenectady, upstate New York (where father A.V. Krishna is a surgeon), encountered poverty first hand earlier while visiting relatives in Medhak. "It's a tragedy that we NRIs who can do a lot, are not doing enough. We have the skills to solve the problems," he says.

The year that Akula spent in Zaheerabad transformed him forever. For the past 12 years, he's worked tirelessly to help the impoverished people of this Deccan region. Inspired by Mohammad Yunus' micro-credit Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, he started the Swayam Krishi Sangam (SKS) in 1998 in Medhak district. He raised $52,000 from individual contributors in the US with, not surprisingly, 50 per cent of the money coming from nri doctors. "The idea is to put private sector initiative into alleviating poverty. I don't want to depend on grants or government money."

Akula's argument is simple: "The logic is that poor people need credit to survive. We provide small loans to poor people for income-generating activities. We undercut loan sharks at the doorstep with collateral-free loans." The minimum amount sks lends is Rs 1,000 and the maximum Rs 10,000. The interest rate is a flat 15 per cent, much less than the 60-100 per cent interest that moneylenders charge the villagers, leading to those vicious debt traps.

SKS supports 63 different activities divided into three categories: livestock, trading and agriculture. "About 40 per cent loans are for livestock, 20 goes to trading and about 15 per cent goes to agriculture in areas where villagers plough their own or leased land."

It has also adopted creative solutions to manage its growing operations, which Akula explains as an "accident of my global travel". There are passbooks with smartcards and collection sheets with a personal digital assistant (PDA). The software connecting the PDA devices is the brainchild of Exim Software, Bangalore. Partially literate villagers with little prior exposure have turned fluent users of these hi-tech devices. SKS now has four branches and village centres, 7,072 borrowers, $783,963 in disbursement and $428,778 in loan outstanding with $81 the average loan outstanding.

After returning to the US from his stint in Zaheerabad, Akula had joined the prestigious Harvard Divinity School but lasted only a semester. "I could not read ethics," he says. After picking up a master's degree in agrarian and rural development from Yale, he returned to Medhak on a Fulbright scholarship. In the meantime, he also worked on an India government project to help develop an alternate distribution system. In '96, he did his PhD at Chicago University where, predictably, his thesis was on local political empowerment. Theory and praxis, Akula has been able to bridge the divide-yet another face of globalisation.

Contact Vikram Akula on e-mail at: vikram@sksindia.com

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NRI youths commit a year of social service to India

IANS April 2003

[Picture : President Abdul Kalam visited the IndiCorps members in Ahmedabad]

AHMEDABAD: Taking a year's break from their fast-paced lives, 10 American and Canadian youths of Indian descent are spending a quiet year of social service in their native land.

Anjali Deshmukh, a graduate of Miami University in Florida who was a disco freak, now finds solace in the company of children of slum dwellers in this largest city of Gujarat.

Teaching the children in Ahmedabad's Vadaj neighbourhood, she told IANS: "I was born in Vadaj. Though I don't remember this area from my childhood, I feel closely associated with these children."

Deshmukh is one of 10 NRI students from the U.S. and Canada who are helping in whatever way they can in cities and villages of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Shezeen Suleman, an NRI student from Toronto in Canada, is spending time telling the people of Gujarat's Ludiya village close to the border with Pakistan in the Kutch region how to conserve water, the parched area's most precious commodity.

Guided by Suleman, the villagers have already built check dams to help face the tough summer ahead.

"Ludiya is the village where my forefathers lived. This village, its culture, its rural folks and its tales have become my passion. I want to do as much as possible for my ancestors' village," Suleman said.

Deshmukh and Suleman belong to Indicorps: Service for the Soul, a group of young NRIs committed to devoting at least one year to social service in India.

Three young Americans of Indian descent -- Rupal Shah, Sonal Shah and Anand Shah -- came up with the idea of Indicorps in 2000.

Rupal Shah, on a visit to Mahatma Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram here, told IANS: "Our main objective was to do something in return for our motherland India and we hosted a website www.indicorps.org exhorting all NRI youths in the U.S. and Canada to come under one banner.

"We offered them one year public service fellowship in India, expenses of which had to be borne by the individuals as it was social work."

Added Anand Shah, who was also on a visit to this city: "At first we received 20,000 letters on our website. We selected 60 applications in the first phase of our project and then we visited some 100 NGOs in India. We devoted one year for studying the NGO sector in India and made a list of its works and requirements. "At present 10 members of our group are giving their services individually or with NGOs in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. We have chosen 10 NGOs for our services," he added.

The members of Indicorps met President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam when he visited Ahmedabad last week. The president was briefed about the group's activities and reportedly he appreciated young NRIs' dedication to India

Contact Anand Shah on e-mail at: anand@indicorps.org

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NRIs changing the face of their ancestral village in Punjab

IANS - April 2003

KHAROUDI (HOSHIARPUR): Non-resident Punjabis, sons of the soil who have made their mark abroad, have contributed extensively to the welfare and infrastructural activity back home through remittances.

Look at Kharoudi village in district Hoshiarpur: it has emerged as a model, an example of NRIs changing the face of their ancestral villages entirely, not just their homes.

Palatial houses with tin-coated dish antennas and fancy water tanks, the new look Punjabi rural backdrop, at least a dream in the process of coming true all over, thanks to remittances and initiatives of the diaspora.

Kharoudi's landscape wears a dollar look-concrete and solar lit streets, parks with clock towers, a modern sewarage system and the like.

Its Lifestyle Improvement Project initiated by an expatriate pair in Alaska, USA, was started in 1999, supported to some extent by the government machinery and locals.

Focussing initially on sanitation, it went on to infrastructural development -- roads, lighting and the like-transforming the lives of the residents.

Village Sarpanch Ram Lal, is full of praise for the efforts of Dr Basi and Dr Gill from US who transformed life for the villagers.

"They raised 50 to 60 per cent of the money required and the rest was obtained from the goverment. Nearly $200,000 were collected. The remaining work will be completed soon," he says proudly.

Having taken big leaps forward in quality of life, the latest focus as part of the same project is on education, for which a considerable sum has been earmarked from funds raised through NRI donations.

Already, five rooms have been added to the village primary school, where computers have been installed. The yawning gap between rural and urban areas in terms of availability of education and infrastructure has been largely bridged.

The villagers are extremely happy. Mohammed Kharif explains proudly, "We have solar lighting, a modern sewarage system and even computers in schools. We don't need to go outside the village to get the best of education. Its more economical too. We don't have drainage and flooding problems after rains. There are gas stoves and proper parks. More development work is on."

In what has proved to be an effective model of development, the Kharoudi Lifestyle Improvement Project adopts the multiplicity approach -- a judicious mix of western and indigenous inputs at all levels, from technology transfer to decision making.

Enthused by the sea change that Kharoudi has seen, the neigbouring villages also hope to embark on similar projects.

Gurmail Singh Gill, an NRI who has contributed to the development projects in the village, is in high demand from visitors.

[ Dr Gurmail Singh Gill is 71 years old and is from Vancouver Canada]

"Even senior officials from neigbouring districts are visiting Kharoudi to see the developments and how they can be emulated," he says. "It's a pleasure explaining things to them. They look forward to doing the same in their own village."

Herb Dhaliwal, an expatriate Punjabi, and Minister of Natural Resources in Canada has agreed to fund a massive plan to improve 10 villages on the lines of Kharoudi.

"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country' - says a project board, quoting from Kennedy, on the road into Khouradi.

The largesse in terms of NRI remittance pours in. But as one of them clarifies, it's not only the dollars but the can-do spirit that matters.

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Model NRI Rebuilds Village in Andhra Pradesh

(Source: The Hindu Business Line, dated the 23rd January, 2000)

Indians settled in the US have several dreams. Some dreams of a successful career or an opulent lifestyle, yet some others have ideas of constructing palatial houses back home with the newly acquired dollars. But for a young New York businessman, it was a different dream and it has come true successfully.

Dr. Pailia Malia Reddy, President and CEO of Bactolac Pharmaceuticals, wanted to build a model village in his native Andhra Pradesh and has allocated more than 20 per cent of his annual income to help his fellow, illiterate villagers. To start with he has constructed two temples - one for Lord Balaji and the other for Lord Shiva - and a rest house for travellers, laid new roads, renovated the school building and helped solve the perennial drinking water shortage. He has laid the foundation for a women's technical training institute to teach computers among other subjects, a primary health care centre and a community centre to make it a model village, and all of it without any Government assistance.

When Dr. Reddy was wondering how to use the underemployed -labour and youth force of the village, some village elders advised him to construct temples as they had to trudge several miles to worship deities. He converted the idea into an excellent income-generating opportunity for the villagers. "I never went in for donations and spent money from my pocket." The construction work also helped the villagers to earn a living. "We employed masons, carpenters and plumbers - skilled and unskilled workers from the village. All the eligible adults took part in the construction work and also earned their income." Thus, the temples for Lord Balaji and Lord Shiva came up on a 12-acre plot in Sunkhisala village in Nalgonda district in Andhra Pradesh, symbolising the co-operative spirit of the villagers.

A temple for Lord Rama is now being constructed as the third temple in the complex and Dr. Reddy had spent quite a fortune for the noble cause - $ 250,000 so far for the entire project. "I am spending the money given by Him for Him". The construction of third temple has again helped the villagers earn a decent living. "It's two-in-one. The villagers are happy that new temples are coming up and they get paid for the job." The temple complex, the biggest of its kind in the surrounding districts has already been attracting devotees from far and near.

It has also helped those unable to visit Tirumala to fulfill their prayers and offerings. Built in memory of his father, Pailia Sathi Reddy, the temple complex has granite idols of deities chiselled by noted temple architects attached to the internationally renowned Mamallapuram Sculpture Institute in Tamil Nadu. "Fixed deposits to the tune of Rs. 5 lakhs have been made and the interest will take care of priests' salary, maintenance and daily poojas."

Since Dr. Reddy is a resident of New York, a local committee has been set up with village elders for day-to-day administration. Once the temple work was over, he utilised the services of villagers to repair and re-lay roads, desilt water tanks and undertake other developmental activities. Since the temple has become very popular, several of Malia Reddy's friends from the US who visit India now make it a point to visit the temple. In the absence of any accommodation, he has constructed a guesthouse with all modern facilities for the visitors. Enthused by the co-operative spirit of the villagers, the Government has sanctioned several developmental works and more bus routes for the village.

When the Chief Minister, N. Chandra Babu Naidu visited New York recently, he congratulated Dr. Reddy and showered praise for his love and affection for his native village. "Andhra needs more NRis like Dr. Reddy who have brought glory and pride to their State," he was quoted as saying.

Besides, the NRI has set up a trust with a fixed deposit of Rs.5 lakhs and the interest is used to pay old age pension to 50 village elders who are either infirm or too old to work. Similarly, he has set up a scholarship fund with Rs.5 lakhs to help poor students of the village attend college. He is planning to set up small-scale industry in the village so that none would remain idle.

"What I am today is because of my family and my village. I owe a lot to my motherland. Everyone should give something back to his family, village, state and country. I have started in a very small way." Dr. Reddy, who had a very humble beginning, worked in Nigeria for a while before moving to the US. He is very actively involved with the American Telugu Association and is among the largest donors among the Telugus in the US for any good cause locally or in Andhra Pradesh. Recently, he donated $12,000 to a cancer hospital to be constructed in Hyderabad in memory of the late Chief Minister, N.T Ramarao's wife. He has also given $ 12,000 to set up a scholarship fund on behalf of Reddy Jana Sangha to help poor students. He also donated $1 0,000 for this year's annual conference of the American Telugu Association at Detroit.

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DECENTRALIZED POWER GENERATION:

The Experience of one NGO

A Paper prepared by T.S.Ananthu

Navadarshanam ("New Vision") is a small Charitable Trust that operates from the Ganganahally hamlet of Gumalapuram village, on the TN-Karnataka border, 45 km from Bangalore. Its primary focus is investigation of alternatives to the modern way of living and thinking, along the lines suggested by Mahatma Gandhi in his Hind Swaraj and other writings. In particular, the Trust has concentrated on alternative technologies. Its efforts in solar energy and alternative cooking fuels may be of relevance to those who are participating in this seminar.

It is best to clarify - right at the outset itself - that, unlike the typical NGO, Navadarshanam's primary focus is NOT raising the 'standard of living' of the poor villagers. The founders of Navadarshanam, all of them professionals of long standing, came to the conclusion - after decades of investigation into the causes of our social and individual problems - that the poor are deprived of material goods because those who get educated are cornering an unfair share of the earth's non-renewable resources. Therefore, our primary focus is to change our own way of life, whereby we walk more softly on mother earth. This has involved re-defining 'standard of living' for ourselves - a recognition that clean air, pure water, healthy food habits and sharing nature's bounties with others give us a far higher 'standard of living' than high-rise, air-conditioned buildings, colas, pizzas, five-star hotels, beauty parlours and other norms associated with the modern way of living.

Navadarshanam Trust has worked in five areas of alternative technologies - eco-restoration of degraded land, natural/organic farming, health foods, eco-friendly housing and alternative energy. Out of these, I am choosing two items - solar energy and cooking fuels - in which our experience may be of relevance to participants of this seminar.

SOLAR ENERGY

sun-dried, mud brick buildings	children of Navadarshanam

When Navadarshanam was started in 1990, we decided not to take a connection from the grid for the following three reasons:

(i) all electricity generated these days in the various grid systems are based on processes which are ecologically damaging.

(ii) Electricity so generated is distributed through a system that is highly centralized, leaving the user at the mercy of those who control the system.

(iii) The norms developed for giving connections, and for subsidies, generates enormous scope for corruption, especially in the rural areas.

For the first five years, we managed without any electricity, making do with lanterns and candles, going to bed soon after sunset, getting up real early. In 1995, prompted partly by the bitter experience of a near-death due to a cobra bite in a dark corner of one room (we city-dwellers have a lot to learn about living in harmony with nature!), we investigated various options of decentralized, user-controlled methods of generating electricity. We finally went in for solar panels: the other option, wind-turbine, was discarded because of a massive mechanical failure that had occurred in the wind-turbine at the nearby Ashram run by the Bihar School of Yoga (later, the cause of this failure was located, and this turbine is now functioning well - in retrospect, we wish we had not abandoned that option so easily, for wind energy does seem to have ecological advantages over solar energy.)

We received valuable advice regarding solar energy from a friend in Auroville. Based upon that, we requested the Center for Scientific Research at Auroville to install a Solar PV system consisting of 28 Tata BP modules, each of 38 Wp strength, accompanied by a Grundfoss submersible pump, and also 14 9W/11W CFL lamps with built-in inverters, along with an Amco battery. This system enabled us to pump water from our borewell, and provided plenty of lighting for the four dwelling units we then had. Our Trustee, Om Bagaria, later modified the circuitry with assistance from a young engineer hailing from the North East, named Gautam, in such a way that its efficiency and capacity improved considerably.

We were so impressed with the performance of this system that when the number of dwelling units increased to 7, we went in for one more system. This time, influenced by the dedication of our dear friend Mr.Varadarajan (who, alas, has just recently passed away) to the cause of solar power, we opted for the system that he was providing - a set of Solarex PV modules ( 20 modules of the MST-42 type ) accompanied by a floating pump made by Hydrasol (P) Ltd. Om Bagaria then designed a circuitry for charging an array of six batteries using these panels whenever water was not being pumped

Let me now dwell on the performance and economic aspects of our experience with these two systems.

Performance

We are very pleasantly surprised as to how well these two systems are meeting our needs. Water pumping from both the bore and open wells has been going on quite smoothly over all these years. The pumps had to be repaired only once each - a major lightning strike of unusual magnitude was the cause the first time. Other than that, all we have had to do is routine maintenance, which we do regularly and meticulously - which is perhaps why our experience with solar power has been better than that of others who have tried out this route.

These two systems provide all the water and electricity needs of our small community, which encompasses an area of 115 acres and whose population varies from a minimum of 10 to a maximum of 50, depending on whether and which programs are being conducted. We are very particular about making sure that only approved gadgets in line with our alternative style of living are used - no TVs, no frig, but we do have machines for stone-grinding wheat into atta, electric drills for repairs to our infrastructure, a computer etc. Even if we had to increase our power requirements somewhat, we are confident our solar panels can provide us with the electricity needed, except maybe for a few days during Nov-Dec., when there is continuous cloud cover due to depressions in the Bay of Bengal. On such occasions, we simply reduce our power usage to match the electricity generated.

Economics

We paid Rs.70,000 to the Centre for Scientific Research for the first system, and Rs.65,000 to Nagarajuna Finance for the second one. If we had gone in for a connection from the grid to meet our needs (including pumping), we would have ended up shelling out much more, and the end result would not have been as satisfactory.

But I know that the amount we paid is not the 'actual cost' of the system. There are supposed to be 'subsidies' involved. During my student days, I was supposed to be good at understanding economics, especially engineering economics, but I must admit that despite my best efforts to understand how this subsidy system for solar panels in our country operates, I have not been able to fathom it. All I know is that the end user is at the mercy of a string of agencies involved in the process. To illustrate my point, let me tell you details of the second system for which we paid Rs.65,000/-.

During our discussions with Mr.Varadarajan and his company, Polyene Industries, we were told that a farmer needs to pay only Rs.25,000/- for the system, but has to be sponsored by an NGO, which has to give another Rs.40,000/-. These payments, we were told, have to be made to Nagarajuna Finance, one of the agencies 'approved' by DNES, and that Nagarajuna Finance would 'own' the system even though its installation, use and maintenance would be our headache. We were also told that the finance company would repay the second component, Rs.40,000, in ten equal yearly instalments along with interest. These arrangements, we were told, have to be made on account of the complicated subsidy system that has evolved, which include soft loans at low interest, as well depreciation tax benefits. As we have no 'sponsoring NGO', we decided to make both components of the payments ourselves. It is now four years since these payments were made, but despite several reminders and requests, Nagarjuna Finance has not made us a single repayment, not even responded to any of our queries. It has been a most frustrating and bewildering experience to deal with an agency that 'owns' the system, but is just not interested in its obligations, only in the profits they made from the subsidy benefits available.

To those who make policies on these matters, I would therefore like to pose the following questions:

(i) If subsidies are being given, why are they not given directly to the end user? Why involve agencies such as finance companies which have no commitment to promoting solar energy, but take up the task only to corner the subsidies and depreciation benefits? Our Trustee, Om Bagaria, raised this issue with DNES, who agreed with Om's point of view and promised to do something in this matter, and also expressed a great desire to see solar PV modules installed in Om's native North East region, with subsidy benefits going directly to the end user .Our young friend Gautam who helped us design the circuitries for our installation has now waited in the North East (Tezpur) with great enthusiasm and expectation for over two years in the hope that something positive will come out of this initiative, and he now realizes that he has waited in vain.

(ii) If systems such as the one provided by Polyene can be made available to farmers at Rs.25,000/-, why not promote these in a big way on an all-India basis as the answer to the stress that irrigation pumps are causing on power availability in the country? Every year, in almost every part of the country, there is a power crisis wherein the government has to choose between satisfying the needs of farmers who have irrigation pumpsets and the urban population crying out against the oppressive power cuts. Why not find a way by which farmers have access to a decentralized source of power, and are independent of the grid?

Personally, I would prefer that solar energy is not propped up by subsidies of any kind, but stands on its own feet. However, this is a very complicated question. If we look at the matter very carefully, I think we will discover that anything and everything provided in the modern economy is subsidized in an invisible way. One may think computers are not subsidized, but what about the massive R&D funding that was made available to this sector in the 1960s and 1970s? And what about the so-called defence expenditure (running into trillions) incurred by USA and USSR to design and launch satellites, without which today's internet systems would not be possible? One may think fertilizers and pesticides are not subsidized, but what about the research efforts of the military during the second world war to develop poison gases, efforts that were re-directed to the development of pesticides after the war was over? And what about the massive infrastructure developed by the oil industry without which no chemical fertilizers are possible? So, the fact of the matter is that a select band of people, mostly in the military-industrial complex, decide what areas of scientific research R&D funds should be spent on, and products that eventually get developed using the benefits of this research become available in the market - at a 'market price' that hides the fact that enormous subsidies have already been put in.

Therefore, the 'market price' of solar energy is a function of what the powers-that-be decide its importance should be. During President Carter's regime, a tilt in this direction was discernible, but after that it is a neglected area - hence it is still uneconomical, except when 'subsidized'. But here, I would like to pose a question to policy makers in Delhi. As India is a specially gifted country from the solar point of view (how many other countries have such an abundance of sunlight throughout the year?), should we not be taking an independent and conscious decision to concentrate R&D funds in this area? We may not be a super-power, we may not be economically a very strong nation, but we certainly have an abundance of scientific talent, among the best in the world. Why should we follow the lead of the USA in matters relating to selection of our area of R&D, getting enthusiastic about solar energy when Carter becomes the President there, then giving it up once Reagan takes over? Solar energy is one area where, if we concentrate R&D funds, we may be able to give the lead to the entire world, apart from benefiting our rural population in a big way.

COOKING FUEL ALTERNATIVES

As has happened in our urban centers, in our rural areas, too, LPG is making inroads as a cooking fuel. This is most unfortunate, for LPG usage is ecologically damaging, the cylinders pose a grave safety threat especially in thatched-roof homes, and if there is a shortage of LPG at some point in time the rural users will suffer utmost because the oil companies will prefer to satisfy the needs of the urban user first.

Wood has been the traditional fuel in most rural areas, but villagers are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain it. This is on account of the vanishing tree cover and conversion of what used to be common lands into government-owned 'puram-pok' units. The result is that villagers are getting wood from reserved forests illegally, often by bribing forest officials. This process is bad both for the ecology and for our social structure.

Because of the above two factors, we at Navadarshanam decided to investigate possible cooking fuel alternatives. We first tried out solar cookers. The initial models we got in 1990-91 were not satisfactory, but our later effort with parabolic cookers using polished aluminum foils proved much more successful - the temperature at the focus of the parabola touches 360 degrees centigrade when the sun is at its peak. However, because the danger of intervention of clouds is always present, this method of cooking proved good but unreliable.

Charcoal is another alternative we have tried. There is an old gentleman in Calcutta, a Mr.Mullick, who used to make the "Ik-Mik" cooker, which were very popular in the 40s and 50s. We contacted him, and he was delighted to re-make these for us. We find that these Mullick cookers are very economical in cooking rice and dal, or anything that can be steam-cooked. Charcoal availability is a problem these days, but we overcame this problem by making a simple arrangement for slow combustion of dead wood to obtain good quality charcoal at practically no cost.

The real breakthrough in our search for alternatives to LPG came when, six months back, we designed and installed a gobar gas plant. We had to wait this long to try the gobar gas route because, in order to re-generate our barren land into a mini-forest, we did not want any grazing, and hence did not keep cows. Now that the land has regenerated somewhat, we have got 14 cows, whose dung is sufficient to charge the 3 Cu.M. gobar gas plant of the Deenabandhu (dome-type) model we have erected.

Our plant generates enough methane-rich fuel (very blue in colour) to enable 40 to 50 meals to be cooked daily. What has amazed us is the value of the by-product it generates: the spent slurry when mixed with bio-mass and left to dry for 2-3 months results in excellent manure, with very high nitrogen and phosphorous content, and with very little extraneous matter.

We spent Rs.13,000/- on making the bio-gas plant, inclusive of the special cooking range we purchased for lighting bio-methane. We have been told that we will get Rs.2,300/- as subsidy from the government, reducing the total cost to Rs.10,700/-. We are saving about Rs.400 a month on cooking fuel - that works out to be the cost of equivalent LPG if we did not have the bio-gas. But even more significant is the saving on compost - we do not have final figures as yet, but our estimate based on what we have seen so far is that we will get about a ton of superior compost every month, and a ton of such compost costs at least Rs.1,000/-. Thus, we are saving Rs.1,400/- a month from this biogas plant, meaning that within an year the investment is fully recovered.

If bio-gas plants are indeed such an economically attractive option, why are more people not going for it? I can think of the following reasons for it:

1. Like in the case of solar power, there is a general feeling that 'it does not work'. In both cases, this is the result of shoddy installation and maintenance of the 'model' systems.
2. A single village family generally does not need all the fuel generated in a 3 Cu.M. or even a 2 Cu.M. plant, and may not have the cows or other animals needed to keep the plant going. Therefore, in most cases, a co-operative effort may be needed, and right now there is no mechanism or incentive for instituting such a co-operative effort.
3. Most important, the value of organic compost is being lost sight of in our rural areas. When we tell our neighbouring villagers about the advantages of organic farming, they turn around and tell us, ' but, sahib, you (meaning the educated classes in general) are the ones who taught us to discard organic farming and go in for government gobar (the local, and interesting, term for chemical fertilizers)'.

But if we look at the macro picture, the pendulum is indeed swinging. In those countries where chemical fertilizers were first developed, and from whom we learnt modern methods of agriculture, there is a growing realization that what they have done is extremely damaging to the earth's ecology, to their farmland's long-term productivity, and, most important, to human health. There is a burgeoning movement in favour of organic farming. Organic produce, ranging from vegetables to fruits to tea, is in great demand, and people are willing to pay a considerable premium to get it.

This presents our policy-makers in Delhi with a great opportunity. Why not install large-size bio-gas plants of the Deenabandhu type in every village in the country, and give free cooking gas to every household that supplies the dung input for it? This will reduce the deforestation taking place these days because of the villagers' propensity to cut wood for fuel, it will give the poor access to a cheap and good source of fuel, and in the bargain we will be generating enormous quantities of organic compost whose world-wide demand is increasing day by day - a great potential for export earnings! India is uniquely poised to take advantage of this opportunity, for no other country has such a vast population of cattle, and so many villages where organic manure can be produced so easily.

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The author is the Honorary Secretary of the Navadarshanam Trust. He has a B.Tech. in Electrical Engg. from IITMadras, and an M.S. in Engineering Economic Systems from Stanford University, Calif., followed by 11 years' experience in the field of systems engineering in USA and India, after which he switched over and dedicated his life to the investigation of Gandhian Alternatives. His colleague and co-Trustee Om Bagaria who has been responsible for the technology alternatives work at Navadarshanam has a B.Tech. in Mechanical Engg. from IITKharagpur followed by 35 years' R&D experience in engineering design.

Contact T S Ananth on e-mail at: jyotiananthu@eth.net

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The Rediff Interview/Sam Kannappan

February 10, 2003

Sockalingam 'Sam' Kannappan, a first generation immigrant from Nattarasankotti in Tamil Nadu, moved to the United States in 1968. Registered as a professional engineer in Texas and with a 25-year experience in petrochemical, power plant, nuclear and offshore design, he is listed in the 12th edition of Marquis Who's Who in the World.

He received the meritorious performance award at the Tennessee Valley Authority for expediting the handling of non-conformance reports and received awards from General Electric and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Kannappan is also a recognised leader in Houston's Indo-American community. The founder of the Bharathi Kalai Manram, a Tamil language and cultural organisation, he is the founder secretary of the Sri Meenakshi Temple in Pearland, Texas.

As chairman of India's Disaster Relief Committee, Kannappan coordinated earthquake relief in Gujarat and met with lawmakers in Washington DC, who approved an additional $ 10 million for earthquake relief.

He subsequently helped Indo-American organisations to jointly raise $230,000 for the victims of September 11.

Currently, he is trying to participate in a project on interlinking the rivers of India.

In an interview to Special Contributing Correspondent Shobha Warrier in Chennai, he talks about his project and his meeting with President A P J Abdul Kalam.

You have been living in the US for several years. What was the reason for you to think about a project to interlink India's rivers?

It all started in October last year after reading in the Indian press about the shortage of water that many states in India suffer from. We also read about the Supreme Court's directive to urgently interlink India's rivers. Some of us friends met in Houston and felt that we, the NRIs and Persons of Indian Origin living in Houston, must offer some assistance to link India's rivers. We met Indian Ambassador-at-large B K Agnihotri who was in Houston then. He said he would talk to the prime minister about the project.

Are you planning to provide technical knowledge available in the US?

I have a friend called Rao Rathnala who owns a company that specialises in infrastructure building like water, roads, etc. He has promised to help me as he has an office in New Delhi. There are many such people over there.

The long Colorado river runs through Texas before it joins the sea. We have an upper, middle and lower Colorado River Authority managed by the Texas government for water usage and distribution. Texas also has an International Treaty with Mexico for sharing the waters of the Colorado and Granty rivers that run between Texas and Mexico.

We have legal documentation models for an international treaty and also a model to depict how river water can be shared and used effectively.

I also met with Texas Governor Rick Perry. He has promised to help me with technical know-how.

I found the amount involved in the project was humongous. Rs 100,000 crore. When a large amount is involved in a project and when you have a deficit budget, no politician would like to commit to a large project.

I have also requested for some support from the Bush Administration; that is, when the Government of India goes for a World Bank loan, the United States should help recommend [the project], as on previous occasions, concerns were raised by the World Bank and UN about the same project.

This time, we promised to give technical remedies so that the project proposal becomes acceptable to the World Bank. If the US recommended the project to the World Bank, it would be beneficial.

When did you meet the Indian authorities?

At the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in January. Mr Chidambaram, who is the principal advisor to the prime minister, was chairing the session when I presented my paper, and he was very appreciative.

I am happy the prime minister has appointed Suresh Prabhu as chairman of the task force to link various rivers in India and he has given a time line to follow. The Supreme Court has given the timeline of 2012 for all links to be completed. They are looking at 30 links, out of which the feasibility study of six links has been completed. It is not necessary that all the links have to be completed at the same time; each link can be taken one by one.

The task force will begin with either one link or all the six links depending upon the availability of funds. After that, they will do the feasibility study of the other 24 links.

You also met President A P J Abdul Kalam. Was it because the President has spoken about linking rivers and written about it in his book?

The President also hails from my village. We all belong to Ramanathapuram district, which is very dry. As children, we have suffered a lot due to water shortage. We understand the value of water.

I was in touch with him even when he was principal scientific advisor to the prime minister. Above all, he was also a technical man like me. So, there was a meeting of minds. Before the meeting I faxed the speech I made at the NRI conference and also what the NRIs were willing to do. He appreciated the technical information I provided. That could be the reason why he gave the appointment.

He spent 30 minutes with me, and said there was a political climate in India now, compared to before, about the linking of rivers. That was because there was a general feeling among all leaders that linking rivers must be done sooner or later. He said if the rivers were linked and an effective distribution of waters took place, it would change the face of India.

Did you tell him about the Texas Water Authority and the know-how you could provide?

It was he who asked me about the Texas Water Authority, Tennessee Valley Authority, etc. There are a lot of new advanced technologies available in Texas in oil drilling, rock drilling, etc. In the old days, you could only drill the shaft vertically downwards but now in Texas deep sea drilling, longitudinal drilling, lateral drilling, inclined drilling etc have been perfected.

We have to do a cost-effective transfer of water. We can bring in these experts from Texas for consultations as Houston is the energy capital of the world.

Did the President want you to do any specific job?

After I came back from the meeting, his office called me and said the President was very interested in the technical parts of my proposals and the details on wharf drilling, etc. He then asked me to continue sending the President further project proposals, what we would like to do, etc.

What are your plans for the project?

I feel NRIs and Persons of Indian Origin can contribute though we have not come up with any dollar amount. But we have asked the Government of India -- 'What do you want us to do?' We have decided to finance whatever the government wants us to do. What we are trying to identify now is the task we need to do. Like I said, since the government has done the feasibility study of six regions, we expect to be a part of one such project. We can also bring in technical experts, not only of Indian origin but foreigners too, who can give realistic project timings.

Are you interested in taking up a particular area to work?

On a personal basis, I would like to work close to Tamil Nadu not only because I belong to the area but also the fact that Tamil Nadu has a severe water problem. We also would like to work in Rajasthan. These two states need immediate attention. With every passing year, these two states are going to suffer more.

When do you expect to start working on the project?

The task force under Suresh Prabhu will come up with immediate action items by mid-2003. We hope we will be assigned at least a small part of this project.

We invite all NRIs and Persons of Indian Origin to join us in this venture because we feel the Indian tax payers' money has educated us. We want to pay back in a small way

Contact Sam Kannappan on e-mail at: kann@pdq.net

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August 17, 2003 Professor Teaches Change in His Indian Village

By AMY WALDMAN (New York Times)

MIRDHA, India - Along fields so green they seemed to vibrate with color, Jagadish Shukla walked toward his childhood home.

There, a room specially built for his visits waited, as did a generator rented so fans could cool him in the Indian heat - his family's modest effort to provide the comforts of his Bethesda, Md., home in this rural village.

Professor Jagadish Shukla, 59, has lived for 32 years in the United States and is now its citizen. He is a professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and a climatologic who directs the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies in Calverton, Md.

But he has never relinquished his past or forgotten his home. Every year since leaving India, he has returned to this village of 1,500 people, where he grew up and where his family still lives.

Like many "nonresident Indians," or "N.R.I.'s," he has used his relative wealth earned in America to pay for the education of his siblings' children here, their marriages, their home improvements, their mother's funeral and, in lean times, their food - "95 percent" of the family's needs, said his older brother, Mahendra Pratap Shukla.

But in recent years he has taken his commitment a step further, setting aside 10 percent of his income for more ambitious projects that are testing the limits of change in a place where the clock is still set by the sun and cows wander down muddy lanes past men in the long loincloths known as lungi.

Bill Clinton once suggested that if every nonresident Indian adopted an Indian village, it could transform the country. Professor Shukla's own experience shows the truth and fallacy of that statement.

His efforts have bettered the lives of individuals here. Yet he still seeks an answer to the question, long pondered by Indians at home and abroad, of how to bring the country's hundreds of thousands of villages, even his own, into the 21st century.

"That's the real challenge," Professor Shukla said during a two-day visit home. "What will it take to transform the other India?"

Mirdha is set in the eastern reaches of India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, a region with a reputation for poverty and backwardness.

With power for at most eight hours a day, the village plunges into blackness at night. Water comes only through inconstant hand pumps. Most residents still make their living farming, but as generations divide the land into smaller pieces, the livings are ever more meager.

Most residents relieve themselves in open fields, the women only after dark. The primary school is a decrepit two-room structure with no desks or chairs, and 70 percent of the children drop out before junior high, said the village leader.

With $50,000 of his own money and $50,000 given by others, Professor Shukla has built a community college, rare in any Indian village. He has also started an after-hours program for children not enrolled in primary school and opened a small medical dispensary. His younger brother, Shri Ram Shukla, oversees the projects.

But while Professor Shukla fantasizes about a giant network of N.R.I.'s like him replicating tested ideas in a constellation of villages, he concedes that, ultimately, they cannot substitute for government.

After only six months, for example, the medical dispensary has been overrun and is dispensing double the amount of free medicine budgeted. Professor Shukla frets that it will soon be unsustainable. "Everything is beginning," he said. "In some ways we are groping." Professor Shukla has also encountered an entrenched village culture. While villagers speak positively, and sometimes glowingly, of his investment, no one wants to part with the land needed for one of his pet projects - laying paths in place of muddy patches caused by poor drainage.

His new drive for 100 percent literacy has raised questions, half-joking but half-serious, about who will labor in the homes and fields.

Nor is everyone convinced he can really bring change. "Everyone said, `O.K., O.K., O.K.,' but I can tell you it's simply not possible in the village," Vishva Nath Shukla, 70, said one evening of Professor Shukla's plans.

One retired teacher, Baban Singh, 70, said nothing ever changed in the village because no one would cooperate. If someone takes initiative, he said, "Everyone thinks: `What is his agenda? How is he trying to make money?' "

Even Professor Shukla provokes such suspicions, said Mr. Singh: "People do talk - Why is he spending the money? Where is he getting it? What are his interests?"

In part what Professor Shukla wants to do - through the committees he has formed, the meetings he has held and especially the college he has already built - is change the notion that change is not possible.

Because he is now as much outsider as insider, the danger is that even his help affirms that change cannot come from within. "He's very well-respected, people listen to him," said Arjun Sharma, a laborer. "With him it might be possible. Without him, it's not."

Wary of cultivating overdependence even within his own family, Professor Shukla has never financed luxury living, although he does dole out cash gifts when he leaves. The house got an indoor toilet only recently and still has no sink or shower.

To encourage villagers' self-sufficiency, he gave them a sermon on the "tipping point," trying to explain that maintaining a certain standard of cleanliness would encourage people to keep an area clean.

Like one-fourth of the villagers, Professor Shukla is a Brahmin, and his notions of uplift are characteristic of the caste of the elite. His father, a teacher who was then the only educated man in the village, started its primary school.

As a result, Mr. Singh, the retired teacher, reminded Professor Shukla that the village had already made some progress.

"There was a time when anyone who received a letter would go to your house and ask your father to read the letter," Mr. Singh said. "Now there are plenty of people who can read and write."

Professor Shukla, who with his silver hair and pressed shirts looks as much Boston Brahmin as Indian one, is particularly proud of the high standards of the school he has opened himself, Gandhi Degree College, where admissions are by merit.

Professor Shukla's subversive goal is to teach Gandhian principles - honesty, perseverance, selflessness - in a country where they are increasingly unfashionable. He insisted on a no-cheating policy, although cheating is rampant in many area colleges. At first the policy deterred some students, but now it draws them. The college is at capacity with 500 students, 70 percent of them women.

Professor Shukla holds two doctorates, including one from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has broken scientific ground by demonstrating that predictability exists within chaos in climate.

But in the village, he said, a scientific mind is "not a help." His brothers often remind him of the chaos of life - emotion, culture and other unscientific variables.

His reflexive description is that nothing has changed in the village, but a morning walk during this visit made him rethink that.

He saw new businesses attaching like barnacles along an expanding road system. He saw new homes, often built with the earnings of relatives who, like him, had migrated, if only to other states.

He learned that village Dalits, or untouchables as they were once known, no longer bother with making leather from dead cows, an occupation to which caste once consigned them, because there were now more profitable ways to make a living.

The need to know how things really work so he can better invest his money has convinced him that he should start spending 10 percent of his time in Mirdha each year. He concedes that it will be a challenge.

"After five days I'm looking for a comfortable hotel," he said of his limited tolerance for personal suffering. "What a man Gandhi was."

Bio:

Dr. J. Shukla, Sc.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1976, Ph.D., Benaras Hindu University, 1971. President, IGES; Prof. Earth Sciences and Global Change, George Mason University. Dr. Shukla conducts research on predictability of the coupled ocean-atmosphere-biosphere system, predictability of the tropical atmosphere, monsoon dynamics, reanalysis, deforestation and desertification. His research has shown that the influence of boundary conditions at the earth surface provides a physical basis for predictability of climate in the midst of chaos.

Dr. Shukla, was a Junior Scientific officer at IITM, Poona, post-doctoral research associate at Princeton University, visiting associate professor at MIT, senior research scientist at NASA Goddard, and a professor of meteorology at the University of Maryland (1983-1993). He is author/coauthor of 150 scientific papers, reports and book chapters; thesis adviser/ coadviser for 14 Ph.D. students; chair/member of national and international scientific committees. He is an associate Fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences.

Contact:

J. Shukla
Professor, George Mason University
Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies
4041 Powder Mill Rd., Suite 302, Calverton, MD 20705-3106, U.S.A.
Tel: (301)-595-7000 or (703) 993-1990 Fax: +1-301-595-9793
E-mail: shukla@cola.iges.org
http://www.iges.org/

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INDIAN EXPRESS, AUGUST 18, 2003

MNC boss finds his vocation: He’s his village schoolmaster.

DuPont’s South Asia chief returned home to Bichaula and, in 3 yrs, transformed lives of girls from poor homes Anupshahr, August 17: When Virendra ‘Sam’ Singh, head of DuPont’s South Asia operations, returned after 35 years in the US, he did not pick a condominium in one of New Delhi’s upscale suburbs to settle down. He went back to Bichaula, near Anupshahr in UP’s Bulandshahr, where he was born and where nothing much had changed since he left.

The man who once sat in boardrooms to discuss strategies and dealt with textile magnates now sits under a jamun tree. Around him are some of the 350 village girls whose lives have changed since Singh’s return.

He has set up a vocational school for them. Why not boys? ‘‘If you teach a girl, you teach a family,’’ he says. These are the daughters of landless farmers. If they were not coming to Pardada Pardadi Vocational School, they would either be stealing grass or firewood.

Study time is divided into two sessions: pre-lunch session is for the formal school, all subjects the national curriculum demands are taught; post-lunch is time for vocational education.

The girls are trained in stitching, weaving and chikan work for a year, then they are taught marketing skills. Singh’s teachers come from all over the country — from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. They are skilled and committed to his social experiment.

It all began three years ago. His two daughters had been married. His career at DuPont had peaked and he seemed to have earned enough to throw away a few hundred thousand dollars for what he really wanted to do. Friends thought he was crazy. ‘‘I still wake up in the morning in disbelief — where am I and what am I doing?’’

Initially, he approached villagers, door-to-door, pleading with poor farmers to send their girls to his school. ‘‘When I told them that the girls will get not only free education, but free food and free uniform, most people wanted to know what the catch was.’’

The girls get breakfast, lunch, tea and snacks. They get uniforms, and bicycles when they grow up. Also, each girl gets Rs 10 a day and the money is put into a fixed deposit. ‘‘A 10-year-old girl will have about Rs 100,000 in her account when she is 21. If she leaves school early, she will still get her money,’’ he says.

Singh is bringing to the village a new culture. Every day a team of 14 girls is put on kitchen duty. They learn cooking under the supervision of their teachers. ‘‘Look at the cleanliness, this is cleaner than most kitchens in India,’’ he says.

So is the toilet. ‘‘Nobody came forward to clean the toilet. So I took up the cleaning myself and the girls followed,’’ he says.

They produce world-class home furnishings, curtains, cushions, bedspreads and wall hangings. The designing is done by Delhi-based marketing executive Madhu Singh. She also markets the stuff and buys fabrics, threads and beads.

They have their clients abroad — from a departmental store in South Africa to a Californian online store, Novita.com. ‘‘Novita is doing good business, our stuff sells very fast,’’ says Madhu Singh. Delhi’s Central Cottage Industries Emporium is their only Indian buyer.

‘‘I want to make this institution sustainable, so that it could run once I am gone,’’ says Singh. The annual running cost is around Rs 700,000. Last year Madhu managed to sell goods worth Rs 400,000. Singh has plans to invest $500,000 in the project that would support 600 girls. And it’s his own money. So far he has spent Rs 1.2 crore. Now that the project is running successfully, Singh wouldn’t mind accepting donations. The only donation he has got so far is two bicycles.

Approaching 60, Singh is full of energy. Just the other day, he made the 100-km rib-cracking journey from Delhi on a monsoon-ravaged road to bring 35 sewing machines in his Toyota Qualis.

Singh remembers what he told himself when he came to India: ‘‘I will give myself three years. I will not talk about my school. If I fail, I will quietly return to America.’’ But now he has no plans to leave

Contact Virendra 'Sam' Singh on e-mail at: vsingh00@hotmail.com

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NRI funds health, education project in Bihar village

Indo-Asian News Service - August 6, 2003 - Patna

On a mission to give back to his native place, a non-resident Indian (NRI) settled in the US has launched a project in a village in Bihar to provide quality healthcare and education to the poor.Vidya Nand Singh, who hails from Saropatti village in north Bihar's Madhepura district, is sponsoring the project with his own money and donations from fellow NRIs in the U.S.

Singh, a 65-year-old businessman based in New York, migrated to the U.S. five decades ago.

The president of the Bihar Chamber of Commerce in North America, Singh lobbied with fellow NRIs to help the needy in their native places across India by funding projects like the one in his own village."The pilot project hardly involves any financial help from the state and central governments. It is totally funded by Singh and his peers in America," said the NRI philanthropist's relative A.K. Singh, who is looking after the project work.

Vidya Nand Singh's pilot project, which is scheduled for completion by early next year, is a part of his "Common Sense Economic Model".The model aims to eliminate 40 per cent of rural poverty, provide quality primary healthcare in villages and quality education to children between the ages of six and 11.It also aims to prevent deterioration in the environment condition by checking pollution and saving cities from turning into big slums.Singh also hopes to create rural industrial infrastructure for unemployed and underemployed in India by creating an alternative to stop migration to the cities in search of work.

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We are working with Dwarko Sundrani, one of the last living disciples of Gandhi and Vinobha on a charitable project in connection with his Ashram. An appreciative write by Nipun Mehta of CharityFocus can be found at Writeup.

We, consist of Sri Sridharan, Dwarko and Bob Block. The project is located in Bodhgaya, (Bihar) India. This is a very primitive section of India - the poorest of the poor. There is a lot of violence in Bihar. Some are sectarian, some are Naxal based, some are over human rights.

Dwarko lives there and runs the Samanwaya Ashram, which provides two residential schools for children of the area and a network of over 300 village schools. He does other good work. For example every November the Ashram brings doctors in to perform 15,000 eye operations. This year that included operations on 500 children. There are regular development projects for water, agriculture and other means for economic development.

Our project (Tree Village) involves gifting a hectare of farmland (mostly Bhoodan land), the seeds to cultivate several crops (Bamboo, Mango, Sal, Teak, Cotton, Papaya) and required implements to 10 villages (each village has about 25 families). The distribution of the farmland will cross all ethnic groups, classes and combatants. We will then try to use the common problems faced by the villages to form bonds among them. Through this activity we hope to create a sense of community and respect for the differences within the greater group.

In addition to the farmland, seeds and implements for each village we will start a school for children in each village. We are also planning to open a Center for the Study of Non-violence in Action. This Center will study the effects of our efforts and help us find ways to build non-violent relationships among the groups in our program. Center for Nonviolence

The project commenced in the summer of 2003 after nearly year-long planning activity. To date we have seven centers started.

MANPHAR- One centre -about 30 family-35 students-2.5 acres land. Manphar is about 40 k.m from Bodhgaya.

LARU,CHANDA-LALGANJ-four centres-about 100 families -104 students- 10 acres land. Chanda Lalaganj is about 12 km from Bodhgaya.

KANCHANPUR-Two centes-about 50 families- more than 50 students- 5 acres land. Kanchanpur is about 13 k.m from Bodhgaya.

Another part of the project will be to provide a heart scan for each person in the area. India has a high incidence of heart problems because of their diet. We will start a "Have a Good Heart" campaign and push the double meaning of that phrase. The heart scans will cost us about $10 to $12 each and will be provided by a company we are involved with. That company will be a profit making company with a "Double Bottom Line" orientation. The Double Bottom Line involves profit as one bottom line and contribution to the society as the other.

We believe we need to make it profitable to entrepreneurs to solve social problems. If it were profitable to rid the world of hunger, hunger would be a thing of the past in short order. The Have a Good Heart program will demonstrate that doing a good thing can be profitable. Details of the heart scan instrument can be found at CardioBeat

Contact Sri Sridharan e-mail at: infinisri@yahoo.com

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I am a professor emeritus now , took retirement from my job to do such work in my village of birth at West Midnapore,in West Bengal. My wife Purnima and I started the project since 1998 and from that time we have been spending time in the village; from last year 6 months in a year. This year (2003) we are leaving on Sept. 15th and will be in the village until March 14th.

Our over all objectives are to improve health and education and some economy in the village. Our current major emphasis are: education of the children , more towards mental development , and health of the children and their mother, specifically. Most of the funding is from my retirement.

I was thinking on this line of bringing the individuals who are invoved now in similar programs to discuss the advances made, shortfalls encounter and remadies taken ,from the experiences of the individiuals. I am glad to find that such an effort is being made; unfortunately, I will be away at that time. Also reading the two articles, it is apparent that each of us are taking different approaches depending our individual philosophy. A discussion among the participants on main objects to focus on and the way to achieve success will be very helpful. May be a Webpage or similar advantage can be an effecient way to get more information on a regular basis.

Project achievements between 1998 and 2003:

1. Land for Sevakendra Headquarters.
A 3.5 acre land with a 1.5 acre pond inside. The pond has been excavated to make it a water reservoir. A toilet and guest house are being constructed now. We will add a training center, office and library in the near future.

2. Free Health Clinic.
A weekly clinic has been operating for about 1 year in a temporary shed with a physician coming from a nearby town. Over 500 people have been examined and given free medicine.

3. Nonconventional teaching center.
With a moto of bringing the education where the need is, a total of 10 centers have been established in tribal hamlets and poor areas of the villages. A teacher has been appointed. Besides reading, writing and mathematics the students (ages 3 to 10) learn to sing, tell stories, drawing, different games etc. Current enrollment is about 200 students. Teachers' salary, books, supplies and uniforms are provided by Sevakend.

4. Sevakendra Scholar Program.
Meritorious but poor students from the area who can afford to continue higher education are given financial aid to enable them to go for higher studies. Also poor but talented artists are given monetary help to get training from the experts in town. Currently 4 students are under this program.

5. Junior High school.
The village high school (up to 10th grade) was in a poorly ventilated, semidark mud building. Sevakendra has built a brick building with 5 class rooms, 1 library with about 1000 books, with an attached reading room, a toilet for the students and one for the teachers. A deep tube well provides water. Sevekendra also provides funds for the salary of the librarian, 20 yearly merit scholarships, books for poor students, daily newspapers and periodicals.

Funds for the activities donated by Individual donors (primarily by Ray) through ASTI-USA ( American Service to India - P.O.Box 2456 Costa Mesa, CA 92628-2456 Tel: 714-662-1661 ; Barbara Piner http://www.astiforindia.org )

Best wishes,

Contact Bibek Ray on e-mail at: labcin@uwyo.edu

Contact information: Bibek Ray 3658 Garden Court N Oakdale, Mn. 55128 Phone:651 748 8066

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Suri Sehgal

The S.M. Sehgal Foundation supports programs designed to promote sustainable development at the village level. The Foundation’s goals are: . To promote the benefits of small families in a culturally sensitive manner. . To increase income through skills development and other initiatives. . To promote environmentally sound agricultural practices These goals are being pursued through “integrated, sustainable village development”. This multi-disciplinary approach targets grass roots actions based on community mobilization and designed to put in place sustainable village institutions.

We are targeting four villages in rural Gurgaon and performing extension work in fourteen other neighbouring villages, all of which are near Delhi. We hope that these villages will eventually serve as models for work elsewhere. Information being collected.

Contact Suri Sehgal on e-mail at: jay.sehgal@smdfoundation.org

or Website at http://www.smsfoundation.org

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Manish and Shilpa Jain

[Picture requested]

Manish Jain

Manish jain has spent the past five years as Coordinator of Shikshantar and Chief Editor of Vimukt Shiksha. Before co-founding Shikshantar, Manish spent two years serving as a principal architect of the UNESCO Learning Without Frontiers transnational initiative. Prior to that, he worked as a consultant in several countries in the areas of educational planning, policy analysis, research, program design, and media/technology with UNICEF, UNDP, the World Bank, USAID, the Academy for Educational Development, Education Development Center, and the Harvard Institute for International Development. Manish also spent two years as an investment banker in the belly of the beast with Morgan Stanley working in the telecom and high technology sectors. He has spent several years trying to unlearn his Master's degree in Education from Harvard University, and a B.A. in Economics, International Relations and Political Philosophy from Brown University.

[Picture requested]

Shilpa Jain
Shikshantar, 21 Fatehpura
Udaipur, Rajasthan, INDIA
Tel: 91-294-451-303 (11-8pm)
Res: 91-294-451-802 Fax: 91-294-451-941
shilpa@swaraj.org
She is a learning activist with Shikshantar and one of the editors of Vimukt Shiksha. Through her work at Shikshantar and previous experiences with international development organizations in Washington, DC, she has conducted research in several areas of education and development: globalization, local languages, life expressions, ecology, aspects of the Indian education system, democratic living, creativity, conflict transformation, gender, decentralization, community participation, and systemic change. With Shikshantar, she is actively working on the Resisting the Culture of Schooling series, Learning Societies series, and on the Indian Innovations in Shiksha series (Rabindranath Tagore (2000) and Sri Aurobindo (present)).

Shilpa also loves learning with/from youth and children and has extensive experience doing so around the issues of self-esteem, creativity, collaboration, identity and conflict resolution. She hopes to continue activating the link between learning, social movements and systemic transformation, and the vibrant roles of children and youth in these processes. Her other interests include pottery, dance, and organic farming. Shilpa is also in the serious process of unlearning many things from her formal schooling (thought-control) and from her many years of living in the US.

Manish and Shilpa are children of Mohan Jain.

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Vinod Sarla Prakash

Information being collected.

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Nanaji Deshmukh - Deendayal Research Institute (DRI)

Shri Nanaji Deshmukh is the founder of Deendayal Research Institute a voluntary Non Governmental Organization (NGO) established in the year 1969. He is a social worker reformer, original thinker above all a man of action dedicating his life to the service of mother land. His field work of rural development and social reconstruction started with Gonda experiment in the year 1978 which was spread to other needy places in the Country like Beed (Maharastra) and Chitrakoot (M.P.).

Shri Nanaji believed to the core that upliftment of the rural poor and strengthening the village life is the only solution for our Country's progress. His precepts "Gramodaya" and "Swavalamban" reflects the philosophy of the great personalities and States men like Swami Vivekananda, Bala Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi. In him a great visionary and down to earth practical personality are blended together which is a rarity in nature. That is why, activities of all these centers ware conceived and designed to the minute details by Shri Nanaji. The success of these programmes are mainly due to the detailed planning and able execution under the constant guidance of Shri Nanaji. Several thousands of youth inspired by his personality and magnetized by his touch are participating in the programs. The results achieved are always unique, astonishingly successful and even amazing some times. Well all this was and is possible through radiant presence of Shri Nanaji.

http://www.hssworld.org/homepage/html/seva/DRI/dri.html

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Umesh Rashmi Rohatgi

Umesh graduated from IIT Kharagpur '68 and Rashmi did MA in Sanskrit from Gwalior '70. Umesh Rashmi Rohatgi, better known as a couple doing social work with a difference. They encourage anything, person or idea that will make a difference in someone's life for the better. Umesh Rashmi have two sons who learnt from their parents how to take decision so the parents don't have to decide for them now or in future. Yash, and Gaurav are truly World citizens, who are not only independent but are willing to share their bounty with others in need.

They took retirement in1998 and spending full time in social work both here and in India.

During last 5 years they have traveled extensively throughout India and visited 320 villages in 20 states and hundreds of NGO's. Learning and helping by listening to their problems and coming up with solutions together and trying new approaches, networking with like minded people interested in India's rural development, research institutes and inventors with strong drive to improve lives of the people of India.

Spending almost half year in India and half in USA, they helped build/repair homes for cyclone affected Orissa and provided low-cost latrines in West Bengal villages. In 2001, they started developing a new village in earthquake-affected area, Sursardham in Raper subdivision, District Kutch, Gujarat. There are 114 homes, which are completed. Community hall is planned to be complete by the end of year 2003. They have documented their experiences in numerous articles they published in Hindi and English magazines in India and U.S.A. Some of these articles have been translated in different languages of India. Copies of these are available to interested persons upon request.

Contact Umesh Rashmi Rohatgi on e-mail at: ruenterprise@aol.com

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