My Discover India trip started with meeting with Prof Indiresan and his wife Prof Jaya. It was my meeting with Prof Indiresan 3 years ago in my house in St.Paul started my path to engage in different projects in India. They were kind enough to host me while in Delhi. Indiresan will be a key-note speaker at a 2 day conference taking place in Cochin Kerala on Sept 23. The conference is called "How NRI - CEO's can help in rebuilding of India?" The list of NRI attendees includes Desh Deshpande and others.

Contact information:New Delhi

E-Mail address:

At Development Alternatives (DA), I met Air Vice Marshal Surendra Sahni who works with Ashok Khosla. Khosla was out of town.

Sahni started with DA many years ago after his retirement from the Indian Air Force. His first project took him to Jhansi in MP where he grew up. He noticed that places around Jhansi that once used to be full of green vegetation and forests were now turned into dry areas with no water.

Sahni helped to construct continuous trenches along the hill slopes, harvest the rain water. Within a few years, the landscape turned green again. Now the villages have multiple crops in a year.

Sahni and DA has lots of experience putting 'check dams'. He has offered to provide us with a full technical specs on how to build check dams. DA has many other activities such as education, medical help, internet for 'mandi pricing' etc. DA just received a large grant from UK to help develop hundreds of villages in the Madhya Pradesh area.

Sahni offered full cooperation for the NRI-Home-Coming program. NRI's wishing to work in Madhya Pradesh will find DA projects and experience to be of immense value.

Contact information:
Development Alternatives
B-32 Tara Crescent
Qutab Institutional Area
New Delhi 110-016
Tel: (11)-2685-1158

E-Mail address: sahni@sdalt.ernet.in

Sharad Marathe had set up a meeting for me with Vivek Bharati who is a chief coordinator for the next NRI Day on Jan 9th, 2004 in Delhi. We discussed the NRI Home Coming program. Vivek requested that a representative from our group to speak at the next "Pravashi Bharathiya Divas".

Contact information:
Vivek Bharathi
FICCI
Federation House
1 Tansen Marg
New Delhi
Near Bengali Market
Tel: (11)-2335-7952

E-Mail address: vbharati@ficci.com

Nanaji Deshmukh was out of station. Prof Murty who has joined DRI about 6 months ago hosted my visit to DRI. Murthy explained the programs taking place in Chitakoot which is on the Madhya Preadesh and Uttar Pradesh border. A program called "Samaj Shilpi Dampathi" which trains and uses volunteers is working in about 100 villages in MP. DRI's target is to reach 500 villages. DRI is putting up industrial training centers, arogya centers for medical help and herbal gardens. Full details at their website.

Quoting Nanaji, "Service to the poor is a spriritual discipline and not a pastime for the rich and wealthy."

Contact information:
Nanaji Deshmukh
Chairman DRI
7-E SRT Nagar
Rani Jhansi Road New Delhi
Tel: (11) 2368-1811, 2368-1809

E-Mail address:

AFPRO had submitted a proposal to hold the 2005 International Rainwater harvesting conference in Delhi. Most of the discussion revolved around the logistics of holding this conference.

AFPRO is also working in about 15 states in India in various water shed management, livelihood creation and food security projects. They work with other NGO's such as Development Alternatives. They receive funding from a number of WHO type organizations. AFPRO welcomed the opportunity to work with the NRI Home Coming program and provide assistance to the NRI volunteers.

Contact information:
D.K.Manavalan
Executive Director
AFPRO
25/1A Institutional Area
Pankha Road
D Block, Janak Puri
New Delhi 110-058
Tel: (11)-2559-2456

E-Mail address: afproho@sify.com
www.afpro.org

Sehgal Foundation is located in Gurgaon, just south of Delhi. This is an entirely private foundation created by Suri Sehgal and his family. Suri is a agricultural specialist. Lives part time in Florida and part time in Gurgaon.

Suri requested 3 of his staff who are coming all the way to Chicago for the Oct 18th meeting.

Virendra Singh, who worked for Du Pont for many years, joined our meeting. Singh started a school 3 years ago, mainly for 10-11 year old girl children.

"enlightened mother creates an enlightened family", Singh.

It now has about 300 students. Singh has funded the entire project on his own. The capital costs to date is about Rs 75 lakhs plus around Rs 2 lakh annual operating expenses. Singh said the school is located in Anup Shahr in the District of Batand Shahr in Uttar Pradesh.

In addition to the school, other craft training like embroidery is also provided. Some of the products produced here are sold in neighbouring markets.

Virendra singh has 2 children. He lives in Washington DC Fairfax area, when he is in the US, about 3 months of the year.

Dr Shantaram who participated in Ratnam Chitturi's Wash DC event on August 30th is here in Gurgaon. He works as an agricultural consultant to the Sehgal Foundation.

Tonight, I start on my train journey from Delhi to Dehra Doon. I learned that there are 4 railway stations. The Mussoorie Express left from the Old Delhi Railway station next to Chandini Chowk market near the Red Fort in Delhi. I wish to thank Prof Indiresan and Jaya for all the help and hospitality extended to me during my 2 days in Delhi.

Contact information:
S.M.Sehgal Foundation
Field Office
289 Sector 17A
Gurgaon
Haryana 122 001
Tel: (124)-2397621-22

E-Mail address: ellora@nda.vsnl.net.in
www.smsfoundation.org

Contact information:
Virendra Singh
Anupshahar
District of Bulandshahar
Tel: Anupshahar 5734-75426
Tel: Bichola - 5734-80133

E-Mail address: vsingh00@hotmail.com

Anil Joshi returned to his roots in the Uttaranchal area. His focus is to develop rural technology that is consistent with the mountainous regions of Uttaranchal. You will a detailed write-up on Anil Joshi from the article in THE WEEK magazine at the website - http://nri-home-coming.com. Click on the left panel - Model Villages - Nagarasu UT.

Anil Joshi wanted me to understand the following..
1. Local Resources
2. Local upgraded technology
3. Local market

Combining these 3 concepts, Anil has created HESCO (Himalayan Environment Studies and Conservation Organization), WISE (Women's Initiative for Self Employment) and other activities.

"We must use local resources, apply local upgraded technology and produce products and services for the local market"..Joshi

"We have food security now in the country, meaning there is plenty of rice and wheat produced in the country. Still we have around 200 million poor villagers cannot get food because they do not have money to buy it"

"We need to work on nutrional security. Our diet must include millets and other cereals in our food". Anil gave me a sample Himalayan cookie made entirely of millets.

Anil appealed to the NRI community to fund his efforts so that he can continue to devote 100% of his time and resources to the village communities around him.

Pictures shown on the right, in sequence
1. Anil Joshi standing outside the Womens training centre.
2. Anil showing the variety of products made from local fruits.
3. A lathe being operated by power generated from water mills.
4. A fast running water stream next to the mill.
5. A grinder operated by water mill, to grid wheat into flour.
6. Lantana - growing in the wild, is used to make furniture.

Contact information:
HESCO
WTP, Vill Ghisarpadi, P.O. Mehuwala
via Majra, Dehradun
Uttaranchal 248 001

E-Mail address:
hesco1@sancharnet.in

Today was my second day to learn more about how HESCO has changed the lives of many rural women in this area. Anil Joshi took me to a number of shops run by HESCO-assisted women.

There are 4 examples shown in the pictures on the right.

1. Products like candles, handicraft items made with bamboo.
2. Clothing made out of tie dye process.
3. A deaf and dumb woman taught to use the sewing machine.
4. Agar-bathi and related products.

What is common between these women and their shops ?

HESCO has changed their lives. Each woman is now a mini-entrepreneur. Now they are teaching other village women similar skills.

Himalayan Institute

My classmate and a NRI Home Coming pioneer, Prakash Keshaviah worked in the US for over 30 years. Prakash and his wife Viji lived in Minneapolis. They moved to the Rishikesh area 3 years ago. They both volunteer their services at the hospital located within this Institute.

The Institute has given them a 3-bed room, 2 level house, with a nice garden with many vegetable and fruit trees. It rains a lot in Uttaranchal, keeping the vegetation green all the time. Being close to the mountains, the weather is cool.

The Himalayan Institute has a rural development component. It helps in a medical out-reach program that provides medical help to villagers living in the nearby mountainous areas. This includes basic preventive medicine, hygiene, reproductive health, family planning in over 50 villages in the Uttaranchal area. Bill Gates foundation provides some funding for this institute.

NRI's in the US who are members of AAPI ( the group of Indian physicians in the US) can help this institute with their skills, time and money.

Contact information:
Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust
Jolly Grant, Dheradun
Uttaranchal, India
Tel: (0135)-412-095

E-Mail address:
hihtrdi@sancharnet.in

Rishikesh - Lakshman Jhoola

Ram took this opportunity to visit the Ganges River that runs by Rishikesh. The water current was flowing swift and the water appeared quite clear.

This concluded my visit to Dehra Doon and nearby areas.

My overnight train from Dehra Doon reached the old Delhi junction exactly at 7:00 AM I decided to take a taxi ride to Alwar in Rajasthan. I had been instructed earlier to come to the Tarun Ashram located in the village of Bhikampura located in Thanagazi tehsil. This ride to Bhikampura takes you through one of the worst roads. In some places, it goes through small villages where there is no road and often the sewage is running in the middle of where the road should be. My driver who deserves full credit for manouvering the all the challenges of driving, finally reached TBS at 2 PM.

Note: If you are driving from Delhi, take the Delhi-Jaipur 4 lane highway and then look for TBS. Do not come thru Alwar.

TBS has helped almost 6,000 villages in eastern Rajasthan state. Where in many cases villagers only raised cattle and growing millets (dry agriculture), now the farmers have 2 full crops, thanks to water stored everywhere.

You can see a series of johads (small lakes) that collect rain water. When one lake overflows, the water flows to the next.

We walked over to johads and the check dam. Check dams are sometimes made of mud and rocks and others have full masonry work, depending upon the height and the amount of water to be collected.

Rajender Singh was originally scheduled to be in Bengal this week. His program was changed due to excessive floods in Bihar and Bengal. He is returning back to TBS tomorrow and I will get a chance to see him.

It was my good fortune to meet Rajender Singh today. I had heard and read so much about him for over the last 2 years.

Rajender started his 'jal march' in Gandhi gram in Gujrat last April and he has covered about 10 states so far.

"I want people to understand their special relationship with water. They must respect water. They must remember what our forefathers did to build and maintain water sources"

Tarun Bharat Sangh has built thousands of check dams, some small, some large. What is common to all these dams.. The villagers built the dams. They feel a part of it. They take care of it. The Arivari river is now running again. The river is located in the mountain ranges near Alwar and Jaipur. The water from the mountains would simply run away. By building series of check dams, the flow of water is now controlled and the river has plenty of water. All the villagers and farmers are happy and the local agriculture is flourishing. What a way for community ownership of river and water sources.

When there is a marriage ceremony in the village with such check dams, a visit to the check dam is now part of the ceremony. They want the newly wed wife (and husband) to know where their water is coming from and the check dam into their family also.

While driving this morning, I saw a short (and useless) air strip. I was informed that the Rajasthan Government engaged the villagers to build this air strip as a form of pumping money into the village economy. Remember the farmers do not have ANY use for this air strip. I was told this air strip is typical of what the bureaucrats in Delhi think of helping the poor villagers.

A typical check dam costs about 1 to 2 lakhs, mostly for the materials, since all the labor is put by the villagers. While driving this morning, my geep was stopped at a point to show me a check dam built by the 'sarkar' - the government at a cost of Rs 2 crores. This dam broke right in the middle.

(Rs 2 crores is Rs 200 lakhs)

More about TBS - taken from a book written Dr Margaret Khalakdina titled "The promotion of community self reliance - June 1998 and a report called "Johad - Watershed in Alwar District in Rajasthan by United Nations - UN-IAWGS-WES - October 1998

TBS was started in 1985. Between 1985 and 1997, TBS has constructed 1500 Johads at a cost of Rs 24 crores. (the current number of Johads is about 5,000 in eastern section of Rajasthan)

TBS has a staff of 49. Anupam Mishra is the President and Rajender Singh is its General Secretary.

"Johad construction can be seen as one of the best possible options in any agro-climatic situation, for conserving maximum rain water and recharging the underground water. It might vary in terms of its shape and size but the technology remains the same and also easily adaptable."....UN Report

"Once there is a momentum in the villagers they will go further looking for other innovative ways of change. But having said this, I am somewhat uneasy that the change in social behavior should not be too rapid, or as rapid as economic change. We have seen the way modernization has its own repercussions in the cities. Being Gandhians, living a simple life close to nature, we cannot see ourselves modernising our values too fast. How to keep a balance will be our greatest challenge".. says Rajender Singh (from Dr Margaret's book in 1998)

Contact information:
Tarun Bharat Sangh ( Tarun Ashram )
Bhikampura Village in Thanagazi Tehsil
TBS office telephone: (0141)-239-3178

E-Mail address:
watermantbs@yahoo.com
jbf@dil.in

Reached Mumbai this morning at 8:00 AM by train from Jaipur in Rajasthan. Met Mr Narayanan, a contact of Sharad Marathe, who is interested in playing a supporting role to our NRI Home Coming program. I was able to access the Internet this morning. We later drove to Malad, a northern place in Mumbai along the beach to see Anand Shah.

The second batch of 12 IndiCorps fellows have arrived in India about a month ago. They are receiving training at the Malad location prior to commencing their assigned projects.

Meeting Anand helped to work out some more details of the NRI Home Coming program as a sub-unit of IndiCorps.

Both Anand and his sister Roopal have a lot of guidance and helpful hints to offer to make the Senior NRI Corps to succeed. Currently the IndiCorps program is engaged in social projects in Gujrat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. IndiCorps has an office in Ahmedabad. They have recruited 4 to 5 local staff in India who had worked with other NGO's.

These are brief notes from my meeting with Anand. Our team needs to discuss this and provide answers. It will be good to define these and provide at least a skeleton program framework at the October 18th program in Chicago.

Preparing the participants and connecting them before project.
Connecting them between themselves
Periodic follow-up when they are in the ground
Anticipating the expectations
Capturing experiences for future communication on a video

Clarity on the program - hands on or hands off
Quality of people
- service focus
- how much guidance on the ground
o logistic
o specific project guidance
What are they here for?
Issues to consider..
.. Motivating people
.. working with NGO's
.. people combining with personal efforts
Hand pick the first batch - who are already in some projects already.
Write a small open ended questionnaire - ask their home town - work on their own Or work with others (this will help us pair them with right projects and right NGO's)
List of projects and NGO's - starting list of NGO's from Anand
A yearly retreat to share NRI experiences in India.

Contact information:
IndiCorps
Anand Shah - Director
tel: USA: 202-337-7890
tel: India: 91-79-749-5477

E-Mail address:
info@indicorps.org
anand@indicorps.org
www.indicorps.org

Maharashtra Nature Park (MNP) is located on the Sion-Bandra link road in Mumbai. The park was started by a Mrs Chatterji, many years ago to provide a park with a bird sanctury and gardens for the busy residents of Mumbai who mostly live in high-rise flats. The park is supported many leading citizens of Mumbai. The Chief Minister and the City Municipal commissioners are ex-officio members of the Board of Directors of this Park.

During the last 3 months, I had established a contact with this park staff. I had suggested a campaign for Rainwater Harvesting in Mumbai starting with a Rain Centre following the successful model we had adopted in Chennai.

Avinash Kubal, the Deputy Director of the park had arranged a meeting this morning. Invitees included Janak Daftari (IITB), Ms Suprabha Marathe of the Rainwater Harvesting cell of Municipal Corporation of Greater Bombay, Mr V.A.Rode a member of the BOG of MNP, Pankaj Mahidhar - Rotarian, V.Ranganathan, Ex-Chief Secretary to the Government of Maharashtra.

The following action plan was established at this meeting.

1. A Rain Centre will be established at the MNP. It will follow some the features contained in the Rain Centre in Chennai but with suitable adjustments to reflect Mumbai's local conditions - rainfall pattern, soil structure, type of housing etc.

2. V.Ranganathan offered his place of residence - a multi-floor apartment complex in Cuff Parade.

3. Ms.Krishna Dave of Sophia College in South Mumbai requested RWH in their college as a test case.

4. Mr Nandan Mungekar, Architect and RWH designer who has already completed over 50 projects for various commercial units in Mumbai offered to help with the data from his projects - cost, design, soil structure etc.

In the afternoon, Suprabha Marathe took me to her government office right in front of the VT station (now called Chatrapathi Shivaji station) and introduced me to Mumbai city Municipal Commissioner. We discussed some strategies with him. He is also in the process of installing RWH at his official residence in Cumpala Hills.

A team of 4 or 5 people from the meeting at MNP are now deciding to visit Chennai during October, when I am in Chennai to see the RWH installations in Chennai.

Contact information:
Maharashtra Nature Park
Avinash S.Kubal - Dy Director
Near Dharavi Bus Depot
opposite PMGP Colony
Dharavi, Mumbai 400 017
Tel: 2407-7641

E-Mail address
avinashkubal@rediffmail.com

Dr Karve started this Institute many years ago to develop agricultural products and processes to help the Indian farmer increase his yields. He has also introduced many products that the villager can learn and make them for sale in his village.

We drove south from Pune for about 2 hours to reach Phaltan which is a small city and not a village. ARTI has an office in Pune as well as in Phaltan. ARTI has implemented many of its products and technology to many villages in Maharashtra as well as many states outside.

I have listed below different items but ARTI has many more to offer.

Dry leaves left in the field after harvest of sugar cane are called trash. On an average, a hectare of sugar cane generates about 10 tonnes of trash. Because it has no value as cattle fodder and it resists decomposition, the trash is burnt at the site, in order to clear the field for the next crop. It is estimated that in the State of Maharashtra alone, more than 4,000,000 tonnes of trash are destroyed in this way.

The chula - mud/cement based cooking unit - is connected to a chimney that takes the smoke away. In other chula designs, there may be a 3-point design where the cooking pot or vessel sits. You will notice in this particular design, the top is a flat surface that makes the vessel to sit flush with the top. There is no air gap for the smoke to escape. It has to go outside through the chimney.

Why a mini-gas maker?

A conventional large size methane gas maker needs lot of input material such as cow dung and other agricultural waste that a single villager/farmer may not be able to collect. We could try to make a group of villagers be responsible for such a large unit. But Dr Karve thinks that it is better to provide an alternative small gas maker that a single village can own and operate.

We normally think of a methane gas maker as the 'gobar gas' maker that relies only on cow-dung as the input. "We can use any leftover starch or sugar containing agricultural product as an input to the gas maker. Some examples are damaged seeds, rotten potatoes, onion, fruits etc. Instead of throwing these as garbage and creating the problem to dispose the garbage properly, we can use these to make cooking gas."..Karve said.

Methane gas is usually a mixture of Carbon Dioxide and Methane. Dr Karve's method is able to create Methane gas with almost no Carbon Dioxide thereby increasing the calorific content of the methane gas produced.

Dr Karve showed me that plants grown inside a covered area with humidity inside produces higher yields.

Treating the bamboo poles with a chemical compound helps to increase the life of the bamboo poles. (Be careful not to contaminate the ground with that chemical.)

ARTI has designed a self-standing cooker that is meant for a village family. All the components fit inside a cylindrical container and is also portable with the food inside. It consists of a chamber at the bottom where charcaol briquttes are kept and lighted. Over that there is 3-part vessel to cook the food - rice, dhal and vegetable. The charcoal chamber is just enough to cook 1 meal and leave no unused briquettes. There is an outer cylindrical cover to protect and keep the food warm.

This cooker comes in 2 sizes - small (Rs 350) and large (Rs 500). You need to make or purchase a supply of charcoal briquettes.

ARTI has a nursery where seasonal crop species are started as seedlings. Sugarcane, onions, chili, tomato, cabbage, cauliflower can be started as seedlings and sold to farmers for re plantation. For example, sugar cane seedlings are sold for Rs 1 per seedling. You need about 10,000 seedlings for 1 hectare. (Sorry, no picture on this. Will try to get one)

Contact information:
Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI) Dr.A.D.Karve - President
Ganesh nagar (Algudewadi)- Phaltan-Baramati Road
Phaltan District - Satara Pin - 415 523
Tel: 02166-225200

E-Mail address:
adkarve@pn2.vsnl.net.in

Anna Hazare retired from the Indian Army, went back to his native village of Ralegaon Siddhi, 17 years ago. He took a village that had no water, no jobs, where every villager was indebted to outside money lenders

Today, Ralegaon Siddhi is a unique village in Maharashtra, about 70 kilometers NE of Pune in the Ahmadnagar district. Continuous Contour trenching along the hills surrounding R.S. collects water. Every one has a job. They produce RS 42 lakhs of onions annually. They IMPORT workers from the neighbouring villages.

I had visited R.S last February 2003 but on that day, Anna was in a different village. It was my good fortune that Anna was in Ralegaon today. Along with Madhu Deshpande, I was able to meet Anna in his room in the temple for almost 30 minutes.

Anna is currently working hard to enforce the 'Right to Information" act in Maharashtra.

"Gram Sabha consists of all eligible voters in the village. The Panchayat council is the executive arm of the Gram Sabha. Gram sabha also elects the State MLA's and the Central Government's MP's. The 73rd amendment of the Indian constitution established the panchayat raj, thereby devolving the power from the Central Government to the panchayat council. Gram Sabha has forgotten that they are the Masters.".. Anna.

The Right to Information Bill contains the following:

1. Files being processed from one table to another table cannot take more than 7 days.
2. Transfer of government staff such as IAS officers to plum positions occurs with bribe. This should stop.
3. Funds given by the State government to the panchayat or the village needs the permission of the Gram Sabha before it is spent.
4. Gram Sabha has the right to prosecute when funds are misused.

Contact information: aa

E-Mail address: aa

Madhukar Deshpande and his wife Pushpa, are one of the best examples of an NRI couple who worked in the US and after their retirement, returned to India and took up a second career of service to the rural villages.

Madhu and Pushpa are both teachers, worked in Milwaukee Wisconsin for most of their life in the US. After the marriage of their last daughter in 1995, they returned to their native Pune.

While in the US, they saw a TV program on ABC TV with Peter Jennings. In this program, they learned about a bus fitted with science experiments, that traveled to the remote parts of Pennsylvania and exposed teachers to science experiments. In Pune after their return, they purchased a bus, installed a small science lab inside. This bus (and the program) is called "Vigyan Vahini" or "Science on wheels". They started this program with personal funds of $ 12,000. This was later augmented with support from the Canadian Development Agency ( C$ 60,000) with Dr Jagannath Wani of Canada playing a key role.

What does the Science-on-wheels bus have?

These were the original list of experiments in the bus. Many others have been added later.

a. To explain Ohm's law in electricity
b. Kaleidoscope
c. Newton's rings
d. Explain basic optics

This bus makes about 140 school visits in a year. Madhu has created a team of 25 local volunteers with some paid staff. The bus spends a full day at a school. Usually about 80 students from the local school participate in the science experiments inside the bus.

A recent addition is a bag full of books, loaned out to local schools. Such bags are given to many schools in addition to the bus making visits.

"The teachers in the rural area welcome this effort and the children are excited to learn more about science"..Madhu

A Science Centre is being planned. Land has been purchased in the village of Anandur in the Tuljapur Taluk.

"I wish we will soon get big rains and fill up these ponds with water. The villagers have already cooperated and put in their labor. It will be nice to see their efforts bear results. That will motivate them further."..Ashok said.

Contact information:
Vidnyanvahini - Pune, Madhukar and Pushpa Deshpande
701/B "Kshitij"
87A/1-1 Shakarnagar No.2
Pune India 411 009
Tel: (020) 422-2127

E-Mail address
madhu36@vsnl.com
vvahini@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/Vvahini

Vikram Akula started the "Swayam Krishi Sangam" (SKS MicroFinance) following the Bangla Desh Grameen Bank methodology in 1999. Today it provides loans and savings products to over 23,000 poor rural women. This enables the poor women to purchase productive assets, generate income, and deposit savings for future needs.

Over 85% of SKS's clients are marginalized members of the society, virtually all are illiterate and few earn more than $ 0.40 per day as agricultural labourers.

Vikram's vision is to serve 300,000 customers (poor village women) by 2008.

When I visited Vikram in a simple office building in Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad, I had a small NRI reunion of sorts. Three of his office staff are young NRI's from Houston TX, Buffalo NY, Bay Area in CA. These 3 NRI staffers at SKS are all in their 20's just like Vikram and have given up their careers with financial companies like J.P.Morgan and have decided to work in India instead.

Sapna Shah, a financial associate worked in Houston. Mayuri Guntapalli, Program Manager at SKS hails from Buffalo NY. Anuradha Pillai, Finance Manager, worked for some time with America India Foundation with Lata Krishnan in the Bay area. If I am not mistaken, all three are what we call ABCD's though the CD part may not apply to these young and spirited NRI's.

Contact information:
SKS Microfinance
839-S Rd No. 44/A Jubilee Hills
Hyderabad 500 033
Tel: (40)-2355-5057

E-Mail address:
vikram@sksindia.com
www.sksindia.com

Upendra Deglurkar had helped me on my first visit Ralegaon Siddhi in Feb 2003. He suggested that I visit Sagroli, a village on the Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh border. We drove about 4 hours from Hyderabad to see Sagroli.

We were greeted by Pramod Deshmukh who took us around Sagroli. Pramod's father Shri K.N.Deshmukh had donated 100 acres of his family land for the construction of a school, living quarters and related facilities in 1959. This effort is called "Sanskriti Samvardhan Mandal" (SSM).

SSM now works in the fields of Education, Rural Development, Health, Women and Child welfare, Environment protection and Watershed Development.

SSM has received partial funding from a German group called Kkstiftung located near Munich. The State government of Maharashtra has provided full monetary support for the school which has over 4000 students. There are 250 teachers.

SSM is now considering a school-on-wheels program to extend their reach beyond their physical buildings.

There is a small military training school. Students who graduate in their 11th grade could apply to Military Training academies.

SSM is working on watershed programs in the surrounding areas. The large building that houses the school, has a roof rainwater harvesting installed.

Contact information:
Sanskriti Samvardhan Mandal
Pramod Deshmukh
Project Director
Shardanagar
Sagroli, District Nanded
Maharashtra 431 731 Tel: 02465-23410

E-Mail address:
dpramod@bom6.vsnl.net.in
deshmukhpk@yahoo.co.in
www.propoor.org/ngo/1023.html

I was met at the Vishakapatnam railway station by Sreenivasa Rao, brother of Parameshwara Rao and driven a distance of 50 miles south to Yellamanchili village.

I was amazed at the amount of developmental work taken up by BCT in different areas. This may be partially due to the fact that I had known of Parameshwara Rao's association with the LAMP (Literacy as a movement of the people) program known to many in the US. BCT is involved in education, agricultural programs to help the farmers, water shed management, village level projects. BCT's projects benefit over 100 villages.

In the evening, Dr Rao discussed his vision for transforming India. Educating today's children to make a better India.

"We need to dream big, like Gandhiji did. To rally the masses against the British, Gandhiji came up with the idea of salt sathyagraha. Salt touched everyone's life in India. Plus, it was responsible for turning many to take an active role in the independence movement and become leaders"

"Ever since India's independence, we have not produced many leaders like Gandhi, Gokale and Patel who fought for India. Our current day leaders mostly fight for themselves"

"Age old wisdom and a common sense approach to solving today's problems in India is what is needed."

"How many of our leaders know about villages?. They visit their village only when there is major disaster or just before the elections. A good portion of the budget goes towards the big cities and defense. Of the remaining, what ever goes to the villages is absorbed by various layers of the government. Of the rural development funding, less than 20% actually reaches the village."

Contact information: see next day

E-Mail address:

He remembers almost every step of what Dr Parameshwara Rao did. So far Dr Rao has refused every attempt to be given a Padma Bhushan and a Magasaysay Award. Dr Rao feels that such an award will distract his efforts and may not set the right tone with his co-workers. One of the best reports about him can be found in an annual edition of THE WEEK magazine citing him as the MAN of THE YEAR.

Besides various schools, the BCT has been actively promoting advances in agriculture and freely sharing it with the local farmers. The Government of India has a ICAR - Indian Council of Agricultural Research. ICAR has a "Krishi Vigyan Kendra" -KVR- (Agriculture Science Center) in every district if India (there are 330+ districts in India). A KVR is located right in the BCT campus.

BCT has set up a hospital in its campus plus arranged for a Female Physician to visit the local villages around BCT.

BCT is also working to construct low-cost units to the villagers. The unit shown in the picture was built at a cost of Rs 18,000 and has an area of 200 sq.feet

BCT conducts various seminars and training camps. On this day, about 40 teachers from the nearby schools had come to learn about new methods and course content in teaching to the village students.

One of the highlights of my visit was seeing and listening to a group of 15 young children, singing about the 7 types of poverty. I was told that this group of children would visit a village, invite all the villagers to a central point in the village and appeal them to 'call for action'.

Contact information:
Bhagavatula Charitable Trust
Haripuram 531 061 Rambili Mandal
Vizag District, Andhra Pradesh Tel: Haripuram office - (08924) 253770

E-Mail address:
bctrust@satyam.net.in
www.bctindia.net

I was in Kuthambakkam in Feb 2003 with my friend Murthy Sudhakar from Pasadena California. It was good to see incremental progress taking place in KBKM.

Here are a few items..

Solar panel on top of the panchayat office.

A new solar panel is now installed on top of the panchayat office. This unit provides electric power to run 2 fans and 2 lights inside the office. This unit was funded by a generous grant from Dr Keshavalu of Houston Texas. This unit cost around Rs 1 lakh.

In a related discussion that we had with IITM alumni supporting the KBKM projects, we have learnt that a similar unit can be installed for Rs 40,000. We are pursuing this option.

World Bank team

Two months ago, a team from the World Bank spent time in KBKM observing the progress in KBKM and listening to Elango on how to create sustainable rural projects and lift the villagers from poverty.

WB has proposed a project to take the success stories from 4 villages and take them to 1,000 villages in the 28 districts of TN. At this time, the WB project is aimed at TN only.

Elango has procured a DVD player and a projector to show inspiring movies to the villagers and children. These movies are chosen to inspire confidence, inform about India's struggle for freedom and related subjects. Some recent movies shown are - Gandhi, "Veera Pandya Katta Bomman", "Kappal otiya thamizhan". Elango is trying to get a Tamil language version of the Gandhi movie (by Richard Attenborough}. If any of the readers have such a Tamil version, please inform Elango.

The movie presentation package was provided by Ananth and Ramya Nageshwar of Singapore, with help from AIMS India group in Baltimore to ship the unit to KBKM.

RWH - Rainwater Harvesting

In compliance with the recent TN ordnance on RWH, most houses in KBKM have now installed RWH structures. The roof rainwater is collected, brought down using a PVC pipe and charged to the ground using a pit.

238 Houses being constructed.

KBKM has obtained a grant from the Central Government to convert 238 thatched roof huts into houses of the same size (300 sq.ft). Mud bricks using a combination of the red mud, sand and a very small quantity of cement are locally produced. Village labour is used in every step of this house construction. Each house costs Rs 40,000. The Govt grant provided Rs 25,000 to procure materials. The labor content provided by the villager is counted as a in-kind amount of Rs 8,000. This still leaves an amount of Rs 7,000 which the villager has to come up with.

Elango has procured a second brick making machine from Auroville in Pondicherry at a cost of Rs 45,000. Each house needs about 2,500 bricks.

Wasted granite pieces from a nearby quarry is crushed and used in the house construction.

KBKM is located in the Thiruvallur district, the northern most district of TN bordering on Andhra Pradesh. There are 28 rural districts in TN. There are 539 villages in this district. I was able to meet Mr Chandra Mohan, the collector of this district in a meeting along with Elango. Of the 539 villages, the collector thinks about 100 villages are prime candidates for transformation.

FCRA Certificate

Elango has now received the FCRA clearance certificate ( # 076020023 ) from the Central Government enabling his Trust - "trust for village self governance". The mailing address for this trust is - 54 Samathuvapuram, Kuthambakkam village, Poonamallee Taluk, Thiruvallur TN 602107. Funds should be sent to Indian Overseas Bank, Central office, 762 Anna Salai, Chennai 600 002 then routed to Account # 429, IOB, Nazarathpet Branch, 602107.

Contact information:
Trust for village self governance
54 Samathuvapuram, Kuthambakkam village, Poonamallee Taluk,
Thiruvallur TN 602107.
Tel: Panchayat office - 2501-6595
Tel: House in KBKM - 2681-1247

E-Mail address:

panchayat@yahoo.com