Rural India has been a development challenge for centuries. However, committed action is saving lives, creating jobs and reviving the nation’s pre-colonial economic and cultural pride by bringing positive change to distant hamlets, small towns and tribal forest villages where medicare, water accessibility, and employment prospects are poor.
Hill Hero
Talabaitarani village in rural Odisha is populated by tribal agriculturists whose lives were dependent on the monsoon’s whims. To irrigate the parched fields, 76-year-old Daitari Naik took up a crowbar to cut a three-km-long canal on his own through the Gonasika hill to bring water from the natural reservoir Karatakata Nullah, fed by a jungle stream.
Today, the canal nourishes over 100 acres, bringing prosperity to the villagers who now cultivate both paddy and cash crops throughout the year. “I have requested the government to convert the canal into a permanent irrigation channel,” says Daitari, who was awarded the Padma Shri this year for his efforts.
Green Giver
Eco-homestay entrepreneur Rupesh Rai has created local employment and engineered reverse migration in rural Garwal through his NGO ‘Green People. Beginning from Nag Tibba village in 2015, he brought ecologically responsible agro-tourism to Uttarakhand, benefitting over 500 farmers in Tehri, Uttarkashi and Nainital districts.
He started the ‘Pay at Your Own Will’ programme, which has opened up lesser-known Himalayan regions to tourists. Rupesh’s efforts have increased local productivity in 15 villages, where pulses, grains, cereals, fruits, wild honey, millets, flowers and high yielding vegetables are cultivated.
The farmers now have a growing customer base that includes luxury hotel chains such as the Taj, JW Marriott and clients in major metros. The solar-powered homestays insist on eco-responsibility; visitors cannot bring plastic packets and have to leave their vehicles on the outskirts of the villages.
Green People plans to expand its mission across rural India soon.
Coco Channeler
In the Western Ghats where cocoa abounds, 35-year-old chocopreneur Eldhose Alias set up chocolate factory ‘Tastree Food’ a decade ago in hilly Kuttampuzha village, 54 km from Kochi, Kerala.
The former HAL engineer’s unit that produces ‘made-at-origin’ artisanal dark chocolates using locally sourced premium cocoa bean has brought prosperity to the area by providing employment to locals.
From top stores in Kochi and Bengaluru, Eldose has plans to expand his operation to Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad in the coming months and export high-end sweetness to Europe. His efforts have bettered living conditions in the poverty-stricken village.
Shelter Security
Since he was born, 36-year-old Dhaneshwar Rajwar knew only a life of poverty in his small village of Kaluhar in Purulia, West Bengal. He works in Delhi as a cook while his 30-year-old wife Urmila lives with his parents in a small brick house by the highway.
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A little over a year ago, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) came to their rescue, after a government survey conducted in the area found that living conditions in Kaluhar were dismal. Hearing of the social welfare plan, which has enabled over one crore families in India to live with self-respect, Urmila approached the authorities.
With the help of local panchayat leaders, she was able to obtain funds amounting to Rs1.3 lakh in instalments. She received the first instalment of Rs45,000 to begin construction.
During subsequent phases, officials would take photos of the construction progress and release the next tranche. Now only the plastering and painting is left.
The Rajwars expect the remaining amount to be released soon. “This is the first time any government has given us money to build a house. Governments have come and gone but no one helped us,” says Dhaneshwar.
Legacy loomsman
Until the 1600s, the Indian handloom industry was the mainstay of the economy, which was destroyed by British textile traders. Now, Indian handlooms are taking global aesthetics by storm, encouraged by strong government policy.
Varanasi’s traditional weaving culture is being revived through the efforts of textile entrepreneurs such as Ramzan Bhai. The sound of looms can be heard clattering in most homes in his locality, Phulwaria.
Ramzan started as a small-time loom labourer when he was 10 years old, earning just Rs15 a day. Middlemen took most of his earnings.
He broke the cycle with Ramzan Saris, which is now a super brand that sells exquisite Banarasi saris—both wholesale and retail with an annual turnover of Rs50 lakh.
“Both my grandfather and my father were weavers. Now, I’ve handed their legacy to my son. For four generations, we have been weavers,” says Ramzan Bhai, 55, whose brand has got recognition from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He employs 100 weavers and sells directly to Indian metros and overseas, using apps and other platforms. He has set the example to beat the middlemen menace which keeps weavers in poverty despite the exquisite quality of their products that command high prices.
Hoeing High
As rural agricultural companies and farmers chemically enhance their products and soil to get better prices in city markets, eco-friendly urban farming is catching on as a health trend. ‘Rent a Kyari’, supported by Pernod Ricard India Charitable Foundation, is a new inclusive farming model evolved by Delhi-based Nishant Chowdhary.
He teaches aspiring city farmers to grow vegetables or become surrogate cultivators at Palla, Delhi’s strawberry village, where the water of the Yamuna River is the cleanest along a 28-km stretch. Farm renters can choose the vegetables, join the sowing and harvest the pesticide-free products.
If they don’t like getting their hands dirty, 'Rent a Kyari' farmers will do all the hard work, and home-deliver the veggies on a weekly basis. According to Nishant, “A policy to create small green spaces in all urban buildings is a must.
Supported by the Incubation Centre at Ambedkar University, Delhi, we introduced rooftop farming in the capital.” He says terraces make viable farming spaces in urban areas since the maintenance is low cost.