[India] Zero-poverty Parbhani? Possible, if Swades-inspired NGO has its way

from Pune Newsline express India

Calls on youngsters to help change 100 villages; Firodia, Gowariker promise to pitch in.
Avantika Bhuyan

Pune, March 6: IF Shah Rukh Khan’s character in Swades inspired you to reach out to the masses, well, here is your chance. Socio-Economic Development Trust (SEDT), an NGO which has been active in the Marathwada region since 1980, will soon send volunteers to 100 villages in one block of Parbhani district, to create a no-poverty zone there.

Parbhani is a storehouse of jowar, an important connecting point between Andhra Pradesh and Marathwada, and an agricultural hub with a major agricultural university. In spite of all this, the district is wrought with poverty. But with the integrated development plan that SEDT is coming up with, Parbhani may soon be on its way to self-sufficiency and development.

The architect of the plan, Suryakant Kulkarni, left his job as a marketing executive in Kinetic Engineering at 25 to start SEDT and work for children’s rights and women empowerment in Parbhani. ‘‘But I felt that there was more to do in the region. In spite of the good climate, rich black soil and with all government schemes in place, Parbhani is trapped in the shackles of poverty because people are illiterate and there is no motivation to engage in tasks which would lead to their own development,’’ says Kulkarni.

So since last May, Kulkarni has been working with Arun Firodia, chairman of the Kinetic Group, to come up with a plan which would create a ‘‘no-poverty’’ zone in the area.

Kulkarni intends to invite young people to spend a year or two in the village and motivate the villagers to work for their own good. Once that’s taken care of, there will be experts in various fields to guide the people of Parbhani. ‘‘For instance, if someone intends to open a dairy farm, we will have experts to tell him where to get funds from, what kind of infrastructure is essential and so forth,’’ he explains.

The volunteers, who will be trained for a month, will be selected on the basis of an essay they will have to submit between March 10 and 12, on any aspect of integrated development, be it solar energy, agriculture or bio-gas. This process has been put in place so that only the right people are selected, says Kulkarni.

There will also be a meeting of the volunteers with acclaimed director Ashutosh Gowariker, who will be in the city on March 18. ‘‘After watching Swades, I wrote a letter to Ashutosh and he agreed to mobilise people to come forth for the project,’’ says Kulkarni. This will be followed by a closed-door session with bureaucrats and experts like Ratnakar Gaikwad, director-general of YASHADA, and AU Diggikar, director-general of the Maharashtra Energy Development Agency.

‘‘We will have experts in charge of specific fields. For instance, Diggikar will be in charge of energy and Firodia will look after mobilisation of financial resources,’’ says Kulkarni.

Already, ISRO has sanctioned a Village Resource Centre for the project, so that 100 villages of the block is connected. ‘‘We hope to create zero poverty in these villages in five years. This is a replicable model and if it is successful here, then it can be used in other states as well,’’ says Kulkarni.