RAM KUMAR SINGH 48 RAMA SINGH 44

BARDOLI, GUJARAT Technology Facilitators

“THE COUPLE’S WORK IN UPGRADING RURAL TECHNICIANS HAS SET ABENCHMARK FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS.”

Dilip Peshwe, Professor of Metallurgy, VNIT, Nagpur

BY 1928, UNDER THE leadership of Sardar Patel, Bardoli Kisan Satyagraha had developed into a model Gandhian community. That legacy continues today in this corner of Gujarat, through the Suruchi Yantra Vidyalaya. It’s here that Ram Kumar Singh and Rama Singh, a Gandhian couple, are trying to bring about rural industrialisation for the last 12 years.

There have been no improvements in agricultural tools technology since India’s Independence. “We started a centre to train blacksmiths to re- design tools for farmers in south Gujarat,” says Ram. “Since farmers trade in their produce and tools in the weekly mandi ( market), we tried selling there as well. When our sickles and harrows sold quickly, we started selling them across the region. We cover five districts, 15 talukas and more than 50 villages,” he says. The institute has so far trained 31 blacksmiths, all of whom work in their centre. “We apply engineering ideas, and have so far bettered 166 tools. Our research is documented in Gujarati,” says Ram. The couple began their journey in Wardha, Maharashtra. “Both of us believed in a revolutionary ideology those days,” says Rama. Today, they do research in rural and tribal uplift, and have collaborated with National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, and IIT- Madras among others. “More than 80 per cent of our production is self- funded, and our turnover is around Rs 50 lakh a year. We’ve identified 130 farmer clusters in Gujarat as our potential customers. The day all 130 are in our fold, our turnover could exceed Rs 5 crore,” says Ram Kumar Singh.