A smart village in the Chambal heartland
The Chambal ravines in eastern Rajasthan have been known for dacoits rather than for development. But Dhanora village in Dholpur district has broken that stereotype, receiving the smart village award from the prime minister.
The award instituted by Youth for Development, a private organization, was presented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vice-president Venkaiah Naidu in New Delhi.
Moving away from the stereotypes of villages with broken roads, open drains, flowing sewerage water and rubbish heaps, Dhanora, 40 km from Dholpur, presents an inspiring change.
It was the first village of district, which was declared open defecation free under Swachch Bharat Mission (SBM).
Dholpur District collector Nannu Mal Pahadia said, “Other villages in the state will be inspired by the example of Dhanora.”
Today all 250 households in Dhanora have toilets with water connections, access to concrete roads, a sewage treatment plant for waste management, geo mapping of houses and demarcation of property
The village has painted houses, roads are lined with solar lights, hundreds of trees, a skill development centre, a meditation centre and a public library at the Panchayat office. Liquor is banned.
The change came about due to an initiative by Satyapal Singh Meena, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) official.
Meena is a native of Dhanora. He took up the initiative after seeing an old woman who had loose motion being carried to the fields during the rainy season.
“That pained me. I resolved to improve conditions in the village,” said Meena who is posted as revenue commissioner in Indore.
At the time Meena was posted in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, and he approached a local NGO, Eco Needs Foundation, which was working on smart village concept that emphasizes sustainable development by providing basic amenities such as sanitation, safe drinking water, internal roads, water conservation, tree plantation and basic means of livelihood.
The founder of Eco Needs, Priyanand Agale, said the organization began work in Dholpur four years ago under its Smart Village campaign. There was initial resistance from the villagers who were suspicious of the motives.
“But we would explain our objective to them in gram sabhas and once they realized that we are non-political and have no ulterior motives, they began to cooperate,” says Agale.
Meena says they began by convincing the women.
Once the villagers were convinced, they enthusiastically participated in developing their village. “The villagers contributed money for building of the community centre. The MLA also gave Rs 5 lakh,” says Agale.
Financial help also came from the administration, corporates and members of Eco Nest foundation. Agale, a civil engineer by profession and expert in water resources management, said for water management, eight percolation tanks were built under NREGS and linked to an irrigation canal. Water from the catchment area is collected in the tanks and the excess runs off into the canal. The water from the sewerage treatment plant also feeds the canal.
A gram vikas samiti has been set up in the village to monitor and carry out development work in a systematic and transparent manner.
“Now each family in the village donates some cash to the samiti at the time of a marriage in the household. Families donate between Rs 5000 to Rs 10,000. Similarly at the time of a death in a family, they donate money instead of organizing a mrityu bhoj (death feast),” he says.
Agale says the NGO is now working in 100 villages in Dholpur and Sawai Madhopur to turn them into smart villages. It is also working in Maharashtra and Kerala.
Agale says his smart village plan is based on five elements – Retrofitting or modifying and beautifying existing structures and removing encroachments; redevelopment, which involves infrastructure development; Greenfield, which is environment related development; electronic planning, which focuses on communication, and e-learning and livelihood to provide learning and skills to enable people to earn.
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