They understand the villages better

Shriniwas Joshi

We understand the villages better — is the slogan of the Institute of Integrated Rural Development (IIRD) at Shanaan village, 10 km from Shimla. 

IIRD is a non-profit Section 25 company established in 2004. It has covered 15 years of journey gallantly under the effective and able guidance of Dr LC Sharma, managing director. It even established its chapter in Nigeria in 2013-14. I believe this is the first non-government oraganisation in Himachal that has its links outside India. Its regional chapters exist in Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Bhopal and Kolkata. Its footprints are visible in the rural areas of 21 states of the country. 

Its flagship programme is RIEV – Ruralising India; Empowering Villages. 

Parshottam Khodabhai Rupala, the Union Minister of State for Panchayati Raj, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, inaugurated the Mission RIEV programme at Shimla in September 2017. When IIRD found that many programmes and schemes started by the government for the uplift of villages simply hang in fire and villagers were lost in mire, it came forward to take people out of bog and brought cheers in their lives by finding feasible solutions to their needs and problems and providing services on their doorstep. No facility is free; each function has its fee. RIEV is a mission because results can only be achieved by missionary zeal with war-like efforts. IIRD knows that nobody can make people happy but efforts towards that can definitely be made so as to achieve the mission goal ‘happiness of all villagers’. 

This is achieved through various programmes that are the sub-components of the mission and these are 10 in number which RIEV calls ‘divisions’. Health Division serves people right from the mobile medical lab to tele-medicine. Education and Training Division gives online tutorials in subjects including mathematics, science etc. A student does not need to go out of his/her home for getting tutored in mathematics, but through e-tutorial, he gets the required coaching in trigonometry or calculus. The Division on Integrated Risk Management and Social Security gives adequate training in disaster risk reduction, climate change and sustainability. Utility, Licenses and Online Service Division that gets made licenses, ration cards, Aadhaar cards etc. and electricity and water bills are deposited at the right place at the right time is in heavy demand in the villages. Besides, there are Rural Produce Marketing; Entrepreneurship and Business Development; Land and Property Management; Banking, Finance and Insurance and Media, Printing and Publication Divisions. 

The accomplished feature about the mission is that IIRD shares its experiences of implementation of RIEV in the fields with those who are ‘somebody’ in the society. Recently, the representative of World Bank Vineeta Hariharan and a former bureaucrat, who is now an expert in disaster management, and Anil K Sinha from Bihar, were present along with the local experts. IIRD kept the discussion open and gladly noted down the suggestions, constructive and non-constructive, coming from experts. The attack mostly was on the first part of the nomenclature of RIEV, i.e. ‘Ruralising India’. The argument was that India was already enough rural — India 70 per cent and Himachal 90 per cent. IIRD wanting to make it more rural is enigmatic, especially when the Central governments have started several schemes like JNNURM, Smart Cities, AMRUT, HRIDAY (National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana), Sardar Patel National Urban Housing Mission, National Mission on Sustainable Habitat and many more to strengthen urban areas. Demographers point out that 52 per cent of the population in India would be living in urban areas by 2050. So, it is time that we start throwing our weight about it. The hissing sound from IIRD was to change it to ‘Restructured Economies’ to which experts had reservations. Vineeta disclosed that after the closure of PURA — providing urban facilities in rural areas — it has been revived in its new avatar of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Mission and RIEV can forward its benefits to rural people. She gave the basics of several schemes of the Central government, which could be useful to villagers here. Anil K Sinha, who had chaired the session, said Himachal had to remain prepared for a disaster, as it existed in the high-seismic zone and RIEV could play an important role in that by making people aware of safety measures. He cited the example of Odisha, where even after cyclone Fani, very few deaths occurred because they knew about the safety measures. He gave a slogan, “Aapadaa nahin ho bhaari; yadi poori ho tayaari”.

The last session was devoted to RIEV Times, a 16-page fortnightly newspaper edited by Hem Raj Chauhan, printed in 90 gsm art paper. The IIRD admitted that it was a costly affair and invited suggestions for its price reduction. The obvious suggestion from those present was to publish the paper in newsprint and they desired its continuity because of its worthwhile contents. 

TAILPIECE

“An arrogant rich and humble poor both need help! The former needs help to be human; the latter needs help to live humanly!” — Mehmet Murat Ildan