Wadule near Ralegan Siddhi School of Economics · 2019-12-23 · celebrated as the birthday of the...
Transcript of Wadule near Ralegan Siddhi School of Economics · 2019-12-23 · celebrated as the birthday of the...
Anusha Datta Suchitra Kodlekere Agasti Ambetkar Jai Ram Thappa
Jasmine Mehta Rohan Koparde Sheril Thomas Muskan Kabra
Laukik Gandhi Muskan Kashyap Tanvi Murumkar Zoha Patel
Laksh Jain Palasha Patil Manasi Nagpal Muffaddal Hamid
SaiHarshita
Lokunde
Aryan Pachpute Samiksha Joshi Mrugank Belsare
Tejas Shetty Paridhi Singhania Shweta Kartik Gauree Reynukkdas
Ankit Rajak Gayatri M Chinmay Chimgave Kush Bhomawat
Radhika Jain Atharva Deshmukh Radha Yadav Manika Sehgal
Shivani Kale Manaswi Kele Aalokshi Awade Arya Jadhav
Sumedh Ranjane Pranav Wankhede Ananya Singh Rutik Kherone
Stuti Kabra Eesha Pendse Archit Dutta Palak Sethia
Tejas Yeotekar Sarang Joglekar Rishabh Jhamtani Aesha Panchal
Bhavya Singh Vibhu
Vikramaditya
Nishita Bhattad Disha Aher
Vidhi Oswal Sarthak Agarwal Rutuja Dagade Shubh Agarwal
Tanay Agarwal Sheetal Sharma Raj Reet Sahil Agarwal
Nikita Gupta
Sr No. Contents Page No.
1 About MIT-WPU 2
2 About School of Economics 2
3 Introduction 3
4 Day One 3
5 Day Two 4
6 Day three 5
7 Concluding remarks 6
About MIT-WPU
MIT-World Peace University (MIT-WPU) is known to be among the top education
institutions in India since the establishment of the MIT Group of Institutes in 1983.
The Vision of MIT-WPU is to be a leading University of Excellence, promoting the “Culture
of Peace” through Value-based “Universal Education System”, with a firm belief that “Union
of Science and Religion / Spirituality alone will bring peace to mankind”
About School of Economics
MIT-WPU School of Economics is dedicated to the task of creating ethical, spirited and
committed economic leaders & professionals for the country from the grassroots and from all
walks of life. Its aim is to expose students to wider horizon of economic knowledge and its
application infusing in them a sense of national pride, values and empathy for common
people.
INTRODUCTION
The rural immersion program conducted by MIT-WPU is a boon for all students who are
cemented into the routine elementary and smooth urban life. It is an opportunity to connect and
be associated with the intricate and demanding life in the rural parts of our nation.
This year’s rural immersion program for School of Economics was organized on the 28th, 29th
and 30th of November at Ralegan Siddhi which is located in Ahmednagar District at a distance
of 87 km from Pune city. Ralegan Siddhi is the first Adarsh Gaon of India. It is most widely
known for the establishment of complete water recycling and reusing system, development in
the prevention of soil erosion and adoption of renewable sources of energy.
A total of 61 students from F.Y. BSc. Economics participated in the program organized and
administered by faculty of economics. The students were accompanied by Prof. Kaustubh
Saurkar and Prof. Ajita Pandit who similar to the classroom acted as mentors during the entire
expedition along with the assistance of Mr. Prasad Kaijkar.
The program was an amazing and extraordinary experience for the students.
Day 1
The first day commenced with the departure of students from MIT and arrival at Ralegan Siddhi
in the late afternoon. The students first visited the Padmavati temple which is an assembly point
for the villagers of Ralegan Siddhi every 2nd October on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti. It is
celebrated as the birthday of the village.
Next, the students visited the museum dedicated to Kisan Baburao Hazare better known as
Anna Hazare who is the man behind the revitalization and modernization of Ralegan Siddhi.
The visit to the museum provided a fresh perspective on the life of Anna Hazare and his journey
through life from the Army to becoming one of the most well renowned social activists of all
time. The students also received a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet and interact with Anna
Hazare.
Learning Outcomes:
Students learned about the strategy and vision of anti-corruption museum.
By the way of paying visit to Temple students learned about peculiarities of festivals
and community life of the village.
Visit to school presented a stupendous example of the revamp required in education to assist
not only academically weak students but all the students. The school admits only the students
who lag in their academics. The school presents a stupendous example of the revamp required
in education to assist not only academically weak students but all of the students.
Learning Outcomes: Role of society and environment specific factors has been highlighted
through the school.
This school also has a media centre wherein students were shown a Documentary on Ralegan
siddhis economy Pre and Post activities initiated by Shri. Hazareji. The students of MIT and
volunteering faculty were taught about the origin and progress of Ralegan Siddhi from a
deserted village to India’s first “Adarsh Gaon”. Students were acquainted with their initiative
for Ban on tobacco, alcohol, cigarette since 2001 in Ralegan siddhi .This helped them to
maintain their health and boost their productivity as well as active participation at work
.Digging of Bore wells is also banned since 2014 in the village in order to facilitate groundwater
recharge and its effective utilisation. They learnt about the transformation of Credit
cooperative society from unregulated informal structure to well defined and regulated structure.
This helped the farmers to avail easy credit and prevented them from shylocks.
Learning Outcomes: Optimum utilisation of resources with the help of Modern Technology,
Innovations and active community participation.
Day 2
The second day commenced with breakfast followed by conversations with the villagers. The
students were divided into 3 groups and worked in the fields of onions, chillies and lemons
respectively under the guidance of the faculty members and interacted with the farmers and
labourers about their problems and work.
Glimpses of three batches of students working at farms.
Learning outcomes: Team-Work, minimalistic approach of life, farming methods and
practices.
Later in the second day the students travelled to Ralegan-Siddhi to interact with Anna Hazareji.
He briefed the students regarding the struggles he faced while developing Ralegan-Siddhi to
an Adarsh Gaon (Ideal Village) and how he devoted himself completely towards the
development of the village. He informed the students about the relentless efforts he put in for
water conservation and also brought to their notice the environmental hazards faced due to
urbanization.
Learning outcomes: Importance of water-A scarce resource and its effective utilisation,
Active labour force participation, Out of the box thinking and innovation by youth.
Guidance & Blessing from Hon. Anna Hazare ji
DAY 3
Ground Water Recharge
On the third day the students visited Sant Yadav Ground Water Recharge Scheme where they
cognized the importance of water conservation. The students were given information on the
strategy adopted that was checking the run-off water by contour bunding and constructing
check-dams so as to hold the water within the watershed area. Water conservation Model was
developed by these villagers with Vision of Shri Hazare .This model is now being adopted by
Government of Sweden in some villages having similar climatic and geographical conditions
like Ralegansiddhi.
Learning outcomes: Minimum resources, maximum water generation via community co-
operation.
Prof. Kaustubh Saurkar felicitated Mr. Aware and handed him with a photo-frame of Saint
Dnyaseshwara , Pasay Dan and the Shawl as a token of gratitude on behalf of MIT-WPU.
Demographic dividend with Ralegan Siddhi with Greater percentage of Youth in the village
Irregular and scarce rainfall combined with Improper utilisation of water-A scarce resource
which led to drought prone conditions in Village Farmers at Ralegan Siddhi cultivate Bajra,
Jowar, Onions, Chillies: Red, Green. A few amongst them also cultivate paddy wheat and
lemons. Most of these crops are seasonal in nature. Hence farmers now take up poultry rearing,
selling milk, leasing lands and Making handicrafts as their subsidiary occupation to support the
family. Most of the farmers yield around 70k per month from their produce and rest of the
activities provide around 50k cumulatively per month to them. Earlier lands being infertile
could hardly provide 2% profit to these farmers up till 2000.Post 2000, due to initiatives taken
by Hazare Ji, this profit margin has increased substantially. These farmers were mostly Large
Scale Farmers or Marginal Farmers. No small scale farmers were seen. Also initially their land
holding pattern was single. This changed to dual holding pattern or leasing of lands during
1980-2005.Post 2005 Again land holding pattern has been single holding pattern. Migration
from this village to Semi Urban Or Unban areas nearby Like Pune,Wagholi etc were quite high.
Up till 2000, 50% of population had migrated to their urban counterparts for settlement. But
Now all such people are coming back to the village with their children staying here and
engaging into various activities along with farming and marching towards the goal of
sustainable development. Women have open access to all places in village including temples.
In fact, most of the women are collectively forming a Self Help Group and running micro credit
societies. Women have access to all educational facilities with no biases of Preaching
medium(English/Marathi) as earlier. Co-ed convent schools are established. Women can attend
gram Sabha’s and can be elected at various posts . All residents are getting subsidies for getting
Gas cylinders and they are availing it. But still they use Chula’s for large scale preparation of
food. Ban imposed on alcohol, tobacco, cigarette since2003.This has enhanced productivity of
farmers and the youth . Ban on digging bore-wells was also imposed since 2014.This helped to
restrict groundwater depletion.
Concluding remarks: Overall this immersion helped the students understand the harsh reality
of farmers lives. It helped them to understand how the farmers at Ralegan siddhi have overcome
this situation with collective efforts, innovation and skill development