Turning Points (13 page)

I made two other journeys. One was from Chandigarh to Delhi in 2004 and the third was from Delhi to Dehra Dun in 2006. These train journeys were necessitated due to uncertain weather and also because the travel time could be well used for meetings.

The journey from Harnaut to Patna became a multipurpose
journey. I laid the foundation stone for the new railway workshop at Harnaut. Nitish Kumar, who was railway minister, was very happy and all smiles at seeing a huge railway complex being launched in his home state. In my address, I told the audience at Harnaut that I was just arriving from an ancient site of learning, Nalanda. I hoped that Bihar would revive this great university with a new, contemporary curriculum that included subjects dealing with promoting peace in the world.

The train journey was immensely useful as I invited fifteen vice chancellors of Bihar to travel with me and discuss for an hour the problems pertaining to the universities in the state.

I could emphasize to them the necessity of the universities taking up courses which had direct relevance to the development programmes of the state. The governor of Bihar took a special interest in solving the problems which were affecting the performance of the universities and bringing them on a par with other universities in the country. After two years, I found that they had achieved the goal for conduct of calendar-based examinations.

There was a pleasant footnote to the journey. At the Patna railway station I saw Lalu Prasad Yadav, the leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, and the Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar, who had come to receive me, but both were looking in different directions. As soon as I got down from the train, I brought both the political rivals together and made them shake hands, much to the delight of the crowd assembled there.

On 5 January 2004, I went to Chandigarh for inaugurating
the Children’s Science Congress and also to address the scientific community. I had to come back to Delhi for another important task scheduled on 6 January. To overcome the uncertainty arising from early morning fog, I used the train to reach Delhi in time. Particularly I enjoyed inaugurating the science congress where students from all parts of the country numbering more than a thousand had assembled with their projects.

The third time I travelled by train was in 2006. I went to Dehra Dun for taking the presidential salute at the passing out parade at the Indian Military Academy. It was winter and due to poor visibility in the mornings, reaching by air in time for the parade was uncertain. It was foggy at night too. The train went from the Safdarjung station to Dehra Dun non-stop, but the railways had arranged a number of checkpoints to ensure its safe movement.

It was pleasant to be among the cheerful graduating officers. Particularly, many graduating officers asked me questions on what type of India they were going to defend. To this group of officers, I related something that came up on a visit to some northern command units, very close to the border. The visit was being closely watched by the Pakistani army personnel across the border. There I addressed around two hundred young officers belonging to different units. After my address, before going for Bada Khana, I put a question to the young officers. Dear young officers, I said, since you have more than thirty years of service in front of you in the army, can you tell me what is the unique mission you would like to accomplish as an officer. The senior officers were silent but the younger ones
lifted their hands. I chose one. After saluting me, the officer said, ‘Sir, I have a dream. That dream is to get back all the land belonging to my nation which has been occupied by others.’ The whole meeting was electrified and everyone cheered that young officer. When I narrated this answer to the graduating cadets, there was the same response: ‘We will also do that, sir.’ The train journeys linger in memory for these reasons.

One of the most beautiful sights I have seen was in Sudan, that of the Blue Nile and White Nile merging and being transformed into a different river, a different colour, much like it is at the Sangam here. In meeting people we are transformed too, though we stay the same.

REJUVENATING THE HEART OF INDIA

The village movement is an attempt to establish healthy contact
with the villages by inducing those who are fired with the spirit
of service to settle in them and find self-expression in the
service of villagers …

—Mahatma Gandhi

I
ndia lives in its villages. It is from there that its culture, heritage, customs and philosophy of life emerge. I was born and brought up in a village; I can understand the rhythms of village life. In recent years the migration from
villages to town has increased dramatically. All the migrants get is a tense, miserable life in slums as they try and earn enough to satisfy their hunger. Love and belonging is snatched from them. Developing the villages so that they can provide adequate opportunity for earning and improving amenities there can change the face of India, I believe. It will stop the migration to towns ending the misery of the migrant labour. From this thinking emerged the idea of PURA (Providing Urban Amenities to Rural Areas).

The development of any state requires the development of its villages. To gain first-hand experience, I decided to visit a rural area during my first trip to Bhopal in 2002. We went to Torni, which had neither a proper road nor electricity. As soon as I expressed my desire to visit this village, a number of actions were initiated by the state authorities. First and foremost, a several-kilometre-long all-weather road was constructed. Electricity also reached the village at jet speed.

During my visit, the villagers were very happy to demonstrate their achievements in watershed management and use of organic pesticides. I asked the district authorities to spread the achievements of Torni village to other villages in the region, so that they too could benefit from this experience. I also suggested to the state government that they create connectivity among a group of villages by forming clusters, which would not only facilitate the provision of physical connectivity in the form of roads and transportation systems, but would also enable the provision of common amenities like health care, educational institutions, storage facilities for perishable items like fruits
and vegetables, and the creation of a food processing or other industry in the village cluster, which would create employment opportunities in the area. Nowadays the range of crop and wood-based industries alone has expanded to include a very wide array of products that are in great demand.

I also suggested to the chief minister and district authorities that they survey all water bodies in all the villages in Madhya Pradesh using satellite pictures, de-silt them and provide proper inlet and outlet connections.

The youth from the villages in the Torni area requested the upgradation of the middle school into a secondary school, which the state government agreed to do.

The visit to Torni village provided me with a field look at the various dimensions of development including the connectivity needed for bridging the rural-urban divide.

I was born and brought up in Rameswaram. Based on my experience there, I have often reflected how villages can be developed in such a way as to provide adequate earning capacities. My professional career has been in the larger cities but I have had several opportunities to visit villages in far-flung areas. When we were developing the India 2020 programme, one of its most important elements was that of developing the country’s 600,000 villages. When my friend Prof. P.V. Indiresan came up with the idea of PURA, it struck a chord. I started detailed discussions with him and several other experts in the field who had a similar interest.

I was fortunate to come into contact with Nanaji Deshmukh of Chitrakoot PURA, Madhya Pradesh, Periyar PURA in Vallam, Tamil Nadu, and Loni PURA in Maharashtra promoted by a medical group. Above all, there was the Warana PURA in Maharashtra taking shape under the pioneering work of Tatya Saheb Kore. These experiences of rural development became the foundation for the evolution of the PURA system for the whole nation. As president, I have visited more villages than urban areas. The observations I made on these tours further helped in the establishment of PURA complexes.

When we engage in conversation with city folk, invariably many of them point out the present situation of increased pollution, fast pace of life, crowding and other disadvantages. Still they do not venture to go back to even their own villages. On the other hand, people of the villages even though they like their environment, leave their homes and venture into the cities in the hope of a better quality of life. Can we find a solution, so that village dwellers, particularly the youth, have opportunities to improve their earning capacity in the village environment itself? Simultaneously, can we make the villages attractive to the urban citizens, not only for holidaying and business, but also for potential migration. Such thinking formed the basis of PURA.

The government and the private and public sector in our country have been taking up rural development in parts. For example, starting an educational institution or a health care centre, laying roads and building houses, or providing a communication link in a particular rural area have been taken up in the past as individual activities. During the last
few decades, it is our experience that these initiatives start well, just like heavy rain results in numerous streams of water for a while. As soon as the rain stops, all the streams get dried up because there are no ponds to collect the surplus water. For the first time, PURA envisages an integrated, sustained development plan with employment generation as the focus and taking into account provision of the habitat, health care, education, skill development, physical and electronic connectivity and marketing. The need of the hour is the evolution of sustainable systems which act as ‘enablers’ and bring about inclusive growth.

All of us realize that the development of villages is vital for a developed India. What is meant by development of villages? It means that:

1)  The villages must be connected by good roads and wherever needed by railway. They must have other infrastructure like schools, colleges, hospitals and other amenities for the local population and the visitors. Let us call this
physical connectivity
.

2)  In the emerging knowledge era, the native knowledge has to be preserved and enhanced with the latest tools of technology, training and research. The villages have to have access to good education from the best teachers wherever they are; they must have the benefit of good medical treatment and the latest information on their pursuits like agriculture, fishery, horticulture
and food processing. That means they have to have
electronic connectivity
.

3)  Once the physical and electronic connectivity are enabled, the knowledge connectivity is enabled. That can facilitate the ability to increase productivity and find a market for the products, increase quality consciousness and interaction with work partners, help get the best equipment, improve transparency, and enhance lifestyle and use of spare time, and so we can call it
knowledge connectivity
.

4)  Once the three connectivities are ensured, they increase earning capacity. By taking PURA as a mission, we can develop villages as prosperous knowledge centres and see villagers emerge as entrepreneurs.

The Periyar PURA complex has been pioneered by Periyar Maniammai College of Technology for Women, Vallam. I inaugurated this complex on 20 December 2003 and visited it again on 24 September 2006. This PURA consists of a cluster of sixty-five villages having a population of over 100,000 in 2003. It has all three connectivities, leading to economic connectivity. On each visit, I am amazed by the enthusiasm of the local population and the youth in making possible the integrated development of the cluster. The youth display their plans for development of this complex and their innovative skills. The initiatives have resulted in large-scale employment generation and creation of a number of entrepreneurs with the active support of 1,800 self-help groups. Two hundred acres of wasteland has been developed into cultivable land with innovative water management
schemes. The Periyar Maniammai College, which has become part of the Periyar Maniammai University, has deployed its students and faculty members for the development of PURA by injecting technologies and improving the skill of the local citizens. They have also created a one-product, one-village scheme resulting in the selection of forty-five products from these villages which have met international demand. The close association of the education community at the grassroot level has enabled dynamic rural development in the sixty-five villages and also improved the lifestyle of their inhabitants.