IMCFTS CARE
The specific problem within the Challenge is the lack of Awareness of Health Care and Hygiene which is not at all expensive.
To be precise it is open defecation and using safe water for drinking and household work.
In developing countries in South Asia mainly India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and Afghanistan four-fifths of all illnesses are caused by water-borne diseases, with Diarrhea being the leading cause of death among children.
Globally, we have seen remarkable improvements in billions of people gaining access to water and sanitation services and improving hygiene practices. The past decade saw more significant government commitments and increased investment in improved safe water, sanitation and hygiene.
"Swachh Bharat Mission", An initiative taken by Government of India from Rural to Urban sectors failed due to lack of proper awareness campaign among the beneficiaries, specially the rural sector, the villages.
In-spite of some progress being made, much remains to be done. Most of the world’s open defecators (more than 600 million) live in South Asia. Millions have limited access to safe water services and practice poor hygiene behaviours, which are the leading causes of child mortality and morbidity.
The global picture of health and water has a strong local dimension for approximately 1.1 billion people who still lack access to improved drinking water sources. Around 2.4 billion people on Earth have inadequate sanitation. There is strong evidence that sanitation, water and hygiene-related diseases account for around 2,223,000 deaths each year, as well as an annual loss of 82,196,000 Disability Adjusted Life Years
- In South Asia, the proportion of people practicing open defecation fell from 65 per cent to 34 per cent with India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan achieving more than a 30 per cent reduction in open defecation. However, despite the great progress, 610 million people in South Asia still practice open defecation (over 60% of the global burden).
- In South Asia, access to improved safe water increased from 73 per cent to 93 per cent since 1990. However, over 134 million people still do not have access to improved drinking water. It is currently estimated that in South Asia between 68 to 84 per cent of water sources are contaminated.
Poor drinking water and sanitation facilities in schools, as well as inappropriate hygiene behaviours among children, are contributing to the reduction of the quality of education in primary and secondary schools all across the South Asian region. This, together with poor menstrual hygiene management among young girls in schools, is one of the causes of school absenteeism and drop-off. - South Asia is highly vulnerable to both natural- and man-made disasters. Every year, natural hazards like floods, cyclones, droughts, and earthquakes displace and cause suffering to millions of people especially children and the most vulnerable groups. Inadequate drinking water, sanitation facilities, and poor hygiene practices worsen the situation for the disaster-affected population, causing an increase in water-borne diseases and slowing the recuperation of the population affected by the crises.
- Water-borne diseases include the following:
- Polio
- Malaria
- Cholera
- Dengue
- Scabies
- Typhoid
- Anaemia
- Botulism
- Fluorosis
- Trachoma
- Hepatitis
- Diarrhoea
- Giardiasis
- Ascariasis
- Trichuriasis
- Arsenicosis
- Malnutrition
- Legionellosis
- Leptospirosis
- Schistosomiasis
- Dracunculiasis
- Onchocerciasis
- Lead poisoning
- Cryptosporidiosis
- Campylobacteriosis
- Lymphatic filariasis
- Hookworm infection
- Ring Worm or Tinea
- Methemoglobinemia
- Cyanobacterial toxins
- Japanese encephalitis
- Common ones are Malaria, Dengue, Cholera, Typhoid, Filaria and related diseases.
UNSAFE WATER FOR DRINKING AND HOUSEHOLD WORK.
Indian Village Women Pouring water from the village well for drinking cooking and household works
Village women in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan collect water from nearby ponds in the village
TYPICAL VILLAGES IN INDIA, PAKISTAN, AND BANGLADESH SUFFERING FROM THE ABOVE DISEASES
Typical Villages in Sikkim and Bhutan suffering from the above diseases
In remote villages, there is no overnight solution to these above-mentioned diseases or health hazards. The traditional ways of lifestyle like open defecation, bathing, washing and collecting water for drinking, cooking and other household works from nearby ponds, lakes, wells and rivers can not be barred without any alternative sources. The villagers are used to that lifestyle from the days of their forefathers for ages.
There is no awareness or education for them to realize their conditions even. They leave everything to their fate.
In two simple ways, they can solve their two major problems by:-
- Digging a pond strictly for collecting drinking water by contributing their own collective labour with fishery to eat out the mosquito larvae and other parasites. Boil the drinking water at home.
- Digging ditches for open defecation covered with bamboo screens for privacy and covering the ditches with clay/mud/soil which in time will convert into organic manure for cultivation.
The above suggestions are simple ones when there is no fund or small collective fund by contribution from the villagers.
Now we will go for a deeper solution by collecting data, analyzing for action and funding the project.
How to collect primary health care data?
Proxy data, Questionnaires, observations, and document examination are all examples of healthcare data collection techniques. Today, most information is collected through digital channels and a plethora of apps available on the market, using market research services door to door to collect rudimentary data.
As we have seen that despite the great progress in open defecation, 610 million people in South Asia still practice open defecation (over 60% of the global burden).
The great solution lies to increase the awareness of the people as a whole of hygienic practices under the supervision of local health workers.
We can propagate awareness programs by taking the advantage of advanced technology, such as Smartphones. The Media Houses are to generate audio-visual Infotainment programs on health care by building community latrines and transmitting through the internet to be followed by the local authorities under the supervision of health workers.
VIGILANCE BY THE HEALTH WORKERS OF THE VILLAGE
In November 2021, the biennial Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) survey noted that the availability of smartphones in rural India saw a sharp rise in the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic. It stated that while smartphone availability in rural India was 36.5% in 2018, the figure rose to 67.6% in 2021.22-Feb-2022
The National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey, 2019-2020, showed that 0.8 percent of the population in rural areas of India had no toilets and practiced open defecation; the figure was 6.8 percent in 2018-2019; and 23 percent in 2017-2018.
RECYCLING THE HUMAN WASTE:-
Building household or community Septic tank with soak pit.
Community latrines in villages by the villagers
WASHING HANDS FOR CLEANNINESS
What can you do with human waste?
6 Exceptional Ways to Put Human Waste to Use in an Environmentally-Friendly Way
- Production of biogas. Methane gas which is produced by human waste can be tapped and used to produce biogas. ...
- Fertilizer. ...
- Fecal Transplant. ... (How is a fecal transplant done?
Doctors collect a donor's bowel movement and mix it with saline solution, then strain it through a coffee filter. The result is a brown liquid that contains the good bacteria. The doctor injects it deep into your colon using a long, flexible tube called a colonoscope. This procedure usually takes place in a hospital.) - Hydrogen Fuel. ... (Researchers in Spain have found an efficient way to convert human waste into clean, renewable hydrogen fuel—and cut carbon emissions of wastewater treatment plants. Human waste and sewage is something most people do not want to think about. But it is a large, untapped source of energy.)
- Fuel. ... (A team of researchers from Israel's Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) has demonstrated, for the first time, a technique for converting human excrement into hydrochar—a safe, renewable biomass fuel that resembles charcoal—as well as a nutrient-rich fertilizer.)
- Janicki Omni Processor. (What does the Janicki Omni Processor do?
Sedron Technologies' Janicki Omni Processor (J-OP) is a decentralized waste treatment system that kills pathogens while recovering valuable resources from fecal sludge, biosolids, and other waste streams. The J-OP aims to make responsible waste treatment economically attractive rather than a cost burden to society.)
GENERATING BIO GAS FROM HUMAN WASTE
The process of making compost organic manure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
BOIL WATER FOR SAFE DRINKING AND HOUSEHOLD WORK
Boiling water for safe drinking
SAFE DRINKING WATER
The children are to be taught health care and personal hygiene from primary school levels to make them torch bearers to solve all the health-related problems in their areas.
BEHALA SNEHA FOUNDATION WORKING WITH US TO EDUCATE THE CHILDREN AT THE PRIMARY LEVEL
Village child education campus at Kakdwip
Teaching at the primary level for cleanliness towards better hygiene.
As per the data available we are to identify our target areas and spread the activities through other agencies as well to participate in this mission.
We are to educate the local people through awareness programmes by Media, organising seminars, street corner drama, local folk media to open their vision for their improved healthy life style. We may take the help of You tube, Netovision, IMCFTS CARE, Behala Sneha Foundation for this journey.
Behala Sneha Foundation, a registered non-profit society, is working with us in their adopted village at Kakdwip, Sundarban for the promotion of child education and voluntary services for health care. We are trying to expand our activities on this by way of associating ourselves with other non-profit and profit-earning organizations, NETOVISION MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT PRIVATE LIMITED to facilitate the low-cost global campaign through android and iOS smartphones with our mission.
Village health workers to monitor and spread awareness on hygiene issues
Street Drama to gear up awareness on different social issues including hygiene.
Spreading awareness through folk media
Outdoor awareness training program of the students of IMCFTS in Electronic Media
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...Most economical way to view infotainment awareness program in a remote village
A village seminar on health awareness
Data for Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan
Topic
Social
Indicator
Most recent value
Trend
Poverty headcount ratio at $1.90 a day (2011 PPP) (% of population)
Pakistan 3.6
India 22.5
Bangladesh 14.3
Sri Lanka 0.9
Nepal 15.0
(2018)
20002021054PAKISTANINDIABANGLADESHSRI LANKANEPAL
Life expectancy at birth, total (years)
The average number of years that a newborn could expect to live, if he or she were to pass through life exposed to the sex- and age-specific death rates prevailing at the time of his or her birth, for a specific year, in a given country, territory, or geographic area.
What affects Life expectancy at birth?
Gains in life expectancy at birth can be attributed to a number of factors, including rising living standards, improved lifestyle and better education, as well as greater access to quality health services. This indicator is presented as a total and per gender and is measured in years.
Pakistan 67
India 70
Bangladesh 73
Sri Lanka 77
Nepal 71
Afghanistan 65
(2020)
200020215478PAKISTANINDIABANGLADESHSRI LANKANEPALAFGHANISTAN
Pakistan 225,199,929
India 1,513,990,871,432
Bangladesh 166,303,494
Sri Lanka 22,156,000
Nepal 29,674,920
Afghanistan 39,835,428
(2021)
200020210.01.5PAKISTANINDIABANGLADESHSRI LANKANEPALAFGHANISTAN
Pakistan 1.9
India 1.0
Bangladesh 1.0
Sri Lanka 1.1
Nepal 1.8
Afghanistan 2.3
(2021)
20002021-15PAKISTANINDIABANGLADESHSRI LANKANEPALAFGHANISTAN
Pakistan- 1,166,895
India- 2,663,434
Bangladesh- 1,847,503
Sri Lanka- 489,932
Nepal 208,549
Afghanistan- 314,602
(2017)
20002021Thousand-3550889PAKISTANINDIABANGLADESHSRI LANKANEPALAFGHANISTAN
Human Capital Index (HCI) (scale 0-1)
Pakistan 0.4
India 0.5
Bangladesh 0.5
Sri Lanka 0.6
Nepal 0.5
Afghanistan 0.4
(2020)
2000202101PAKISTANINDIABANGLADESHSRI LANKANEPALAFGHANISTAN
Economic
Indicator
Most recent value
Trend
GDP (current US$) current US$ constant 2010 US$ current LCU constant LCU
Pakistan 346.3
India 3,173.4
Bangladesh 416.3
Sri Lanka 84.5
Nepal 36.3
Afghanistan 20.1
(2021 billion)
200020210.03.5PAKISTANINDIABANGLADESHSRI LANKANEPALAFGHANISTAN
GDP per capita (current US$) current US$ constant 2015 US$ current LCU constant LCU
Pakistan 1,537.9
India 2,277.4
Bangladesh 2,503.0
Sri Lanka 3,814.7
Nepal 1,222.9
Afghanistan 516.7
(2021)
20002021Thousand04PAKISTANINDIABANGLADESHSRI LANKANEPALAFGHANISTAN
Pakistan 6.0
India 8.9
Bangladesh 6.9
Sri Lanka 3.7
Nepal 4.2
Afghanistan- 2.4
(2021)
20002021-824PAKISTANINDIABANGLADESHSRI LANKANEPALAFGHANISTAN
Unemployment, total (% of total labor force) (modeled ILO estimate)
Pakistan 4.4
India 6.0
Bangladesh 5.2
Sri Lanka 5.4
Nepal 5.1
Afghanistan 13.3
(2021)
20002021014PAKISTANINDIABANGLADESHSRI LANKANEPALAFGHANISTAN
Inflation, consumer prices (annual %)
Pakistan 9.5
India 5.1
Bangladesh 5.5
Sri Lanka 7.0
Nepal 4.1
Afghanistan 2.3
(2021)
20002021-828PAKISTANINDIABANGLADESHSRI LANKANEPALAFGHANISTAN
Environment
Indicator
Most recent value
Trend
CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita)
Pakistan 0.9
India 1.8
Bangladesh 0.6
Sri Lanka 1.1
Nepal 0.5
Afghanistan 0.2
(2019)
2000202102PAKISTANINDIABANGLADESHSRI LANKANEPALAFGHANISTAN
Pakistan 4.8
India 24.3
Bangladesh 14.5
Sri Lanka 34.2
Nepal 41.6
Afghanistan 1.9
(2020)
20002021045PAKISTANINDIABANGLADESHSRI LANKANEPALAFGHANISTAN
Access to electricity (% of population)
Pakistan 75.4
India 99.0
Bangladesh 96.2
Sri Lanka 100.0
Nepal 89.9
Afghanistan 97.7
(2020)
200020210110PAKISTANINDIABANGLADESHSRI LANKANEPALAFGHANISTAN
Annual freshwater withdrawals, total (% of internal resources)
Pakistan 364
India 45
Bangladesh 34
Sri Lanka 25
Nepa l5
Afghanistan 43
(2017)
200020210400PAKISTANINDIABANGLADESHSRI LANKANEPALAFGHANISTAN
Individuals using the Internet (% of population)
Pakistan 25
India 43
Bangladesh 25
Sri Lanka 35
Nepal 38
Afghanistan 18
(2020)
Since mankind lives in a society, which makes a territory/state/country, development occurs only with individual upbringing. When a child is raised by strict parents, this is an example of a strict upbringing. The traits acquired during one's childhood training. The raising or training of a child by the parents is necessary.
It starts from primary education, developing habits and consciousness. To become aware of one's surroundings, family and friends and neighbours to be a proper social being of the territory/country. There may be some differences between the culture and lifestyle of different sects but to be in unified means, living and let live in peace.
It is the earnest duty of humankind to extend helping hands to the downtrodden for upliftment to maintain harmony.
Upliftment is defined as lifting up or raising. An example of upliftment is using an elevator to take someone to a higher floor. An example of upliftment is making someone happy when they are sad.
The motto of living is IF YOU ARE HAPPY I AM HAPPY. This motivation is required by all social beings to stand by the side of sad, deprived, hungry, and distressed at the time of need, since, everything in the world is NEED BASED.
So, when it is health care for the community, it is also for our own safety, and the safety of the entire community to prevent contamination to cause illness and death.
WE ARE BY THE SIDE OF THE PEOPLE OF KAKWDIP AFTER THE CYCLONE, AMPAN.
Standing by the side of the villagers at Kakdwip after the recent cyclone, Ampan(2020) and the flood with relief
- Employ unconventional or proxy data sources to inform primary health care performance improvement
- Provide improved measurement methods that are low cost, fit-for-purpose, shareable across information systems, and streamlined for data collectors
- Leverage existing systems, networks, and workflows to streamline the collection and interpretation of data to support meaningful use of primary health care data
- Provide actionable, accountable, and accessible insights for health care providers, administrators, and/or funders that can be used to optimize the performance of primary health care
- Balance the opportunity for frontline health workers to participate in performance improvement efforts with their primary responsibility as care providers
- Growth
All the result-oriented solutions we have thought about to meet this Challenge at the primary stage are to be initiated by us (IMCFTS CARE) by appointing paid workers to pave the path to show and teach and motivate the local inhabitants.
For example, appointing civil engineers, masons or a person who is skilled at making things or building things with bricks, cement mortars, and labours to make a septic tank. this is very easy to make, the villagers will learn the process in a short while and volunteer for their projects.
So, at the beginning finance, technical, legal, cultural and market barriers are to be taken care of.
Later on the beneficiaries will take part to face the challenges for their own benefit.
Our mission is to design the mission and start implementing the same in a certain area/village with the participation of local inhabitants, creating a cell/society to follow up.
INITIALLY, financial, technical, legal barriers we face can be taken care of by Challenge and help us out.
DOING ONE'S OWN WORK IS THE BEST SOLUTION AND SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVED APPROACH TO THE BASIC PROBLEMS.
TO INSPIRE AND INFLUENCE THE COMMUNITY TO BE the primary problem solvers in their area in finding fresh DRINKING WATER and HEALTH CARE.
COLLECTING NECTAR CREATES A BEEHIVE FOR FREEMASONRY
(Freemasons are focused on building themselves as people of integrity, and membership provides the structure to help achieve that goal. Being a Freemason gives members a sense of purpose, supporting and guiding them on their journey through life.)
SO COLLECT ALL THE BENEFICIAL DATA TO APPLY IN YOUR COMMUNITY TO DERIVE ALL THE GOODS OF LIFE, SAFE AND SECURE.
IT IS NOT ONLY CATALYTIC, BUT IT IS ALSO "contagious", TO AFFECT THE OTHERS to change the market or enable broader positive impacts on others.
(In human chemistry, a human catalyst is a person who acts as a catalyst to facilitate a human chemical reaction or system process, without being consumed in the reaction LIKE PLATINUM)
We are to study human nature and chemistry from ancient times which thrives for beauty, love, compassion, and good peaceful living with loving ONES without any sickness or sorrow. A person who is blooming has a healthy, energetic, and attractive appearance.
In two simple ways, they can solve their two major problems by:-
Digging a pond strictly for collecting drinking water by contributing their own collective labour with fishery to eat out the mosquito larvae and other parasites. Boil the drinking water at home.
Digging ditches for open defecation covered with bamboo screens for privacy and covering the ditches with clay which in time will convert into organic manure for cultivation.
The above suggestions are simple ones when there is no fund or small collective fund by contribution from the villagers.
This may appear a primitive solution, but to begin with it is the most effective one as the villagers are united to solve their two major health related problems.
Once they are successful they would like to share with their social community through smart phones, like ancient cave drawings to communicate.
In the present day the time people spend on their mobile devices is continuing to grow every year. As our devices become more sophisticated, (video calls/conferencing),the number of activities we can do on mobile is always growing, meaning we're more likely to use them with greater frequency.
As Swami Vivekanada said, "Man is like an infinite spring, coiled up in a small box, and the spring is trying to unfold itself; and all the social phenomena that we see are the result of this trying to unfold."
As once, Swami Vivekananda said to the youths of India,
‘Arise! Awake! And stop not till the goal is reached.’
To inspire the community for a long-standing impact on health care and to make them conscious to differentiate between the good and the bad effects of habits they were practicing from their forefathers' as natural social behaviour, for example, Open Defecation. It is defined as the practice of defecating in open fields, waterways, bushes and open trenches without any proper disposal of human excreta.
Practicing to use of safe water for drinking and household work.
Once they are habituated, the community will have a transformational impact on their lives for generations to come by way of the spread of awareness, education and practice.
To keep an eye on the impact, there comes the formation of a vigilance committee with all the tools from data collection to organizing awareness programs taking the help of local talents and media, smartphones.
A well-thought proposal can be building a community hall in the locality to organize regular seminars, cultural programs, festivals, and events to keep the brains engaged.
The Sustainable Development Goals or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all". The SDGs were set up in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by 2030.
The 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to transform our world:
GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being
GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
GOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
GOAL 17: Partnerships to Achieve the Goal
TO ADD MORE AS WE HAVE ALREADY POINTED OUT THAT THE AREAS UNDER PROGRESS SHOULD HAVE A COMMITTEE OF VILLAGERS TO MONITOR AND MEASURE THE PROGRESS. A COMMUNITY HALL IS TO BE CONSTRUCTED IN THAT AREA TO TAKE A STOCK OF ALL SIGNS OF PROGRESSES DONE FROM TIME TO TIME AND ORGANIZE SEMINARS FOR SELF-CRITICISM AND FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THAT AREA. THEY SHOULD ASK FOR HELP FROM THE CORE COMMITTEE CONSTITUTED BY OUR MEMBERS.
In our experience, we find that most children wash their hands before taking meals. And wash after the toilet. This is becoming a habit after long years of preaching and practicing.
As in military camps, the soldiers are trained to wake up early in the morning and after washing and having breakfast go to line up for daily physical exercises and drills for two to three hours before lunchtime. These daily practices grow teamwork in them for any eventuality to combat for their mission from war fields to emergency rescue operations during floods or accidents. This is:-
THEORY OF CHANGE
CAMP-->-PRACTICE--->-APPLICATION--->-TEAM WORK--->-KNOWLEDGE --->-
FIELD WORK---->-APPLIED KNOWLEDGE---->-SUSTAINABLE APPLICATION
This practice helps us to tone up our body and mind to apply in life manifold. Ready for application to face any eventualities through team work when we find the collective participation of villagers irrespective of gender to protect their village from overflowing river. Helps us to focus on a particular goal, and keeps us alert. Ultimately becomes the life long KNOWLEDGE.
We believe in traditional folk art forms, as India is very rich in those forms. With the progress of technology we are expanding our area of infrastructure to accommodate all the technological advanced equipment.
USING WEBSITES FOR EDUCATION, INFORMATION AND ENTERTAINMENT
http://www.behalasnehafoundation.org
https://www.youtube.com/channe...
https://www.youtube.com/channe...
VIRTUAL REALITY IN MAKING THE SURROUNDINGS FOR AWARENESS PROGRAME.
The following video made by the students of IMCFTS is an example to virtual reality:-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz7hZB...
The entire video has been shot in the studio of IMCFTS against a green chroma key.
With the advent of Internet the communication technology has expanded manifold to reach out to communities we never thought of. We can share our experiences and innovations with the other communities irrespective of distance and language and inspire them to solve the problems through
Google +
The following video TED is an example:-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f_qi4VyJPA
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SOCIAL GOOD
Our being refers to the collective network of connected devices and the technology that facilitates communication between devices and the cloud, as well as between the devices themselves.
- A new business model or process that relies on technology to be successful
- Ancestral Technology & Practices
- Audiovisual Media
- Crowd Sourced Service / Social Networks
- Internet of Things
- Software and Mobile Applications
- Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality
- 2. Zero Hunger
- 3. Good Health and Well-being
- 4. Quality Education
- 5. Gender Equality
- 6. Clean Water and Sanitation
- 16. Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions
- 17. Partnerships for the Goals
- India
Only Internet Data Collection.
Monthly salary.
- Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit
We have included two more hybrid foundations and one for-profit earning Media platform through internet (OTT) to diversify the work load with men and women in equal footing to accomplish the mission. Moreover, we do have the students' force of more than 80+boys and girls in U G & P G levels along with the village people of different occupations right from farmers, fishermen, honey collectors from Sundarban forest in West Bengal adjacent to Bangladesh.
Approximately 60 percent of South Asia's 1.8 billion citizens are involved in agriculture. Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan and other countries depend heavily on the agricultural sector for their economic prosperity.
Among the traditional systems, intensive subsistence agriculture in which rice cultivation is the most predominant crop prevails largely in South Asia.
To increase the crop production and quality they are to apply fertilizer to enrich the fertility of the soil along with proper irrigation.
Being ignorant and by the influence of publicity the farmers used to go for chemical (inorganic) fertilizers and pesticides to increase the harvest.
What are the effects of using inorganic fertilizer?
Accordingly, overuse of inorganic fertilizers has caused soil, air, and water pollutions through nutrient leaching, destruction of soil physical characteristics, accumulation of toxic chemicals in water bodies, and so on, as well as causing severe environmental problems and loss of biodiversity.12-Nov-2020.
It is our mission to covert the farmers to go for ORGANIC fertilizers in the form of COMPOST and MANURE out of human and animal waste (night soil and cow dung) which can be produced by a group of people as second line of self employment safely to change the entire scenario of the village.
- Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)
As a social non-profit enterprise we will start from raising donations to produce the compost by collecting the kitchen wastes from each and every door of the village by employing the social volunteers. Start producing compost and distributing at a nominal price to the vegetable and fruit cultivators.
Then we will venture to a bigger project to make the manure with human waste by building bio-toilets which can be erected by local masons and labourers to produce manures for cultivation of paddy
Bio Toilet
How can a village be self-sufficient?
All that the village consumes should be produced in the village, all the services which people need should be made available within the village.
The current policy of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation is collectively called LPG by many. LPG is a clutch of economic policies aimed at integrating the nation in the world economy so that it could gain from trade and foreign investment. This policy has never been too popular with the development fraternity. Economic compulsions have forced subsequent governments since 1991 to try and increasingly align their policies to the goal of LPG. How does the concept of gram swaraj tally with LPG?
The core economic philosophy of gram swaraj was of a largely self-sufficient village. All that the village consumes should be produced in the village, all the services which people need should be made available within the village.
There is sound economic logic hidden behind the romanticism. If a bulk of the economic transactions done by any village resident occur within the precincts of a village and happen with another villager, then the money multiplier prominently comes in play and any income inflow into the system from the outside world results in a significantly enhanced income effect on the village.
Conversely, if a bulk of the economic transactions are between the villagers and the market players in the “outside” world, even large income inflows in the village will not result in increased income for the people of the village. If one wanted to enhance the incomes of as many people of the village as possible, encouraging most transactions to occur within the village itself is a sound strategy.
When viewed in a slightly larger geographical perspective, full reliance on transactions within the local area economy can generate livelihoods for a greater number of local residents than can market exchange of this economy with the “outside” world.
Full reliance on transactions within the local area economy can generate livelihoods for a greater number of local residents than can market exchange of this economy with the “outside” world. Credit: Flickr
Avoiding debt traps
It is possible to argue that the economics of gram swaraj would surely avoid debt traps arising out of intense integration with markets. As the stark contrast between the suicide-prone regions of Maharashtra with even poorer but suicide-free regions of North Bihar shows, deeper market integration brings with it increased vulnerability to vagaries of the market, which combined with the debt trap lead to the ghastly epidemic of suicides.
It is also possible to argue that the underlying production technology for the economics of gram swaraj is the stuff of which resource sustainability is made. Gram swaraj would, for example, require farmers to apply farmyard manures and other locally produced organic materials for growing good crops. These would be produced using local materials and by the labor of local people. Inorganic chemicals and other toxic stuff would not enter the village and hence there would be no danger of chemical residue in produce or in water and soil of the village.
The third major advantage of this gram swaraj is that it will lead to a large demand to be catered by the villagers themselves. This will result in far fuller employment and hence virtually every one in the village would have a job. Thus the economics of gram swaraj is conceptually the building block of what Muhammad Yunus calls the world of three zeroes. This is the world of zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero carbon footprint on the environment.
Also read: Mahendra Singh Tikait’s Kisan Union Rattles Delhi Again After 30 Years
Unfortunately this idyllic economic model was never implemented fully. And it seems to run in complete contrast with LPG. Whether this contrast is inevitable or not, there are three possible challenges to the logic of a self-sufficient village.
Consumer choice
The first is a tacit restriction on what one consumes which the concept requires every villager to agree. I as a consumer wish to consume a range of goods and services. If my economic transactions are to be confined to the village itself, then I should agree to consume only that which can be produced by people in the village. Thus this requires that tastes of the village consumers can be regulated.
The second challenge lies in the essential insularity and statist sameness amounting to stagnancy of this village economy implied by this concept. The focal village can be completely passed by the technological advances and product and services innovations that occur out there since the village has no transactions with any one out there.
The reality is that when seen over time; a village needs a bit of both, to access and use innovations and technical developments occurring out there.
Lagging behind
As the village and hundreds of other villages which do not follow gram swaraj economics move in time, hiatus evolves in the level of their development. The rest of them move ahead with times receiving and adopting innovations and changes and perhaps reaping their advantages in terms of better returns to their resources and labor.
The third challenge lies in population growth. As we know historically, extant resources and technology perhaps coped with current level of population. However as crude death rates fell and crude birth rates held firm, the rural population grew rapidly posing severe strain on village resources and capacity to look after every one’s needs.
Bit of both
Whether they completely contrast each other or not, the reality is that when seen over time; a village needs a bit of both. It surely needs to access and use innovations and technical developments occurring out there. It sure needs to avoid becoming putrid and stagnant. Its residents sure need a degree of choice to consume according to their tastes.
And it also needs to insulate itself from the global markets to the extent that vagaries of that market superimposed on vagaries of weather and nature will not cause its residents to commit suicide. It sure needs to ensure that the local residents are meaningfully employed. And it needs to become ecologically sustainable.
Can the two seemingly opposite ways of managing economic life be both harnessed to maximize the long term well being of the village? Those who discover such a happy blend will have meaningfully contributed to the attainment of the dream of the Mahatma.
Secretary and Rector