Here comes the latest in the wonderful series of profiles from our guest writer, Utkarsh Joshi. This is the story of Padmashree Dr. Anil Joshi, who learnt early in life that in order to develop the hill community where he worked as a lecturer, he would have to focus on rural advancement and making the best use of local resources. Read on to know how he brought about this revolution.

To the people of the hills in the upper reaches of India he is no less than a messiah and what he has achieved is no less than a miracle. Padmashree Dr. Anil Joshi, or “Sir” as the local populace refers to him, has made it his life’s mission to make the villagers in the hills more self reliant – by promoting the local economy through local means and by upgrading generational hand-me-down wisdom.

Dr. Anil Joshi was born in 1955 in Kotdwara – a small town on the edge of Uttrakhand, at the foothills of the Shivalik range of the Himalayas. A bright student, he did well through school and college and after completing his PhD. in environmental science he eventually joined the Kotdwara government college as a lecturer. But being a man of the hills, he wanted to do more for the mountain community than just research. With inaccessibility, a lack of infrastructure, and most of the men folk either working in urban centers or foot soldiers in the army – these communities were getting increasingly dependent on urban centers and products for their livelihood. The answer as per the young Dr. Joshi was rural development and one which needed to employ local resources and make the villagers self reliant.

That was the initial thought with which he tried to break ice with the locals, telling them that he was a social worker. But most of the villagers he first approached shunned him, telling him that since he was not staying with them, he would not know enough to help! When he remarked he was a social worker – they asked why he didn’t think of roads or schools. But he remained patient and slowly worked on building his relationship with the hill community. It’s a relationship which has prospered in the intervening 29 years and brought about a silent revolution in the way these communities exist today.

He began alone, but decided to give a more formal name and face to his approach, and thus Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organization or HESCO was formed in 1981. Some of his students and colleagues joined him as well. Based on their fundamental principles of participatory research and with a combination of science and tradition, they have gone to villages and enlisted local people to help them with their research. Doing this, they have developed new things while at the same time upgrading their hand-me-down knowledge to make them more relevant in today’s age. For instance, the hills were overrun with ‘Kurri’ a wild shrub which was identified by the HESCO team as a weed. They identified uses for the shrub in order to control its growth. The sticks were strong enough to be used for furniture, the flowers and leaves could be used for incense sticks and the leftovers as fodder for goats! This has provided employment as well as monetization. HESCO has also worked on upgrading the local water mill used to grind grain or the ‘gharat’ – to make it an effective tool for power generation and provided indigenous electricity to these villages. According to Dr. Joshi, if all the traditional ‘gharats’ are modernized in the same way, local employment can mushroom while at the same time the hills can produce up to 2500MW of power for the country at practically no cost!

Stopping landslides and soil erosion using biological methods; creating a social platform for women to generate employment and marketing opportunities; advocating forest fire prevention and disaster management methods; circulating a local children’s newspaper; using local development as a tool to wean away youth from anti social activities in border states – these are just some of the activities that HESCO and Dr. Joshi have been tirelessly working on to bring about a change. His highly educated team gets paid between Rs 2000 and Rs 6000 per month but their motivation keeps them going.

The government and the international community have also taken note of the stellar work that is being done by Dr. Joshi and team. Dr. Joshi was awarded the Padamshree in 2006 and HESCO works closely with government organizations like the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Bio-Technology, BSF, ITBP, CRPF, the Social Security Board – to name a few.

Dr Joshi’s role model is Mahatma Gandhi, and he believes that to help the common people, one needs to stay with them and stay like them. Thus he leads a simple and austere life with the villagers and knows that his work is far from done. But he can sit back and be satisfied as an agent of change for his first love – the hills. It is not everyone who has the satisfaction of doing something which impacts close to 5 lakh villagers, in more than 10,000 villages, spread across 9 mountain states of the Himalayas.

The mountain man has truly lived up to his name.

To learn more about HESCO and their work, visit their website.

How many of us have cringed when handed the dreadful plastic bag, but found ourselves helpless in its omnipotent presence? How many of us have been alarmed at studies that point to the potential damage caused by a single plastic bag, let alone the millions that are consumed everyday? How many of us have wished that action groups, corporations, the government – someone would take a stand against this widespread menace of plastic and do something about it? Well, it’s time to stop wishing and start acting! And here’s a website and blog that helps you get started.

Less Plastic More Life is a creative effort by Vinod and his friends to spread awareness about the harmful effects of plastic bags. Ironically, Vinod is a polymer engineer by training, which perhaps gives him greater authority to speak on the subject. Informative, interesting and effective, the website is not preachy but actually conveys the message in an innovative, easy-to-swallow capsule. There is a blog linked to the website, that takes us to a highly engaging set of articles, campaigns, posters, news and snippets from around the world that are sure to inspire and help any reader in kicking the plastic and adopting more environment-friendly alternatives.

One of their most effective campaigns has been a poster of a dead cow in a plastic bag (shown on top), which depicts that accepting a plastic bag is as bad as killing a cow. And with good reason. An excerpt from an article titled Plastic Bags kill Cows. Please decide which is more sacred to you on their blog:

Many people have been laughing their heads off at Maneka Gandhi’s contention that drinking milk can be harmful to health. They find it ludicrous that milk-which is considered the very epitome of good health across the country-can be hazardous. Or the gentle cow-revered across the country as a harbinger of prosperity-can bring any harm. But Maneka’s submissions are proving to be true, if in a different way. The Animal Husbandry Department of Uttar Pradesh has come up with an alarming discovery: Milk from cows which have polythene bags clogging their stomachs can cause diseases like tuberculosis and cancer.

Not to mention what happens to the cows.

Sprinkled with a generous helping of interesting videos, like the one shown here, the blog makes for good reading.

 

 It also has some wonderful designs for cloth bags, for any NGO or manufacturer who can take the idea forward and make them available to the public. Vinod has helped in the creation of several other campaigns including some for the World Wildlife Fund and one that encourages people to plant trees by making it simple (www.treesforfree.org). You can find some of his work here.

So learn, adopt and implement. Lead a life less plastic. It’s not as tough as you think. Visit lessplasticmorelife today and be the change you wish to see.

In a previous post Meeting the World Challenge, we had mentioned about She Hope Society and the remarkable work they were doing in rehabilitating the disabled in the Kashmir Valley. In response to that article, we received a note from Diane Emerson who was headed to the Centre to volunteer for a period of 3 months starting in April. Hailing from New Zealand and having traveled all over the world volunteering with various charities and NGOs, Diane expressed a strong interest in sharing her experience with The Better India, so that our readers could get a glimpse of working in an NGO, the ground realities in Kashmir as seen from the eyes of an impartial observer, and life as a traveling volunteer. Here are some of her observations.

About life in Kashmir Valley:

The food is healthy and locally grown and organic. And vegetarianism is common. Even people who do eat meat eat it sparingly.

Children are loved by both parents, and get lots of attention since everyone eats on the floor. I often see fathers walking with their little boys, and their girls. And feeding their children. Caring for children is clearly shared, because they are loved. And there is time for them.

Drunk drivers do not exist here. Alcohol is not sold anywhere. So there is no alcohol-related violence, no party culture. No drunken hooning on the roads at night, no drunks stumbling along the streets, or passed out in the gutter, or making lewd comments to the girls. No bars to go to. No alcoholic fathers making life miserable for their families. No hidden alcoholic mothers. None. So what do people do without alcohol?

People talk to each other. They hang out together, and just spend time together, rather than sit at home and watch TV, or go out to the bars. In the evenings, when so many New Zealanders and Americans are in front of their TV watching the news and getting a big dose of negativity and violence, here they talk to their neighbours and watch the light fade.

About working at the Hope Disability Centre:

Today is a CBR: Community Based Rehabilitation visit. Sami brings hearing testing equipment and we go to a village to find disabled people who need help. The village was Kulharna, and it had been arranged by the newspaper reporter who had stopped by a week before. Our first stop was at a school where there were two disabled teenage boys. The school superintendent asked me my opinion of Kashmir, and was pleased with my answers. Yes. I like it here. For many reasons. And I am finding more all the time. When funds become available, these boys will have surgery. In the meantime, exercises can be done to help.

About the work of the military in the region, and of one commendable army man:

Even though in most of Kashmir the actual voting turnout is only 3 or 4%, here in our Ganderbal district the voting turnout is closer to 60%. I found out one of the reasons why on Friday, when Sami and I visited the top military commander in Ganderbal. Commandant Vivik Sharma believes strongly in eliminating militancy, not just militants. I have learned that in Kashmir the independence fighters are called militants by some; terrorists by others. Commandant Sharma’s job is only to find and stop the militants. But he does more. Much more. He organizes free cataract surgeries, field trips to Delhi for school children, free veterinary training for the small farmers, and locates funds to support efforts like the Hope Disability Centre. He will be reassigned soon. And I think he has chosen to build a cricket stadium in Ganderbal as his lasting contribution to the community. It will be finished next month. But he is most proud of the fact that not one of his soldiers has troubled any of the students at the all girls school right next door. Not once in 3 years.

The Commandant General even requires his men to treat suspected militants with respect and consideration. There was a photo of a militant giving himself up in the room we were sitting in. The military found and took in this Pakistani militant who had come to Kashmir to help liberate the country, and asked him why he had chosen the militant path. The Pakistani said he had heard that Muslims were not allowed to worship at the mosques, and other offenses. So the commandant took him around Ganderbal and showed him the open mosques, and allowed him to talk to the local people about life in Ganderbal District. And the man, who had not killed anyone, ended up joining the army. If all the miliary commanders around the world were like this man, there would be no need for militaries at all.

Diane also brought with her a couple of laptops from New Zealand to train the disabled youth and help them attain life skills to be able to support themselves. The program has met with tremendous popularity and Diane is flooded with more students than she can handle, so that some of the older students also take up the responsibility of teaching the newer entrants.

Follow Diane’s intriguing journey with Hope Disability Centre and her experiences in India at her blog.

Neetu (13) is a student of class seven. Her village, Rampur located in Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh, has a primary school (up to standard five), so she has to go to the adjoining village Mathanpura for her schooling. She has two sisters and one brother. All of them go to school.

Her cousin Rinkoo studies in class eight. But she does not go to the school and would appear for the exams only (because of the social constraints). Almost all boys in the village go to school but girls study up to class 7 or 8 only, because after 5th they have to go to the school in adjoining village.

Neetu’s mother, Girija devi works at home and helps her husband in the field. Both the Neetu’s parents can not help her in her studies. Neither do they have any tuition facility. Neetu has to do her home work by her own and she does it under the kerosene lamp, as the village has no electricity.

Most of the energy demands in Rampur depend on the fossil fuels. Here kerosene lamps are used for the lighting purpose, diesel pumps are used for irrigation, cow dung for cooking and so on. There is no TV, fan etc in the village (although they can afford it). Children study under the kerosene lamps in unhealthy conditions. Women try to finish their cooking etc before it gets dark in the evening.

Although the village is economically sound – Rampur has a good groundwater table and acres of cultivable land are being transformed into a model farm with multiple cropping (three crops in a year) – it is still backward with harsh living conditions and no electricity.

There is a lack of knowledge about the importance of education, water management, health and hygiene etc.

But then there came a ray of hope.

The village was electrified under the village energy security plan of Development Alternatives in collaboration with the Scatec Solar, a Norway based company to promote Solar Energy. The goal of the project was to provide electricity by tapping renewable energy (solar energy), as well as provide educational and training support to the villagers in the areas of Education, healthcare, raising agricultural productivity, and improving water management.

A Village Energy Committee has been formed with local people’s representatives plus experts actively involved in the development of the area. This committee plans, implements, monitors and controls the project activities. The committee is helping to construct, operate and maintain the center as well as to mobilize the rural masses for various community activities.

Sports equipments have been provided in school for the children by Development Alternatives.
The work on the power plant has been completed on a fast track and it was inaugurated on 26th Jan 2009.

So after this republic day Neetu and all her friends haven’t been studying under the kerosene lamp. They now study under CFL. Girija devi watches TV and has installed a fan to get relief from heat and mosquitoes.

But, still, there is a lot to be done.

There is a need of a program for the children specially girls to improve pre-school, middle school and high school education plus need for vocational training in skills development.

A need to teach villagers water management practices such as the use of holding ponds, provision of potable water, sustainable agricultural practices, and health services.

Rural transformation in India rests in the hands of women. You may have heard that if you give money to the woman of the house, she takes care of the family. If you give the same money to the man of the house (in rural India), the woman and children will see little of it.

The idea is to encourage and promote women empowerment by providing them basic necessities, resources and income generating skills that will go on to improve the quality of their life.

Article submitted by: Suman Raina. Thanks for your contribution!

Picture Courtesy: Scatec Solar

India boasts of one of the most amazing biodiversities in the world. The vastly differing terrains and climatic conditions present along the length and breadth of the country gives it a unique flora and fauna, unmatched almost anywhere else in the world.

From this one can gauge the enormity of a task like documenting or mapping this biodiversity in any useful format. However, there is one body that has undertaken this daunting task, and is executing it with a commendable effort. This is the India Biodiversity Portal. Currently comprising of about a hundred maps depicting the various aspects of Indian biodiversity, it is an ongoing process of adding new maps and layers to the rapidly growing pool. The website makes it clear that user participation is not only welcome, it is essential:

..India Biodiversity Portal. A unique repository of information on India’s biodiversity. It is designed to harness collective knowledge, seek voluntary participation of users and establish a participative system of content generation, verification and usage. The Portal aims to facilitate and enable widespread participation by all citizens in contributing and accessing information on Indian biodiversity, that benefits science and society, contributes to sustainable future; and guide the development and use of this Portal. Your participation is vital.

The IBP comes under the aegis of The National Knowledge Commission, a high-level advisory body to the Prime Minister of India, which has many other portals to its credit such as the India Environment Portal, India Water Portal, India Energy Portal, etc.

Check out the IBP today. You will be amazed at the wealth of information in there. And if possible, do help them expand and improve.

Link Courtesy: Arvind Singh. Thanks a ton!