In this maddening hustle bustle of the modern day, most of us dream of a vacation , set in some tranquil abode of nature, a unique experience that enriches the body , mind and soul , full of contrasts and diversity. Something that can’t really be located in a guide book.

Well, if you are looking for all of that and want to contribute to Responsible Tourism in the country Travel another India is the answer.

As traditional sources of income erode , Travel another India aims to provide an alternate means of livelihood to many rural farm and forest fringe communities , artisans and craft persons who are willing to play host.

Travel another India won the Sankalp award for emerging companies in Rural Innovations for 2009.

Here’s an interview with Ms. Gouthami, Co-Founder of Travel another India.

Contact Details

Please visit http://travelanotherindia.com to know more
Blog: http://travelanotherindia.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Travel-Another-India/120624356334

A less traveled track to Tilonia gives one a journey into Indian entrepreneurship and perhaps changes the way our villages are perceived by city dwellers. Tilonia brings you face to face with the real spirit of India. Its misty hopefulness uncovers the nature of the task that is ahead for a social entrepreneur, its uniqueness and challenges.

Tilonia is a small town 25 kms from Kishangarh near Ajmer in Rajasthan. Barefoot College, established in 1972, inspires this town with the conviction that solutions to rural problems lie within the community. These solutions are broadly classified by Barefoot College into solar energy, healthcare, education, water, rural handicrafts, people’s action, communication, women empowerment, income generation, wasteland development, electricity and power as well as social awareness and conservation of ecological systems in rural communities.

Barefoot College was founded by Sanjit ‘Bunker’ Roy, an Indian social activist and educator. Roy was influenced by the philosophy of Mao Zedong, and modeled his organization after Mao’s Barefoot Doctors. Roy has worked all his life with the Barefoot College.

Spread over more than 8 acres of land, the campus of Barefoot College was built between 1980 and 1986, designed by a team of rural ‘barefoot’ architects, masons, blacksmiths, farmers and members of women groups who sat and struggled through the initial basic designing of the campus. This institution believes in imparting informal, non-structured, on-the-job practical training by identifying the poor, unemployed youth who have been unable to finish their formal education and have returned to their respective villages as dropouts. The five principles which are an integral part of the functioning of the college are equality, collectiveness, self-reliance, decentralization and austerity.

The education program focuses on the overall development of rural children, with literacy being just one part of it. It encourages hands-on or learning-by-doing process of gaining knowledge and skills. Lessons are focused on awareness about the environment and socio-economic and political forces that dominate development. The aim is to provide the children with a right balance of education and literacy so that they choose to stay in their village and work for its development. The college has different programs for children and women. There are Balwadis (rural crèches) established for children between the age of 6 months-5 years for the convenience of working mothers. Night schools have been set up for ‘working children’. There are bridge courses, courses for night school children who aspire to join formal day schools. In these night schools, initiatives like the children’s parliament are established which allow them to participate in the management of their schools through a democratic process. Candidates are selected through a proper election process, giving them an idea of the working of a democracy.

There is also a huge emphasis on the holistic development of women by empowering them socially, financially and politically. In the past 38 years, the college has trained more than 15,000 women in jobs ranging from construction work, education, metal craftsmanship, toy making and solar engineering, to mechanical repair and fabrication, health care, water testing, handicrafts, film making and social activism.

Vocational Training at Tilonia

The Barefoot College has setup eight field centers in Rajasthan and a society known as SAMPDA (Society for Activating, Motivating and Promoting Developmental Alternatives) through the collective efforts of which the Barefoot approach is replicated in rural communities across 14 states in India.

The global response received by the organization is worth acknowledging. The institute has witnessed semi-literate middle aged woman traveling from places as diverse as Afghanistan, Cameroon, Gambia, Mali and Sierra Leone to undergo training to become barefoot solar engineers.

To know more about this organization and to read on some of its wonderful initiatives, please visit their website at www.barefootcollege.org.

Those signature kerosene and petromax lamps at hawker shops have decorated our streets during its busy evenings for years now. They are a hawker’s constant companion and a basic necessity for their shops. But did you know that a hawker has to spend around 250-300 rupees every month for these lights? Parting with this big chunk of money from the handful that he earns becomes quite a burden. Accolades to Urja Unlimited, who understood this difficulty faced by the hawkers and came up with a fine solution – replacing the fuel lamps with solar power.

Urja Unlimited is an organization which was born with a novel idea of providing ‘energy for all’ through renewable energy. Urja aims to serve every village, town and city in India with efficient energy solutions. With its vision in mind, Urja initiated the project to support street hawkers and aspires to reach a million hawkers with their lanterns.

The main aim of the project is to completely eliminate the recurring fuel expenditure on the hawkers. Moreover, as we all know, there are environmental benefits attached to giving up the use exhaustible fuels. Also, the hawker gets to work in a fume free environment.

Over 150 hawkers in Faridabad enjoy the solar power

The first step towards energy efficiency was Urja Unlimited’s solar lantern project in Faridabad. Over 150 hawkers have opted for Urja’s lanterns which have given them a breather with their expenses. The brighter solar lamps have enlivened their surroundings, gotten rid of the risk of health hazards and brightened the faces of the hawkers.

Savitri Pandey, a hawker in Faridabad who has switched to Urja’s lantern, mentioned that she is now able to devote the cost savings on giving up the kerosene lamps to her children’s tuition needs. Saina Bano says that “Ab har mahina mittiktel (kerosene oil) chori se kharidane kay jhanjhat khatam.” Ashok, a hawker suffering from Tuberculosis, said that he is now spending less on his medical expenses.

Support to spread the cause

Replicating the success and spreading awareness across the country is a big task in the hands of Urja Unlimited now. The constraint is that the equipment is slightly priced on the higher side, around 2600 to 3600 rupees. Logically, the amount is equivalent to what the hawkers would spend over a year for their fuel costs and they need not spend any more on their fuels after this initial investment. Also, the lanterns can easily serve the users for almost 5 to 7 years. Urja intends to bring down the cost that could come on the hawkers by entering into partnerships with micro finance institutions, corporates and other philanthropic organizations.

How can you help this initiative?

With more people like you supporting the cause, we are sure that we can make some difference to the lives of more street hawkers. Here are a few things that you can do:

• Introduce Urja Unlimited to your company and encourage a corporate social responsibility initiative
• Contact Urja Unlimited to find out more about the initiative and help them serve better
• Help spread awareness about the use of renewable energy

You can know more about the organization at www.urjaunlimited.in. Urja and The Better India shall assist you in sharing your contributions.

Global Warming. Unemployment. How do you come up with a solution that addresses both these issues? S M Raju, a civil servant in Bihar has done just that. Raju has started a campaign to encourage unemployed village folk to start planting trees. This campaign has been linked with the government’s NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) and thus the village people earn money by planting these trees.

Amarnath Tewary writes in this article at the BBC:

An Indian civil servant, SM Raju, has come up with a novel way of providing employment to millions of poor in the eastern state of Bihar.

The article quotes that about 44% of Bihar’s population is under the poverty line. And Bihar has not been able to successfully spend the NREGA funds allocated to them mostly due to lack of awareness. Here comes Raju’s idea of bringing in tree plantation as part of NREGA.

Raju’s program has brought in significant benefits, as he says:

“So the idea struck to my mind, why not involve families below the poverty line in social forestry and give them employment under this scheme for 100 days?

“Under the scheme, each family can earn a minimum of 10,200 rupees ($210).”

Read the complete article here, which lists how Raju conceptualized and executed this successful idea. A special thanks to reporter Amarnath Tewary for writing about this.

Link to original article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8257563.stm
Link submitted by: Deepak and Prakash

How many people would pay from their own pockets to restore life into old trees? Perhaps not many. That is why it is inspiring to hear about Dr Ramana Rao, who paid nearly Rs one lakh of his own to relocate two ancient peepal trees that were felled in Bangalore to make way for new roads.

Catching sight of the two giant trees – one 225 years and the other 240 years old, lying at the side of a highway, Dr Rao decided he could not let them die. With the help of 40 people and two 50-tonne trailer trucks, he managed to transport the trees to T Begur village, where they have been planted and given a new life.

Dr Rao wishes he could find sponsors for many more such rescue efforts, as more and more trees are being subject to the axe. Infrastructure projects in Bangalore have recently evoked the ire of citizens in their injudicious and widespread tree-felling. The latest victim to this mass tree-cutting drive has been the pristine locale of Lalbagh – a 250-year old botanical garden that has been the pride of Bangalore since the days of Hyder Ali.

A portion of this beautiful garden has been earmarked to make way for the Bangalore Metro rail project, which will lead to the felling of nearly 300 old and lovingly preserved trees. Dr Rao wishes the City authorities would take an interest in conserving trees, especially those of great significance like the ones in Lalbagh.

“These trees have seen and weathered so many storms. It would be tragic to uproot them merely for the sake of new infrastructure,” he said.

Citizen protests have fallen on deaf ears as the government refuses to consider alternatives. Read more about the citizen efforts and how you can participate at Hasiru Usiru. There is also a rally on Saturday, May 9th, at 8.00 am on Nanda Road in a final bid to save these trees. Bangalore readers, do try and be there to lend your support to the campaign.

Deccan Herald carries the remarkable story of Dr Rao’s efforts in this article.
Image Courtesy: Flickr

Link Courtesy: Faiq Gazdhar. Thanks!

A cooking stove that not only cooks faster, saves fuel but also reduces harmful emissions by 80%. This is the promise of the stoves manufactured by Envirofit India Pvt. Ltd, part of the Shell Group. And they have already found 50,000 takers in the southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

Eliminating the dependence of poor people on gas and electricity, both of which are expensive and hard to come by in rural areas, the Envirofit stoves work on wood which is easier to collect. By working on a fuller combustion model and using heat insulating material, they reduce cooking time by as much as 40% as compared to traditional three stone stoves. However, at a retail price of a minimum of Rs.700 for a single pot burner, they might still be a little unaffordable for the large population living below poverty line. Envirofit aims to bring down this price to Rs. 500 in order to cater to this segment as well.

Poornima Mohandas reports in Mint:

The retail channel in south India sure seems ready. Sadathulla, a home appliances retailer in Gundalpet, says he sells more Envirofit stoves in a month than kerosene, electric or gas stoves.

With a reported 1.6 million deaths globally due to the use of solid biomass fuels, 400,000 of which are in India itself, it appears that the Envirofit stove could not have arrived sooner.

Read the complete article here.

Photo Courtesy: www.livemint.com

StoryTrails provides a unique way of learning about India. In stead of carrying out the usual touristy routes of sight-seeing and visiting the famous locations, StoryTrails adopts a new path. They carry out what they term as “Trails” which visitors can be a part of. These trails, to use their own words, are “a subtle presentation of some fascinating arts, customs and practices that are unique to the region, which we help our guests discover and learn about“.

We believe this is a great way to actually immerse yourself in the culture of the region and learn about India in your own way, at your own pace.

One such trail that was recently organized by StoryTrails was “The Animal Trail” in Chennai. The idea of this trail was to make children more comfortable with animals, and to dispel the fear and myths that children usually associate animals with. As part of this trail, the children were taken to the Blue Cross which is a shelter for abandoned and stray animals at Velachery.

This article by Kamini Mathai in the Times of India provides more details about this initiative by StoryTrails.

The other such “trails” carried about by StoryTrails include the Peacock Trail, Bazaar Trail and Family Trails.

Click here to check out their website and to participate in their unique way of knowing India better.

A 16-year old who teaches 600 students in his backyard. A single man who led to an entire city being declared smoke-free, a year before the nation enforced it as a law. The saviour of the endangered whale shark who has rescued as many as 50 so far. A former Tisco employee who gave up her secure job to help poor tribal families in a remote Maoist-infested village build a new life. And a Physics professor who learnt all there is about rain water harvesting and then made it mandatory for all official buildings in Tamil Nadu. These are just some of the everyday heroes that are doing their bit to change lives, whether they are recognized for it or not.

Babar Ali is a class XI student in Berhampore, West Bengal. Moved by the plight of poor parents who could not afford to send their children to school, this youngster has been conducting classes after his school hours since he was 11. His students come from nearby villages, some even walking four km to reach his house. In order to induce better attendance, Ali also managed to get government officials to distribute free rice at the end of the month.

Besides lessons, the children are drawn by the free rice distributed at the end of each month. “Attendance was falling drastically. That is when I hit upon this idea. As my school is not recognised by the government, I couldn’t have got free rice. But government officials helped me,” says Ali.

Ali has big dreams for the future. “I dream that my school will grow and expand to other parts of the state and country where children want to but can’t go to school.” But for now, he will be content if his students get a proper classroom.

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Hemant Goswami had been committed to act against tobacco since a school project he did in 1987. In 2004 he filed a writ petition with the Chandigarh High Court, following which the government was instructed to follow the tobacco Act in letter and spirit.

In 2005 when the Right to Information Act (RTI) came into force, Hemant decided to use it to make Chandigarh the first smoke-free city. He filed over 300 RTI petitions with all government departments and offices, raising questions about their adherence to tobacco control laws. In a year, more than 1,800 signboards warning people of the health implications of smoking were up in all government offices. Educational institutes too fell in line.

Hemant’s efforts finally resulted in Chandigarh being declared smoke-free in July 2007. But he didn’t rest even after that. He continues to monitor the proper enforcement of the law, and smokes out the violators.

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Dinesh Goswami is a daily wage earner in Junagadh district of Saurashtra in Gujarat. But every time he hears of the whale shark being indiscriminately hunted by fishermen on the rough and choppy sea off the coast of Saurashtra, he rushes to their rescue.

Describing his most dangerous rescue so far, Goswami recounts, “State officials called me after reports that a shark was trapped in a net. After we set off, the sea got very rough and every minute, we thought the boat would overturn. Thankfully, we managed to save the whale shark and return safely.” Goswami now runs Paryawaran Mitra, an NGO for the protection of sea animals.

Having learnt about the whale sharks and their plight in a documentary by environmentalist Mike Pandey, Goswami decided to make it his mission to save them every time they are in danger.

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In Purulia, along the Bengal-Jharkhand border, Jayati Chakraborty has started a school to help a tribe called santhals build a better future. Inspired by an NGO run by Kamalesh Chakraborty for developmental work in the area, she decided to stay on and make a difference.

She quit her job, faced down appalled friends and family. “They found it hard to believe that I would be better off working with poor people in a godforsaken village.” And she tried new things — linseed and tomato farming — finally deciding the area needed a school. “We converted a hall into a classroom and started with 66 students in 2001. It seemed the school was waiting to happen,” she says. Students pay Rs 30 a month. But paid pupil or not, no one is turned away.

—–

Chennai-based professor Sekhar Raghavan’s passion for saving and harvesting water found an outlet when he worked with the Centre for Policy Studies, which examines traditional ways of living.

He says he found “we had the complete records of Chengelpet district for 200 years and realized rain-water harvesting is not new, it’s just something we had forgotten”.

His Akash Ganga Trust eventually led to rainwater harvesting becoming compulsory for all buildings in Tamil Nadu in 2002.

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Thus we see that it is possible for a single person to change the lives of many, even while performing normal duties like going to school or earning a daily wage. All our barriers are just imaginary.

Read the complete article in Times of India here.
Image Courtesy: jyothsnay.wordpress.com

Not many people would have heard of Chaupakhi, a remote village in Assam. However it could be one of the latest entrants into the Guiness Book due to an eco-friendly afforestation initiative taken up by its residents. They succeeded in planting 280,000 saplings in just 24 hours, in a bid to outdo the previous record of 254, 469 planted by villagers in Nagapattanam, Tamil Nadu.

Manoj Anand writes in the Asian Age about this tree plantation drive and the man behind it:

The man behind motivating the Chaupakhi villagers for plantation drive was M.S. Manivannam, sub-divisional officer (civil) of North Salmara, who incidentally is from Tamil Nadu.
He told reporters: “Basically our purpose was also aimed at to involve the villagers in both eco-conservation and income generation activities. As we found a vast empty plot of land, we thought why not try out for tree plantation which has both eco-conservation and economic values. Moreover, the villagers can also get engaged under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.”

The benefits of such a mission are plenty. Besides guaranteeing an esteemed place in the Guiness Book for a hitherto unknown hamlet, it also provides employment and environmental benefits to the many residents of the place. Record or no record, let us hope the thought spreads, and such missions take root everywhere.

Read the complete article here.
Image Courtesy: www.tigerflag.com

A few residents in a locality in Bangalore have created a safe haven for birds to nestle and feed. For over a period of 16 years, almost 30 households of 5th Cross, Pipeline on Magadi Road have been actively involved in feeding over 50 kilos of food grains to hundreds of birds daily. This has helped to create a ‘sanctuary’ in the heart of the city, where many species rendered rare in other urban areas, find a habitat. Subhash Chandra N S and Chethan Kumar write about this citizen initiative for the Deccan Herald News Service:

Not just a few but hundreds of various kinds of birds come to this citizen-created ’sanctuary’. “There are parakeets, sparrows, pigeons, mynas and other birds which descend at a self-scheduled time, once in every mornings and evenings”, said C Umadevi, the lady who began this noble work. Over a fifty kilos of food grains goes to the chirping friends every month, a ritual in practice for the past 16 years.

Despite being a densely populated area full of traffic and people, the residents have taken care that the avian visitors are not disturbed and receive their daily due on time.

“We have restricted people from going up to the terrace when the birds are there,” says another lady. The practice has resulted in holding back sparrows, almost extinct in urban environment. “More than 20 are coming here now while the numbers were much more earlier” a resident informed.

The simple initiative of these residents has gone a long way in teaching habitat conservation and co-existence among species, besides the added benefit of nurturing fast disappearing species in the urban landscape. While we applaud their efforts, we urge all our readers to adopt this easy and do-able practice in your daily lives. The pleasant chirping of the sparrow sitting on your ledge will be worth it.

Read the complete article here.
Image courtesy: Pigeons by Pratosh Dwivedi at imgoftheday.blogspot.com