Gram Uday Se Bharat Uday Abhiyan
India is a land of villages, it has 7, 50,000 villages scattered over the vast area of 1900 miles long 1500 broad. About 70% Indians live in rural areas. As most of the people live in villages their condition should be improved, until and unless their condition is not improved, India will not be prosperous .India's growth depends on the growth of villages. Gandhiji also once said that if the village perishes India will perish too; India will be no more India. Hence development of villages should be the call for the day.
To mark the 125 birth anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar our honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the "Gram Uday Se Bharat Uday Abhiyan" at a public meeting in Mhow (Madhya Pradesh), Mhow being the birth place of Ambedkar. He recalled that Dr.Ambedkar had fought against injustice in society. His was a fight for equality and dignity. In a similar fashion he wanted to improve and better the conditions of farmers in villages and hence launched the Gram Uday Se Bharat Uday Abhiyan campaign (a central government initiative). The campaign lasted from 14, April 2016 to 24 April 2016 for a period of 11 days. The aim of the campaign was to make nationwide efforts to strengthen Panchayat raj, promote rural development and foster farmer's welfare. The key points of this campaign were:-
- to focus on the development of villages
- to improve social harmony
- to double the income of the farmers
- to provide electricity to the villages
- to provide drinking water and sanitization
- to empower women's role in rural development
- to use the funds available within Gram Panchayat more effectively for village development.
- to make Panchayat raj institutions stronger and more vibrant.
The Prime minister also conveyed that the present year's budget was reserved for the betterment of villages and farmers. Also as part of the above campaign, he planned to provide electricity to 18,000 villages within a 1000 day deadline. It's been 70 years of we getting independence, but unfortunately some of the villages still do not have an electric light in the streets. The GARV (Rural Electrification) app gives the real time progress. This app provides information transparently as to what work the government is doing and as to how it is progressing. He also emphasized the need of providing digital connectivity to the rural areas. He also talked about doubling the income of farmers and thus uplifting the purchase power of farmers and thus improving Indian economy.
On the first day of the campaign villagers took an oath of tolerance and social harmony across the country. The campaign was carried forward by ministers of Agriculture, Rural development, Social justice, Information and broadcasting in co-ordination with the states. Schemes of the government like Fasal Bima Yogana, Soil Health card which were useful for the villagers were highlighted.
During the campaign various Panchayat level and national level programs were held across the country. The campaign finally concluded on 24th April 2016 at Jamshedpur. On this day the Prime minister addressed all the Gram Sabhas of the country from Jamshedpur which was beamed to all the villages in the country, where villagers flocked together in huge crowd to hear the prime minister's speech.
Such government initiatives should be undertaken for the betterment of the village and the villagers. Since India is primarily a village driven country, village upliftment is very much necessary for the progress of the country. It should not only be a government initiative but should boil down to a personal initiative as well. Each and every person should be made responsible for the welfare of villages, if we all make this a goal to improve our villages the day is not far when India will be termed a developed country. If we improve the smallest entity (Village) of the nation then the nation finally will see the road to success , hence the term Gram Uday se Bharat Uday Abhiyan has been rightly coined.
- K.P.Nagasaritha
