Doc #: / RCP01 / Date: / 3rd July 2007 / Revision: / 1.02 / Page 17 of 17
D R A F T
Executive Summary
CONVERGENCE OF
RURAL DEVELOPMENT PARADIGMS AT
AUROVILLE, TAMIL NADU.
A collaborative effort between:
Development Alternatives, INDIA
Village Earth - Colorado State University, USA
Auroville, INDIA
Sankalpa Trust, INDIA
… and a number of public-private partners in India and abroad.
For submission to:
Dr. S. Pitroda
Chairman—Knowledge Commission
Date: 3rd July, 2007
Revision: 1.02
REVISION HISTORYREV / Description of Change / Author / Effective Date
1.00 / Initial Release / S. Mukherjee / 23 Jun 07
1.01 / Suggestions received from Bhavana (reference document <NewParadigm-draft-070623-bh.doc>) mainly include:
· Comments on Auroville ‘Contact List’ on page 3
· Improvements in the Preamble
· Details of Auroville’s experience in human development
· Expansion of objectives/outcomes
· Comments on M&E and ITECC / Bhavana / 2 Jul 07
1.02 / · Rename ‘Village Centers’ as ‘Village Information Centers’ (VICs) [change in figure is pending discussion for proposal to rename ‘Barefoot Consultant’ as ‘Grameen Information Consultant’ (GIC)]
· Glossary: Explanation of terminologies in Annexure 3. / S. Mukherjee / 3 Jul 07
REFERENCE DOCUMENTS
Document Reference / Document Title
<ITECC-070517.ppt> / ‘Why do we need an IT Enabled Community Center in every village in India?’ by S. Mukherjee, Managing Trustee, Sankalpa Trust.
<ConceptNote_RCP_President.doc> / ‘Convergence of rural development paradigms at Sivaganga district, Tamil Nadu’, a ‘Concept Note’ submitted to Dr. A P J Kalam, by S. Mukherjee, 16th January 2006.
Auroville Press, Auroville / ‘Let us Dwell on Human Unity’, Address by Kireet Joshi, Chairman—Auroville Foundation, 18th April 1999.
Details of contact persons:
Development Alternatives, INDIA
Dr. Ashok Khosla, Chairman
Address:
Development Alternatives, 111/9-Z, Kishangarh, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi – 110070.
Tel: 91 (11) 2613-4103
Fax: 91 (11) 2613-0817
eMail:
Colorado State University/Village Earth, USA
Dr. Maurice L. Albertson, Professor Emeritus
Address:
Dept. of Civil Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, U.S.A.
Tel: 303-491-5753
Fax: 303-491-2729
eMail:
Auroville—Village Action Trust, INDIA
Mr. Rod Hemsell
Address:
Irumbai Road, Thiruchitrambalam 605111, Tamil Nadu, INDIA
Tel: 91 413 267 8871
eMail: ,
Sankalpa Trust, INDIA
Dr. Subhrankar Mukherjee, Managing Trustee
Address:
P6: Cluster 2, Purbachal, Salt Lake, Calcutta 700097, India.
Tel: 91 (33) 2335 9812,
Mobile: 94330 19821
eMail: ,
Executive Summary
Preamble:
Although India has a modern technological economy, a large majority of its people—especially in rural communities—lives in poverty and deprivation. Out of one billion people, more than 600 millions live in abysmal conditions and almost 300 millions do not have proper homes, safe drinking water, sanitation or reliable electricity.
To accelerate sustainable rural development, the rural people need a seamless convergence of:
(a) Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) that will provide access to resources, technology and information that are essential for a sustainable program; institutional mechanisms for meaningful cooperation; and supports from public, private and civil sector agencies; and
(b) Human development - physical, social, intellectual and spiritual development of the target rural community, which will promote the concept of ‘Human Unity’ by enhanced capacity building programs and development of indigent resources.
Human Unity—the art of human development:
In his address entitled ‘Let us dwell on Human Unity’, Sri Kireet Joshi, past Chairman, Auroville Foundation concludes that if the push to achieve human unity is based entirely on uniformity, centralization and mechanization, then we may see an initial burst of satisfied and joyous activities. However, this happy situation is likely to be followed by long periods of conservative behaviors, which will ultimately result in increasing stagnancy and ultimate decay. We have seen this happen far too often in many unenlightened programs for rural development by well meaning people. Sri Joshi also reminds us that Sri Aurobindo had warned:
“It must be remembered that greater social or political unity is not necessarily a boon in itself; it is only worth pursuing in so far as it provides a means and a framework for a better, richer, more happy puissant individual and collective life”[1]
We will keep the importance of diversity and the goal of human self-fulfillment uppermost in our mind, as we explore the structure and implementation methodologies of the convergence of sustainable rural development paradigms in the rural area around Auroville, Villupuram District, Tamil Nadu. After thirty years of conscientious efforts by many practitioners of socioeconomic and environmental development programs with a human face, the Auroville bioregion has become an international oasis of enlightened human unity.
In Auroville’s 40 year history, they have pioneered and excelled in afforestation, wasteland respiration, biodiversity, revitalization of local health traditions” (Pitchandikulam), watershed development (Palmyra and Harvest’s restoration of rainwater catchments tanks, renewable energy (AuroRE’s winning the Green Oscar), provision of drinking water, introduction of innovative educational methods (Isai Ambalam’s methods adopted throughout the state), environmental education, microfinance and income generation, Tsunami relief and rehabilitation. There are five NGOs working for rural development which are part of the Auroville Foundation: AVAT, Auromitra, Auroville Health and Healing Trust, SAIIER and CSR are working also with government agencies and NGOs in their respective fields. The robust convergence that we seek can take root the fastest in Auroville.
We believe that Auroville is therefore the most appropriate place to test our hypotheses, and to develop a new model for sustainable rural development that can be replicated globally.
Objectives:
The goal of this project is (a) to develop the structure of a new paradigm for sustainable rural development, shown at the top of the next page, that is itself a convergence of several successful approaches in rural development, focused on private-public partnerships; and (b) emphasize human unity as a guiding principle in the design and execution of the project.
At the end of this project, we will be in a position to globally define and mitigate the risk factors and thereby develop the design and implementation methodologies for replicating this new paradigm—the ‘Rural Convergence Program’—which has the following objectives/outcomes.
· Engage rural youth, women and leaders in building the community centers in which they learn employable skills, identify with the development of their village and manage it;
· Bring thousands of rural young people on-line;
· Involve local and national NGOs in a model project;
· Provide direct and indirect employment (through IGPs) to thousands of people;
· Design, implement and operationalize working & viable demonstration models of organic agriculture and food processing, appropriate building materials, bamboo craft and production, renewable energy, etc.
· Impart environmental awareness in schools;
· Make available state-of-the-art vocational training methods;
· Train teachers and field staff in effective methods of thinking and planning for development;
· Discover a way to loop surplus generated from projects and industry back into community development and improvement projects;
· Link rural communities, the RAC, hospitals, universities and industry;
· Establish a program of inter-community exchanges and festivals to create an awareness of shared goals in the bioregion.
Project Methodology:
The unique features of this approach are its aim to promote human development and unity through:
· cutting edge, appropriate and sustainable technologies to solve the problems of low-income communities, and
· <Suggestions invited from Rod/Bhavana>
Both components of the methodology rely on active participation by all stakeholders. It will provide knowledge, information and other support services essential for achieving the goals of sustainable rural development (see Figure below for structural details and interrelationships).
In particular, it seeks to:
(a) Develop a participatory (see Annexure 1.1) ‘Rural Convergence Program’ (RCP) by building a ‘Resource Access Center’ (RAC) as the hub of the RCP at Auroville; it will include the ‘RCP Secretariat’, the ‘Auroville Center for Integral Studies’ & ‘Livelihoods Skills Development Center’;
(b) Develop ‘IT-Enabled Community Centers’ (ITECCs) in surrounding village Panchayats, by involving Youth and Women’s SHGs (Self Help Groups) in creating ‘Village Information Centers’ (VICs) around each ITECC, which in turn will each support ‘Barefoot Consultants’ (see Annexure 1.2 for the guiding rural development model); these community structures will help to empower local communities to access various ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ technologies (see Annexure 1.3) for their own benefit.
The guiding principle of human unity will be interleaved into every aspect of planning, design and development of these physical community structures[2].
Strategies/Activities:
In this ‘Rural Convergence Project’, we will implement the following:
i. One ‘Resource Access Center (RAC)’: To coordinate the human development models and dissemination of information and the application & implementation of various ‘soft’ and hard’ technologies, in order to bring the fruits of development to the targeted village community members, irrespective of gender, age or creed. Within the RAC, the:
· ‘RCP Secretariat’ will facilitate transparent ‘Program Governance’; ‘Program Planning and Development’; ‘Network Mobilization and Management’; ‘Capacity Building’, ‘Funds Mobilization and Management’; ‘Information Management and Communications’ and ‘Policy Analysis and Advocacy’;
· ‘The Auroville Center for Integral Studies’ will initiate and organize an on-going research program in all fields of human development: philosophy, psychology, sociology, economics, government, linguistics, spirituality, culture, natural sciences, and technology. It will bring together the best minds in all fields, and from all cultures, to engage in an intensely focused dialogue on the problems facing civilization today, and to derive the knowledge, goals and strategies that may serve to guide rural development towards equitable and sustainable solutions for regional and global human development - physical, social, intellectual and spiritual. Comment from Bhavana: What is this actually? UHU? Integral Leadership Centre? Or both together? How exactly is it going to contribute to the project? How are we going to get these people to become aware of and concerned with the problems facing the rural population?>
· ‘Livelihoods Skills Development Center’ will provide opportunities to: (a) alleviate poverty, unemployment, socio-economic inequity, disaffection and disenfranchisement among youth and families in the target area; (b) to mitigate against rural and coastal environmental degradation; and (c) reduce migration from the village to urban centers by enhancing capacity-building mechanisms to strengthen civil society structures; (d) promote community building programs and networking in and between village organizations; (e) provide vocational, leadership and life skills training, environmental awareness programs, teacher training and ‘Training for Trainers’ programs and support for new economically and environmentally sustainable enterprise development; (f) microfinance assistance programs.
ii. Build six ‘ITECCs’ in surrounding Village Panchayats, with six more ‘Village Information Centers’ (VICs) around each ITECC in a diamond lattice structure, which in turn will each support ten ‘Barefoot Consultants’, who will empower local communities to access various ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ technologies for their own benefit. The characteristics of these entities are as follows:
· Each ‘IT-Enabled Community Center’[3] is spread over an area of about five acres; it will be (a) focused on a particular aspect of rural development, such as Agriculture[4], Education & Livelihoods[5], Health[6], Renewable Energy Technologies, Shelter Technologies and Advanced Technologies[7], while promoting cross-cutting ideas and projects between themselves, for example: water and watershed development can extend between all the six sectors named above; other projects may have lesser number of cross-cutting linkages, and (b) be equipped to handle the knowledge and information requirements of a rural community of about 100,000 people, for the four foundation-level developmental programs detailed in Annexure A2.
· Each ‘Village Information Center’ will be a microcosm of an ITECC, complete with IT-enabled services for knowledge and information dissemination of ideas, products and service that are most relevant to the immediate rural community, built around each ITECC using the diamond lattice structure as a reference model. They have classrooms for education and training and dissemination of appropriate technologies to community members in the village, and liaise between the rural community members and its ITECC.
· Provisions will be made to empower on an average, ten ‘Barefoot Consultants’ in each VIC, who will champion the cause of total empowerment through the participatory approach, which will be to vigorously pursue the dissemination of rural ICT in a structured way with a human face. They will function as a small group of motivated local entrepreneurs, to market IT-enabled services on a commission basis - by charging a small fee to send or retrieve an e-mail to distant relatives, an additional fee to browse the Web and obtain, for example, important information for an agricultural project. Going door-to-door, these ‘information brokers’ will be able to quickly ascertain and meet the needs of local community members. They can also be trained to arrange for translation services from English to the local language, if necessary.
Implementation Plan:
This project is estimated to take between five and seven years to complete, and will be implemented in the following three phases:
Phase 1: Build and establish the Resource Access Center, including the ‘RCP Secretariat’, ‘Auroville Center for Integral Studies’ & ‘Livelihoods Skills Development Center’
Phase 2: Build and establish six ‘IT-Enabled Community Centers’, each with six ‘Village Centers’ having its complement of ten ‘Barefoot Consultants’ each, so that the technological imperatives can be met;
Phase 3: Institutionalize the new paradigm for rural development and develop a model that can be replicated elsewhere.
To enable a high level of participation by the village community, a flat organizational structure has been conceived for all entities, as shown in the simple non-hierarchical, diamond lattice structure in the figure above.
The project will bring together some of the most effective organizations and experts working in the field of sustainable rural development and demonstrate the possibilities offered by this unique rural convergence approach.
Monitoring and Evaluation:
Comment from Bhavana: This is where Rich and Bill’s expertise and proposed ideas could be applied directly to the project. Much of the in-service training for project staff could be in coordination with a pro-active monitoring and evaluation program. >
Map of the Auroville bioregion:
The map of the Auroville bioregion, which has a population of about 600,000 people, is shown in Annexure 2. It includes two Blocks of Villupuram District, in which AVAT, Auromitra and CSR have been working since 1988 and since tsunami. The salient features of the implementation plan that have shown in the map are: