Ever since I got into the sustainability and environmental conservation movement in 2008, I have been talking about ‘self-reliant’ societies and ‘self-reliant’ villages. We adopted a village in 2018 in order to further our thoughts on the same line.
For me, it shouldn’t only be about the ‘economics’ of ‘Self-reliance’, but that as we go ahead, the rural part of the country should be able to:
- Produce their own electricity.
- Produce crops for their own consumption.
- Be able to take care of their own livelihood.
- Should be able to treat their own waste and waste-water (we started with solid waste).
- Should own their water resources.
- Should be able to develop their own infrastructure, including roads, bridges, houses and others (wherever required).
- Should have livestock to fulfil their the needs.
- Should be able to produce necessary items such as clothes and more.
In 2018, we went to the village and understood that for 20 years, most of the villages have already been self-reliant in the sense that what they needed was available. However, medical and educational facilities which, instead of developing them, the governments and administrations ignored. The institutions which existed already had been degraded.
The schools in the rural side of the country, I feel, is working on a different agenda already where teachers hire a subordinate (illegally) and themselves gets involved in work other than teaching. Thankfully administrators got tough and are fighting this through and the younger generation of the educators and healthcare workers, who love to spend more time in the rural areas than urban.
Never late to realise. It is good that the leaders realised this though it is late. Around 80% of the population are living with empty pockets. Some have been surviving in the Coronavirus situation due to motivated donations (without realising) that all this can only work in a decentralised manner. If the government still pushes the development for vested interests and utilise hard-earned money of citizens into unnecessary activities, it is not gonna make things move. We should be able to involve people from the ground, general citizens, and involve evolved civic societies working on similar issues for long.
