"Success story of Smart Village Dhanora of Dholpur, Rajasthan"

"Success story of Smart Village Dhanora of Dholpur, Rajasthan"

       Dhanora is a small village of Rajasthan which is 30 km away from Dhaulpur district headquarters and is 248 km away from Jaipur City. The population of the village is around 2000. The village was devoid of its basic needs like sanitation, internal roads. It was also facing various other similar problems such as lack of access to potable water, non-availability of water conservation system, encroachment on the roads, power fluctuation, non-availability of employment oriented education, unemployment and poverty, so on and so forth. In spite of all these obstacles, a person was dreaming since his childhood to do something good and constructive for the society and for his small village which was devoid of most of the basic amenities. His determination and quest of doing something for the society has given him a marvellous success. The person which is being referred to is Dr, Satyapal Singh Meena, an officer of the Indian Revenue Service. His thirst of doing some social work was whirling around and stretching him towards his goal of doing good to the village and its villagers. 

        During his tenure of service, when he got posted to Aurangabad Maharashtra, Eco Needs Foundation, a non government organisation invited him in Eco Revolution 2010 Conference as a guest. He has got an opportunity to interact with Prof. Priyanand Agale, the founder president of Eco Needs Foundation. The Foundation is into the activities of development of rural areas and small hamlets by adopting them and fostering them. Dr. Satyapal Singh was very much impressed by the foundation's work and he appealed the foundation to work for development of his village also. Prof. Agale visited the Village Dhanora and tried to understand the problems and their solutions. Prof. Agale was already working on the concept of the smart village which was based on a structured development of the village. The concept was developed by Prof. Agale, Dr. Parag Sadgir and Adv. Attdeep Agale. As per the views of Prof. Agale, villages are undeveloped because of being unplanned and also due to lack of systematic development. The concept of Smart Village has been evolved by the Foundation, wherein the focus is given to all-round human development and also to arresting rapid deterioration of natural resources. The concept emphasizes sustainable development by providing basic amenities like sanitation, safe drinking water, internal road, tree plantation, water conservation, and basic means of livelihood etc. The Foundation also works for inculcating moral values in the society and for improving the standard of living of the villagers. According to Prof. Agale, the development of village shall be based on five paths, namely, Retrofitting, Redevelopment, Greenfield, e-Pan and Livelihood. On the same line, the meeting of all stakeholders (villagers, Gram Panchayat etc.) was organized, surprisingly there was an overwhelmed response for the meeting. Considering the enthusiasm and aspirations of villagers, Dhanora was adopted to develop as Smart Village. For the same Sustainable and inclusive development, the concept of the smart village criteria was kept as main goal. It is the cumulative effort of the district administration, Eco Need Foundation (NGO) and the active public participation. 

Beginning of the Journey: 

     Awareness and active public participation is the key for any change in the society. To create awareness, the first women Panchayat was organized and issues related to women like sanitation, use of toilets, use of pads and education for girls were discussed. It was the first step to motivate and encourage the women for active participation in the social change. Subsequently, a massive awareness campaign was undertaken in the village. It was an effort to prepare people for active participation in rural development. 

A) Redevelopment: 

       Establishing the new infrastructure for the welfare of the villagers, their day to day activities along with future development were taken into consideration, so that the living standard of the people may be enhanced. This consists of developing internal and approach roads, providing safe drinking water, toilets and sewerage system, schools for education, health centre, community centre, library, meditation centre, playground, skill development centre etc. Following activities take place under redevelopment. 

• Total 822 numbers of toilets were constructed in the panchayat with the help of district administration. Concept of adoption of one family for toilet construction was launched to help very poor families. The State Government declared the village as the first village of the district as open defecation free (ODF) village and included in clean India campaign also. 
• Sewerage line having length of 2 km with the diameter 450 mm was laid throughout the village. Each toilet of Dhanora village was connected to sewerage line through inspection chambers and manholes. Probably, it is the first village having Sewerage facility with Sewerage treatment plant in India maintained by the villagers themselves. 
• Cement concrete roads to extent of 2.3 km with width of 3.5 to 4.5 m were constructed in the village with advanced construction technology. 
• Roads having length of 2 km was constructed to Dhodekapura village of Panchayat for smooth connectivity. 
• Construction of Library hall and meditation centre has been completed. 
• The work for information centre and rural development training centre has already been conceived and will start in coming days. For development activities, the people of the village have collected funds and contributed labour. The most of the labour work was done by the villagers only; by way of voluntary contribution in the form of labor i.e. SHRAMDAN. 

B) Retrofitting: 

      Retrofitting includes improving the aesthetics of existing built-up environment of the village by adding new features. 

• Modern community center, having capacity of 300 people, was constructed by shifting and renovating the temple of Bhumiya Baba. Each government employees of the village contributed 25% of his one monthly salary and villagers did Shramdan. Gram Vikas Samiti of Dhanora coordinated entire work. 
• Removal of Solid waste lying along the roadsides and open places. 
• Removal of Encroachment on the roads and increasing width to extend 20-25 feet from just 8-10 feet. 
• Beautification of the entrance of the village and public places. Cleaning of common roads and public places. Construction work for welcome gate is going to start. 
• Uniform colouring to the houses of the village was done to bring in beauty and cleanliness. 
• Paintings with awareness slogans were painted on walls of the houses and other establishments. This converted the village into the beautiful art gallery. 
• Dismantling of old and damaged structures. 
• Improved elevation of building structures in the village 
• Relocation of electrical poles. 

C) Green Field : 

      It includes, conservation of natural resources, and sustaining development activities such as water conservation and the use of wastewater, forestation, use of renewable energy resources like solar lights, solid waste management by segregation of waste, and by using the bio fertilizers for agriculture. Under this activity following development work has been carried out for achieving the sustainable development goals 

• Water conservation was done by innovative concept of Percolation tank link system. In this concept, canal extending 3 km was constructed which has been linked with 8 percolation tanks. Overall groundwater recharge takes place through these structures, including Nallas. The quantum of wastewater recharge is 97.49 Million litters per year. It is important to mention that without land acquisition process this mega water conservation canal came into existence by mutual understanding of villagers. 
• On the occasion of World Environmental day, plantation of trees is done at Dhanora village. 
• Sewerage treatment plant has been constructed and the treated water is reused for irrigation purpose.
• Installation of solar lights on the streets of the village which has beautified and lightened the village.
• Solid waste management, solid waste segregation into organic and inorganic way done by villagers themselves, because of the same, the village can be found to be neat and clean. 

D) e-Pan: 

     E-Pan village development envisages application of selected smart solutions to the existing village-wide infrastructure. To make the smart village, the Foundation has used advanced technology and equipments like total station machine for digital mapping of the village. Thereafter digital maps of the village were prepared, it was further utilized for water supply line, sewage line, construction of roads and so many other purposes. It is proposed to provide Wi-Fi facility, install CCTV surveillance, virtual classrooms, e-Learning and e-library. The village students are provided computer training. Villagers started using various social media platforms for communication. 

E) Livelihood: 

      Basic livelihood is very important to serve the society, to support infrastructure and for improving the living standard by creating employment opportunity. It consists of running skill development center, dairy and food processing industry, competitive examination coaching center, modern agricultural techniques etc. The following activities are conducted. 

• To capture the job in government sector through competitive examination “Utthan coaching institute” has been started in the village as a livelihood activity. 
• Due to water conservation measures, irrigation facility is improved which helps to farmers for good agriculture.
• Various programmes about awareness of farmers, the importance of cooperative societies, self-help groups have been organized. 
• Skill development center and dairy plant is also proposed 

F) Smart Village the Social Outcomes at Dhanora: 

• Better Equanimity and brotherhood has resulted in recognition the village as “Crime Free Village” by the District Police as no FIR is pending with the police station. 
• Village is transforming to Alcohol free village. 
• Open Defecation free village. 
• Smart village concept adopted by Rajasthan Government for the state. 
• Village awarded by Government of Rajasthan for its development. 
• Nearby 100 Villages inspired from smart village Dhanora and becomes the part of “Soch Badlo Goan Badlo” movement for rural reform in India. 

G) Spreading the Message:"Soch Badlo Gaon Badlo Abhiyan" 

      When Dhanora was changing the phase and becoming a Smart village, to transform this movement into another village, and to inspire people, the "Soch Badlo Gaon Badlo Abhiyan" was started. SBGB Team believes that ideological awareness is the basis of the development of any society. 

• Under this campaign, about 100 villages of Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were included. The main purpose of this campaign is to create social awareness among the people and to create public consciousness about development. 
• SBGBT believes that the dream of development can be achieved only by active people-participation and co-ordination between administration and the public. SBGB Abhiyan is an effort to ensure public participation in development and to create harmony between the administration and the public. 
• Successful attempts have been made to liberate the villages from encroachment, prohibition of destruction, and the benefits of government schemes to the people during the change of village changeover. 
• SBGBT has turned the youth power from destructive activity to constructive one, from which the youth of the village is actively participating in the development of the village. Various types of programs such as 'Aao Padhen Aage Badhen', 'Clean Village Green Village' and 'Shiksha Paao Gyaan Badhao' are being organized by the team from time to time. 
• With the efforts of the team, Dhaulpur has not only created an atmosphere of positivity in entire Rajasthan and people but also have started to see their problems differently. 
• With the efforts of the SBGBT, a path has been received to Raghuvir Pura Village, which was cut off from the main road for 70 years. 
• With the efforts of the team, solution of water problem in Khinnaut, Gadha and Badpura villages has been solved. 
• Panchayats in different villages decided to stop liquor and stop gambling by different villages. 
• Today this campaign is taking the form of a movement in which all the caste religions and communities are actively participating. Every youth of this country, in the same way, fulfills his duty towards the country and fulfills his duty towards his motherland; the country's development is sure. 

For more detail please:_http://www.econeeds.org/rDevelopmentDetails.php?rdId=1&epType=1