Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, Bhawanipur Anchalik College
The idea of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) originated from the pursuit of active participation by the academicians involved in rural development at IIT Delhi in 2014. This was a result of the rigorous discussions of various government and non-government agencies working in the rural areas of the country. The program received formal inauguration by the Ministry of Education (MoE) (formerly the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD)), with the President of India presiding, on November 11, 2014. The main goal of UBA is the development of the villages in India, where approximately 70 percent of the population resides and is predominantly agrarian. Despite agriculture and allied sectors employing 51 percent of the total workforce, their contribution to the country's GDP is a mere 17 percent. Profound developmental disparities persist between rural and urban sectors, spanning health, education, incomes, basic amenities, and employment opportunities, precipitating widespread discontent and substantial migration to urban centres. The imperative of sustainable development, increasingly acknowledged on a global scale, necessitates eco-friendly rural development and the creation of local employment opportunities. The escalating trend of urbanization is neither sustainable nor desirable. Historically, professional higher education institutions have predominantly catered to the mainstream industrial sector, offering limited direct contributions to rural development. The UBA emerges as a vital and challenging initiative in steering towards comprehensive rural development. The mission, vision, and objectives of UBA are given below.
Mission:
1. Develop the necessary mechanism and proper coordination among educational institutions, implementation agencies (District administration / Panchayati Raj Institutions) and the grassroots level stakeholders to enable effective intervention at the field level.
2. Select suitable rural clusters and effectively participate in the holistic development of these clusters using eco-friendly sustainable technologies and local resources creating sufficient employment opportunities in the process, harnessing multifarious government schemes, customised use of existing technologies and use of knowledge as per the local needs.
3. Reorienting the academic curricula and research programs in higher educational institutions to make them more responsive to the needs of the time and to bring in holistic development and enrich knowledge of students about issues of villages/society.
Vision:
Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is inspired by the vision of transformational change in rural development processes by leveraging knowledge institutions to help build the architecture of an Inclusive India and to have a paradigm shift in academic and research programs of the country.
Objectives of UBA:
1. To engage the faculty and students of Higher Educational Institutions in understanding rural realities.
2. To identify & select existing innovative technologies, enable customisation of technologies, or devise implementation methods for innovative solutions, as per the local needs.
3. To leverage the knowledge base of the educational institutions for effective implementation of various government programmes.
The initiatives of the UBA at Bhawanipur Anchalik College (BAC) are currently rendered by the active participation of the officials mentioned below.
1. Principal of the college (Chairperson)
2. Dr. Darpan Bhattacharjee (Coordinator)
What we have done under UBA:
Bhawanipur Anchalik College is committed to adhere to the guidelines issued by UBA from time to time. Under UBA project, members of Bhawanipur Anchalik College carried out a survey in the nearby villages to understand the socio-economic condition of the villagers. The survey was performed in the year 2019 and the survey report has been entitled as ‘A study on the Socio-economic Condition of the Villagers under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan’ which covers 401 households in 5 villages in the Barpeta district of Assam namely Namati, Kayakuchi, Niz-Bhawanipur, Galia, and Nakuchi. Five groups consisting of two faculty members of Bhawanipur Anchalik College in each group are formed to survey the five villages, respectively. Some of the key outcomes of the survey are briefly described as follows:
All the surveyed villages are situated in the rural areas of the district where the lacking of proper transportation facility, infrastructure, and basic commodities are vividly observed. The survey data shows that about 74% of the total population of the villages are in below poverty level which suggests the economic condition of the villagers. The study also demonstrates that more than 16% of the villagers do not have proper toilet facilities in their houses. The practices such as open defecation by the villagers develop an unhygienic environment in the villages. Moreover, about 8% of the households still do not have the electricity facility, and only relied on the kerosene lamps. More than 15% of the households use wood and logs for cooking purposes. Their economic conditions do not allow them to afford an LPG connection. The condition of the village primary schools are below average in terms of proper infrastructure, toilet facilities, and maintaining a hygienic environment in the school campus. The UBA committee of BAC has submitted a proposal as per the guidelines of UBA for installation of bio-toilets in one of the surveyed villages and is in search of similar rural-based initiatives that may uplift the livelihood of the agrarian rural society within the periphery of the institution. The details of the last report has been attached below.
| UBA Report | Click here |