Guest guest Posted October 20, 2003 Report Share Posted October 20, 2003 Development Harvest of a dream A monk led the Nimpeeth revolution By Tapash Ganguly/Nimpeeth http://www.the-week.com Nimpeeth was a wasteland three decades ago. Mud houses dotted the area. Electricity was a rarity. " Hardly any farmer had a pump set to irrigate the land, " said Dukha Haran Halder, a 63-year-old villager. " To make a phone call, you had to walk five kilometres. " All that has changed now. Every third house is a pucca one. Every other family has a television. There is uninterrupted power supply and almost all the farmers have pump sets. Girls go to school. What brought about the transformation? A dream in a man's mind and his efforts to realise it. Some time in the early 1960s, Buddhananda, a 38-year-old monk of the Ramakrishna order, told the ashram authorities that he wanted to work among the poorest of the poor. But they ordered him to take charge of a hospital in Kolkata.Buddhananda was crestfallen. With no option available, he left the order. Soon he contacted the Ramakrishna ashram (now called Sarada ashram) at Nimpeeth in South 24 Parganas, deep in the Sundarbans. " When Buddhananda Maharaj came here, the ashram was a small mud structure, " said Sadananda, one of his first disciples. " It was in one of the poorest areas of West Bengal, populated by illiterate scheduled castes and tribals. " Buddhananda, proficient in English, Hindi and Bengali, realised that illiteracy was the root cause of the region's poverty. For the next 20 years he worked hard to spread the light of the word. He started several schools and opened hostels for poor students. He was never hard-pressed for money since his devotees, especially Gujaratis, donated generously. On his request, then chief minister Dr B.C. Roy built a road connecting Nimpeeth with Jamtala. The monk encouraged villagers to construct other roads. Slowly, the quality of life and awareness in the region went up. It was waiting to take the next step. Then came a unique opportunity. In the late 70s the Indian Council for Agricultural Research decided to open Krishi Vigyan Kendras in selected areas to introduce new methods of cultivation. Jyotirmoy Basu, Marxist MP, requested then prime minister Morarji Desai to start a kendra at the Nimpeeth Ashram. The Marxist and the monk both felt that the economic emancipation of the Sundarbans lay in improved methods of cultivation. It was a rare meeting of minds. As soon as it was started in 1979, the kendra undertook a comprehe-nsive agricultural and community survey of the area. It ferreted out crucial facts and armed with them, the ashram and the kendra went to work. The transfer of technology from the laboratory to land was daunting but fulfilling. " Existing resources were used, " said Dr Dipankar Saha, training organiser of the kendra. " Basic changes were introduced in the mode of cultivation and cropping pattern. " Later, the ashram, with the financial aid of the Centre, started the Vivekananda Institute of Biotechnology in its precincts. And the big harvest is still being reaped. Muktaram Halder, 67, is ecstatic that he is getting 22 quintals of paddy from his plot, which gave a meagre yield 20 years ago. He is cultivating vegetables too, making a neat profit. Women have formed self-help groups for cotton cultivation in land taken on lease. " It has changed my life, " said Jaba Halder, a housewife. " From the profit, I could buy a sewing machine. " The ashram has set up a marketing complex to ensure that farmers are not fleeced by middlemen. The visible change has been the end of migration to the cities in search of livelihood. Villagers now know that they can build their lives in their land. The foundation is strong. It was laid by a resolute monk years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 22, 2003 Report Share Posted October 22, 2003 What a wonderful article .... Just two week I read a very depressing article in India today about slave trading of girls in india, with West Bengal being one of the victims. I literally had to force myself read the article to the end. This India Today article will stick to me head for many days. But to see something being done is heartening ..... Vijay Development Harvest of a dream A monk led the Nimpeeth revolution By Tapash Ganguly/Nimpeeth http://www.the-week.com ....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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