Village in the Digital Age by LEADer Dharmendra K

LEADer Dharmendra Kumar Patel from BHU wanted to help his village gain their basic needs in the modern age. With new requirements from the government but barriers to the villagers obtaining these requirements, Dharmendra realized that many of the villagers would be unable to receive subsidy or rations.

Dharmendra took on three projects in his village: bank account set-ups, AADHAAR identity card sign-up, and ration card sign-up. Together, he felt these basic needs would help the people in his village have their presence recognized in the modern age. These projects also helped build basic modern skills in the village, including ATM use, making signatures,awareness of financial saving, and interacting with large modern establishments such as banks.

At first, only a few villagers were willing to take part in the process and many were hesitant for change. However, now those initial participants have told their neighbours and people are regularly approaching Dharmendra to take part and get a card and bank account. Women are coming out of their homes to sign up and join the modern age.

While Dharmendra has three specific projects, overall he is aiming to increase the wellbeing in his village. A good example of this is his motivation of a disabled woman. She had lost a leg in an accident, and was simply sitting around all day, although he had 3 children to feed. Dharmendra motivated her to learn the basic skill of sleeving to create an income, and after she had a small amount of earnings, got her to take part in his projects. Today, she has 4,500 Rs. in the bank account he helped her create, and she owns her own sleeving machine.

Project: CommerSense 2012

Fayyum (Ajuman Degree College, Bijapur)

Fayyum planned, coordinated, and executed an event called “CommerSense 2012” at Ajuman College, Bijapur.  He raised Rs 64000 to host the event.  “CommerSense 2012” provided students with the opportunity to improve their skills in PowerPoint business plan presentations.  Additionally, Fayyum trained the students in marketing.  Over 14 colleges participated in the event. 

Project: Stock Exchange for Rural Youth

Nandan (CSI, Dharwad)

Nandan noticed that the education system lacked practical learning activities.  Nandan decided to take initiative to incorporate more practical learning.   As a commerce student, Nandan is very knowledgeable about finance and economics.  He decided to apply his knowledge strengths and held a workshop to teach rural students about how the stock market functions.  150 students attended the workshop.