A Report on the NEIV Rural program research and orientation at Paigamberpur, Bijnore, UP from February 21-23,2007 by  Shruti Foundation: Commencement of NEIV - (the ‘New Enterprising Indian Vision’)

February 21,2007:

Shruti Foundation’s  NEIV team reached Paigamberpur at 1.15 pm. Kirti Adhikari’s centre was chosen to commence the foundation nation-wide Rural program, NEIV (New Enterprising Indian Village/Vision) Program on that day with Paighamper as my first area of engagement and focus in collaboration with this beautiful centre of Sri Aurobindo Society.

Afternoon Meeting with faculty and principals:

Following a wonderful lunch at the centre, Kirti and Shruti left immediately for the Mohammadpur School, Janata Inter-college. ( Principal – Jagdish Singh and manager- Gambhir Singh Tyagi). We had a very meaningful interaction with the Principal, the administration and faculty of the school, where  the need to reverse the exodus and aid socio-economic empowerment of the village youth by facilitating innovative methodologies with their native resources, secrets and methodologies for an economically lucrative cottage industry.

Various methods were offered:

1) Teacher Training in Mantra/Yoga Healing courses with Pranayama, simple asanas, Beeja- Mantra Yoga, and Oral Non-literate ways of integral medicine and healing. A course for the same has already been developed by Shruti and is been used by practitioners in India and internationally. Shruti offered to train teachers in the same so that they could not only improve health and life-style habits in the village but also serve as well as earn a living within and outside the village by teaching others.

2) Training in the use of Village materials for value added ‘cottage’ products and specialised packaging of raw materials.

3) Rewards facilitated by Shruti Foundation for -

• Innovation and creativity in village art and craft and packaging ideas
• Research-Collection of data on physical and non-physical resources in the village and analysis.
• Certificate Courses on Indian ways of Yoga and Creative technologies (Especially for women and youth), along with Spoken Sanskrit and Spoken English.
• Awareness and marketing of the village program and products through the NEIV (New enterprising Indian Vision) magazine and to be launched in August, 2007.as well as other distribution outlets.
• Facilitating interaction and mutual learning and sharing between the rural and urban youth and women.

Early Evening: Ashok Tyagi, a neighbour farmer was requested to take us around the area and introduce us to the vegetation and foilage of the area (Sarpgandha, Bakain, Eucalyptus, Neem, etc) and their utilities. He and other villagers who joined us along with some young boys, did a great job in educating us on the beauty, richness and utility of village plant kingdom.

Late Evening: We had a quite meditation and reading of Savitri in  Hindi by the village girls. Shruti facilitated the chanting of AUM and Vedic mantras during the meditation.
Evening their was an interactive session with the village women and girls who sang their folk  songs and danced with great gusto, in their private space away from the audience of village men. I spoke to them of the NEIV program and a few women were quiet and keen absorbers of the idea and content of Shruti proposals to them. The young girls had a special light and aspiration in their eyes.

February 22, 2007(continuing the NEIV program on multiple levels):

Preeti, an artist and teacher and was keen to learn and innovate and research. The facets of the NEIV program were discussed and Preeti agreed to work on developing creative products with the young, for the possibility of a new cottage industry in the village.

The Orientation Program for NEIV and education Session:

From 11.30 to 2.00 pm:  The managing trustee addressed an audience of approx. 350-400 people, a mix of students, teachers, principals and villagers from neighboring towns and villages. Students and representative of 4 or 5 schools were present. She explained with illustrations the secrets of health and personal empowerment with a special focus of Ancient Indian sciences for cures of multiple ailments. She also explained other traditional techniques for facilitating vision, concentration, quietude and focused aspiration.
The students, teachers and principals seemed to be particularly inspired after the session and the students locked for special messages and autographs from the speaker during the lunch break.
In the afternoon, there was a meeting with principals and some key people from the village. The following proposals were discussed with them under the NEIV program:

• Facility and booking of block periods in schools for SF’s Course – Indic health training along with spoken Sanskrit and spoken English. (After September,2007 seemed to be a workable time slot)
• Providing literature on Organic traditional methodologies, Indian traditional  sciences and methologies  along with supporting CDs and audio cassettes for knowledge and practice.
• Allowing about 3 periods a week for students during school hours for Organic Creativity.
• Facilitating marketing and distribution opportunities /outlets for their products.
• Certificates and financial reward for students/teachers/villagers for special application and documented research.
• Certificates for the Mantra and Yoga Course.
• Providing ideas for socio-economic development by
• Skills training and courses held in Delhi and other areas.
• Exposure to world class packaging of village and organic products in the village and through periodic visits to Delhi and other key areas at Strategic times of the year.

February 22, Evening session:

There were very educative interactions with some farmers from Paigamberbur and nearby villages. They spoke of there faltering economic status and also of the negative role of brokers in selling their produce.
A lot of research based information was exchanged with the farmers/ elders in the use of raw material and village food products for lifestyle, health as well as the trading and barter systems in the village.
Shruti discussed the need for indigenously introducing value addition and packaging to their produce and derivative Health  and Design products. This would aid in bypassing the dependence on brokers for their economic status.
After some debate and discussion, the farmers agreed that a cottage ’packaging’ industry was need a good idea which needed to be followed up, with pro-activity by both facilitators and executors on all sides.

February 23rd, Morning:

Shruti was then shown the organic compost being developed at the centre and marketing possibilities and distribution channels for the the same were discussed.

Conclusion:

It was a mutually rewarding and a great learning experience for the participants at the centre from the village and neighbouring areas as well as for the centre and for Shruti Fpoundation, particular for documentation and research, as a facilitation of the NEIV program in collaboration with the Centre.