MY DUTY TO MY VILLAGE
People talk of patriotism and our duty towards the motherland. Their horizon of thinking is very vast. My horizon ends at the boundary of my village. I was born in a village far away not only from cities but also from the road leading to any city. The air of modernity has never blown to my village. The bliss of education has not been showered on it. Canals have not criss crossed the fields for tens of hundreds of kilometers. The village pond is the only source of drinking water for cattle and men. Let there be evening and the whole village is engulfed in darkness. On television and radio it is announced at the pitch of the voice that a target of hundred per cent has been reached in my state in the supply of electricity. But the bulbs twinkle from twelve to two in the night when all are asleep.
After completing my studies I have realized that the government just can’t think of the upliftment of the 5 Lakhs odd villages in the country. People will have to improve the things themselves. But what can the people do. They are poor and ignorant. My first duty is to unite them in a purposeful mass. They have slept long. They must be awakened and inspired to look to their problems themselves. I shall make efforts to run classes for the young adults and divide them into four or five groups to do different things. These will take the shape of local projects the Water Project, the Health and Sanitation project, the Education Project, the Family Planning Project and the project for economic upliftment.
All the villagers will be associated with one project or the other. But the most active will be the young men and women. All will work in their spare hours. The pond will be cleaned. After a little contribution and loan plus subsidy from the government I shall have a tube well dug in the centre of the village. People would take water from the tank constructed near it. The second group will teach the village people to have the lanes cleaned and not to dump garbage in them. There should be no ditches. We shall have the help of one of my friends who is a doctor and is ready to visit the village once a week.
The education project is the most important. We have twenty educated men and five ladies. I shall organize them to have three shifts of only two hours each for children, boys and girls and the adults. They will also impress upon the people to have small families.
My most important project would be the project for economic upliftment. I shall organize a village cooperative society. All the farmers will form one group. They will grow fruit trees and utilize their land for one more harvest. We shall secure advice and help from the Rural Development Department. The second part will be more important. I shall imbibe the spirit of self working among the people. We shall revive some cottage industries and will try to run them with the least assistance of the government. That is how I will do my duty to my village.