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Rural rejuvenation... Action for Rural Rejuvenation [ARR] is mainly aimed at rejuvenating the human spirit.
When I say human spirit I don't know how many of you have, do you, have you walked through a village recently? You have?
If you walk through any village today what you will see is almost 60% of the male population
leave the women; you cannot really talk about the women because their condition is much worse.
60% of the male population you will see they have not physically grown to their full stature.
Have you noticed this? Yes or no?
Participant : Yes.
When physically... when your physical body does not grow to its full stature definitely your brain also will not grow to full stature.
Or in other words we are producing a whole generation of useless people; underdeveloped people.
That could be the tragedy for humanity, isn't it?
If we don't even produce.. we may be.. may be we cannot educate them, may be we cannot provide them this and that
but if we do not even produced full grown human beings then that is going to be a huge tragedy in the next generation.
Twenty five years ago this was not the reality.
Twenty five years ago the economic condition was worse.
Their homes were worse, their clothing was worse; today there is potable water in every village which was not so 25 years ago.
Today they are riding mopeds instead of walking or cycles; they are using tractors instead of bullocks; they have buses instead of bullock carts.
All these things have happened but 25 years ago men were able bodied.
Have you seen this? Have you seen this happening?
Twenty five years ago they had nothing but they were able bodied.
They worked hard and they ate what they have... eat what they have to eat and they were able bodied.
Today's almost 60% of the male population is not able bodied.
This is not a small tragedy.
This is like we are destroying the future generation of people.
This has happened, one reason is all the evils of market economy has touched the villages
but the benefits of market economy has not gone anywhere near the village.
Another, main aspect is the traditional means of support that a rural population had, the psychological support that they had all the time
that fabric of tradition and culture has been broken, has been punctured very badly, torn, but no new system has come to replace it.
Simple things. It's very difficult for people who have not really been involved with life there to understand these simple things.
For example, see for a farmer, especially for an Indian farmer because it's a whole emotional thing for him.
He is not looking at it as an enterprise. See farming was never looked at as an enterprise.
It is a very different kind of involvement.
The earth that he walks on is not just his work; it's his mother, it's his goddess; it's his everything.
That's how it's always been. Just to walk freely on the land, just 15 years ago you could walk through anybody's land, isn't it?
But today it's all barbed wire fenced. You cannot walk through land.
What is the problem if you cannot walk through land; can't you want on the road?'
This may be the logical argument, but that's not how it is
it breaks his psyche; simply because he cannot walk on the land; simply because he cannot feel and simply feel free walking along the land.
It is difficult for city people to understand, what this means just walking through the land; what it means to him?
For example, South India - let's say Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka these states
when the mango season comes the mangoes is in everything.
The mango is in our stomach, the mango is on our clothes, the mango is around our mouth
the mango is in our head; it is cooked, it is cut, it is eaten; it is anything, if you want to fight you throw a mango at somebody.
That's how.. it is a whole culture by itself; it is not just a fruit.
Fifteen years ago you could walk into anybody's garden, pluck a mango and eat it, it was not a crime.
Only if you fill your bag; it's a crime.
If you pluck a mango and eat it was not a crime, isn't it?
But today it's all barbed wire fenced.
Every mango goes to the market and when it again comes back to the village each mango costs 10 rupees, 15 rupees which anyway he is never going to eat.
So the children and adults, they see mangoes hanging but they never eat it.
It is not a small thing.
'What is there if I don't eat a mango?'
If you were born somewhere else you wouldn't eat mango at all; that's not the point.
But it is so deep.
The stories that they heard as children were mangoes
the songs that they sang were mangoes and now the mango is always hanging there but you cannot eat it.
It is not a small thing; it just destroys the spirit of the human being.
Things that he did very proudly, just ten years ago,
today he is ashamed of it, like let's say just now in January there was Pongal festival.
If Pongal came, the two bulls that you had you painted them garishly and took them out with great pride, your painted bull.
But today because he went to fifth class or sixth class in the school, he is ashamed of taking these bulls on the street.
He will watch pongal on the television.
All these kind of things, little little things which have broken the spirit.
The only two things that are keeping the village population going is most unrealistic cinema and cheap alcohol.
These are the only two things which are keeping the village spirit going still.
Today in Tamilnadu over... almost 80% of the male population over 16 years of age is drinking alcohol either intermittently or regularly
because cheap alcohol is available produced by the government to avoid bootlegging or whatever.
Six, seven rupees you get a sachet; you know it's in plastic covers now? Yes?
The arrack is in.. the arrack is in plastic covers.
If 10 men are working anywhere in a rural area at 5 o'clock in the evening you will see a bicycle with plastic sachets of this hard liquor.
It's like how kadalai kaai [peanuts in Tamil] used to be sold, you know.
How groundnut or peanut used to be sold like that arrack is being sold.
And it is available on credit; they will come home and collect the money. All the services are available.
And they are drinking this hard arrack, very hard brew; there is no sufficient food to sustain this kind of alcohol in the body.
So when the man drinks this, tomorrow morning he has no spirit to get up and go to work.
Now he wants to kick his wife, kill his children, throw everything on the street or do something.
It's very natural, you know.
When the man has no physical strength or inclination to go and do physical work if he has to do it
slowly he gets frustrated and after sometime feels defeated.
This is slowly setting into the rural population in a big way.
So Action for Rural Rejuvenation is mainly aimed towards rejuvenating their spirit
but if you just go and talk about it, it won't work. So it is going in many forms.
This has been meticulously thought out; this project has been laid out for 12 to 15 years ahead.
We have been planning this for last 12 years.
Now we have dedicated volunteers in every district in Tamilnadu.
This 54,000 villages with 60 million people
if we go by our plan in about 10 to 12 years we could make a huge difference in their lives, we know that.
We have the necessary technology and the tools; it just needs the resources and people to make it happen.
First it is going... the initial phase of the project is going as a medi.. mobile medical dispensary
loaded on a truck chassis with a qualified doctor who is trained in alternative medicine, with yoga teachers and others.
The doctor treats infections and those kind of things.
All the chronic ailments and other kind of ailments that people create for themselves
he is referring them to yoga teachers and free yoga classes in those villages.
We have started games in the villages.
You must see what games do to the village people.
Most of them have never played a game in their life; especially the women they have never played a game in their life even as children.
Now you make them play, you won't believe, it's like fire.
The whole village is on fire. You will have tears in your eyes just seeing the way they are playing.