Rural Development

Bring solar lighting, sanitation facilities, strong local governance and much more in rural India

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Challenge

Lack of sanitation facilities, Inadequate electricity,
Poor education infrastructure

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Strategy

Infrastructure development, Community building,
Empowering local youth

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Outreach

Water recharge pits built across Maharashtra,
Light a Home project

Overview

Rural India is calling! Not just for basics like sanitation, clean drinking water, electricity, economic development and so on. But for long-lasting change. Simply, because there is no point of building a toilet if no one uses it. No point of running a solar center if no one in the village can install solar lighting. No point of having a model village plan when problems of the community remain unaddressed.

With ever-growing numbers of villagers migrating to cities for better lifestyle and employment, there is an equal and bigger need to tend to the lack in rural India. And, to fix it. We believe that a key ingredient in the recipe for a sustainable change is community participation. Thus, when we build toilets, we sensitize masses to use them too. When we build solar centers, we train village youth to install and service solar lighting systems. When we talk about model villages, we gauge problems of a village and inspire the ones who understand them the best, the locals to become torchbearers of change.

In short, to us, infrastructure development walks hand-in-hand with people development. With this basic model, we are working to:

  • provide solar lighting to remotest of villages
  • empower rural youth and women with skill development training
  • build toilets and ensure communities use them
  • provide clean drinking water
  • strengthen local governance
  • making villages self-sustainable

India will be truly empowered when people at the grassroots start feeling confident about themselves, their way of life, their tradition and language.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Strategy

Our rural development projects follow a 3-step strategy which is implemented simultaneously:

  • Infrastructure development:

    Be it through social infrastructures like skill centers or knowledge infrastructure like providing a knowledge framework for good governance, we make sure that we cater to the needs of the locals.

  • Empowering local youth for solution-driven action:

    These local youth are developed on various facets by the Karma Yoga program (former YLTP). This gives them the skills, motivation, and abilities to initiate and lead service projects in their communities sustainably. We equip these youth leaders with technical know-how and finances to run a project.

  • Community-building exercises:

We build communities through programs of The Art of Living. With communitybuilding exercises, we ensure that the whole community participates in the development of their village, making it a long-term success.

Impact

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70,000 villages

reached in India

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90,200 hygiene camps

conducted

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2.5 lakh youth

trained in 402 districts of rural India

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22 lakh farmers

trained in natural farming methods

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3.1 lakh+ people trained

in various vocational skills over 14 years

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110 model gram panchayats

being developed

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1.11 lakh+ women trained

in vocational skills

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3,819 homes

62,000+ toilets and 1000 biogas plants built

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43,980

cleanliness drives conducted by volunteers

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45,000+ individuals

from 12 states of India benefited through HIV/AIDS Awareness for Rural Adolescent (HARA) campaign

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12,831 youths

benefited from de-addiction programs

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3,588 Panchayat members

trained for good governance