Ramjas College has been selected as one of the participating institutions under the UNNAT BHARAT ABHIYAN , a national programme launched by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, with the objective to engage students of higher education institutions to understand and work in rural areas. The programme involves visiting the villages, interacting with the people, understanding their work and social life. The students will get an opportunity to enrich their knowledge and will get experience of working in rural areas of Delhi.
UBA involves visiting villages and interacting with people to know about their problems and finding solutions in their own ways. For this, proper baseline has been conducted in each of the villages to gather data in a structured format. For this purpose, several training sessions were conducted for the students, in which students were being trained on how to do a field survey. More than 120 students have been trained so far in five different sessions. The response from the students has been overwhelming positive and enthusiastic.
Rani Khera Village lies in the North-west district of Delhi, Kanjhawala Block. The village covers an area of about 2230 Acres. Even though it is an urban village, about 1600 Acres of arable land is covered under agricultural. It has about 800 households, with approximate population of 4500 people (including elderly and children). The village has two government primary schools and one government secondary school. There are two bank branches, one primary health care centre, one post office, and an Angadwadi Centre in the village. The village is fully connected with a pucca road, with a distance of about three kilometers from Rohtak Road. Our team (including both students and faculty members) visited this village twice, after getting permission from the Village Development Office. The people in the village are very cooperative and welcoming. The major problems the people residing in the village highlighted are related to supply of clean drinking water through Jal Board, no petrol pump in the village, and no training centres for the youth.
Kamalpur Village, also popularly known as Kamal Vihar, lies in the Central district of Delhi. The village covers an area of about 90 Acres. It is densely populated area with about 80 Acres of area covered under residential buildings. The village has a good number of public and private schools at all levels, primary, middle and secondary. There are two government primary schools, 7 private primary schools, 6 private middle level schools, 4 private secondary schools and 3 government secondary schools. There are five bank branches, one PM Jan Aushadhi Kendra, one post office, and an Angadwadi Centre in the village. The village is fully connected with a pucca road, with a distance of about three kilometers from GT Karnal Road.
Our team (including both students and faculty members) visited this village, after getting permission from the Village Development Office. The people in the village are very cooperative and welcoming. The major problems the people residing in the village highlighted are related to supply of clean drinking water through Jal Board, no children’s park for kids to have any kind of recreational activities or physical activities, and no community centre. The major problem highlighted is the running of high tension wires, carrying about 11,000 Watt of energy from very near to the houses of the village.
Jharoda Majra Village lies in the North district of Delhi, Civil Lines Block, with Central Delhi Lok Sabha Constituency. The village covers an area of about 400 Acres. It is densely populated area with about 390 Acres of area covered under residential buildings. Population of the area is around 70000. The village has only one government primary school and four private middle level schools. There are five bank branches, four primary health care centers, and three Angadwadi Centers. The village has no full connectivity with a pucca road. It has only 20 kms of kuchha road for internal connectivity within the village. The village is just about a kilometer away from the nearest highway.
Our team (including both students and faculty members) visited this village twice, after getting permission from the Village Development Office. The people in the village are very cooperative and welcoming. The major problems the people residing in the village highlighted are related to supply of clean drinking water through Jal Board, no government school beyond primary level, no training institution for girls and youth, especially for employment generation activities, no children’s park for kids to have any kind of recreational activities or physical activities, and no door-to-door government waste collection system. The two major problems highlighted by the people in this area are related to cleanliness of the area and water supply.
Mukundpur Village lies in the North district of Delhi, Burari Block. The village covers an area of about 500 Acres. It is densely populated area with about 435 Acres of area covered under residential buildings. There are around 800 households, with a population of around 250,000. 30 Acres of land is covered under agricultural and around 2 acres are covered with water bodies. About 33 acres of land is waste land. The village has only one government primary school, however has 40 private primary schools. There is only one government secondary school. There are two bank branches, two primary health care centers, 20 Angadwadi Centers, two fair price shops, three gas agencies, and about 400 NGOs working in that area. The village has no full connectivity with a pucca road. It has only 20 kms of kuchha road for internal connectivity within the village. The village is just about 2 kms away from the nearest highway.
Our team (including both students and faculty members) visited this village, after getting permission from the Village Development Office. The people in the village are very cooperative and welcoming. The major problems the people residing in the village highlighted are related to availability of government schools, post offices, hospitals, community halls, and Jan Sewa Kendra. There is no children’s park for kids to have any kind of recreational activities or physical activities. There are no ITI centers for youth to get training of any kind, and hence unemployment is a major problem of the village. Other common problems relate to availability of safe drinking water, poor management of drainage system and no proper cleaning of roads.
Chauhan Patti Village lies in the North-East district of Delhi, Sabhapur Block. The village covers an area of about 450 Bigha. It is sparsely dense with about 35 Bigha of area covered under residential buildings. There are around 150 households. This area is more of an agricultural area, with around 400 Bigha covered with agriculture. The village has no waste land. The village has only two government secondary schools, however has three private schools, at primary and middle levels. Children have to travel a distance of 2 KMs to Sabhapur village to attend the school. The condition of government services in this village is not satisfactory. There are no bank branches in the villages, no primary health care centers, no petrol pumps, no fair price shops or kisan mandis. However, there are few other facilitates available in the village. There is a charitable dispensary, one Jan Aushadhi Kendra, two Anganwadi Centers and one Mother Dairy. The village has connectivity with GT Karnal bypass from Wazirabad road, ,which is about 5 KMs from the village. The village has pucca roads, however, over time, the roads demand renovation, and maintenance, which has not taken place for the past ten years.
Our team (including both students and faculty members) visited this village, after getting permission from the Block Development Office. The people in the village are very cooperative and welcoming. The major problems the people residing in the village highlighted are related to availability of government schools, post offices, hospitals, community halls, banks and Jan Sewa Kendra. The condition of roads is very bad in the village. There is no exit of rain water from the village. Hence, during raining seasons, the problem of water logging is huge. As a result, the problem of water borne diseases is very common in the village. There are no ITI centers for youth to get training of any kind, and hence unemployment is a major problem of the village. Other common problems relate to availability of safe drinking water, poor management of drainage system and no proper cleaning of roads.
Ramjas College, under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, organised “Sahaja Yoga workshop” in Government Sarvodya Bal Vidyalaya, Kamalpur, Burari, Delhi on June 13th, 2022. More than 150 students from class 10th, 11th and 12th participated in the workshop. This workshop was organised with an aim to make students learn how to develop coordination between their mind, body and soul through simple yoga exercises. Students very enthusiastically participated in the workshop, performed all yoga exercises and experienced the power of sahaja yoga to distress themselves. They also learned the art of infusing positive energy by removing all negative thoughts from their minds. Such Yoga workshop will surely help them to increase their concentration in studies and other extracurricular activities which they will pursue in their student carrier.
Ramjas College of Delhi University organized a lecture on 6th August 2022 under the project ‘Unnat Bharat Abhiyaan’ launched by the Ministry of Education, Government of India. This project is a positive step in the direction of connecting the higher education institutions with the villages. In this programme, Prof. Shashank Shekhar from the Department of Geology in Delhi University delivered a lecture on the topic "Delhi and Water Resources". About 150 villagers , RWA members and officials from district office from five adopted villages under the project, namely Jharoda, Mukundpur, Kamalpur Chauhan patti and Rani Khera, actively participated in this program. Besides, the students and teachers of the college also extended their role. Prof. Manoj Kumar Khanna, the principal of the college emphasized on the importance of water conservation. The water related problems faced by these villages were addressed by the speaker and their solutions were suggested. The program will prove to be a great success in connecting the teachers and students of the college with rural transformation.
Unnat Bharat Abhiyan team of Ramjas college, University of Delhi, actively participated in Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the75th Independence day of India organised in Gram Sabha of the adopted villages. The day was observed with flag hoisting followed by cultural events, remembrance and tribute to our freedom fighters. During the function our team introduced the villagers about Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, Ministry of education initiative to connect higher educational institutes with villages to understanding their socio- economic problems by carrying out village as well as household surveys and to help them in getting effective solutions to their problems. We also updated them with the programs carried out by our team in their villages and informed them about other events which we are planning to organise in future .
