For the past 28 years,
Karsanbhai Patel has been teaching the children of his village to swim. There is no swimming pool in the village, just a lake. The water is not very clean, and there are no changing rooms.
But this doesn't stop the children, nor their dedicated teacher. The swimming lessons continue even in winter when the water is chilly.
Sometimes Karsanbhai gets small donations from well-wishers, and he uses the money to buy swimming equipment for the children.
Despite the hardships, over 200 children from the village have participated at the state level and 45 have made it to the nationals.Something to ponder on- particularly in the present times, when, with each passing day, the morning newspaper is filled with more and more controversies regarding the Commonwealth Games.
There is only one primary school, in Pisayta village, which caters to the children of some 25 villages in a remote area in Vadodara District, Gujarat. It is difficult for tribal children from the interior villages to travel there to school every day.
Five years ago,
Vechan Bhil, a tribal farmer living in Pisayta, came up with a solution. He decided to share his house with the children, and provide free food and tuitions, too.
Since the teachers at the school are often absent, a graduate from a neighbouring village comes to help the children, presently 55 in number, with schoolwork and homework, for free. Other villagers help too, giving what they can.
Vechan, though illiterate himself, has realised that education is the key to changing the lives of the tribals, and he is trying to ensure that their children get some education.
Gujarat’s economy has been outperforming the rest of the country since 1990. However, this has been largely because of rapid industrial growth, not agriculture.
But Narendra Modi has done it in agriculture too. Since 1990, Gujarat's agricultural economy has clocked a 9.5% annual growth, three times the national average. In fact in wheat and pulses, the growth rate nearly doubled, and in cotton, it has jumped over 3.5 times.
According to a
study published in the Economic and Political Weekly, this has happened because the Gujarat government has aggressively pursued an innovative agriculture development programme by liberalising markets, inviting private capital, reinventing agricultural extension, improving roads and other infrastructure. A mass-based water harvesting and groundwater recharge movement has created a vast corpus of check dams, percolation ponds, boribunds and farm ponds that have increased the availability of groundwater.
Voting has been
made compulsory in the state of Gujarat by passing of a bill on Saturday 20.12.09! Although a first in India, Italy already has such a law, says Narendra Modi.
In a country where living is compulsory - suicide is a crime, euthanasia is unthinkable and education has also been made compulsory, this is another in the list of 'compulsory' things to do for us Indians. Will more states follow?
We seem to be suffering from a "
Obsessive Compulsory Disorder". I posted this because it has become compulsory recently to speak out one's minds on India-tweet (just joking). Now its your turn - commenting also is compulsory, folks!
Arushi Shah has decided on an 'organic wedding'. At the
'Sangeet' function on Saturday, guests were served pulav with vegetables grown organically and cooked in sesame oil extracted the traditional way.
Arushi is part of
'an informal group which believes in not messing with mother nature and living the organic way of life.'The marriage will take place at her home and castor-oil
diyas will provide lighting instead of floodlights. Boiled chana and
bor (local berry) will be served as starters at the wedding dinner and no refined flour will be used in the rotis.
There will be no plastic included in the gifts given to her by her parents. The utensils gifted will be of brass, copper and silver.The
'streedhan' is to be a cow and a calf.
The Ahmedabad-based Blind People’s Association (BPA) organised a job fair for the first time on Tuesday, for the differently-abled competent enough to do jobs.
160 institutes across Gujarat were invited for the fair. There was good response from women candidates who were 30-35 percent of total candidates.
As many as 17 local companies hired a total of 350 candidates for the jobs of data entry, lift operators, toy makers and animators. Salaries offered were in the range of Rs 3,000 to 6,000 a month.
BPA Director Bhushan Punani said: “The companies have to be told that they should recruit the differently-abled persons not because they are disabled, but for the capabilities they have.”
The BPA intends to hold such fairs twice a year now onwards.
Even as the BJP is licking its wounds after its defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is quietly setting up the world's largest solar power project in the state with an
investment of Rs 50,000 crore.The state government recently signed an MOU with the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) to set up a 5,000 hectare solar energy park on infertile land in Kutch district. Earlier in January this year, the govt had allotted a capacity of over 700 MW to other developers. With the latest agreement, the total generation capacity of various solar power plants that will come up in the park has gone up to 3,000 MW.
This will reduce CO2 emission by 5.2 million tons annually and create employment opportunities for over 20,000 people.
Recession or not, Gujarat continues to steam ahead.
