India, a land of attractive scenes, is mainly an agriculture based economy. Thus, its growth depends very much on the villages. Nearly 65% of the Indian population lives in villages. The ‘Gaon’ with the green fields, clean air and clear sky always gives a sentimental charm to any individuals.
But it is very unfortunate that villages which have so many things to offer are still very backward. Poverty, lack of education and lack of even the basic needs are waning away the charm of the villages. But, beating the odd, there are some Indian villages which have set a different level of milestone altogether. Following are 10 such ideal Indian villages which are unique.
- Punsari – The village with all the urban facilities
The Punsari village, situated in Gujarat, a Indian village, which is providing its villagers much more than what even some urbanites can hope for. This village provides 24-hour Wi-Fi connectivity, CCTV cameras in the primary school, solar powered lamps, an independent bus service, clean drinking water at a nominal cost of Rs 4 for a 20-litre drinking water can and much more. The villagers even have accidental cover of Rs 1 lakh and a medi-claim cover of Rs 25,000. Well, their success story is simple – optimal utilization of government schemes.
- Dharnai – The solar powered village of India
Dharnai, a village in Bihar, which is one of the poorest states in India, has developed its own solar-powered system for electricity, beating 30 years of darkness. With the help of Greenpeace India solar-powered micro-grid, this Indian village is now empowered with electricity. The solar micro-grid supplies the electricity for homes, street lighting for roads and lanes, and water pumps. Dharnai is the first Indian village where all aspects of life are powered by solar energy.
- The village of Millionaires – Hiware Bazar
Located in one the drought prone area, in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, Hiware Bazar is an Indian village that has transformed its history by being possibly the richest village in India, with the record of 60 millionaires in the village and barely any poor. This fairy tale journey begins as soon as Popatrao Pawar was elected as the sarpanch of the village in 1990. He managed to ban all addictive substances to minimize expenses and encouraged the villagers to invest in rain-water harvesting and cattle farming. In comparison to monthly per capita income of Rs. 830 in 1995, it grew up to Rs. 30,000 till 2012, resulting in 60 millionaires in the village.
- The village with a 100% literacy rate – Pothanikkad
Pothanikkad village, situated in Kerala is the first in the Indian village to achieve 100% literacy rate. St. Mary’s High School is the eldest high school in the village, from where many prominent people in the society have been educated. There were 17,563 residents in the village in 2011 and all are educated.
- Asia’s cleanest village – Mawlynnong
Located 90 km away from Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, Mawlynnong was declared as the Asia’s cleanest village in 2003 by Discover India Magazine. This Indian village in the midst of hills has lot to offer to the nature lovers. The best part is that the villagers of Mawlynnong themselves clean the whole village. One can find dustbins almost in every corner of the village and not a single piece of plastic bag or even a cigarette butt could be found lying around.
- An Indian village that distributes sweets when a girl is born – Chappar
This village in the state of Haryana has a woman sarpanch – Neelam. This woman sarpanch of Chappar village has made it her life’s mission to change the attitude of the villagers towards women and she succeeded. Now, whole village celebrates the birth of a girl child and distributes sweets. Not only this, the women of the village do not wear the ‘ghunghat’ any more.
- Kathewadi – The village that has transformed itself in to a model village
Kathewadi is a small Indian village in the state of Maharashtra. Kathewadi is not at all different from any other Indian villages. But now, Kathewadi has been changed in to a model village, after it has been adopted by the Art of Living Foundation in Dec 2008.
This is the same village where once both rich and poor were addicted to alcohol. Surprisingly with the help of Art of Living, alcoholism plunged down to zero percentage. All the families in the village are associated with the Self Help Groups. They started a daan peti (donation box) scheme which in turn let them to setup and maintain a shop without a shopkeeper. The money saved from alcoholism, SHGs and the daan peti scheme gave them sufficient economic independence to build toilets for each of the 110 households.
70% alcoholism to 0% alcoholism, a shop with no shopkeeper, Zero toilets to 110 toilets, a paved road and that too without any external funding!! Well, Kathewadi has transformed its image in many aspects; but all with an intention to change for noble.
- Korkrebellur – A village that believes in the conservation of nature
Korkrebellur is a small village in Karnataka that believes in the conservation of nature. Villages generally have crops, for which most of the villages consider birds as irritation, because they harm crops. But surprisingly Kokrebellur village has some of the rare species of birds visiting the village. Neither the birds and nor the people have ever disturbed each other. In fact, villagers have created a separate area for wounded birds to rest and settle.
Shani Shingnapur – An Indian village where houses have no doors
Shani Shingnapur is a unique village located in the state of Maharashtra. Quoted as unique, because houses in this village have no doors. Not only this, there’s no police station in this village. It is considered as the safest village in India. Shani Shingnapur has also another interesting record. The village has the country’s first lock-less bank branch of UCO bank.Ballia – The village that beat arsenic poisoning of water
Ballia is a village in Uttar Pradesh. This Indian village had a terrible problem. The drinking water that the villagers were drinking contained arsenic, which was the cause of serious skin problems and even many physical deformations. Arsenic is harmless but if it combines with oxygen or water, it turns toxic. Ironically, Ballia village faced this problem after the government introduced many hand-pumps in the area for easy water access. Realizing the problem, villagers acted on the problem without waiting for the government. They fixed all the old wells to get rid of the problem.
