I had the pleasure of visiting my hometown, the picturesque village of Ghodari (Nadimode) in the Mahasamund District, nestled in the heart of central India. This beautiful place resonates with the essence of rural India, carrying the legacy of Indian villages forward while embracing its natural beauty.
On my visit, I came across this kid who was wearing large shoes that engulfed his tiny feet. His innocent scared look pushed me into a deep spiral of thoughts and one of those thoughts was about how the current generation was carrying the legacy of Indian Villages.
As per this study, Indian Villages contribute 25-30% to the GDP. Of which majority is contributed by agricultural farming and the rest by small non-farming ventures such as mining, packaging, storage, transporting, and more.
We’ve been living at this place for more than 35 years now and I’ve pretty much seen it evolve over all these years. The village used to have one government school, and now it has a total of 4 schools including two English-teaching convent schools. Children from nearby villages also travel to my village to seek their education.
From an industrial development perspective, there are too many small businesses operational generating decent livelihood for the villagers including nearby villages.
What I have also noticed is that my village was notoriously famous for mischievous elements that would usually be in the local news. And one of those elements was the group of alcoholics. In my various visits, including during Covid times, I have seen a change in this group. Earlier the liquor shop was inside the village and hence the whole environment started depleting as the alcoholics were at the center of attention for passersby. Then due to the new regulation, the liquor shop has been moved far away from the village, and hence now the alcoholics are out of sight.
Near my village flows the Mahanadi River and it takes a turn, hence the name of the village is Nadimode (River-Turn). A gigantic dam holds a sea of water that would be used to feed the farms throughout the year and provide crop insurance to farmers.
All of these opportunities, that they have created over decades of hard work, help the villagers prosper and sustain continuous growth.
It’s their legacy.
The question I couldn’t answer myself is if the current generation was successfully carrying it forward?
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