Action
Village India has long-term relationships with six Gandhian organisations
all working for non-violent change in rural India. For almost
20 years, it has supported programmes which enable disadvantaged
communities to help themselves.
Current
programmes include: girls’ education (Jharkhand), women’s employment
(Tamil Nadu), organic farming (Kerala) and land rights (Orissa).
“I
would say that if the village perishes India will perish too.
India will be no more India. Her own mission in the world will
get lost. The revival of the village is possible only when it
is no more exploited. Industrialisation on a mass scale will necessarily
lead to passive or active exploitation of the villagers as the
problems of competition and marketing come in. Therefore we have
to concentrate on the village being self-contained, manufacturing
mainly for use. Provided this character of the village industry
is maintained, there would be no objection to villagers using
even the modern machines and tools that they can make and can
afford to use. Only they should not be used as a means of exploitation
of others”.
