Mission to map rural India’s cultural assets

In a bid to harness the unique cultural heritage of rural India, the government has identified and documented distinctive features of more than one lakh villages across the country under the ‘MeraGaonmeriDharovar’programme.

About the development:

• In this initiative ofcultural asset mapping, villages have been broadly divided into seven-eight categories based on;
  • Whether they are important ecologically, developmentally and scholastically,
  • If they produce a famous textile or product, and
  • If they are connected to some historical or mythological events such as the Independence struggle or epics like the Mahabharata.
• For example:
  • The ecological category includes the Bishnoi village near Jodhpur in Rajasthan, which is a case study for living in harmony with nature, and Uttarakhand’sRaini village, which is famous for the Chipko movement.
  • There are also villages which have developmental importance like Modhera in Gujarat, which is the first solar-powered village in India.
  • The villages under the historical category include Kandel in Madhya Pradesh, the site of the famous ‘Jal Satyagraha’, and the villages of Hanol in Uttarakhand and Vidurashwathar of Karnataka, which are linked to the Mahabharata.
• The entire exercise has been carried out under the ‘ MeraGaonMeriDharohar‘ (My Village My Heritage) programme of the National Mission for Cultural Mapping (NMCM).

MeraGaonmeriDharovar programme:

• Launched by: Our PM launched on July 25, 2015, in Patna.
• Implemented by:
  • The Ministry of Culture has partnered with the Common Services Centres (CSC), under the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MEITY).
• Aim: The survey seeks to document the cultural identity at the village level by involving citizens to share what makes their village, block, or district unique.
• Data collection:
  • Under the survey, a CSC Village Level Entrepreneur called VLEs will conduct meetings with citizens at the villages and then upload interesting facts about their village, its places of interest, customs and traditions, famous personalities, festivals and beliefs, art and culture, etc., on to the application.
  • Village level Cultural asset mapping shall be undertaken through Field Surveys involving Respondents.
  • CSC Village level Entrepreneurs (VLE) shall be deployed for the same across all villages in the country.

Significance:

• A new effort called “MGMD” is being designed to enhance direct interaction between scientists and farmers to speed up the lab-to-land process.
• This programme aims to regularly supply farmers with the necessary information, expertise, and advice through village adoption.
• The initiative aims to instil a sense of ownership among the country’s agricultural exports.