Techies go to villages

They may not be NASA scientists, but their enthusiasm to better villages is no less than that of Shah Rukh Khan's character Mohan Bhargav in Swades

Techies go to villages

They may not be NASA scientists, but their enthusiasm to better villages is no less than that of Shah Rukh Khan's character Mohan Bhargav in Swades. A group of techies from leading IT companies in the city have planned to visit rural areas in the state to better understand the problems of the villagers.

Weekend in villages

"HD Kumaraswamy is our inspiration," said Kiran Gangadhar, founder, Yuva Bengaluru. "We will start our 'A day in a village' this weekend and aim to bring better tomorrows for villagers."
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Over 40 techies and working professionals from various city companies, including Hewlett Packard, Dell and Honeywell, will take a break tomorrow and spend this weekend in 15 villages of the Ramanagar constituency.

They will form two groups of equal strength and work in the villages and fields. One team will make an attempt to understand the lives of farmers and the challenges they face, through interactions in places like harvest fields. The other team will visit villages and discuss topics such as education, health, women empowerment and agriculture with farmers, women and children. They will also try to find answers for the farmers' challenges.

Said Gangadhar, "We have planned a series of events like children's evening, where children will be taught through games. We will also try to act as a bridge between them and policymakers or bureaucrats."

IN HIS STEPS: Ex-CM H D Kumaraswamy is Yuva Bengaluru's inspiration.

Hero No. 1

The inspiration for the initiative came from Kumaraswamy's 'Grama Vastavya' programme, under which H D Kumaraswamy and his officials would visit villages, stay with the locals and listen to their problems. They would then try to address their grievances. "His stint in villages encouraged us take up the initiative. We are looking forward to more youth joining our campaign," said volunteer Tanu Kulkarni.

Yuva Bengaluru has the full-fledged support of their hero.

K Raju, MLA, Ramanagar and a close aide of Kumaraswamy said, "This is a great initiative. Kumaraswamy is guiding and helping the team, as it's a unique exercise. It's a welcome move by techies. We will soon start a pilot project in this regard."

Yuva Bengaluru

Yuva Bengaluru was founded in 2008 by eight techies who wished to empower the youth. Today, it has over 600 members. 'A day in a village' is only the first of a row of projects planned for the next one year. One of their successful initiatives is called 'run your school', started last year. In this project, they adopted and renovated a 78-year-old school.

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