Self-sufficiency has been a concept that was endorsed by none other than the Founding Father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi. He had foreseen the over-reliance on technology and the environmental hazards it might have if overdone. And lately, with the global climate crisis looming over the generation, it has become important now than ever before to practice sustainable methods of living.

Going back to the same thought process, and marrying the concept of rural development with the same, central and state governments are now aiming to bring about development in the rural parts of India attuned to the Gandhian vision of self-sufficiency leading to ‘Village republics’.

Statistics suggest that presently 70% of the population in the nation lives in the rural areas primarily engaged in an agrarian economy with agriculture and allied sector employing a whopping 51% of the total work-force but accounting for only 17% of the country’s GDP.

We still largely are an agrarian economy, and it is about time that governments introduce plans to enhance the agricultural sector of our nation if national development is the agenda. To meet this goal, the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan has been initiated.

Vision and Mission of the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan

Vision of Unnat Bharat Mission:

The Unnat Bharat Mission is inspired by the need to bring about an atomic transformation in rural development processes by leveraging knowledge institutions, which will eventually help build the architecture of an all-inclusive and progressive nation.

Mission of the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan:

The ultimate mission of the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is to eventually enable higher educational institutions to work with the people of rural India in identifying the developmental challenges and evolving certain definitive and appropriate and feasible solutions for accelerating sustainable and self-sufficient growth.

It also aims to fabricate a virtuous cycle between society and an all-inclusive academic system by offering knowledge and practices for emerging professions. It also aims to upgrade the capabilities of the Public and private sectors in greeting the rural developmental needs of the nation with information and zest.

What are the goals of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan?

  1. To build an understanding of the development agenda within institutes of Higher Education and creating institutional capacity and training that would prove to be relevant to national needs, specifically of the rural areas.
  2. Another goal is to re-emphasize the need for fieldwork and interacting with several stake-holders involved in agrarian practices and to design societal objectives as the basis of Higher Education.
  3. To stress rigorous reporting and useful outputs as a core to the development of new professions.
  4. To improve the developmental outcomes as a consequence of this research and to develop new professions so as to sustain and absorb the outcomes resulting from extensive on-field research.
  5. To initiate a dialogue within the communities across science and society and to develop a sense of uniformity when it comes to handling the responsibility of the task at hand.

Summing it up

The Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is therefore India’s attempt at self-sufficiency – a dream Gandhi dreamt for a new and strong India in the years to come.