An initiative to teach urban youth about rural issues

Second phase of ‘Talash Bharat Ki’ programme has begun

The second phase of the Youth for Swaraj’s ‘Talash Bharat Ki’ programme, which aims to provide urban youth a first-hand experience of rural issues, began on June 3. The programme sees participants staying in rural areas for a period of one week.

While the first phase covered regions in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, the second phase will see participants visit Bihar and Haryana.

“At a time when the nation is politically heated up on the issue of agrarian crisis in rural India, our participants visited Bundelkhand in Madhya Pradesh, Ganganagar in Rajasthan and Parli in Maharashtra,” the Youth for Swaraj said.

‘Grim situation’

“In Ganganagar, the grim situation witnessed by the students was alarming. They witnessed serious flaws in the government’s big claims of development,” it said.

“The need for the programme emerged out of a growing disconnection and lack of mutual understanding and concern between rural and urban parts of our country. The absence of this is understanding is responsible for increasing uncertainties in youth about our roots and nationhood,” the organisation said.

“The initiative is about developing an understanding of those parts of our country which remain neglected in our popular metropolitan culture but continue to form a major part of what we call India. Through a survey conducted by the students, it was revealed that almost 80% of farmers have incurred huge losses this year and due to this a massive emigration is taking place in Bundelkhand,” the organisation said.