About Unnat Bhārat Abhiyān (UBA)

As foreseen by Gandhi Ji in his seminal work, ‘Hind Swaraj’, the western developmental paradigm, based on centralised technologies and urbanisation, has given rise to serious problems like increasing inequity (leading to crime and violence), and climate change due to rapid ecological degradation. To ameliorate these problems, it is necessary to promote the development of rural areas in tune with the Gandhian vision of self-sufficient ‘village republics’, based on local resources and using decentralised, eco-friendly technologies so that the basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, sanitation, health care, energy, livelihood, transportation, and education are locally met. This should be the vision of the holistic development of villages. Presently, 70% of the population in India lives in rural areas engaged in an agrarian economy with agriculture and allied sector employing 51% of the total workforce but accounting for only 17% of the country’s GDP. There are huge developmental disconnects between the rural and urban sectors, such as inequity in health, education, incomes and basic amenities, as well as employment opportunities - all causing great discontent and large-scale migration to urban areas. The imperatives of sustainable development, which are being felt more and more acutely all over the world, also demand eco-friendly development of the villages and creation of appropriate employment opportunities locally. Increasing urbanisation is neither sustainable nor desirable. So far, our professional higher education institutions have largely been oriented to cater to the mainstream industrial sector and, barring a few exceptions, have hardly contributed directly to the development of the rural sector. Unnat Bhārat Abhiyān (UBA) is a much-needed and highly challenging initiative in this direction.