Namo Adarsh Schools for Villages in India

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Mahatma Gandhi had said that India cannot progress in a true sense until its villages progress. The majority of Indians still live in its villages and they are in a sense the soul of the nation. In recent times Prime Minister Narendra Modi has revived this theme and expressed the desire to begin with model villages called Adarsh Grams. For various reasons the scheme has not taken off due to various constraints among them budgetary ones. A way to overcome this is to combine infrastructure that already exists in villages with other needs of a village. One such is the post office that has now been increasingly used for essential banking needs as well as some other government services such as the issue of Adhhar cards. A school is also an essential infrastructure in villages and it too can be provided to give more services to villagers in a way that improves both school and village life.

The services that a school can provide in a village are:

  1. Treated drinking water at a small charge, say Rs 5 for five liter through a slot machine connected to a treatment plant while providing free drinking water for school needs.
  2. A cafeteria connected to a kitchen that prepares the mandated free midday wheel for children but provides meals at subsidized costs to villages between 4 and 7 pm when the school is closed
  3. A library open to school children from 9am to 12 am and to villagers from 4 to 7pm
  4. An internet connected computer center for school children between 9am and 12am for school and between 4pm and 7pm for public again at small charge
  5. A solar electricity plant that provides assured power to school as well as some other essential needs of village such as post office, banks if any and some street lights.

While these services may be subsidized they must not be free to prevent misuse. The charges may be adjusted to prevent any overcrowding too. Subsidized food can be made available in cafeteria if they are supplied free food grain from government storages where it often rots from lack of space along with a curry dish made from seasonal vegetables perhaps available directly from village farmers at much lower costs than available in cities. Such a facility in every village across the country would go a long way in wiping out hunger and malnutrition from the country as also reduce infant mortality rates.

These facilities must be kept under a school teacher in charge who would have special work hours of 9 to 12 in the morning and 4 to 7 in the evenings on five days a week from Monday to Friday. The facilities would need at least one additional employee each preferably from the village perhaps on annual contracts. In order that these additional public functions do not interfere with school routine they need to be set along the front boundary of the school in such a way that the public does not enter the school grounds or premises but accesses them from the outside as shown in the figure. The school on the other hand would have another entrance from inside the school as shown in the figure with this note.

This concept would be useful in villages across developing countires of the world. It may be named Namo Adarsh Schools if the Honorable Prime Minister permits


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