Twenty years back, in June 1995, newly-wedded couple Sunil and Nirupama Deshpande picked up a remote village, Lavada in Melghat region as their home. “We wanted to live in a place where people needed us,” says Nirupama, a former MHADA employee and MSW from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. The two wanted to work on bamboo which grows in Melghat in abundance. With the help of Vinu Kale, another bamboo enthusiast who introduced them to bamboo craft, Sampoorna Bamboo Kendra was formed on June 11, 1996. […]
Sampoorna Bamboo Kendra undertakes training, research, organization and design development. So far, 5,000 tribal youth have taken training here and 20 other similar centres are operating around the country. The products are marketed through Venu Shilpi Audyogik Co-operative Society. This year the centre has had a turnover of Rs20 lakh. 150 bamboo items are made here, most popular being rakhis and coasters. “We are unable to make furniture as the power supply is meagre and means of transportation don’t exist,” says Deshpande. The couple is also focusing on agriculture and plantations. “Tribals treat it as their wealth and this would provide them means of livelihood,” he adds. […]
The duo has recently taken up a project for building bamboo bathrooms for women. “More than toilets, women need a bathroom as they bathe fully clothed in the open. This leads to improper hygiene and gives rise to diseases of skin and other areas,” says Nirupama. “We have created prefabricated bamboo bathrooms for them. The water from these flows into a kitchen garden,” she adds.
Currently, they are working on an ambitious Gram Gyanpeeth which will have nine faculties where students can learn to work on materials like metal, stone, cloth, leather, clay, bamboo to make artefacts and also acquire agriculture skills.
Source: “A bamboo boon for Melghat’s tribals” by Barkha Mathur, Times of India, 11 June 2015
Address: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/A-bamboo-boon-for-Melghats-tribals/articleshow/47620585.cms
Date Visited: Thu Mar 03 2016 20:28:14 GMT+0100 (CET)
Source: A Compendium of Indian Handicrafts & Handlooms under
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The Gram Gyanpeeth or seat of rural knowledge is bound to be a unique entity when it comes into being a few years from now. Besides its concept, the institution will be known for the spirited effort at community level to preserve and propagate the original Indian way of life and associated philosophy.
Sunil Deshpande, the convenor of Rashtriya Karigar Panchayat (RKP) and Uttar Pradesh journalist Rupesh Pandey, among the key persons behind the effort to establish the Gyanpeeth, say establishment of the institution would incorporate gathering the ‘seeds’ of Indian way of life, studying it and propagating it with a view towards its protection.
The 1,000 villages located along the banks of river Narmada and on either side of the Vindhyachal mountain range have been selected for making a study of the various aspects of original Indian way of life, he added. […]
The gurukuls in bamboo craft and carpentry besides, pottery will start functioning at Lavadha in Maharashtra and Bankhedi and Bastar in Chhattisgarh will start functioning in the first-half of 2013.
The Kala Ashram at Adilabad will function as the nerve centre of the Gyanpeeth as it will produce teachers for the institution.
Source: “Gram Gyanpeeth: teaching Indian way of life” by S. Harpal Singh, The Hindu, 27 March 2012
Address: https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/gram-gyanpeeth-teaching-indian-way-of-life/article3249112.ece
Date Visited: 2 February 2022
[Bold typeface added above for emphasis]
Tribal communities in the central Indian region of Bastar:
Baiga | Bhatra | Dhruva | Gond | Halba | Madia | Maria | Muria
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Date Visited: 10 July 2022
See also
Adivasi Academy & Museum of Adivasi Voice at Tejgadh
Atree.org | Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology & the Environment (posts)
Biodiversity | Hyderabad biodiversity pledge | Nilgiri Biosphere
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