A remote village in Assam along the Indo-Bhutan
border has become the first smart village in northeast
India. Barsimaluguri in Baksa district has become a model ‘smart
village’ after achieving 100% toilets, solar power, and pure drinking water. Here
are five things you need to know about the village. The project was led
by villagers Dinesh Bhuyan and Dipu Choudhury.
1. The initiative was
started by the Nanda Talukdar Foundation
“There are more than 20,000 villages in Assam with numerous
government schemes being implemented, but none has been transformed into a
smart village. We decided to concentrate on one village and turn it into a
model village, independent of government schemes,” NTF Secretary Mrinal
Talukdar told The Times of India.
“We have worked along four main verticals – alternative
energy, drinking water, sanitation and skill development and also initiated
several other intervention works ranging from development of educational
facilities, playgrounds, health and legal camps along with the establishment of
a yarn bank,” says Mrinal. Mrinal
currently heads NGO Nanda Talukdar Foundation (NTF).
The foundation roped in Anirudh Goswami,
working in Delhi, and Surajit Dutta, based in Bengaluru, for a project to turn
backward Barsimaluguri into a modern village full of facilities. Anirudh
provided technical and organisational support to the NTF, which managed to
convince a leading financial PSU to fund the initiative, while Surajit served
as the project leader.
The NTF project was shortlisted by Himachal
Pradesh-based consultancy HIMCON, which in turn roped in donor India
Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL) to underwrite it.
2. The model village working committee first
set up water purification plants in the village
Now, this is the first
village to have a reverse osmosis plant in the region. After the water
treatment plant was set up, the next on the list was construction of toilets.
As many as 100 toilets were constructed and then the houses in the village were
solar electrified. Solar home kits – consisting of a battery, solar
panel, transformer, three LED lights and one fan – were give to 100
households. Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Limited helped provide
technical assistance in setting up these panels.
3. The project was sponsored by India
Infrastructure Finance Corporation Limited
4. Households got toilets and access to solar
power
5. The village has a yarn bank now
The yarn bank that was set
up in the village is being managed by the village women committee. ‘Health
is wealth’ and several other checkup camps have been conducted in the village.
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