Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
Inspired by Swami Vivekananda, whose 158th birth anniversary was celebrated on January 12, a group of youths in Seoni district, Madhya Pradesh, 350 kilometres from state capital Bhopal, has set out to discover newer ways to educate children, awaken people to their constitutional rights, and change the destiny of their city.
Vivekananda believed that education, society, religion and politics should be governed with consciousness. And, Agrini (www.agrini.org), with more than 100 members, strives to do just that. The team includes engineer Gaurav Jaiswal and architect-cum-lawyer Navendu, affectionately called Bhaiyaa (brother), engineers Virendra Baghel and Anand Mishra, Vijay Baghel, educationist Aarushi Mittal, farmer leader Shivam Baghel, journalist Satish Rai and ASHA workers Ranjana Didi, Hanskala Didi and Basant Baghel.
The main occupation of the people of Seoni, which boasts more than 1,500 villages, is farming. Farmer leader Baghel shared a recent intervention by Agrini’s Kisan Satyagraha wing, made up of farmers from Seoni and the rest of the State. Last year, during the COVID-19 lockdown, Agrini drew attention to the purchase of maize — Seoni is one of the top maize producers in the state — at a price below MSP through an online satyagraha. In no time, the agitation had spread to half-a-dozen states such as Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
“We had no alternative because the government was not willing to pay heed to the pain of farmers. Take the agricultural laws, for instance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi insists that the procurement system at mandis at MSP will not be stopped. And, agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar says there is no need for crop procurement at MSP,” Baghel said.
The members said the Kisan Satyagraha forum also exposed the discrepancies between the government’s promises and actions. “This forum is always seen standing by the farmers, be it regarding crop compensation, shortage of seeds and urea or locust attack on dal,” Baghel added. The forum has one question — “Why doesn’t our produce have any price when our vote does?”
“We believe in innovation,” says Rishikesh, a group member. “We do not want people to have a herd mentality. We tell them to weigh facts logically and then make an informed decision.”
The group is involved in education, health, agriculture, society and politics in Seoni, and beyond. Tribal-dominated Seoni district is located in the Satpura plateau in Madhya Pradesh, and came into existence in 1956. It has a population of 1.37 million spread over a radius of 8,758 sq km, as per the 2011 census.
Navendu told Gaon Connection that for policy intervention, Agrini runs a campaign called Nagrik Morcha and Badlenge Seoni, so that people are “politically aware and able to work towards achieving their civil rights”. Besides this, it also runs a Citizen Initiative and a Youth Initiative that presides over youth issues and their solutions.
Agrini also runs a school in the buffer zone of Pench Reserve Forest, the flora and fauna of which inspired Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Member Vaibhav Kumar said the group looks at ways to bring about change in education. This includes new teaching methods and innovations teachers could come up with to keep alive students’ interest. “We also encourage experiential education,” Kumar told Gaon Connection.
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