of how villages lost their self-organising capacity after
colonialism.
of how the constitutional amendment on panchayati raj (local
self-governance) shows a new way towards realising self-reliance
and self-sufficiency.
of how Kuthambakkam is an inspiration to about 400 other village
leaders in TN.
About the Speaker
A dalit villager and was a scientist at CSIR. In 1994, he left his
job, turned Gandhian, was elected as the Panchayat President and has
been behind this transformation. Elango has won places on many
national committees on rural development, was recently awarded "Ashoka
Fellowship" and has been invited by the UK and USA government to study
local governance.
For more information about Elango's work, Click Here
About Kuthambakkam
A village in Tamil Nadu (India), with a population of 5000. A few
years ago, the village was fraught with poverty, inflicted with
violence against lower castes (dalit) and women, had 35% of its
population involved in illicit liquor brewing and lacked
infrastructure. Today, the village is peaceful, has good basic
infrastructure in place, and the villagers are now busy building a
environment-friendly local economy based on a cooperative model,
producing their basic necessities (like food and clothing) within
their own village.
About AID
Association for India's Development
(AID) is a 501 (3)-(c) non-profit, charitable, volunteer organization that
supports a wide variety of social service and development projects addressing
such problems as literacy, health care, rural credit, vocational training,
women's empowerment and children's welfare.Visit: http://www.aidsfbay.org
for more information about the AID chapter in the Bay Area or go to
http://www.aidindia.org for AID main
website. All contributions to AID are tax-deductible.
