E-Paper
‘Happy, digital village’ waging musical war against corona
A rather queer makeshift barrier, made up of some old wooden logs and worn out plastic contraptions, announces that the entry of outsiders to the village is banned.
A rather queer makeshift barrier, made up of some old wooden logs and worn out plastic contraptions, announces that the entry of outsiders to the village is banned.
Some youths using ‘gamchas’ (multi-purpose cloth wrap-around) as their face masks keep an eye on all arrivals at the barrier from a distance.
This is the scene at the entry point of Latifpur, about 40 km from Lucknow and part of the ‘Maal-Malihabad’ famous mango belt.
This village, with a population of around 2,000 people, had over the last couple of years also taken to digitisation in a big way, especially under its young woman pradhan Shweta Singh, who holds a master of computer applications (MCA) degree.
But where is she? It didn’t take long to locate her, though. That’s because following the sound of music that emerged from the centre of the village, we reached her when she was busy leading a music party, playing cymbals, to create awareness on novel coronavirus.
The lyrics of the song, penned by the music party, were self explanatory: “...agar corona se bachna, bachaana hai, to ghar ke baher nahi aana hai, gamcha se mooh dhak ke hi bahar aana hai ... (to save oneself and others from corona stay indoors and wrap a ‘gamcha’ on your face while going out ..).”
A ‘dhol’ player was also part of the musical group that clearly appeared to be drawing a number of villagers towards it.
“See, music is hugely popular in villages. So we thought of creating awareness through music and as you can see it seems to be working, though we intend to improve on the lyrics,” says Shweta.
She is aware of the return of migrant labourers to their villages from across the country.
“We are in touch with all of them who have gone out for work. Seven of those who had returned to the village were quarantined for 14 days at a special isolation facility we have set up here,” she said.
“Coronavirus has delayed our plans for the village. We have prepared a Rs 420 million (Rs 42 crore) five-year plan for the village and our village panchayat works on both long, mid and short term goals,” she said.
“In many ways we are self sufficient. We are growing vegetables and the rural belt has enough availability of fruits, too. Our village is geared up to deal with the lockdown, even if it were to be extended,” said a village elder.
“We had gone digital long back. There is internet connectivity, we have a whatsapp group which helps keep us posted about the requirements of the villagers.”
We have also been going around telling the masses why it was necessary to frequently wash hands with soap,” the village head said.
“We like to call ourselves – a happy, digital village,” she said. A village projector is also used to screen movies and other important documentaries and messages.
The village has also inked a pact with Japan for a mango-honey project and can also offer, in normal times, a camel ride to people around the village. A ‘camel safari’ if you like to call it so!
BEATING THE CORONA SCARE ‘DIGITALLY’
Functional village whatsapp group for two-way information.
The village has its own website and a mobile app – digitallatifpur – to disseminate information to villagers
The gram panchayat is also running a common service centre (CSC) which helps villagers keep connected
Doorstep banking facility which helps provide banking services right at the doorstep. A banking correspondent is posted there to take care of the banking needs. In these times it’s specially useful as money for various government schemes like Ujjwala, MNREGA, Jan Dhan account money, Kisan Samman Nidhi is being sent directly to their accounts Doorstep banking is helping the village guard against overcrowding in banks
Community kitchen is also operational
Home delivery of essentials is being ensured by two locals
Solar systems available that guard against power crisis
Quarantine facility
