HARISAL: :India’s first Digital smart village ll Melghat ll Maharashtra

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• published: 08 Feb 2016
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India’s first Digital village: On the way to Melghat a medium sized village having a bunch of houses, fading green mark saying ‘Harisal’, and Bank of Maharashtra board is almost nowhere in the maps. This Harisl is a small village of 406 families and populated by 2241 residents and is going to transform into ‘Smart Village’ of India. Till now, this village was referred as‘Adivasi Village. There are 4 schools, 3 anganwadis, 1 PHC and 1 bank. The literacy rate is 71%. There are 3 self-help groups . Most of the community living here have smart phones and TV but the only problem was electricity that shed 6 hours in the night and 8 hours in a day and also there was no water supply which made it even worse for the people there to live. People here also face severe minor but tough to handle troubles as there is no place to charge the phone, no place for the communications to the outer skirts of the city for traveling as Buses don’t go to Harisal consistently. Farmers feel hurdles in solving their major issues as they can’t reach to the proper authorities for the exigent queries. Harisal people have no market facility and majority of the families have a monthly income of less than 2900 INR .But it will be changing its dimensions and environment as per the schedule of Maharashtra Govt. and Microsoft as decided on 14th September, 2015 when Prashant Shukla (Microsoft India Head), Kiran Gitte (District Collector) and Kaustubh Dhawase (CMO’s IT) visited the village . They have finalized to convert this village into a digital village. Let’s brief about why Harisal was chosen for the transformation and what changes will soon be made? Harisal, with strange demographics and malnutrition, is the unhealthy capital of Maharashtra to suffer from other natural resources and plethora of issues. The village was selected by the chief minister because it is the most inaccessible part of the state where there is a crying need for such facilities.Thus, CM decided to brought about major changes to this village. India’s first Digital village is going to have the modification in the following ways:  Sustainable Village Economy  Banking System with 100% conformity to PM Jan Dhan Yojana  Socio-Economic Growth will be measured along with GDP  Empowering village solving malnutrition problems. This smart village will be equipped with: 1.Health cards, 2.A Wi-Fi zone, 3.Mobile Connectivity, 4.Cashless Markets & 5. Telemedicine, etc Fadnavis in presence of Satya Nadella said: Microsoft have successfully mapped our home using Global Positioning System and farmers now will be capable to ask their queries online as we will now be the part of the Internet Community. Genetic Health Issues, malnutrition, and lifestyle of the villagers ought to be changed to make it healthier and connected with the mainstream. Nikesh from Microsoft said that basic facilities like health, education, employment, agriculture, electricity would be provided to every villager while the whole village would go wi-fi. Nikesh from Microsoft presented the change Microsoft brought about in Kenya and said that if the hidden talent of the ruralites is exposed to the world through internet, it will bring about a positive change in their lives. He said that 60% population lived in rural parts and it needed to be equipped with technology. SDO Pravin Thakare said that the government has plans to provide all facilities online to the digital village Harisal. He said that all departments have been working in that direction to achieve the goal. It is setting up a skill development centre with the help of self-help groups to generate employment in the village where most people farm. Guardian minister Pravin Pote said that it is their endeavour to make every city and village smart and digital by linking all schemes with technology. Guiding a workshop organized at Bachat Bhavan, Pote called for using solar energy to tide over the perennial absence of electricity in Melghat village. MP Anand Adsul appreciated the launch of telemedicine facility at Harisal and e-learning projects at some places. District collector Kiran Gitte underlined the need of connectivity to make Harisal a digital village by May next. He said that BSNL has laid optical fibre up to Harisal for internet services and very soon the village would go wi-fi. He said that the gram panchayat would be made wi-fi using solar power while a 132KV line would be laid from Nepanagar in Madhya Pradesh to power the village by June next. He said that all the 406 families would be given solar pumps. In the absence of doctors, hospitals and prevalent malnutrition, infant mortality and mother mortality, good health facilities would be provided using telemedicine facility. He said that superspecialty hospital at Amravati would be connected to Harisal. He said that anganwadi workers, Asha and agriculture employees would also be trained.