Page 194 - SocialHarmony

198 Social Harmony

under which villages which did not have any quarrels, disputes,
or police involvement in solving such cases would be given
rupees one lakh by the State Government for its development.
One cannot change society by merely complaining that existing
systems are useless. Instead, why don’t we try to bring about
change and implement it to make a difference? This scheme of
the Gujarat Government has proved successful and today we
have thousands of such villages where no dispute has been
unresolved since the last five-ten years. In my opinion, this is
remarkable. Imagine the level of sophistication of a society
where even a small dispute has not been left unresolved! Gujarat
has the strength to show its calibre thus to the world. This is the
strength of the five crores people of the state! This is the power
of our unity!

Literacy Plans
Crores of rupees have been (mis)allocated towards adult

education in the past few years. I deliberately use this word
because officers have been hired and NGOs have been set up
for the sake of adult education in the past. But there is no
documentary evidence to show exactly how many adults
actually received education. Hence, we have initiated the,
‘Sakshardeep Programme’, for education in Gujarat. I suggest
that just as doctors offer their honorary services to hospitals
after they complete their graduation, in the same way teachers
who have passed their P.T.C. or B.Ed. can also serve the society.
As an experiment, we took two villages – Radhanpur and
Santalpur – where the Choudhary community is predominant.
We sent our P.T.C. and B.Ed. students to teach the local villagers
at these places for fifteen days. The Sarpanch arranged for their
food and stay. This 15-day programme, inclusive of two days of
travelling turned out to be immensely successful. We saw several
women above the age of forty as well as elderly people joining
this programme.