Why SETU?
The distance between the urban youth and rural India seems large and ever increasing.
India is 1.3 billion people strong in 2015. This figure is estimated to grow to 1.7 billion people in 2050, when India will take over the mantle of world's most populous country. At the same time, India is also resoundingly a young country. Our last census (2011) tells us that over 50% of our population is below 25 years of age. By 2020, the median age of an Indian is expected to be 29. In other words, India stands on a goldmine, with potential to reap demographic dividend unlike any other country in past and present.
But a dichotomy emerges in our country. The urban-rural divide encapsulates the multifaceted differences that broadly leaves us with 2 Indias. This division allows for 2 bubbles, often with no connect and contact with each other. However, an important question arises from this sharp. Can we afford this segmentation?
Though a sense of isolation persists, urban and rural lives are intimately intertwined, economically, socially, politically and environmentally. Over 70% Indians live in rural areas with different degrees of barriers hindering their development. Though condominiums and ubiquitous ritzy shopping malls define urban landscape, vast majority in the country is living as per traditions and customs handed over through multiple generations, unaware of solutions that new age technologies enable.
Despite being said nearly 100 years ago, the words of Father of our Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, still ring true, "The soul of real India lives in its villages." Latest UN demographic surveys and reports indicate that Gandhiji's truism will stand test of time for another 50 years.
Another maxim of truth is that in India, urban youth will avail the best of educational facilities. They stand a greater chance to become transformational leaders of tomorrow. Majority of our future educators, doctors, civil servants, entrepreneurs, social scientists and other enablers are currently living in cities.
However, there exists a distance, not just geographically. There is also a psychological distance. It feels as if the urban and rural youth are living in silos. This disconnect leaves our urban youth oblivious to the rural realities of our country.
What is SETU?
SETU is a bridge to connect the urban youth with rural India.
Our Vision
To make an India without the urban-rural gap by providing a holistic learning process of primary first hand experience to complement and supplement the theoretical knowledge of the urban youth.
Our Mission
To broaden the educational horizon of the urban youth and eliminate the stereotypical image of a village that perhaps conjures up in the mind of the privileged urban school going child.
Our Aim
To inculcate the rural realities, complexities and practicalities among the urban youth, often missing from our classroom education.
Our Objective
To instill a sense of informed compassion among the urban youth about the development and growth of rural India.
What SETU Does?
SETU helps bridge the gap between urban youth and rural India and brings them closer.
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Endogenous Tourism
Urban youth finds itself disconnected from rural India. The village and its culture seems a distant reality, only read about in books and newspapers and seen on television. SETU bridges the geographical distance between urban youth and rural India. SETU provides urban youth with first-hand exposure to the ground realities of India that resides in villages. Participants gain primary knowledge about facets of village life, like agriculture, arts and crafts, rural healthcare and education and many more.
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Experiential Learning
Urban youth discovers rural India for the first time as part of his or her syllabus. However, true understanding of the ways and processes of village culture, often remains lacking. SETU reduces the learning gap that exists between bookish learning of the urban youth and ground realities. SETU helps impart learning beyond books with emphasis on solutions to practicalities of rural India. The crucial lacuna between reading and experiencing will be filled with firsthand primary insights into the rural settings.
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Cultural Sensitization and Community Bonding
Urban youth mostly imagines the village and its residents as different and backward. This isolation often leads to a sense of oblivion in urban youth about their rural counterparts. SETU initiates one-on-one conversations between urban youth and rural residents to help bridge emotional disconnect that exists between the two. SETU helps participants engage in a free flowing interaction with locals. The participants get enriched educationally, learning the local issues, ways, means, traditions and methods.
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Idea Exchange
SETU helps dispel misconceptions about rural India among the urban youth. With centuries of unbroken civilisation, Indian villages provide a unique opportunity to learn traditional methods and processes. These methods are often cost effective and environmentally friendly. In times of unbridled urbanisation, these ideas are increasingly becoming a necessity for the urban youth to effectively ideate solutions to new challenges.
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SETU CONNECT
SETU aims to act as a link between urban youth and rural India. Our objective is to educate the urban youth about the various facets of village life and introduce a different perspective on their customs and traditions. Our emphasis is on the youth gaining primary experience and firsthand learning through actual knowledge from intermingling and interaction between the two Indias.
However, there is a profound understanding that education is a continuous process. Only through constant contact, learning can be ensured to be inculcated. Only with a personalised interconnection, an empathetic relationship can be established. With this is mind, our app SETU CONNECT aspires to provide for the urban youth to remain in touch with the village inhabitants and remain connected.
SETU CONNECT is a platform for the urban youth to gain all insightful, up to date information about the village(s) they visited. This information will contain all important aspects of the village's life. The urban youth will remain engaged with their learning to ensure that their broadened horizon not narrow after they resume urban life.
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SETU PAL
SETU PAL provides for continuation of the relationship that forms between the urban youth and villagers after the visit gets over through SETU CONNECT app. It digitally connects the participants with the rural residents across various social media platforms also. These newly formed connections are strengthened when conversations flow as the participants also become Facebook friends, Twitter followers, etc. These two-way conversations will provide for a continuous exchange of information between the urban youth and rural resident on the lines of letter exchange. This dialogue ensures that the personal bond formed between the two sustains far beyond the few days spent together in the village.
Outcomes
An everlasting connection. A sense of belonging.
SETU provides a holistic learning experience to the urban youth. The visit to the village enables a comprehensive understanding of the various facets of rural life.
For the urban student, SETU ensures a broad based understanding of different aspects of rural life. This learning envelopes the processes that sustain rural livelihoods and the problems that hinder the development of rural India. SETU tries to showcase easy to implement ideas and solutions that can be replicated with indigenous customisations. These learnings about rural India aim to act as practical, complementary element to the classroom education. Emotionally, the trip shall aim to enhance the feeling of compassion and ignite the sense of responsibility among the urban youth towards their rural counterparts.
For the employed urban youth, SETU provides a platform to in-depth understanding of rural. The youth gains an invaluable opportunity to experience the rural markets first hand. The insights gained through this primary knowledge open the doors for a more marketable product, especially made as per intricacies of rural India. For the employer, SETU acts as a platform to inculcate a closer bond between the employees. SETU visits includeconducting team-building exercises with many tasks and activities aimed to broaden the perspective of participants with emphasis on motivation and character building.
The learnings will also be tailor made based on the level of education of the participant. As a youth progresses in his life, in school, college or as employed, he or she can avail trips at different levels.
The broader objective of SETU includes enabling the urban youth to build a personal, emotive connection with the village they visit. SETU envisions the compassion evoked for the village to translate into a sense of belonging to the village. These roots, once deepened, will ensure a lasting imprint on both the urban youth and inhabitants of the village(s). Hopefully, one day, one of our participants brings along his or her children to the SETU village(s) and show them around their village.
SETU
Sustainable Endogenous Tourism Unison is an endeavour to bridge the disconnect that lingers between the urban youth and rural India.