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Have we ever imagined the stress and strain women carries on her shoulders to get water from nearby well or tap. One might have heard about water wheel taking rounds for good reason. It come with handle which reduces pain and carries more quantity than any other container. Water wheel is even used for irrigational purpose enabling people to use it more productively. The axle prevents the water wheel from wear and tear. In order to maintain cultural relevance it is given the shape of the same water container used by rural folks.
In order to take the developments forward, Prof Anil Gupta, 59, is one such man who travels from village to village to get the zest of the innovations in rural India. As per the report published in Hindustan Times, Gupta believes that the innovations to alleviate the pain of rural people comes from the rural people themselves and not from corporate labs. He has not only documented the innovations but even rewarded the unsung heroes who tirelessly work for the betterment of the village without expecting any revenue unlike corporate world.
He navigates the village and takes the information to different villages across the country. Some he is working to bring to market, ensuring the innovator gets the credit and the profit that will spur others to create as well. Many ideas are simply documented in his database waiting for some investor to spot their potential. He routinely dispenses tiny grants, either from a government fund or his own web of organizations, to help poor innovators finish their projects.
Amazing innovations by individuals in rural India we have hardly heard of:
Amrit Agrawat:
Prof Gupta cites the example of Amrit Agrawat who made a pulley with a brake which could help the women to pull water buckets from the well so that they could stop in the midway through their labour. He donated one to each village and allowed the villagers to copy it for themselves. He sold 5000 pieces of the pulleys.
Dharamveer Singh Kamboj:
Next in line is Dharamveer Singh Kamboj who made a breakthrough in multipurpose food processor which won him a national award. In 2002, through the Department of Horticulture, Government of Haryana, Dharamveer receded some industrial plants in Rajasthan to study aloe-vera extraction. The machines they were using were so expensive that he decided to come up with something own which could be also be economical. The food processor can process different types of produce and after the patent the product is being distributed to farmers.
Ghanshyam Yadav:
Farmers persistently faced financial constraints to plough dense fields and the tractor company charged 10,000 for 80 kg weights. Here, Ghanshyam Yadav who came into picture in 2004, pumped 200 kg of water into the tires for jus Rs 200. Cheaper, better, longer lasting, more efficient. “This is an amazing experiment,” Gupta said. He gave Yadav a shawl.
Nattubhai Vader:
As per the website National Innovation Fund of the government of India, Nattubhai Vader, a farmer from the state of Gujarat, who watched women and children harvesting an especially troublesome variety of cotton and figured there had to be a better way.
He invented the apparatus that fits over the tractor.
He sank more than Rs. 20,000 into the harvester before his wife threatened to divorce him if he didn’t save the family’s remaining money for their kids’ education. A few years later, Gupta found Vader, gave him the funding to restart and now plans to bring in a team of engineering students to refine it.
The number of unsung heroes goes on and will linger for a longer period of time. We salute the efforts taken by the individuals and expect the government to ponder over it and help them to take the innovations forward.
