This project is the result of Swami Rama's dreamof development for villagers in the Gahrwal region of the Himalayanfoothills. A team of directors for the project has been gathered andhas begun the exciting planning and work of making the dream areality.
Computer Center, Sewing Center,Library
The villagers of Toli, the birth place of SwamiRama, have sold sufficient good land to Swami Hari Hariharananda forthe development of the projects. Last year as a beginning, aComputer Center was built and established in Toli. Eric Ness, anAmerican Computer Science graduate has already graduated a class of26 students in a six month computer course. He has now begun with asecond group and is training a village man to be able to teachclasses as well. A sewing Center has also been established for thewomen of the village. Gaining the skill of sewing and stitchingincreases their value for marriage and allows them to stay in thevillage area rather than go to the cities for sewinginstruction.
With the help of the Rural Development Institute alibrary has been purchased and installed in Toli and a librariantrained and given a small stipend.
Upgraded Water, Sanitation andInfrastructure
From this point on there will be several stages inthe project work. First an upgraded water, sanitation andinfrastructure program will be put into place. Atem Ramsundersingh(a water systems expert from Holland who is in demand around theworld) and four of his graduate students spent a month in Toli lastyear and assessed all aspects of the water, waste, infrastructure,etc and wrote a very exciting and detailed report as to how thesystems could be improved and developed. With the continuing inputof Atem and the help of the Rural Development Institute of theHimalayan Institute Hospital Trust, and input from otherenvironmental experts, this first phase can be undertaken. Allaspects of the water and sanitation project will use alternativefuels (primarily solar and bio-power) and the latest environmentaltechnology that is appropriate to the village ecology will beused.
Herbal and Medicinal Plants Farming and HerbalInstitute
Simultaneously, the Herbal Farming and HerbalInstitute aspect will begin. Herbs and medicinal plants are MotherNature's gift to the human race. The life of human, animal, birds,fish, etc will be endangered if we do not have the diversity ofplants necessary to maintain them. Providing the highest level ofinformation of the multifaceted bio-diversity of herbs and medicinalplants is one of the main goals of the Herbal Institute. Theplanting and fostering of all species of flora of the State ofUtteranchal, will be accomplished. Rare and endangered species willbe acquired and planted. A model of a kitchen garden of herbs,medicinal plants and trees will be grown and developed.
The Herbal Farming and Herbal Institute will alsoimmediately provide work for villagers and income which can be putback into the project. At present most of the men of the village ofToli are forced to go down to the towns and cities to find work. Amajor thrust of the development program in all of its phases is toprovide employment in the area of the village, not just for the men,but also for women. The Rural Development Institute will also beassisting in the project by lending agricultural advice and practicalsupport, but also in working with women to give them a position ofempowerment through gaining knowledge and earning power. Firstplantings can be harvested within six months to a year. Villagerscan be taught to grow certain herbs and medicinal plants on their ownplots of land and sell them to the project. There are many companieswho are looking for pure organically grown herbs and medicinalplants. Villagers and others in the Institute will be taught how togrow, process and sell herbs and medicines. Some villagers can beemployed on the project in these capacities and others will be ableto find good jobs with companies who specialize in herbal medicinesand spices. The Herbal Institute will create and instruct in areassuch as herb cultivation, herb processing, research on value addedproduction, pharmaognosory, pharmaceutics, phyto-chemistry, etc Aseed bank and nursery are an important part of theproject.
Alternative Energy and OrganicGrowing
As in the water and sanitation systems, the herbalfarming will use only the latest methods for energy conservation,watershed management, use of solar energy, biofertilizers,bio-pesticides and recycling of water and waste. Construction ofproposed buildings for all aspects of the Toli village developmentphases will use architectural design which makes use of localconstruction techniques and application of sustainable methods. Thebricks will be fabricated in the area itself to save fuel and avoidpollution.
Another basic assumption of the Herbal Farming andHerbal Institute is that indigenous knowledge cannot be ignored infavor of Western academic university models of education. Academics,policy-makers and development practitioners on an international levelhave been showing more and more interest in indigenous knowledge overthe last two decades. The work of Drs. Upadhyays as Ayurvedicspecialists and the planning of this project carries forward a livingindigenous tradition of Ayurvedic herbal and medicinal knowledgewhich goes back thousands of years.
Polytechnic School
With the water, sanitation and infrastructure inplace and with the on going development and income from the Herbalprojects, the next phase will include the construction of a sizablepolytechnic (vocational school), something Swami Rama specificallyasked Swami Hari to carry out. Within a 15 km radius of Toli, whichincludes 36 villages with a population of about 17,000, there iscurrently no polytechnic. The polytechnic will offer three yeardiplomas in English, Electronics, Mechanics, and ComputerApplications, and Business Management. We will also teach Food,Nutrition and Ayurvedic Cooking and Clothing design andmanufacturing. The addition of a fourth year will eventually bepossible in order to offer full degrees in these subjects. Eveningand weekend classes for a part-time diploma of four years and a sixmonth or one year diploma course will be offered in some of thesubjects. The polytechnic buildings will be built and subjectsphased in as funds allow. The Herbal Institute will also be housedin the polytechnic building. Each subject area will have threeclassrooms and three labs allocated to it. The Herbal Institute willhave at least six rooms allocated to it. Students will also haveclasses in yoga, cultural studies and environmental attitudes.
Because Toli is some distance from the homes ofmany students, two buses will be purchased for transportation. Ahostel for boys and a hostel for girls will eventually be built toallow students who need to live on campus in an ashram setting. Theselection of Toli for development was purposeful even through it ismore remote. Less remote areas are already developed to some extentand the effort is to carry the benefits of the project to those partsof the Garhwal region not yet developed. Also, the pollution andwaste problems that often go hand in hand with development can beavoided in these areas.
Primary Health Clinic
In the last phase, a 10 bed primary health clinicwill be constructed. It will primarily operate as an Ayurvedic andhomeopathic clinic run in conjunction with the Herbal Farming andHerbal Institute using allopathic medicine only in emergency caseswhere it is necessary. It will also be the job of this clinic withthe assistance of the Rural Development Institute to educatevillagers about basic health and population issues. An ambulance willbe acquired to transport serious cases to the Himalayan InstituteHospital. The government has constructed a hospital building in thenext village, but with the recent change in government, it is notknown when or even if the hospital will be equipped and staffed. If,in the future it is up and running then, the clinic can work withthat hospital as well as with the Himalayan InstituteHospital.
A Guest House will be built next to the ComputerCenter to be available for people visiting the project site, staff,etc.
The major people involved in this projectare:
As spiritual guide, Swami Hariharananda, SadhanaMandir, Rishikesh
Mahamandelashwar Swami Veda Bharati, SadhanaMandir, Rishikesh
Drs. Venod and Kushum Upadhayay, Ayurvedic doctorsand herbal specialists, Haridwar
Dr. Krishan Kumar Upreti, graduate GarhwalUniversity Srubagar, Dr. Zoology and specialitst in environmentalprotection and technologies (project manager), Rishikesh
Vijay Dhasmana, director of the HimalayanInstitute Hospital, Jolly Grant, Dehradun
Maithili Rural Development Program of theHimalayan Institute Hospital
Prof. D. K. Dhawan, principal, Mehr ChandPolytechnic, Jalander, Punjab
Dr. Claudia Crawford, Professor of EasternReligions and Environmental Ethics and Fundraiser in the UnitedStates &endash; several methods of fundraising are being pursued bothin the United States and other countries, Minneapolis,Minnesota
Mr. Horst Rechelbacher, patron, Wisconsin,USA
Mr. Atem Ramsundersingh, water systems expert,Amsterdam, Holland
The Syal Foundation, Inc., Minneapolis,Minnesota
Many other financial, legal and expertise advisorsand team support members have been engaged or will be engaged in theproject as it progresses.
All are dedicated to an unusually high degree tocreating a model of village development that can be transferred in amodified manner to other mountain villages, even other countries. Tocreating with the villagers a spiritually viable and environmentallyinspiring model. To assist and serve villagers in the means ofeconomic improvement through herbal farming and other incomegenerating means, the construction of the polytechnic and HerbalInstitute and clinic. To facilitate the use of alternative energysources and environmental technologies. Because of the emphasisbeing placed on environmental attitudes, indigenous relationships tonature, alternative environmentally friendly technologies, it isconceivable that at some point the project can also integrate andEnvironmental Institute of learning based on the models created here. However, the major goal of the Toli Development Project is to assistvillagers in the Garhwal region of the Himalayan foothills inbecoming and remaining self-determining and self-reliant over theshort and long term. It is not just a matter of preserving indigenousknowledge, but of helping indigenous people themselves to come into amodern world in the least compromised way possible.