Yatra Gram Vikas Ki - Day 2

Day two of the Orissa trail started with a tour of the Gram Vikas Campus. Established in 80’s, the evolution of the campus from a small office to a knowledge hub, speaks of the commitment of the organisation towards rural development. With its holistic approach to integrated rural development, Gram Vikas demonstrates the right balance between technical and social innovations.

The campus exhibits low carbon and low cost building technologies such as Filler slabs, Composite mud cement mortar walling and Ferro-cement panels. Some of the technologies were practically demonstrated to the Lok Awaas Yatris. Out of the many things that the campus show-cased, eco-bricks made using VSBK technology and compressed bamboo mat ply boards were the highlights.

Moving beyond alternative technology, the participants witnessed the MANTRA approach of Gram Vikas in some tribal villages of Ganjam district. The villages visited were Kanhaiput, Tamand, Sindurpur where water and sanitation, infrastructure, low carbon housing, health, livelihood creation, education programmes were implemented under the approach.

The tour offered new ideas and stimulated the yatris to think ahead and take the learnings to their villages.