Bucolic settings and guileless village folks are beckoning the diligent students of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar, thanks to the novel initiative of their Board of Governors called Gram Fellowship.
Under the programme the students are expected to spend three to eight weeks either during the winter or summer break in a village of their choice. It could be either an individual or a group of two to three.
The idea behind the initiative was to help students have a feel for the rural India, its culture and realize the concerns of the villagers and thereby seek to bridge the rural-urban divide to an extent.
In essence, it breaks free from the straitjacket of a project as it is an experience centering on empathy. Says Prof. Jaison Manjaly, Dean of student affairs at IIT, Gandhinagar, “Many of the students are rarely exposed to rural life, economy, practices and ethos, despite calls....
