Social Initiative

Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is an Ministry of Education initiative to uplift rural India by involving professionals and other higher educational institutions of the country. UBA aims at the indigenous development of self-sufficient and sustainable village clusters in tune with the notion of 'GramSwaraj', as propounded by Mahatma Gandhi.

The village clusters identified by IISER Bhopal (in consultation with the District Collector of Bhopal) are Mubarakpur, Kurana, Barkheda Bondar (space after barkheda), Barkheda Salam, Bakania, KhetlaKhedi, KhaarKhedi, KhajuriSadak. The UBA team intervenes to problems related to water, farming, health, hygiene, waste-sanitation management in these villages and tries to find a scientific solution to it. Following are the activities conducted regularly by the UBA team:

• Conducting a survey/Surveys on village problems and subsequent communication with development authorities
• Making farmers aware of organic farming and providing field support to farmers
• Improvement of rural education standards and promotion of girl education
• Promotion of health awareness and initiatives to train people to handle emergencies and provide first aid as the villages have no primary health center
• Conducting cleanliness drives and counseling the villagers on several issues including no open defecation 
• Meeting the Sarpanch of the villages (to convince them to construct rainwater harvesting pits through community participation in their capacity both in houses and common places accessible to all) to cater to the scarcity of water
• Introducing the village Sarpanch and other representatives about the Right to Information Act  
• Promotion of sports/games in rural areas
• Conducting surveys on family members to understand the problems faced by them in day to day life and trying to find scientific solutions to some of those problems