Rural Internship

| | | | | | | | | | |

Rural Internship

Webspace of Ashish Kumar

Research Internship

Industrial Internship

Mission Chota Udepur
In May 2003, we had the first of a series of three Internship at course. Like all the others, it was arranged by the institute, and we had to spend a period of one month in the villages of Chota Udepur taluka of Vadodara. We did this under the guidance of Prof. Ganesh Devy and Bhasha Publication & Research Center, Vadodara. Tribal Academy, Tejgadh was the pivot point for the activities, while a Govt. school at Zoz nearby was converted to our camp hostel.

This turned out to be the most unique and exciting experiences. In the stay of over 4 weeks, I visited some 14 villages, had an insight into the Rathvi rural life and shared good time with people there. Gujarat was as hot as it could be and the people were suffering without water, and it tested on us too. But I must say, we enjoyed the times with Keri-Ras besides the Udepur lake and even went ahead for trips to Sukhi Dam, Hafeshwar valley as well.

I did a couple of ambitious projects in the area along with my friends and had everlasting memories. On our way back, we visited the World Heritage site, Jami Masjid of Champaner as well.

Village Development Project

This activity was done in the last phase of our internship, in a group of 6 wherein we were required to spend a day each at 4 villages in Kawant taluka of Vadodara, see and live their way of life, and prepare a demographical report on them.

Our Group was the only one to last the full duration, as we stayed at Singlekuan, Zanzarzol, Kherka, Zelawa and Khatiyawant. Zanzarzol homes had some beautiful Pithora paintings. The villagers were helpful to provide for food and shelter at night. I must say, this was the best duration of the internship.

Virtual Hospital

Rural India is unique when it comes to healthcare services. It believes in the traditional methods of medication, and is adapting fastly to the western medication as well. But, the delay in treatment is what worsens the situation.
With an idea to integrate the two domains of treatment, we started this project in a group of 12 in the Chilarwant panchayat of Chhota Udepur. In the course of the project, we visited 6 villages namely Chilarwant, Khodivalli, Zer, Malaja, Khajuriya and Thanthoda. We also went to the Community Hospital and Taluka Panchayat Office, Chota Udepur and the Primary Health Centers at Tejgadh, Malaja and Zoz.

We interacted with the villagers, badwas, Block level officers and Doctors to figure out the availability of medication to the villagers, and means of bettering it. To conclude, we were able to assess the history and nature of diseases in these villages, and documented a play to create medical and educational awareness among the villagers. We proposed setting up of a web site, a Virtual Hospital, which could be the convergence of the two streams.

A first hand experience of Governmental structure of medication was knowledgable, and on the other sides, pathetic infrastructural situation in villages like Moti Zer were of concern.