NEW YORK: Bharathiyar Community Center (BCC) is a a rural development project in India, which owes a lot to the vision of one Indian American - Ram Krishnan of Minnesota.

It promotes a model learning village for water harvesting and sustainable development. It provides a model for replication in villages in all the rainfall-deficient and poverty-ridden dry districts of India. Every 15 seconds a child dies as a result of water deficiency, be it unsafe drinking water, water borne disease, lack of hygiene or sanitation, says a report of World Health Organization.

Therefore a community center is being built as a model to demonstrate how water harvesting can provide potable water and can be used for farming in a very dry climate. This community center concept will benefit 322,680 people of 51 villages in the Vilathikulam region in Southern Tamil Nadu and will be used as a model that can be replicated in other parts of India through the use of water harvesting, agricultural training, and assembly of solar panels to improve living conditions.

The Vilathikulam region is located in the northern half of Tuticorin district. This being in a rain-shadow region, receives just nine days of rain in a year. Therefore, the region is very dry and unable to grow traditional food crops. The region is also infested with thorny bushes called “prosopis juliflora” . The only crops that are grown are peanut and chilli.

The Bharathiya Community Center will provide needed services and offer training to residents of all the 51 villages in the area. To this end the center has leased 13 acres of property, including four acres of cultivable land which is being transformed into a model farm with multiple cropping.

The Bharathiyar Community Center Trust was created in 2007 to construct, operate and maintain the center. The location of the BCC is at the intersection of two roads with public transport buses plying every 30 minutes. This helps people living in the villages within a 10-15 km radius to reach the community center. The center has plans to reimburse a two-way bus fare to all visitors from the surrounding villages.

There are firm plans to construct overnight lodging and kitchen facilities for the visiting farmers. All this will be provided free with the farmers paying in kind by working on the model farm. The output of the model farm will generate revenues for the BCC. Two committed individuals are actively involved in this project. One is Ram Krishnan, an IIT Madras alumni and resident of Minnesota for 40 years. He has been working in the Vilathikulam area since 2004 on water and livelihood projects in the arid area. He spends three to four months in a year in Vilathikulam - usually in April, August and December.While in the US, he is in constant touch with people in the area and the members of the BCC committee.

The second person is a native of Vilathikulam - Dr. K Jothimony. He has a doctorate in chemistry from IIT, Madras, and served in the state owned Oil & Natural Gas Corporation for 18 years. The goal of the project is to provide educational and training support to the villagers in the areas of healthcare, renewable energy (solar and biomass), raising agricultural productivity, and improving water management. The BCC serves an area of India that suffers from water scarcity, unemployment, low knowledge of sustainable agricultural practices, inadequate awareness of water management practices, poverty, and lack of education.

The BCC will teach villagers water management practices such as the use of holding ponds, provision of potable water, sustainable agricultural practices, and health services.

The objectives of BCC are:
1. Serve as a model village;
2. Be self-sufficient in water, food and energy; and
3. Be a training ground for the villagers, for livelihood and other matters

The segments of the BCC - water ponds, agricultural test plots, and food storage concepts - are a proven model which when followed by the villagers will greatly improve their living standards. To ensure that each farmer acquires the skills and is able to introduce the new improved practices with confidence in his or her plot of land, the training focuses on giving the farmer actual hands-on experience working in the model farm. India has around 660 districts. Of this some 200 districts are the most backward with harsh living conditions. They have no access to good drinking water, do not make enough even for one square meal a day.

Men in their prime working age leave their families behind, and move to larger towns and cities, in search of livelihood. This migratory pattern is leaving behind young children, old men, women of all age groups. If community centers of the BCC type are set up all across these 200 districts, they can provide essential services, vocational training and begin to perhaps reverse the process of migration.