Akroda village in Himmatnagar district has 1,166 cattle that give villagers a monthly income of around Rs.2 lakh. But these cattle are conspicuous by their absence from the village's streets and the streets are clean and not littered with cow dung. Moreover, women do not have to spend 6-7 hours each day tending to cows and buffaloes tethered to posts outside each house. Akroda has reached this idyllic state because of its Animal Hostel, a pilot project said to be close to PM Narendra Modi's heart.
In 2011, when he was still Gujarat CM, Modi had launched the idea of animal hostels in villages as part of the Nirmal Gujarat campaign. The idea was that such hostels will keep the villages clean and also serve as a place where cattle of the entire village could be looked after well. Their dung could be collected and used to generate biogas as well as vermicompost. The vermicompost could then be sold to raise funds for village welfare. The Gujarat government's document on the project describes the animal hostel as a pet project of Modi.
Now with the Union Budget set to announce the Mahatma Gandhi Swachchta Mission for the whole country from the beginning of 2015, the animal hostel project is likely to be introduced in many villages as a pilot project. At animal hostels, the cattle are tethered in rows in clean surroundings. Villagers come to milk them while the task of taking care of the animals and giving them fodder and medication is handled by a cooperative of villagers.
Union additional secretary (rural development) LC Goyal, who recently visited the model village Punsari, also visited the animal hostel at Akroda. Goyal spoke to villagers about the benefits of having an animal hostel. He said he had been asked to study the project and report to the PMO on whether it could be replicated in other villages. Village cooperative head Dahyabhai Patel, said , “In three years, the number of cattle in Akroda has jumped from 600 to 1,166. Many villagers who had two buffaloes now have six as it is easier to care for cattle in the animal hostel,“ said Patel.
In 2011, when he was still Gujarat CM, Modi had launched the idea of animal hostels in villages as part of the Nirmal Gujarat campaign. The idea was that such hostels will keep the villages clean and also serve as a place where cattle of the entire village could be looked after well. Their dung could be collected and used to generate biogas as well as vermicompost. The vermicompost could then be sold to raise funds for village welfare. The Gujarat government's document on the project describes the animal hostel as a pet project of Modi.
Now with the Union Budget set to announce the Mahatma Gandhi Swachchta Mission for the whole country from the beginning of 2015, the animal hostel project is likely to be introduced in many villages as a pilot project. At animal hostels, the cattle are tethered in rows in clean surroundings. Villagers come to milk them while the task of taking care of the animals and giving them fodder and medication is handled by a cooperative of villagers.
Union additional secretary (rural development) LC Goyal, who recently visited the model village Punsari, also visited the animal hostel at Akroda. Goyal spoke to villagers about the benefits of having an animal hostel. He said he had been asked to study the project and report to the PMO on whether it could be replicated in other villages. Village cooperative head Dahyabhai Patel, said , “In three years, the number of cattle in Akroda has jumped from 600 to 1,166. Many villagers who had two buffaloes now have six as it is easier to care for cattle in the animal hostel,“ said Patel.
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