Sarvodaya Movement
It was a Gandhian concept and evoked great enthusiasm in Bombay since 1948-49. Themain features were simplicity, non-violence, sanctity of labour and reconstruction of humanvalues. It aimed in raising the standard of living, scientific development of agriculture,promotion of cottage industries, spread of literacy, medical and health facilities and thedevelopment of village panchayats.
Gurgaon Project (1920)
Towards the end of 1920 F.L.Brayne, an Englishman, was posted as DeputyCommissioner of Gurgaon district. After his assumption of the charge he studied the area by
touring and observed that the people were extremely poor, dirty and unhealthy, with no
conscious desire for any better because they had no idea that anything better was possible. After
seven years of study he developed a scheme called "The Gurgaon scheme" with the following
objectives:
- to jerk the villagers out of their old groove and convince them that improvement is possible;
- he must be laughed out of his economic and unhealthy customs and taught better ways of
living and farming.
He took the whole district as the field of operation and approached the area with every
form of propaganda and publicity.
Under his programme village guides were posted in each village, who acted as the
channel to pass on the information to villagers. The programme introduced improved seeds,
implements, methods of cultivation, etc. The activities introduced by Brayne were:
1. A school of rural economy to train the village guides in 1925.
2. A domestic school of economy to train groups of women under women and children welfare
work in 1926.
3. Health association, which ran five health centres in the district.
4. A women's Institute at Gurgaon to manage the ladies' garden in Gurgaon.
As the village guides were not technical men, only very little could be achieved.
