Inspired by humanity of Adivasi Culture, this young boy travels across villages with his bicycle on bare foot!!! 25 years old Shrikrishna Shewale, visited small villages of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra state to understand the life of villagers. All those places are either backward or developing but not up to the mark with developed cities. He has seen a huge gap between the culture of rural and urban areas.
Shrikrishna was born in the Undale village of Satara district of Maharashtra. His father is a school teacher and mother is housewife. When he was kid, he used to take part in sports and gymnastic. He was a mischievous child and always doing things for which his parents refraining him. When he grew up, he came to Pune for further study. He is presently studying M.A. in Sanskrit from Pune University.
Shrikrishna politely says “I was not good in studies, hence decided to pursue my career in arts. Here in Pune, I had an opportunity to join meditation camp. Meditation helps me to calm down and increases patience in my life. I have read some articles on Swami Vivekanand, Baba Amte and other great personalities. I always wanted to understand the Bharat within India.”
Shrikrishna wanted to visit rural adivasi areas to understand the life, culture, behaviour of tribal people. He has been reading in news that rural people do not have infrastructure but still they are spending their life in their own way. He shared an idea with his 2 friends, Adarsh Patil and Vikas Walke. Both friends liked his concept.
They searched the internet about some villages. They found that villages of Vidarbha are not well developed, hence decided to visit those places. They planned to travel these places on bicycle. Shrikrishna being from small village, wanted to feel villager’s life, decided to go bare foot. They were inspired by Humanity of Adivasi culture. Their journey is about the Search of Humanity.
Shrikrishna on his bicycle with bare foot!!!
Shrikrishna told us “As the journey was around 8-10 days, we have taken all necessary items like food, clothes, medicines etc with us. We had taken all information, routes and maps of the villages we were supposed to visit. Anandvan of Vikas Amte, Hemalkasa of Prakash Amte, Shodhgram, Chatgaon of Abhay Bang, Sevagram were the important places in their list.
He recalls that all the villages they visited were not well connected to the cities. Those places were situated in the forest. The houses of the tribal community in the forest are actually huts prepared by bamboos and other material. Many villages did not have electricity. If by chance, any village had electricity, then either there was load shedding or people didn’t use it because they could cannot afford. There were no proper educational institutes at many places. However, they have seen that all these places were clean, pollution free and noise free.
He remembered small observation about one village. Temple, Masjid and Buddha-vihar were besides each other in that place. This was the best example of exhibiting Unity of Religions. Whenever, they used to ask for a common place to stay at any village, people not only invited them in their house but also offered them their own food.
Shrikrishna with his friends Adarsh and Vikas at Somnath Prakalp.
Shrikrishna and his friends have realized that all those villages have lots of problems. They narrated one incident. They saw one middle aged man travelling with his sick daughter to see doctor. Man said it took them for 2 hours to reach to the hospital. They all were shocked that the Basic Needs are also not met, in those villages.
People are uneducated. They don’t have enough jobs. They don’t have schools and hospitals in their villages. They have to travel to other places for these basic requirements.
They met one patient affected by Leprosy. Person said “If you have good health then people respect you otherwise your own family goes away from you” Those were really heart touching words.
Shrikrishna and his friends with Prakash Amte (Centre) at Hemalkasa.
They have visited Anandvan and Hemalkasa run by Amte family, Shodhgram run by Abhay Bang where these great personalities are helping villagers through the social activities. They are putting their efforts to bring those villagers to mainstream world.
Shrikrishna says “People in the villages should get proper education and medical facilities. As a citizen, they have right to avail all basic needs and requirements. There must be proper road which connects villages to the urban cities. They should have pure drinking water, food and sufficient jobs. We would like to connect India through communication by understanding both rural and urban culture.”
Shrikrishna and his friends with Adivasi family of village.
Villages are far behind in terms of development and hence, there should be progressive path forwards to develop such places.There should be proper plans for the upliftment of the villages. Roads and other means of communication should be improved. Villages should be electrified. Villagers should be educated in elementary hygiene and scientific method of cultivation. They should have a hospital and primary health centre for medical aids to the villagers. Shrikrishna and his friends have decided to visit other villages of different parts soon.
Scholarship to Shrikrishna Shewale:
Shrikrushna came into contact with Shivprabha member Mrs. Ruta Kalawar through meditation camp. Ruta appreciated his work and discussed with other team members to help these guys for such a good cause. They decided to gift the Multi geared cycle to Shrikrushna. Cheque of Rs. 15,000 was handed over to Shrikrishna by Shivprabha President Mr. Amol Sainwar.
We wish him a great success for his journey to learn villager’s life.
Prafulla Mukkawar
