It was in 1999 that Gurmit Singh Palahi first dropped in at my office in Jalandhar, accompanied by Prof J S Gandam. Prof Gandam, a very kind soul, was a college teacher and doubled up as our stringer in Phagwara. I was then working with The Press Trust of India. Palahi had been in news after it became India’s first village to have an internet connection. Gurmit had a simple request, and had asked Prof Gandam to accompany him so that I pay due attention. “We have joined our village with the entire world through internet,” he said. “Yes, I know,” I said. “Now can you please help us in joining it with Phagwara?” he was serious. Phagwara is three km from Palahi. “For years, we have been crying for a Palahi-Phagwara road but no one’s listening,” he said, humility in his tone. Next day, I landed in Palahi.

I was mesmerized (and have always been every time I go there). I wrote about it very strongly, and later when the work on the road started, Gurmit called me up to say thanks. Well, if anyone owes thanks, it’s me. Palahi has taught me the power of an aware community. Here is a tribute dated 2004.

Palahi – It Takes A Village And Its Stories To Prove A Point

S P Singh

Palahi (Kapurthala):

Try conjuring up the image of a well-to-do village in Punjab. Here is helping you  – Factor-in a 1500-seat capacity auditorium, string of schools built with villagers' own money, a swimming pool (oh please bear with us), every villager with an e-mail ID, rainwater management, two well-stocked libraries, alternative energy almost a norm…we would’ve gone on.

It takes this village, and its stories, to make a point in Punjab, and senior bureaucrats often utter the magic name – Palahi. Nestled in cash-rich Doaba heartland, just three kms from Phagwara, Palahi's description has often tempted people to take a detour from NH1 and no one has ever gone back without being mesmerised.

Now, with the new Phagwara bye pass, you won’t even have to take a detour. Palahi is now bang on NH1 itself.

Each of the nearly 3,800 villagers has access to free internet and e-mail; the villagers have built, with the money they collected, an acoustic feature-filled auditorium with a seating capacity of 1500, a Rs 20 lakh school building, a Rs 30 lakh community hall, a Rs 5 lakh mosque for the sole Muslim family in the village, and now, a swimming pool!

You might also chance upon a computer class in progress where British Council Division carries out the exams and diplomas are recognised by the Cambridge.

"But what gives me real pride is the fact that ours will soon be the first village in India to have an underground sewerage system," says a beaming Gurmit Palahi, principal of Community Polytechnic Institute in Palahi, for whom it is a dream come true.

While most activities are funded by the constant dollar-pound flow from Palahi's migrant sons settled across the Western hemisphere, what is unique to this village is the skilled, and rather thrifty, management of these funds.

With transparency and art of weaving the entire community into development ventures as the sub-text, village seniors have set benchmarks which are the stuff of dreams when it comes to rural development strategies.

And to keep its NRI sons posted about the venures, there is a regular newsletter e-mailed to them and a website is underway, all maintained by the village polytechnic.

The dictum is “do-it-yourself, but keep an eye out for any grants that the government can hand out.” For decades, Palahi villagers realised the gravity of the problem posed by lack of sewage drainage, but babus threw up their hands. “There simply isn't any scheme for this. No village in India  has an underground sewerage,” they were told.

A determined Jagat Singh Palahi, a known philanthropist industrialist with many friends abroad, vowed to take upon the gigantic task, went abroad, collected Rs 36 lakh and work is now on to lay the pipes. “We need half-a-crore but more money will flow-in soon, and we will have an underground sewerage for sure,” said Gurmit Palahi.

More than what Palahi has, it is the story of how it achieved it which is more interesting.

In 1983, a National Rural Development Society was registered by villagers, just a year before the Community Polytechnic started. To take care of an Anglo-Vernacular school, set up with NRI money in 1917-18, the villagers set up a Guru Hargobind Educational Council, named after the sixth Sikh guru who is believed to have visited this village in 16th century.

The synergy between the Polytechnic Institute, the panchayat, the National Rural Development Society and each individual villager is like an organic live wire connection.

Take a very small example. While village ponds are fast disappearing in Punjab, the panchayat decided that a pond is a must and should be used for water harvesting. (Environment conservation is high on agenda among villagers anyway, and many talk as if they have just returned from an Earth Summit.)

So, rain water is harvested, and in summer, drained out water from near-by gurdwara's pool is diverted to this pond. Into this, fish seed has been introduced, and a contract for a few thousand rupees has been negotiated with a private party. Presto, you have a regular income, a preserved pond, good use of drained out water from pool, and environment conservation.

Now, street lights are to come up around this pond, soft music will play during the morning and evening hours and the place will be targeting the regular walkers.

Encouraging men to visit the village library -- the stocks would impress you -- posed a new problem as the women were less interested. To keep them busy, and also near their menfolk, a ladies-special gym was opened adjacent to the library but within a common premises. Now, many of the fairer sex troop into the library too. Since children also started dropping in with their moms, the library was quick to add more children titles.

Palahi is these days in a different kind of fix. Too many villages want to be adopted by it, and it just can't decide from the many options available. It has shortlisted 20 for adoption.

One would think opinion leaders in this village would be a happy lot, but Gurmit Palahi, a prime moving force, is a rather worried man. “Can't you see that 50-60 girls from the village haven't gone to the college or have dropped out in the last few years. On top of that, we have identified some 10-12 youth who are addicted to drugs. These things require long-term solutions. I am worried because their drift towards drugs is a rejection of the option to play in the stadium. We must think in new terms about the youth,” he said.

As you drive out of Palahi, you notice a huge supermart departmental store – “This is the only one in any Punjab village,” says the owner – and three beauty parlours. A new culture is gradually creeping in, Palahi's salwar-kameez culture is giving way to jeans-clad lasses, and soon Gurmit's band will have to think anew, but there is no doubt that they will keep pace.

2004

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