Mangalore: Rural Exposure – AIMIT Students’ Deliver Talk

Media Release

Mangalore, Apr 17: Vinod M and Ramya Uchil, the students of first year MBA, AIMIT, St Aloysius College, Mangalore gave a talk at the International Institute of Public Policy (IIPP) conference hall on Rural exposure programme held in January 2010 to the members of  IIPP here, recently.
 
Anita Cordeiro, secretary, IIPP gave a short introductory statement and welcomed the gathering. Fr Denzil Lobo SJ, director, AIMIT, lead the group in prayer and especially prayed for Max Rasquinha, the president, sponsor and mentor of IIPP. He also prayed for the members and the students who were giving the presentation.

 
Anita welcomed the guests, the IIPP members and introduced Nandagopal and his wife, Sachitha as the new members of the IIPP. Nandagopal gave a brief outline about his dream project the CIL, The Centre for Integrated Learning.

As part of the presentation, Vinod M spoke on the SHG and Bank Linage and Ramya spoke on the occupations, the problems and the recommendations, about the self-help groups, the meaning, the benefits, how they function, including their administrative structure, the qualifications, the benefits and the disadvantages. In short, it was an in depth study of SHGs. The second part dealt more with the occupations of the people - farming, animal husbandry and the poor economic status.

The students put forth their feelings on how hard these people work, yet how little they gain. They put forth their experience at the village on the Market day, the way trade is carried on, the transport system, the daily challenges of drinking water, household chores, the exploitation by the landlords and compared it with the life the people live in the urban areas and yet complain of not having enough.

The recommendations put forth by the students were Growing of Gherkins, Barley, cultivation of cotton and contract farming and retail sector. New concepts like "Contravt farming, "Micro finance" and "SHG" were explained well.

If the rural life of four days has inspired these youngsters to take up service and help the villages, the presentation has been a motivation for those who attended the programme to think of our villages in a positive light. 

Samina Nayak, Malini Hebbar, Bharathi Shevgoor, Urmila Shetty, Anita Cordeiro, Sujith S, P S Nayak, Melissa D'Souza, Sharlet D’Mello, Lekha Saraswathi, Aerel Moras, Shalom Aarons, Nikitha Noronha, Shivaraj, Delia D'Souza and Walter Cordeiro were present.