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Bharathanjali – A self-reliant village near Kozhikode (Calicut)

Bharathanjali is the brain child of Mr. K.V.Krishnan, an unassuming and dedicated villager from Kerala, the south west coast of India, with an inspiring vision to improve the quality of life of the poor and down-trodden inhabitants of a small rural area in North Kerala. Mr Krishnan (fondly called Krishnettan by the villagers) had the dream of organizing a self-reliant village named ‘Bharathanjali’.

Being a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, Krishnettan has organized the whole project along the lines suggested by the father of our nation, giving emphasis to rural and cottage industries.This brief description is intended to promote his vision and make it known to a wider spectrum of people from around the globe by sending it to selected groups via the internet. Bharathanjali is in a place called Chelapram, which is part of Kakkodi Panchayath (a ‘panchayat’ is a village district run by a village council) in Kozhikode district, Kerala state in South India.

Houses		Members of the community
Houses built of concrete (modern)	77	Women	389
Houses with tiled roof ( traditional)	109	Men	349
Huts (well below even the village standards)		Girls	137
	13	Boys	106
Houses badly in need of repair	2
		Total number	981
Total houses in the village	201
Houses without own wells (for water)	46	Grown ups inc. men and women (who are able to work)	732
Houses without own toilet facilities	25	Of the above employed	317
Houses without electricity	33	Unemployed	415
In the village we have, population		The employed of the total can be categorized as follows:
Public wells for drinking water	4	Government workers, male	9
Temples	2	Government workers, female	9
Bishop House	1	Labourers,male	206
Day care centre	2	Labourers, female	28
Nursery School	1	Auto rickshaw drivers	5
Out of the whole population, 11 are disabled, 6 mentally handicapped (who cannot do any work) and 3 retarded.		Small shop-keepers	16
		News Paper mployees	2
		Solicitor’s clerk	1
		farmers	8
		Employed in Arabian Gulf	8
In the village 32 women of marriable ageare still un- married. There are 45 married couple without male children and 93 people who are over the age of 60.		Solicitor	1
		Insurance agent	1
		Industrial worker	1
		Watch repairer	1
		Flour Mill workers	3
		Total	317

Total income from the sale of milk for the period
(3,542 liters at 11 rupees per liter)	38962.00
Sale of cow dung	2000.00
Sale of calf	5000.00
Grass planting – subsidy from local government	800.00
Total Income for the year	46,762.00

Less: Expenditure:
Total food expenses for cows for the year	20720.00
Hay bought during the period	4680.00
Grass plantation upkeep	6100.00
Vet’s charges	2500.00
Loan repaid (including interest)	6300.00
	40,300.00
Excess of Income over Expenditure for the Year	Rupees 6,462.00

The above mentioned 6,462 rupees constitutes the bulk of the income for that family’s needs during the one full year in question. Krishnettan is also teaching all the villagers who are members of his self-reliant village the various ways in which they can reduce wastage. Making their hard-earned money go further by being thrifty is something achieved only by practice. Children from an early age are encouraged to respect nature and to carry on with their day to day lives without abusing it. Helping each other is the primary motto of Bharathanjali. It’s really heartening to see the benefits of a simple, unselfish way of living slowly improving the conditions of people who are at the very bottom of the social and economic hierarchy in independent India.

Future plans and goals include:
Krishnettan’s dream is to acquire a minimum of at least 5 acres of land on which he is planning to build old-style huts to house the members of the community. Ideally it would be on the banks of a river so that clean water and unpolluted air would be in constant supply. The three most important ingredients for healthy living, viz. air to breathe, water to drink, and food to eat, will be readily available to everyone in the self-reliant village. For a person to achieve good health, a good mind and a good body is essential and that is where Krishnettan’s other passion, getting healthy by going back to the values of our ancestors, incorporating the practice of yoga coupled with healthy eating, comes in. Krishnettan, who is an experienced yoga instructor, has plans to start yoga training for children from a very early age. This along with the plans to start a vegetable garden will form the base of the village. The cultivation will be organic, without using any chemical fertilizers to increase the yield as these carry a number of bad side effects and the products naturally end up losing their purity. In short, Krishnettan envisages developing an alternative culture or community away from the existing materialistic rat race of which, sadly, we have all become a part.

One final word about Krishnettan’s achievements. He has already set in motion a unique programme of having regular free medical check ups and a free medical diary for all the members of Bharathanjali and that in itself is a unique first, perhaps even in the world. We hope we can attract sufficient interest from the organizations outside Kerala and India so that with their help we can make our local bodies here (beyond politics and religion) understand this beautiful concept and help the deserving people here in “God’s Own Country”. I look forward to your views and suggestions as this is the first, crude and amateur attempt by myself to put together an important report. Thank you for taking the time to read these lines. Take care and God Bless.

Cheers,
Kris Sreekandath.