Swarna Bharat Trust

Albeit my journey from rural life to the assembly, parliament and responsibilities in a national political party in different capacities, I can never forget my early days in the village where I was born and brought up.

Independent India has achieved remarkable progress over the last 64 years. In fact, our achievements in various fields are overwhelming. India is marching towards becoming a superpower. We have achieved substantial growth in the areas of infrastructure, industrial growth, food security, health, defense, software and communications. However, at the same time we must accept the bitter truth that the disparities between various sections of the society are only increasing.

In our society, on the one hand there is a rich class that is not in a position to understand what hunger and poverty means, while on the other hand there are masses who have no idea of life except poverty. Between these two opposing trends, there is a middle class that is growing by the day. The living standards, needs and desires of this class of people are also on the rise.

The life line of our nation is in our villages. Over 60 percent of our 120 crore population lives in rural India. Though we have made many achievements it is a serious cause of concern that 20 crore people living in the rural areas are still below the poverty line. Apart from poverty, India has been facing many challenges like floods and famines. Lack of basic amenities in villages and the fruits of development not reaching the rural areas had a great impact on me. The desire for bringing about changes in the system and the administrative priorities and attaching utmost importance to the development of villages was always forefront in my mind. The experience of early days when I was forced to walk for three kilometers to attend a school that had no facilities, where classes were run under the open sky and the days when I used to study in the light of a lantern due to lack of electricity in the villages, beside trekking long distances for drinking water, had an enduring effect on me. These experiences haunted me always and made me think of what was to be done for providing basic amenities for the development of villages.

It is because of this background I opted for the Rural Development Ministry when the BJP led NDA came to power, though the Prime Minister Sri Atal Behari Vajpayee offered me another key portfolio. After taking charge, I tried my best better recognition for the rural development department as compared to the past, and designed various rural development schemes like the ‘Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana’.

I have seen in my childhood the collective efforts of the people of my village in various common social works. Villagers used to strengthen the tank bunds and outlets for water flow, desiltation and repairs of water channels. My grand parents, who were then village headmen, used to monitor those activities. We used to supervise and protect, on a rotation basis, the common grazing lands of the village.

However, the atmosphere has been polluted as development is now linked to vote bank politics. It is not good to remain silent spectators and expect the government to do everything. Development without peoples’ participation has no meaning. It is necessary to make the people play a key role in planning, implementation and supervision of various government programmes aimed for rural development. Awareness on these aspects has to be created among the people.

Mahatma Gandhi believed strongly in the concept that Indian freedom should begin from the grass-root level and every village should be in a position to decide its destiny. He made it clear that ‘Ram Raj without Gram Raj is incomplete’, Ravindranath Tagore too has said “restoration of powers to the villages that empower them to fulfil their requirements should be our goal”

Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya used to say that development has no meaning unless we improve the living standards of those who were forced to stay away for decades from the development process. He stressed on the need to ensure that the fruits of development reach backward classes and rural masses. In fact, this is the concept behind Antyodaya. Empowerment of rural people and providing ability to decide their destiny can be made possible only through Panchayat Raj System.

Like the mother, the mother tongue, janma bhoomi (place of birth) and our motherland.., these are the things we always have to keep in mind and be proud of always. I am also among one who believe in this theory. My efforts, coupled with public support and the blessings of god, gave me recognition and the status. As an act of gratitude and with a passion to do my best for my people and my place, Swarna Bharat Trust has been formed with like minded people who made a mark in their respective fields and have a feeling of social responsibility.

An average villager is honest, hard working and able to resolve his problems on his own. Take for instance a small farmer. Not only he feeds his family with his hard work, but he produces something to feed the country. His needs – food, clothes, shelters, irrigation, health and educational needs are basic and very minimum. He is not asking for part of the moon. Is it beyond our reach that we fulfill these minimum needs? Not at all. The situation is same among various poorer sections of the rural areas. This will help us identify the actual challenge before us. The challenge is to provide opportunities for the rural poor to break the real and psychological barriers and join the process of development. Social concern and sincere efforts to implement it are necessary to meet this challenge.

I am inspired by Sri Nanaji Deshmukh garu who had renounced Industries Ministry during the Janata Party Government at the Centre in 1977 to start a non-government organization and took up various developmental activities in over 500 villages in Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharaks Sri Bhogadi Durga Prasad and Sri Somepalli Somaiah inspired me a lot when I joined the RSS at a very young age. Besides, cooperation from my friends to my idea of developing this area helped realization of my dream Swarna Bharat.

When we were contemplating on where to begin, my daughter, Smt. Deepa suggested starting the work from our native place in Nellore district. And there was no looking back. Swarna Bharat Trust was formed at Venkatachalam where five acres of land was procured and buildings were constructed. Head of Spartek Ceramics Sri Tripuraneni Krishna Prasad, who is my friend since the days of my studies at Andhra University, with a strong desire to do his part for the society, initially volunteered to run the trust. The Trust’s activities gained speed with my daughter volunteering to spare some time out of her family and business affairs to oversee them. Another friend of mine and a philanthropist himself, Sri Maganti Rajendra Prasad has been overseeing the trust activities very successfully.

At a time when it is considered that non-government organizations work with government funds and as I was the national president of the then ruling party, it was decided to run the activities with the funds collected voluntarily and not to seek funds from the government. It gives me great pleasure that the trust reached to the masses within ten years with its activities like providing education, health, veterinary medical aid, training in technical and computer skills for rural unemployed youth, making available the fruits of scientific advancements to the rural areas, uniting rural women for employment opportunities, preserving Indian culture and traditions and identifying and encouraging rural talent.

I have decided to use my status to do my best for the welfare of the rural people, instead of using it for my selfish ends. I feel satisfied and draw inspiration continuously by taking part in one or other activity of the trust every month, despite my busy schedule at the national level. Have been inviting prominent personalities for the Swarna Bharat Trust Programmes to make them and see the activities and inspire others to take up similar experiments in various places. I would like to expand the activities of Swarna Bharat and take up the activities all over the state. Only then, we could realize the Swarna Bharat dream completely.

Main objectives of Trust

improve the conditions of living of the rural masses by providing education and health care and thereby enabling them to employ themselves gainfully.
bridge the ever increasing gap between rural and urban India and making the rural masses confident and contribute to the development of economy and progress of the nation.
bring to their doorsteps the technological advances and innovations in science and technology to make their lives better.
Impart vocational and computer training to the rural youth.
educate the farmers about the new techniques of farming and alternate crops and train the artisans to engage themselves in self-employment.
empower the rural women by imparting necessary skills so as to equip them for self-employment and in turn become part of strong rural economy.
encourage and support rural culture and traditions.

Despite being busy with relentless tours and schedules I take out time for social service. It is my conviction and unflinching belief that political leaders must involve themselves in constructive activities, channelize people’s energies towards focused development and there-by achieve holistic rural development. Endowed with Promethean zeal for rural empowerment, organized and encouraged his friends to establish a service organization, Swarna Bharat Trust, which is now working steadfastly towards realising long cherished dreams and vision. Rural poor must become part of development. They must have adequate opportunities. To achieve these, we must have social awareness, vision and conviction. The only way to make every one enjoy the fruits of development is to make them part of development. Aimed at facilitating rural empowerment, Swarna Bharat Trust, for the last ten years, is engaged in a variety of activities, such as farmers training, education, health, computer and technical skills, job enabling skills, encouraging rural talent, promoting and sustaining Indian culture and tradition.