In 2010, P Ramaraj, a farmer in Erode district of Tamil Nadu, came up with a revolutionary way of harvesting turmeric. Realising that it was a labour-intensive process, and labour was not always easily available, he invented a machine to use on his land, which was powered by a small power tiller and used very little fuel. He saved around Rs 8,000 per acre in labour cost.
Similarly in 2012, D.N. Venkat, a mill worker in Coimbatore, invented a machine through which a person could manually climb coconut trees, even women and older people. Again, it went a long way in addressing the shortage of labour.
These inventions started as local experiments, but today, Mr Ramaraj and Mr Venkat are entrepreneurs, who sell their machines to farmers in other States. That would not have been possible without Perumal Vivekanandan (59), one of the recipients of this year’s Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation Award, given to individuals, who have dedicated their lives to embracing and practising Gandhian values.
A former banker, Mr Vivekakanandan runs an organisation called Sustainable-agriculture and Environmental Voluntary Action (SEVA), which helps promote technologies developed by grassroots innovators. “The organisation identifies innovative small farmers and helps them receive national-level recognition, royalties for patent rights, and loans for development. This gives them motivation to disseminate their knowledge and technology,” he said.
Four individuals were felicitated with the JBF award at a function here on Tuesday. Anne Ferrer (68), recipient of the award for the uplift and welfare of women and children, has been working in Ananathapur district of Andhra Pradesh, one of the drought-prone regions in India, since 1969.
Along with her husband Vincent Ferrer, she founded the Rural Development Trust, which now works for the integrated development of marginalised sections in over 3,000 villages. “When we first came we started working with people who were almost living without hope,” she said. “We went from house to house with a bar of soap, comb, and a bottle of coconut oil, and we used to sit with women to talk about hygiene and sending their children to school. It took 20 years for things to change, but in development you have to start with small things,” she said.
This year’s award for promoting Gandhian values outside India was given to Minorou Kasai (83), a professor emeritus at International Christian University, Japan. Mr Kasai’s relationship with India and scholarship on Gandhi's life and philosophy started during his student days at Benares Hindu University.
Man Singh Rawat (87), the senior-most among the awardees, was given the honour in the field of constructive work in his native Garhwal district of Himachal Pradesh. A staunch follower of the ideologies of Gandhi, Vinoba Bhave and Jayprakash Narayan, he has worked for decades on empowerment of women by honing their revolutionary and leadership skills, worked in coordination with people of all castes, and for education of the Boksa children.
