A drop of IT in the milk bowl

As we drive into rural Sambhal, close to Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, two things immediately grab attention — corn and cattle.

Along the roadside, farmers have piled ripe corn ready to be taken to the mandi. The sunshine yellow contrasting with the green of the fields makes for a striking image.

Cattle on the road is ubiquitous anywhere in India, but here it looks more than normal. At every house we can spot a herd of buffaloes.

Milk flows like water in this district, which lies just east of the Ganges. Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Devendra Kumar tells us that the district has seven lakh cattle producing an average of 12 lakh litres of milk per day and is veritably the milk bowl of UP. The recent Kamdhenu scheme of the State Government has been lapped up by locals, he says, with 80 dairies coming up under the scheme.

Almost all the big milk brands — Gopaljee, Madhusudhan — arrive here to collect milk. And yet, ironically, this area did not have any milk plant until a young logistics player, Anant Choudhary, decided to set up the processing unit of his new milk brand, Freshmen’s Valley, here in Bahjoi. “The area is rich in milk production and yet there is no major corporate investment here. We felt our investment would help the economy of the region,” says Choudhary. The company was set up with an initial investment of ₹50 crore.

Rich though it may be in milk and agricultural produce, Sambhal’s literacy levels are poor. The average literacy rate is barely 49.5 per cent, with female literacy at 46.45 per cent. Bahjoi within Sambhal is only marginally better with a 60 per cent literacy rate.

Even before they started operations, Freshmen’s Valley set out to do skill development, engaging farmers through veterinary camps, workshops on hygiene, nutrition, how to rear cattle, and how to increase yield. Dr Mahender, who oversees procurement at Freshmen’s Valley, tells us that most villagers keep their cows and buffaloes casually tied at home and had to be taught that a better living environment was necessary.

Freshmen’s Valley also engaged Delhi-based Vivid Foundation to do some skill development in the area. Says Vikas Mishra of Vivid Foundation, “We saw that income from farming was good, but education was fairly low.”

He adds, “Data showed that Sambhal had among the lowest computer literacy levels in the State, and we decided to technologically upgrade them.” So a computer training classroom was set up to address the gap.

At Chandanwati village, near the village school, in a little building that is Freshmen Valley’s milk collection centre and quality testing lab, two rooms are devoted to computer training. A batch of 15 girls are giggling over computers, mostly working on drawing and painting applications. Ask 18-year-old Anila what she has learnt so far and she rapidly opens MS Paint Window. Hemlata, the teacher, cheerfully tells us that she finds it the best way to hook the village girls into learning computers and assures us that in no time they would master the entire MS Office suite.

Mishra says that the first batch of 35 (15 girls and 20 boys) have already been trained. Now Vivid is engaged in mapping out schools and small industries in the region to find data operator jobs for them and will soon set up a placement cell. “Market linkage is necessary as training alone is not enough,” says Mishra.

Additionally, an Internet kiosk is planned. Some of the students can run this, he says.

In phase two of Freshmen Valley’s CSR project, villagers would be taught to make solar equipment. “It’s pretty easy to make solar lanterns and street lamps and we will be teaching that.” Vivid then plans to buy back the equipment made by the villagers and sell them in the area.

Rich in handicraft traditions — Sambhal is famous for its bone artefacts and Bahjoi is known for its glass factories — and yet impeded by poor electricity, this area could certainly do with a bit of light.

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