Amidst hunger and poverty!

Yesterday we had a post mentioning hunger crisis in India. Indian states were kept under strong and higher hunger categories. Madhya Pradesh where I live, was rated the highest. I was in shock. I read the original article to learn what they measured and how?  The high rank on the index is probably due to large tribal population in the state. Tribals have different set of food habits and that would have not matched to the diet chart of IFPRI!  However, this doesnt mean that I am denying the report. we certainly need to work on getting out of hunger and malnutrition. After reading the article if you are thinking MP as poor and backward state let me tell it is very rich in minerals and natural resources and tribes. The landscape is beautiful and people are very nice.

On the day of blog action day ( I came to know about this just now) bloggers around the world wrote about poverty. I think it is a really good initiative. Following the blog action day posts I came to this story that mentions about 25 poor children taken up by charity institutions. I am surprised to find no Indian-face.

Also came across an article,  about rural tourism and its role in poverty alleviation.  Rural tourism as per me is when one visits a village for a substantial period of time (more than a day), lives there (make that your base), appreciates the culture and living style, enjoys cuisines and stories, and enjoys the care by people (which would be better than hotel steward for sure). When I started my work at CMF, I had this idea of evaluating impact of  microfinance in ecotourism activity and thus cleint well being. It proved impractical. Ecotourism is mostly under Forest Department's jurisdiction. This was the first obstacle. Secondly, it involves a part of community only, so the potential cleints are always less than the number required to break even in that area. 

Now Rural tourism certainly comes as an alternative. Imagine Kerela. One loves the beaches and the ambience , loves the masages and oil treatments.. But when it comes to living and eating one goes for tested options eats food which can be found elsewhere to and lives in hotels or lodges. Consider this You go few kilometers ahead from a regular beach. There is a family who can take you as guest, it will serve you food that they eat (it will be hygenic and more so for you). You can travel to other places with them, watch them climbing a coconut tree and drink the fresh coconut especially plucked for you. You can even try to climb. You discover new tastes, styles and beleifs. Isn't this exciting? It is cheap, you are supporting a family and you are not doing bad for yourself either.

It requires at least one entrepreneur to promote a rural tourism site. The person would need little technical support and credit for developing infrastructure, creating right attitudes in community, finding the right mix of  indigeniousity ettiquetes. There are many consultancies organization that can provide technical support or consultancy. Credit is a problem though!

If you are involved in providing credit services,  you can certainly help him. You can ask your managers to find an entrepreneur whom you can support in developing a rural tourism site. I will call you social for sure. Read here for the context...