Ratnagiri District: Case-Study Based Professional Work and Research by Unnat Maharashtra Abhiyan (a joint project of GoM and IIT Bombay)

Beginning 2022, Unnat Maharashtra Ahiyan, or UMA, launched a series of experiments in case-study based pedagogies in Ratnagiri district which aimed at connecting our youth - fresh graduates and students in colleges - with basic developmental problems. Here is a brief description of the same.

Apley Prashna Apley Vidnyan (APAV)

APAV sought to create opportunities in the mainstream curricula of degree colleges across all disciplines for students to undertake case studies on regional aspects of daily life. The APAV project began with a pilot in 14 colleges in Konkan. See the following references:
  • Description of the program and the Konkan Report link
  • APAV IIT Bombay Continuing Education Program Offering - link
  • The APAV course web-page and resource material is available at link. See link for resource material for faculty members and Youtube link for students.
  • The You-tube channel is at link.
  • Apley Prashna Apley Vidnyan gets coverage in Loksatta. Article by Harshad Tulpule, UMA staff in Loksatta, 10th September, 2023. pdf.

    Village Action Plans (VAPs) for Rural Water Supply

    You may know that the Govt. of India has launched an ambitious program called Jal Jeevan Mission which aims to provide piped water supply to all homes. A key input to design a water supply solution for the village is the preparation of a Village Action Plan. An important part of this are the Community-level reports of the current situation within a village and all its habitations. We have evolved a process to prepare these reports which go into the VAPs. This process has been approved by the Zilla Parishad Ratnagiri and it has provided a per-village funding to prepare these reports. The key steps in the preparation of the report are:

  • Visiting villages and wadis (or hamlets) and ascertaining the current drinking water status.
  • Within wadis, locating all drinking water wells, recording their current status and the water conservation structures nearby.
  • Preparing a map marking all the above data and a detailed report.

    The report is to help the district administration understand the current status of access to drinking water, sources, typically wells, and structures which need strengthening and repairs. Eventually, it will help them design better water supply schemes for the village.

    Relevant Documents

  • The Standard Format for Source Assessment, as presecribed by GoI. pdf
  • Its conversion into a methodology and proposal made by IITB-UMA to Ratnagiri District. pdf
  • The work order. pdf
  • Two Sample Village Reports:

    Village Roads Project (GIO)

    This was part of the Ratnagiri GIO project above. The task was to create village-level maps and reports of the road network within a village, their quality, its basic amenities and other relevant information. About 70 such village maps and reports were created by students/interns of Pune University Geography (PG) students, and B.Tech.(Civil) students of Kolhapur Institute of Technology. Their work was supervised by Tanaya, Vishwajeet, Harshad and others.

  • Overall Description about Road Study - Presentation pdf. Description: pdf.
  • Work order from PWD Ratnagiri - Road Study link
  • Village Reports - Devdhe link and Isvali link.
  • Village Chart - Devdhe link put up in the school jpg.

    Resources and Outputs of the Roads Internship Program

  • Training Content - Road Folder
  • Documentary on Road Study - Village Road Mapping link
  • Sample Road Study - Reports link
  • Village Road Posters - Punas Village Poster (Marathi), Pdf Devdhe Poster (English) Pdf
  • Report on the Internship Program of Kolhapur Institute of Technology Road Study - pdf
  • Message from Shri Kiran Pujara, IAS, CEO of ZP Ratnagiri on UMA Ratnagiri work - Video link

    Using Maps in Schools

    This project is under formulation. It aims to examine using maps in schools as means and ways of supporting the standard learning-outcomes based curriculum. Preliminary work in 6 cluster schools is in progress. Here is the village poster, the script, and a video of the student response. The broader question is whether localized knowledge products such as village-level maps, narratives of livelihoods, agricultural information can beused to assist student learning.