MP Darshan: Rural Immersion Programme
Highlights >>

In the words of the Father of the Nation M. K. Gandhi, “the soul of India lives in its villages". According to the 2001 Indian census, 74% of Indians live in 638,365 different villages. At IIM Indore, there is an overwhelming realization of the important role that rural India will play in the overall development of this nation. In this spirit, IIM Indore organizes an annual Rural Immersion Program for its students in the first year of the PGP program. The purpose of this program is to familiarize students with the ground realities of various Districts in Madhya Pradesh.

For the second edition of this program, students were divided into teams of 10 and placed under the supervision of the District Collectors of 42 districts of Madhya Pradesh for one week. One team of students also visited the micro finance operations of BANDHAN in Dewas District. The program was held from Sunday December 5 2010 to Sunday Dec 12 2010. The entire effort worked wonderfully at sensitizing the participants towards the needs and problems of the village communities, and how the government machinery in addition to non government organizations are working towards the betterment of the people in these districts. Different groups had many different stories to tell, and many suggestions for solving the problems of the districts. The overwhelming response in the post-trip debriefing session was that the effort should be towards making the program a permanent fixture of the PGP program, as well as connecting the teams with the districts that they visited in a more permanent fashion. As one of the participants commented, it is exciting to think how one week of your life can change your entire perspective about life at the other end of the spectrum!

Please click on the district in the map below to learn about the experiences of the student team that visited that district.