What comes to your mind when you read this line: Tata Jagriti Yatra? Something related to awakening for some sort of a social cause, right? Yes, it was so, but with a difference. Tata Jagriti Yatra aims to motivate young minds about entrepreneurship with a flavor of social service.

It is an annual odyssey that selects four hundred young people and takes them to meet few unsung heroes across India. The journey is completed through a train. The ‘Yatris’, the selected passengers, come from different states and from overseas also, but their age group is 20-25 years. They could be students, working professionals, budding entrepreneurs or someone who is enthusiastic about doing something entrepreneurial. Jagriti Sewa Sansthan organized the yatra in partnership with Tata group.

The ‘Yatris’ were selected on set criteria where they were assessed on their ability to think or act out of the box; a knowledge of challenges/opportunities in India; a genuine desire to “be the change”; an ability to take risks; an enthusiasm, drive or commitment towards enterprise; and a genuineness of purpose and ethical frame of mind. While talking to many among these ‘Yatris’, I came to know that many of them students, professionals, entrepreneurs, NGOs and the ones who are looking to start their own ventures.

From Delhi to Tilonia
I joined this jou rney from Safdarjung railway station in Delhi. Their previous stop was in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh, which happens to be the headquarters of Jagriti. The arrangement for fleet buses was already made and the troupe of ‘Yatris’ and facilitators moved quickly setting banners on the buses to mark their arrival in Delhi.

The troupe moved to Indian Corporate Centre in Delhi, where there we were supposed to attend a panel discussion. We attended the Q&A session of this discussion involving Sanjeev Bhikchandani, co-founder of Info Edge Solutions, and Sunil Handa, professor—IIM Ahmedabad and fouder of Eklavya Foundation. Though the ‘Yatris’ were enjoying their time joking with each other during travel, they sat engrossed in the Q&A session. They posed questions ranging from problems faced by rural India to policies of the government.

The troupe had a ‘Jagriti’ song which was written by Prasoon Joshi, composed by Adesh Srivastav and sung by Babul Supriyo. The troupe eventually sang this song everywhere they made a halt. When they waved their hands and joined their voices with the recorded version, one could see spirited youth saying that they are up and ready to make it happen!

After attending this session, we moved to Goonj in Sarita Vihar. Goonj is an NGO founded by Anshu Gupta. This NGO focuses on cloth as a necessity for everybody. Anshu talked about his experiences as how being a journalist, he came across some incidents in Delhi where he felt that lots of people in India suffer from acute shortage of a piece of cloth. He then goes on telling moving stories how women of India suffered from lack of sanitation napkins and how in some areas of rural India, women suffered diseases and even death due to this.

In the morning, we reached Tilonia and were welcomed by a village band and big puppets. For around 15-20 good minutes, music was played and the troupe danced with much fun and frolic. The music band and the puppets lead the troupe to the old campus of Barefoot College started by Sanjit ‘Bunker’ Roy.

Barefoot College, Tilonia
Barefoot college is based in Tilonia in the Ajmer district of Rajasthan. As we moved into the sprawling campus of Barefoot College, we were ushered into a large canopy where staff members of Barefoot College had organized a small function to welcome the ‘Yatris’ and provide a synopsis of activities that they were doing.

Apart from mentioning how they use solar power to get 24-hours supply for their college, they mentioned that they trained women to solar power their villages situated alongside the highest lake in the world, up in the Himalayas. They mentioned that they were starting a community radio, which would provide information to the village folks on various topics including education, health and social issues and governmental policies including RTI act and NREGA program etc. In the college campus, using solar cookers, food is cooked for 45 people on daily basis.

While visiting various workshops and rooms of the college, I met a group of women who looked curiously waiting for somebody. An attendant told me that these women belong to African countries like Kenya, Cameroon and Nigeria. During the Q&A session, Bunker Roy mentioned that Barefoot College brings grandmothers from these countries to get trained. These women hardly know how to communicate in English but they still manage to learn the techniques. Bunker Roy mentioned that in these countries, grandmothers age between 35-40; so one should not suppose that training these grandmothers would not be optimal for practical reasons. He mentioned that these grandmothers are more committed and dedicated than men from the same area.

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