Taudhakpur, a village in Uttar Pradesh, is located at a distance of approximately 80 kilometres from Kanpur and used to be no different from any other village in India—with limited housing and health facilities, electricity supply and even toilets.
Then, two IT professionals decided to alter the fate of the village.
Yogesh Sahu, an entrepreneur from Mumbai and Rajnish Bajpai, a software professional who works abroad, decided to revolutionalise the village in UP by empowering the residents with mobile technology and Internet of Things (IoT).If you are a city dweller, you are perhaps used to WiFi facilities, CCTV cameras in public spaces, regular electricity supply and street lights etc. But would you associate these facilities with an Indian village? Perhaps not. This is the perception that Sahu and Bajpai wanted to change.
But how did the techies bring in all of these facilities? Well, it was all through a mobile app!
Named ‘SmartGaon‘ and developed by the duo, the app connects the village internally as well as with the urban world. It is an information centre where all of the initiatives undertaken in the villages are recorded and updated.Villagers can now open the app to access news and events (that concern them) as well as health and information centres.Through this small application, the duo has brought to the village CCTV cameras, street lights, health check-up events, electricity supply for 18-20 hours daily and a WiFi zone! You could say that it is equipped with urban facilities in a rural setting.
SmartGaon also has a Gram Mart feature which is a marketplace for farmers. Through this feature, farmers can access fair trade practices and come together to buy or sell their produce.Working alongside governmental authorities for three years, Sahu and Bajpai have entirely transformed the way of life in Taudhakpur. According to the Indian Express, the village has also built 242 toilets within 48 hours!
Seeing the success of the village in Uttar Pradesh, the duo is now set to transform six more villages in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)