IViL: IIT for Villages VISION AND MISSION

IViL was founded in 2005 by the students of IIT Madras. It stands tall today with an

impressive portfolio of developmental activities. IViL serves the dual role of a discussion

forum and an action platform for the students of IIT Madras to discuss, deliberate and act

upon meaningful and socially impactful ideas.

The group believes in development through self sustenance and involves in a number of

programmes for the rural communities. Over the years, IViL has been actively involved with

two villages near Chennai – Natham and Vallipuram. It has enabled a number of women

SHGs to earn, enthused school children to learn science, imparted career orientation

sessions to the youth and has promoted rural cottage industries like jute and pottery.

Today, IViL can rightfully claim to have diligently applied itself to two ends:

Rural Education

Rural Revenue Generation

RURAL EDUCATION

IViL has always firmly believed that overall development can be achieved only through the

foundations of education and self-awareness. Thus, in IViL, there has always been an

emphasis on providing holistic learning tools that cater to all sections of the rural society –

farmers, women, youth and children.

This we have tried to realise through the Integrated Knowledge Centre (IKC) in Natham, the

career orientation sessions for youth, the periodic science demonstrations in Natham and

Vallipuram as also the periodic education camps/ technical mini-festivals in these villages.

Given below are abstracts of some of our key activities pertaining to rural education.

Integrated Knowledge Centre (IKC)

A flagship project of IViL, the IKC was conceptualised after much deliberation with the twin

objectives of exposing local students to the best educational infrastructure and empowering

youth and increasing their productivity though enhanced livelihood possibilities.

Being specific to the local needs, the model is highly robust and has the potential to be

successfully replicated in a number of villages across the nation. The valuable insights

provided by various organisations with an expertise in rural consultancy such as MSSRF, TERI

and TeNET have further helped give definitive shape to the project.

January 26th 2009 saw the inauguration of the first phase of our IKC in Natham, a village to

the north of Chennai in the Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu, transforming an empty

government building in Natham into a library installed with two computers, and has grown

to become an integral part of the village.

Implementation:

A 30 member team, consisting of students from IViL, IIT Madras coupled with the rich

expertise of Mr. Kris Dev (ICT & eGovernance Consultant), Mr. Sreeniivaas (educational

reformer) and the extremely resourceful Socratic Forum, has successfully completed the

implementation of the first phase of IKC.

Educational Camps and Mini Tech-Fests

IViL has conducted massive 2-day education workshops and mini technical-festivals

modelled along the lines of our tech-fest at IITM (Shaastra) in villages.

The education camp in Natham featured Spoken English classes, Maths & Science classes,

Computer training sessions, Career Guidance programmes, Video conferencing

The grand inauguration of IKC on 26th January,09 A file photo of the library at IKC

Students learning Spoken English through DVDs at IKC A spoken English class in progress in IKC

demonstrations, vocational training sessions, Self Help Group expertise services and various

games. This workshop was a big success and also served to whet the appetite of the

community for an IKC.

On the 25th and 26th of September 2010, Vallipuram bore witness to Shaastra Sankalp, a

techfest-cum-awareness-camp for the villagers, conducted jointly by IViL and Shaastra 2010

(IITM’s annual tech-fest). It was complete with lectures and demonstrations for the adults

by NGOs and Shaastra-like tech competitions for the children.

SHG Expert Mr. Hubert interacting with the Panchayat President Mr. Dharmalingam

villagers during the inaugural ceremony

Project Virtual Classrooms (PVC)

Another very innovative idea of IViL’s, Project Virtual Classrooms is aimed at improving the

quality of rural education by being a supplementary resource to their regular curriculum.

Glimpses from IViL’s Educational Camps – they have always been very popular among the children!

The current area of work is focused on developing interactive computer applications that

would promote self-learning among the students. The long-term goals include setting up of

online video-audio interaction between students in a village and teachers from any other

place. The project is currently in the feasibility evaluation stage.

REVENUE GENERATION ACTIVITIES

Food-Stalls

Committed to development through self-reliance, IViL recognizes the importance of

employment of women-folk and the significant role played by the nexus of Self Help Groups

(SHGs) in achieving this. Hence, year after year, IViL constructively engages with the SHGs of

Natham, enabling them to generate revenue by setting up food-stalls at the cultural as well

as technical festivals in our college. The IViL stall is the only one of its kind in

Saarang/Shaastra. It sells typical Indian food, from rava laddus to uthappams to dosai to

kuzhipaniyaaram. Owing to its popularity, lately, our SHG women have also received many

requests for setting up food-stalls from other reputed colleges in Chennai.

Over the years, IViL has also successfully created a user base and supply chain for several

products made by these women and similar SHGs such as diyas, jute bags, jute folders etc.

Every year at Diwali, huge consignments of diyas are ordered from these women in the

villages by hostels in IIT Madras. Similarly, delegates to all major conferences at IIT Madras

are given folders made of jute fibre. This gives us the satisfaction of contributing in our own

small way to a rural family’s income and well-being.

The highly popular IViL food-stall run by women from Natham’s Self Help Groups

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Medical Camps

IViL has repeatedly facilitated and organized health camps in villages by roping in a diverse

array of doctors – paediatricians to nutritionists to eye specialists and dentists. In addition,

we have often had eminent doctors discourse women on hygiene practices.

Cycle Donation

Another activity that has its place in IViL’s yearly calendar is Cycle Donation. Every year

hundreds of students passing out from IIT Madras leave behind their used cycles. IViL, with

the help of Institute authorities, services and distributes these cycles to those needy

children in villages who have to commute several kilometres by foot each day to schools and

colleges.

Glimpses from IViL’s Health Camps

Glimpses from Cycle Donation in Natham and surrounding villages