A Rural visit to Igatpuri

INTRODUCTION:

The visit to IGATPURI as a part of our Rural MARKETING on 15th march 2013, was one among the very few incidents in life which influence our perspective and in which we get to learn various aspects of life. It was a first time visit to the villages for many of us. The enriched experience was an eye opener for most of the group members as the learning of the visit had a huge impact on the thought process of each member. Apart from sensitizing us about the social and economic aspect of rural India, we got exposed to various facets of development and the roles of all the stakeholders, be it governmental agencies,
NGO’s and the public themselves. We found that not only the planning of large government initiatives is important, but the implementation part is much more important which decides the success of such schemes.

EXPERIENCE:

In our visit our main purpose was to study the perspective of a rural consumer & effects of environment on its buying behavior. I was eager to practically visit a backward region and find roots of marketing. Our first visit was at a zilla parishad primary school in bhavali-khurd. The school was well maintained and as it was established in 1947 it had undergone lots of changes in the time period. I was amazed to see the response of students, they were very interactive & lively, however what I liked the most was all the facilities were provided to the school like water, food & electricity. The government had taken pains to reach out at every backward area which was appreciable. I had taken the task of interviewing school faculty & students among my group and I got to learn a whole set of new things which I was unaware of, other thing about this school which was unexpected that it had internet connection & students were even taught about I.T.
Next village which we visited was bhagatwadi a very small one compare to previous. The school was even smaller with only two class rooms and studies up to IVth. I had an opportunity to interview Principal Mr Pramod who was very co-operative & shared all the details about this school. However I was little disappointed the students didn’t have a class for their standard. Two standards jointly studied in one class and faculty was only two. The village was of scheduled tribe a very backward caste and I had immense sympathy for them.

Conclusion:
This visit made us aware about the policies thought about and being implemented by the government such as Mid-Day meals to curb Malnutrition and also free education under Right to Education Act. It was a beneficial visit I came to terms with the sufferings of rural areas and the development work carried on there.