Sustainable growth through Rural Creativity & Traditional knowledge		    
 
 

“Palle Srujana” – A Non-Profit Organization focused on the Rural knowledge and Creativity

Genesis:

Palle Srujana means Creativity in rural people. We believe that People who live in the villages are closer to nature and they have mastered to coexist with the plants, animals, environment and nature. Their harmony with nature is par excellence and they mastered to live as part of nature without controlling or consuming them. They do this by adhering to the traditional practices which are time tested, utilizing traditional knowledge in the conversion process which makes them real producers for the world. They utilize their natural creativity in solving their problems in agriculture, animal husbandry, irrigation, rearing all types of animals, health, ante and post natal care, house construction and livelihood strategies.  This is our rich traditional wealth and should be the backbone of the Nation’s growth supplemented with appropriate technology which should empower them.

Having fully understood the strength of our rural areas, which needs to be nurtured and promoted, we have been working in Andhra Pradesh since November 2005. It was established as “Honeybee AP” - a virtual and voluntary organization, which scouts and documents the creativity and traditional knowledge of the grassroots innovators in the villages of Andhra Pradesh. The knowledge is always documented with prior informed consent of the innovator. This knowledge is processed in the formal system for validation, reengineering, value addition, patenting, incubation, business development, commercialization, and so on. Honeybee AP acted as an interface between the grassroots innovators and the National Innovation Foundation (NIF).

Most of the knowledge and information is disseminated today from the formal system to informal system is in vertical manner. There is no effort made to collect the knowledge form uneducated people as they were seen as consumers and sinks, never as source and providers. Their creativity went unnoticed and the simple solutions they found to resolve their daily livelihood problems were not given any cognizance. The communication flow of knowledge from village to formal system was never encouraged or developed and horizontal dissemination of this very useful knowledge i.e. village to village was never attempted. The less creative farmers continue to live with the problems, though in the nearby village they were solved by a fellow farmer or a community. To fill this void, Honeybee AP started a quarterly Telugu magazine called “Palle Srujana” in May, 2006. This contained purely the village knowledge, their creativity and the traditional practices in various fields of their life. We successfully published this magazine for four years and in the fifth year; we converted its periodicity of publication to bi monthly from quarterly. While many periodicals today are clamouring to publish technology from overseas, this is the only magazine which publishes indigenous knowledge in regional language Telugu obtained and documented from our villages.

We believed in the adage of “Elders are wise and the death of an old person is like burning a library”. The knowledge which is of immense value is fading away and we need to stop by building databases. This urge made us move into the villages, connect with them, understand their strengths, absorb their knowledge and having documented, make a sincere and sure effort to get it introduced into the formal system ensuring the IPR of the village innovator all through. The benefits of such knowledge should not only be enjoyed by the society at large, but the innovator should get his legitimate knowledge rights in terms of money, recognition and rewards. Our efforts always focused on this objective and certainly we came some way in this journey in the last five years.

During our journey, we faced many difficulties in approaching the formal sector in giving recognition to the rural knowledge. We have more tales of failure than success in this regard. There are constraints for the system, rules and laws have never incorporated the village knowledge factor while making them and thus it made our path almost impassable. National Innovation Foundation (NIF) was always supportive to our activity and did their best in getting us connected and guided with all their wisdom and resources at their disposal. Many eminent individuals in the state of Andhra Pradesh have also helped us in their personal capacity.

Formation of “Palle Srujana” Sangham

Having developed a network and connectivity in the rural sector of Andhra Pradesh, it was time for us to take a shape of formal organization. Many of our friends, Govt and NGOs advised us to form a formal society to represent all the activities of Honeybee AP, publication of Palle srujana, Gyan Shodh, promotion of rural technologies, guiding the youth to understand the social sector involving the rural regions and many other contributions we were making in association with many other likeminded people and organizations. Their appeal and friendly advice was honoured and we finally formed nonprofit society registered with the Govt. Thus “Palle Srujana” society came into being in April 2010. This is formed by the same passionate people who were founders of Honeybee AP and Palle srujana magazine and many more who joined them during the journey through last five years. Our belief in village creativity and our determination to pursue the mission of bringing this valuable knowledge into limelight for the benefit of the society made us to name our society as “Palle Srujana” sangham.  which encompasses all activities of :

  • Honeybee AP

  • Publication of “Palle Srujana” bi-Monthly Telugu magazine

  • Asu machine samkurchu samithi – A web site under launch

  • Arogya Rumalla (Sanitary Napkins) utpatti samithi

  • Gyan Shodh – A social Internship for College Students

  • Mentoring a unique social enterprise of innovators “Creative Minds”

  • Linking Samaja Peddalu and the Gen next

  • Project “Samriddhi” – under NSDC

  • Creating “Silk Nidhi” for weavers of Pochampally silk sari tradition

  • Raising resources for a Tribal Girls’ orphanage in Araku Valley, Dist Visakahapatnam

  • Link the needs of society with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – A web site under launch

We strive with dedication and passion to achieve our mission of highlighting the rural innovations and traditional knowledge to the society for reinstating its rightful place and retaining its glory for a sustainable and balanced growth of our people and the Nation based on the premise of “live and let live” and coexistence with nature beyond personal greed and for common good of society as priority.

Join us in the journey of attaining sustainable growth through rural creativity and traditional knowledge as volunteers, contributors, mentors, donors, members, and advisors.