A date with rural India

Under a new project, tourists will now get to live and feel the real India.

It's time that tourists coming to India get to romance with the real India "" the one that lives in the villages. As part of a rural tourism project, the ministry of tourism, along with UNDP, has identified 36 rural sites in 20 states across India based on their specialisation in art, craft, culture or even natural environment.

In fact, 12 of these villages are ready and all set to open their gates to the world soon. The ministry has also spread the word asking the tour operators to integrate these villages into their itineraries.

"The good part is that these villages are close to the existing tourism circuits and we can easily provide extensions to these in our existing itineraries," says Ghulam Naqshband, chairman, Le Passage to India.

For this season, Naqshband intends to introduce day visits to these villages, and depending on the response he plans to promote the destinations further.

Le Passage will also send its teams to these villages to check whether these places have all the necessary sanitary provisions for tourists. "Tourists often put in a request to visit a village. The project gives us an opportunity to extend that experience," he says.

According to Subhash Goyal, chairman, Stic Travels, there is a great demand for such destinations. Tourists want to experience rural India "" a segment that has not been explored much.

Naqshband also feels that the demand will grow once these villages get integrated into the itineraries. Word of mouth, he says, will play a big part in promoting our villages.

As it is, the entire rural tourism project is geared towards providing an enriching experience to a visitor as well as supporting rural livelihoods through tourism.

On their part, the village communities are being trained to handle visitors, guide them around, and even act as interpretaters under what the ministry calls the "software" element of the project.

The "hardware" aspect covers conservation of local monuments using local architecture and, strengthening existing infrastructure besides creating accommodation.

UNDP is providing Rs 20 lakh per village to support the "software" element while the ministry of tourism is giving Rs 50 lakh to take care of the "hardware" aspect.

The UNDP national consultant for the Rural Tourism Project, Sudhir Sahi informs that three types of accommodation has been made available in different villages. In villages like Hodka in the Kachchh district of Gujarat, accommodation has been created by the host community.

In villages like Naggar in the Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh and Lachen in Sikkim, homestay facilities have been developed along with the locals. The third kind will try and integrate existing accommodation available within 5-10 kilometres around a village.

According to the ministry, the project will also create self-help groups in the villages and provide meaningful employment to women. Young boys and girls are being encouraged to learn and recite the history of the villages.

The basic idea will be to create a participatory experience for the visitor. Recently, students from the Wharton Business School, Pennsylvania, visited and stayed at Naggar and Lachen. They had one-to-one interactions with the villagers and the feedback has been good. That's a great start for sure!

Gyan at Gurukul

A great feature in each of these villages will be the Gurukul concept. Under this, Gurukuls will be created where artists from the villages will teach interested visitors their local art or crafts.

This would be on payment basis. Tour operators feel that in the future, many foreign artists might also want to learn some of India's exotic crafts "" ikat at Pochampally in Andhra Pradesh; terracotta handicrafts at Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh; or the 'tana-bana' weaving style at Pranpur in Madhya Pradesh.