Project Udaan

What is Project Udaan?

Udaan (flight) is a story of one of the ambitious projects undertaken by Save Indian Farmers. Supplementary to other SIF initiatives focusing on farming techniques and water conservation, Udaan is meant to serve as a positive and proactive reinforcement in the form of education and awareness for farmers and their families.

The focus of this project is education – utilizing current technological gadgets like Android tablets to create simple apps in local languages for farmers and their families. The tablet contains an interactive learning platform developed to teach kids various school subjects such as science, English, math and geography. We added apps and videos in regional languages to help farmers learn better produce storage techniques, crop rotation, water irrigation, money management and understanding their soil. We also included simple and easy to understand videos on personal hygiene and nutrition.

Problems faced By farmers and their families

In recent years, India has achieved tremendous growth in the technology and service sectors. However, in all this development, small villages and farmer families seem to be left far behind. The farmer suicides create a tremendously negative and stressful environment for the children growing up in these villages. Moreover, these traumatizing events adversely affect their education and overall growth.

SIF Initiatives

This project epitomizes the concept of team work across different non profit organizations working towards achieving a common goal and vision. Save Indian Farmers conceptualized Project Udaan and teamed up with local NGOs – Deendayal Bahuuddeshiya Prasarak Mandal, Vidarbha and Vivekanand Seva Mandal, Dombivali for the implementation. Mahindra & Mahindra is SIF’s corporate sponsor for this project and gracefully sponsored the first 100 tablets. The app for the educational content for children was provided by Pratham, one of the foremost NGOs working to improve the quality of education across India. MS Swaminathan Research Foundation’s video content on soil testing, organic fertilizers and organic pesticides was dubbed in Marathi for the benefit of Maharashtrian farmers. We also used educational videos on organic farming provided by Digital Green, an NGO that focuses on harnessing the power of technology to empower small-scale farmers.

A few select schools from the Yavatmal, Beed, Latur and Osmanabad districts in Maharashtra were the initial recipients of the tablets.

Vivekanand Seva Mandal took on the responsibility of downloading the apps on each tablet and making the tablets ready for distribution. The first batch of 25 tablets were distributed in an event arranged by SIF and Deendayal Bahuuddeshiya Prasarak Mandal in Yavatmal on 17th February, 2016. It received a lot of positive feedback from the local community and media.

After the distribution of tablets, SIF continuously works with local NGOs to analyze how the tablets have benefited children by conducting tests and assessing scores across various subjects. SIF has developed evaluation test kits and these have been administered in the Yavatmal district, with other districts to be targeted in the coming months.

Our Progress

• 80+ tablets distributed across schools in Yavatmal and Beed district through Deendayal and Jnana Prabodhini; over 500 students reached.
• Over 800 farmers in Yavatmal, Washim and Beed districts watched videos on seed processing, making of organic pesticide and water conservation.
• Tablets used across projects for SIF initiatives such as Project Jal and Project Sangaati.
  • 600 farmer families recruited for participation in Sangaati through use of the content for organic farming techniques shown in the app.
  • Over 2200 farmers have benefited from the farming videos uploaded to these tablets.
  • Multiple farmers educated in water conservation and irrigation techniques.
  • Content on female hygiene used to educate women during health camps. Over 1500 women benefited from this information.
  • During a health camp conducted in Yavatmal by Dr Manjusha Ghumare for reaching out to at-risk tribal women and widows of farmers who had committed suicide, these tablets were used for providing awareness and education about personal hygiene. About 385 women attended this camp conducted in April, 2018.
  • These tablets also have Paani Foundation (founded by well known actor Aamir Khan and his wife Kiran Rao) software installed for teaching water irrigation techniques to farmers.
    • It is important to note that Jaibhanwadi, an SIF-sponsored village stood second in the Water Cup competition in 2017. This is an annual competition for villages in Maharashtra to encourage watershed management and water conservation.
  • An innovative educational platform from Ek Step Foundation (started by Nandan Nilekani) is also installed on these tablets. This is the team that developed the Aadhar Card concept in India.
    • SIF Goal is to coordinate with the Ek Step team based in Bangalore to conduct a training session for teachers on this platform in 2018-2019.