Rashtriya Swabhiman Projects : Mission Gujarat/ 100 Day Story

Our 100 day story finds its roots in the most devastating natural tragedy that India has had to face. It was the massive earthquake measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale that rocked the whole country and wrecked the Bhuj District in Gujarat entirely, on 26h January 2001. The suddenness of the event left people perplexed – the victims in their beds and the saviours in their actions.

It was then that Rashtriya Swabhiman, responded immediately to the crisis by flying down a special team of paramedics, doctors and medical aid from Delhi. The selected team of doctors and paramedics performed 50 major surgical procedures and as many as 150 open-air surgeries in the first two days, covering 26 villages.

Within a week, our chief Patron, Dr. Sahib Singh Verma envisioned the plan to rehabilitate two villages – Dudhai (Now Indraprastha) and Bhujpur (Now Vijayraje Puram) - by rebuilding them; well equipped with homes, schools, hospitals and special training centres for its people that would help them re-build their lives that were nearly entirely rocked with the earthquake.

And with the pressing needs and circumstances came the dead line – 100 days.

It was essential to put together a roof over the heads to save the people from the heat and impending monsoons. And therefore, it was decided to complete the project in two phases - to provide for individual houses with basic amenities like utensils and electronic gadgets first and then in the second phase to endow the villages with the educational, medical and training centres.

The project was adequately termed Indraprastha (New Dudhai) for it found its inception in the efforts of the NGO, then based primarily in Delhi. Indraprastha was to be home for 6000 people in 65 blocks with an estimated total cost of Rs 150 million. The volunteers and the local people worked with equal zeal and enthusiasm to finish the work by 3rd June, when the new village was inaugurated and dedicated to the families by the former Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The project reached its final crescendo on the 2nd July when the families moved into their new houses amidst the cultural programmes, traditional feasts and nature’s blessings in the form of rain.

Indraprastha, today stands as a project blue-print to be adopted by villages and districts all over the country. It stands as an epitome to the fact that with will power, adequate efforts and an undying zeal to work for the betterment of the society, even the most impossible targets can be achieved with exceedingly satisfactory results.

Mission Gujrat Photo Story :