A unique virtual platform which provides insights into the cultural significance of India’s 6.5 lakh villages was launched from the national capital’s iconic heritage site Qutub Minar on Thursday.
The project ‘Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar’ (My Village My Pride) is being undertaken under the National Mission on Cultural Mapping in coordination with Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA).
For cultural asset mapping, the villages are broadly divided into seven to eight categories based on whether they are important ecologically, developmentally, scholastically, if they produce a famous textile or product and if they are connected to some historical or mythological events like the Independence struggle or epics like Mahabharata.
The IGNCA said it would undertake “cultural asset mapping” of these villages through field surveys.
Detailed field surveys are being carried out by joint teams of the Culture Ministry and Common Services Centres (CSC) under the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), a senior official of the Culture Ministry said.
The survey documents the cultural identity of the villages by involving citizens to share what makes their village, block or district unique.
The survey process involves a CSC Village-Level Entrepreneur (VLE) conducting meetings with citizens at the villages and then uploading interesting facts about their village, its places of interest, customs and traditions, famous personalities, festivals and beliefs, art and culture, etc., on to a special application.
The core idea behind this project is to encourage appreciation for India’s culture and traditions, paving way for economic growth, social harmony, and artistic development in rural communities, the Culture Ministry said in a statement.
