VILLAGE NEWS
The villagers of Devgain, Jharkhand have united to bring an old Shivji Temple back to life. The structure is a couple of centuries old and, of course, due to the pull of time, had started to break down. Even the roof and walls had fallen.
The people had been engulfed with worry and as long back as 40 years had started to discuss what they could do, but could not align forces. This was mostly due to the other difficult demands in their lives.
Chandan Singh, the Amrita SeRVe Village Coordinator, was able to find a path. Starting one year back, he assembled the villagers to put together a temple construction committee with a president, secretary and cashier. Then the details started to flow.
Step 1: Visit with village pradhan to decide what type of temple to construct.
Step 2: Meet to discuss what structure the new temple should take and upon decision, create the small model. A concrete visualisation.
Step 3: Begin fund collection to enable the resources required. Villagers contributed for labour costs. A compensation of four lakhs came from the electricity division, as the villagers were eligible for the funds.The road construction department provided cement. The bridge construction department gave rods and grills. It was quite a long process—but it all came to be.
Construction work is now fully underway.