The Centre is all set to undertake the country’s first ever cultural survey of India’s villages christened as ‘Mera Gaon, Meri Dharohar’ through a mobile application.
The Ministry of Culture has partnered with the Common Services Centres (CSC), under the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MEITY), in this regard.
The survey seeks to document the cultural identity at the village level by involving citizens to share what makes their village, block, or district unique. The entire exercise is expected to be completed by mid-2022.
Under the survey, a CSC Village Level Entrepreneur called VLEs will conduct meetings with citizens at the villages and then upload interesting facts about their village, its places of interest, customs and traditions, famous personalities, festivals and beliefs, art and culture, etc., on to the application. VLEs will also upload photos and videos regarding these aspects of the application.
Speaking about the survey, Dr. Dinesh Tyagi, Managing Director, CSC, said: “India has a unique cultural identity rooted in its villages. No one can understand it better than the CSC VLEs who are embedded in the community they serve. This survey builds upon a successful track record of CSCs engaging on official enumerations like the 7th Economic Census and some other surveys done for the state governments.”
Tyagi added “the availability of digital technology and tools has enabled such a unique and massive survey to be conducted at the grassroots.
CSC, with its skilled team of digital entrepreneurs, will assist the Government in successfully mapping the cultural identity of India.”
As per the agreement signed between the two entities, CSC will develop a mobile application and train the VLEs in conducting the survey. Over 4 lakh Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs), managing the CSCs across the country, will conduct the survey in 6.38 lakh villages and upload the details on to the application.