Gurgaon, India, September 29, 2003 – The Sehgal Foundation has helped launch the first village Patrika in Ghaghus. ‘Patrika’ is the Hindi word for ‘village newsletter’. Ghaghus is one of the four villages in the Gurgaon District of Haryana, where the Foundation is working on integrated sustainable village development. Similar Patrikas will be developed in the other villages in which the Foundation is active, and will be published quarterly.

The Ghaghus Patrika was developed as part of the Foundation’s Family Life Education program. The Patrika exercise is an initiative to provide village youth with a communications outlet, to provide a forum to acknowledge community role models, to celebrate local culture, and to disseminate information. Rural youth in India have few opportunities to express themselves, or for formal interaction with village elders. Girls especially have highly restricted social interaction within the community.

The Patrika is the joint result of village boys and girls, working in groups. The boys were asked to carry out a small research project that required them to interview local leaders and government officials. They also completed several public speaking assignments, and contributed texts on the role of the “mother” in Ghaghus village.

Girls were requested to “uncover the hidden jewels of Ghaghus”. The girls transcribed several oral wedding songs and poems, and created a feature on wedding decoration, including jewelry and hand painting.

Part of the goal of the Patrika was to provide village youth with the chance to work on, and to complete a project themselves. They were asked to develop a plan for the Partrika, including its contents, time of completion, and to determine who would be responsible for which tasks. All the youth involved reported great satisfaction with the opportunity to interact with each other, as well as with senior people with whom they would not normally have contact. Making a Patrika is thus also a confidence and team-building exercise.

The Patrika was printed at the Foundation’s office and distributed to all Ghaghus village households.

For further information please contact:

The Sehgal Foundation
Dr. (Ms) Ellora Mubashir;
289, Sector 17A,
Gurgaon, Haryana-122001, India