NEW YORK: A group of Indian American activists for India is coordinating and sponsoring the India Rural Development Action Program Conference in Chicago, Illinois the weekend of May 3rd and 4th. The primary purpose of the Conference is to develop concrete action programs for water development, healthcare, primary education and economic development of rural Indian villages. It is a follow-up to the December 2007 Rural India Learning Journey undertaken by 24 Indian Americans.

The Learning Journey, to rural areas in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, gave the participants first-hand knowledge of how the villagers of India are faring compared to the rapid progress of the upper and middle-classes in the cities of India. Most of the areas visited fell within rain shadow regions in which livelihood is primarily agricultural and heavily dependent on scanty, seasonal rainfall. All of the villages suffer from acute shortages of drinking water and water for growing crops, as well as all of the other infrastructural deficiencies attendant upon poverty.

What the group saw and experienced gave them renewed hope that rural India was not a basket case although there was a lot more to be done. Participants in the Learning Journey consider the Chicago Action Program Conference the logical next step by friends of India in the US, including Indian Americans, toward making a concrete contribution to the future of India.

During the May 3rd and 4th Conference, participants in the Learning Journey and other veterans in grassroots development, will share their experiences and discuss the work of credible NGOs already making strides in developing rural India and how the successful models of village development could be scaled up and replicated elsewhere in India.

Most importantly, they plan to formulate specific project possibilities and encourage others to participate in future Learning Journeys to different Indian states in 2008 and 2009. Ultimately, the objective is to get together friends of India in the US including Indian Americans to help all of rural India to make progress during the next decade or two -- including the states of the north and east that have lagged behind.