Author(s):
To develop the first Smart Village, Amrita Self Reliant Village (Amrita SeRVe) has adopted Sadivayal village in Coimbatore, one of the isolated tribal communities in Tamil Nadu. The village, located 45 kilometres from Coimbatore district and comprising 46 families with an average population of 150, is inhabited by the Irula community of Scheduled Tribes. The Amrita SeRVe Smart Village aims to improve access to food, nutrition, education, healthcare, clean water and sanitation while maximising available local resources. Agriculture serves as a catalyst for development in the villages because it brings economic growth, which is the most effective tool for addressing issues such as gender equality, unemployment, health and economic growth. Sadivayal, the first village in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore district to receive organic agriculture certification (NPOP), meets the standards of the National Plan for Organic Agriculture. In 2018, the village became ODF (Open-Defecation-Free). The paper looks at some of India’s unique model village programs and the indicators of their progress in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The work of Amrita SeRVe was compared with the central government’s model village program, Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana
