A village is a group of houses and buildings, larger than a hamlet and smaller than a town, situated in rural areas – Google

When we talk about villages; poverty, illiteracy, gender inequality, poor infrastructure are some of the words that instantly comes in our mind. There are currently 640,867 villages that exist in India. The size of these villages varies considerably. 65% of the Indian population lives in villages. However, some ideal villages in India have challenged our stereotypical thoughts regarding villages. Here I have listed down some ideal villages that can beat towns and metropolitan cities on India in terms of literacy, security, infrastructure etcetera.

Home of millionaires

In Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, the village called Hiware Bazar have questioned our thought of affiliating rural areas with poverty. It is located in the drought-prone area of Maharashtra state. It is the richest village in India. The best thing about this village is that it is a self-made village in India. In 1990 when Popatrao Pawar was elected as sarpanch of the village, the revelation of this village totally changes. He banned all the addictive activities in the village so that the expenses of the villagers would minimize. Along with that, he educated villagers with concepts such as rainwater harvesting and encouraged them for cattle farming. In 1995 the monthly income of villagers was 850rs approx and in 2012 the monthly income of villagers was 30,000 approximately. That is a huge transformation. Currently, 60 families in Hiware Bazar qualify as millionaires. Although there are three families in that village who lives in poverty.

Where education is given first preference

In Kerala, there is a village called Pothanikkad. It is the first Indian, which has a rate of 100% literacy. Many prominent people in society have been educated in this village.

Asia’s cleanest village

When we watch a documentary made by a foreigner about India, most of the times 30% of the video covers unclean areas of that particular region of India on which the documentary has been made. Anyhow, with schemes like swatch Bharat Abhiyan, our country is progressing in that area too. Mawlynnong village of Meghalaya is declared as the cleanest village of Asia. This small village has left behind even the big-buzz cities on India in the race of cleanliness. The best part about this village is that the villagers themselves clean the entire village. You won’t find even a single plastic bag laying on the streets of this village. Obviously, every nature lover must visit this village.

Bird lovers

There is a small village in Karnataka, called Korkrebellur who believes in preserving birds. Villages are known for harvesting crops, therefore, villagers don’t really have the most friendly relationship with birds since they harm crops. This village, however, has some rare species that visit the village, therefore neither birds or the villagers ever harmed each other in any way. In fact, villagers have constructed an area for wounded birds where they could rest and heal.

A village without doors

Shani shingnapur is a Maharashtrian village which is so secured that houses of the village don’t have any doors. Also, there is no police station and it is considered as the safest village of India. It has the country’s first lockless bank branch of UCO bank.

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