Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar (MGMD) programme is one of the constituent programmes of the national programme of cultural mapping titled Indira Gandhi National Centre (IGNCA) which is a part of the National Mission of Cultural Mapping (NMCM) of India. The programme was launched from June 2023 as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, which will capture the culture of 6.5 lakh Indian villages. Already 4.7 lakh villages worth of data have been uploaded on the MGMD portal consisting of diverse repertoires of oral traditions, festivals, forms of art, and customs. The programme embraces inclusive documentation and the documentation even of marginalized communities and lesser-promoted forms of cultural expression. Notwithstanding the fact that no state-wise allocation of finances has been done so far, the mission is a historic attempt of utilizing culture when it comes to empowering the rural communities and preserving their identities.

Context:

• Mission: National Mission on Cultural Mapping (NMCM)

• Introduced by: Ministry of culture, Government of India

• Agency to be Implemented: IGNCA (Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts)

• Name of the programme: Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar (MGMD)

• Opening: June 2023 (in the framework of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav)

• Sub-Web Portal: https://mgmd.gov.in

Objectives:

• to capture and digitally map the cultural identity of 6.5 lakh Indian villages.

• To conserve and to encourage the intangible cultural heritage.

• To support local cultural resources as a way of enhancing rural economic potential.

• In order to establish a representational, readily accessible cultural repository with researchers, policymakers and the citizens in mind.

Elements of Village Cultural Mapping:

• The MGMD portal obtains the following information concerning each village:

The Role of MGMD Programme:

• Cultural Preservation:

  • Protecting the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) on the ground.

  • Promotes multi-generation flow of practices.

  • Can ensure cultural preservation in a way that was/is threatened by city life and relocations.

• Inclusive representation:

  • Makes the ignorant and tribal cultures speak out through it by making it very diverse.

  • Records local dialects, traditions, and practices that are on the verge of becoming extinct.

• Agriculture:

  • Facilitates culture tourism in a way that encourages the livelihoods of the rural communities.

  • Are able to assist in GI (Geographical Indication) identification.

  • Officially recognizes the talent of artisans and the artists.

Components of Village Cultural Mapping:

The MGMD portal captures the following data for each village:

Progress So Far:

Academic and policy use:

• Serves as a medium of housing educational research.

• Helps to make region specific cultural policies.

Issues and Problems:

• Financial assistance and funds deficiency on state scale.

• The quality of documentation is varied; it requires trained cultural surveyors.

• Accessibility in the remote areas might be hampered due to the digital divide.

• Commercialization or exoticization threat of rural cultures.

Conclusion:

Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar project is a paradigm change in urban oriented cultural policies to village orientation to cultural identity and restoration. The programme not only enhances cultural pride of people in India about their intangible heritage but also provides capabilities of economic power and overall development due to the recognition and documentation of the diversity among people living in rural India. Nevertheless, it requires permanent investment, coordination at the state level, and quality assurance in order to achieve its transformational potential.

In one of the best instances of community-led restoration of an ecological landscape, the Noon River at the Kanpur district of the state of Uttar Pradesh has been revived, as part of a state-wide project of restoring life to the central valley of the district, under the state government project of One District, One River. The river (a length of 48.5 km) was clogged with water hyacinth, construction and industrial wastes. The flow of the river has been re-established in 34 gram panchayats through drone mapping, satellite survey and community labour through MGNREGA. The initiative by the officials, as well as the population of the village, enhanced access to irrigation and recovery of interest in rural employment schemes. It has now become an example of an integrated, sustainable water management.

Context:

• Project: the project of the Government of Uttar Pradesh One District, One River (introduced following Saryu Mahotsav 2025).

• District: Uttar Pradesh, Kanpur

• River: Noon River (48.5 km; source: Kanhaiya Lake at Rampur Narua; confluence with the Ganga at Bithoor)

• Project Duration: February 22 2025 to July 2025

Scientific and Technological Instruments Applied:

• Drone mapping and satellite imagery (maps that are above 40 years of age)

• Technical aid of:

  • Remote Sensing Application Centre, Lucknow pp

  • BBAU, IIT-Kanpur, BHU, National Institute of Hydrology (Roorkee)

  • Finding of dry and blocked areas

  • Delineation of rivers basin and floodplain

Community Participation:

• Through Gram panchayats, officials and villagers were involved through:

• Shramdaan (voluntary work)

• The MGNREGA (more than 1, 700 man-days in Rampur Narua, alone)

• Slogans such as: Female local rank-and-file organization Women led local mobilisations Women led local mobilizations

•  Were gathered round together In one big ring, Hum sabne milke thana hai, Noon nadi ko fir se jeewant karaana hai

Rejuvenation Activities:

• Eranging jal kumbhi (water hyacinth)

• Removal of boulders, construction material and debris

• Encroachment and disposal of industrial waste (CSR money being spent on heavy machinery)

• Institute of small check dams

• Establishment of patches of vegetation through the Forest Dept assistance

Cost & Employment:

• Spending: 1.22 crores (mission on MGNREGA wages)

• Resurgent rural employment: increase in work days to 1,760 as against 1,200 in the recent past.

Environmental & Socio-economic Impact:

Wider State-Scores:

• An almost 50 rivers came back to life in Uttar Pradesh

• Rivers that were earlier on referred to as nallahs being rediscovered

• Cross-sectional planning: Forest, Irrigation, Panchayati Raj, Horticulture etc.

• Case: Kukrail (Lucknow) and Sarain (Sitapur) got new life after some decades

Conclusion

The Noon River scheme illustrates the strength of the collective effort of water management involving the community in India as a rural setting. It integrates the past, the present science and employment programs such as MGNREGA to have lasting results. These are priorities in fighting water scarcity and flood as well as defeating rural economic setbacks and go along with SDGs 6 (Clean Water), 13 (Climate Action) and 15 (Life on Land).

Gavri Gavri is an only 40 days ritualistic folk theatre observed by Mewar Bhils of Southern Rajasthan, after Raksha Bandhan. This is dedicated to shakti(Goddess Gauri/Parvati ) and is accomplished by all-male troupes, who conduct dance-dramas between different villages. The satire and mythology are involved in criticizing powers of caste and state at the festival and social hierarchies are turned down uproariously as a symbolic portrayal of power. It is also spiritual as well as political and it keeps the Bhil identity and their ecological values. Captured by Aditi Mehta and Sudharak Olwe, Gavri represents a testimony of tribal survival and cultural assertion and struggle in itself.

Context:

• Occasion: The event is an annual post-monsoon festival of Bhils in the south of Rajasthan that is enacted by Bhil Adivasis.

• Area: Mewar region Udaipur, Rajsamand, Chittorgarh, Dungarpur and Banswara districts.

• Significance: Religiosity, Caste protest, culture statement in a single overarching performative culture.

Important Characters of Gavri Festival are:

• Gavri is a colorful religious tribal festival that takes place in the Mewar region of South Rajasthan or specifically in districts such as Udaipur, Rajsamand, Chittorgarh, and Bhilwara. It is mostly practiced by the tribe of Bhil in the months of August – September (after the monsoon period which is in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada).

• Period: It is a 40 days long festival where Bhil villagers do not drink and eat non-vegetarian; they also do not shave their body parts and exercise complete spiritual control.

• Performances: Folk theatre which entails outdoor dramatic repertoire of mythological and tribal stories is at the heart of Gavri.

• Themes: The tales illustrate combat between virtuous and vices, and these tales are influenced by regional deities, such as Devnarayan, Bhairuji and Chamunda Mata.

• Actors: Male actors, dressed in bright traditional outfit, perform all the roles even of women and gods.

• Purpose: It is supposed to call down divine secrets as a defense to the village and blessings of good health, rain and wealth.

Major Characteristics of Gavri Festival:

Spiritual And Ritual basis:

• It starts after the festival of Raksha Bandhan, and this denotes Goddess Parvati as the sister to the Bhils.

• It includes fasting, travelling barefoot and religious commitment to Bhil gods.

Performance Dynamics:

• Exerted by khelyas-actors of 16-40 age.

• It consists of 1520 plays including Badliya Hindwa, Bhilurana and Banmata which are played in 3540 villages.

• Associated with no written text; shared through performance, songs, satire and storytelling.

• Female roles performed by men, which spoke about the fluid gender performance in a patriarchal environment.

Thematic Content:

• Satire on kings, gods, Brahmins and the colonial iron.

• Emphasizes nature worship, Bhil resistance, and condemnation of the violence of the state.

• Temporal dynamic inversion of power and caste during the plays.

Ceremonial Elements:

• Symbolic ownership (avsar aana) in which the performers go into divine trance.

• The performers are housed by the villagers which strengthens membership and the family units.

• Exhibited in the IGNA (ligneoMs disp[arl­ivingston hearing, at The Eternal Dance of Tribal India, by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA).

Cultural and Social Effect:

• Restores Adivasi cosmos and anti-histories of resistance.

• Empowers tribal identity as mainstream culture is lost.

• Blasts capitalist and Brahmanical hegemony by use of subversive art.

Conclusion

Gavri is not only a festival, but also theatre, resistance and renewal of the Bhils. It breaks caste ladders, opposes patriarchy and practices ecological principles. It is important to maintain such festivals as part of the Indian cultural plurality as well as inclusion of the tribal in national discourse.

Protection of children from sexual offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 came into being to protect children against sexual exploitation. It has however begged the question of trying all people under the age of 18 as children thereby criminalizing consensual sex between teenagers aged 16-18. This is an argument espoused by one amicus curiae Indira Jaising in a recent Supreme Court submission asking that a close-in-age exception be made relating to the misuse of the law in cases of voluntary relationships involving adolescents.

Legal and Constitutional Background

• POCSO Act, 2012: Makes any sex act with an under-18 person a criminal act, whether or not they consent.

• Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013: Increased the age of consent to 18 years right.

• Section 375 and Section 63 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS): Correspondence with POCSO that makes consensual sex with a minor an act of rape.

• Article 21 of the Constitution: Safeguards right of life and liberty or personal freedom, including freedom over repose and dignity of the body.

Issues with Criminalizing Consensual Adolescent Sex:

• Violation of Bodily Autonomy

  • Young people between 16 and 18 sometimes can give informed consent.

  • Punishing them of their voluntary acts, Meaning personal liberty (Article 21), will be a breach of personal liberty.

• Disproportionate Punishment:

  • Adolescents in consensual relations are enrolled in a serious offense such as rape, which stains their lives forever.

• Abuse of law:

  • Parents also wrongly apply POCSO to any relationship they do not approve of (inter-caste, inter-religious or elopement).

• There is no Evidence-based Justification:

  • Before 2013, the age of consent had been 16 and above, most of all the 0.8 decades.

  • There were no empirical statistics given to prove up to 18.

• Global Norms:

  • Close in age exemptions are used in order to distinguish between exploitative and consensual relationships in many democratic countries (e.g. USA, UK, Canada).

Arguments in Favor of a Close-in-Age Exception:

• Intention of protection saved:

  • The abusive adult-child relationships may be punishable in spite of the independence of the teenagers.

• Avoids Overcriminalization:

  • The machinery of law will be able to deal with real cases of child sexual abuse and leave the consensual teen acts.

• Helps to Maintain and Enhance Mental Health:

  • The experience of a criminal trial and imprisonment at a young age are harmful to psychosocial development.

• Supports the Constitutional Morality:

  • According to Navtej Singh Johar (2018) the Court affirmed the privacy, dignity and choice of consenting individuals to conduct sexual activities.

Counterarguments:

• Adolescent Weakness:

  • Adolescents might be emotionally weak and fail to evaluate consequences even at the age of 16-18.

• Social and Cultural Issues:

  • Indian society is conservative; the liberalizing of the age of consent can become an act against.

• Peril of Teenage Pregnancies:

  • Sexual initiation at an early age can bring in health, educational, and social dilemmas among the girls.

Way Forward:

• Judicial Reinterpretation: Legislative reform is not necessary to safeguard consensual relationships between adolescents where judicial creation of a close-in-age exception can cushion such relationships.

• Law Commission Review: An adolescent sexuality, consent, and effectiveness of POCSO should be a subject of a detailed study.

• Sexual Education: It should include age appropriate, rights based sexual education in school as a means to promote informed decision making.

• Legal Protection: Mandatory counseling or mediation solutions involving consensual adolescent cases can be put in place rather than punitive measures.

Conclusion

The need to protect children against abuse must not be set as high over the need to allow adolescents to have a developing autonomy by creating a balance between the two needs. The close-in-age exception that could be introduced under the POCSO framework would make sure that the consensual relationships will not be criminalised in accordance with the constitutional morality, international best practices and progressive approach to the interpretation of fundamental rights.