Mysuru: City dwellers often have a romantic idea of rural India. Fresh air, open spaces and green fields construct their perception about how the rural Bharat where majority of country’s population reside. 

The participants of Walk Within-2019 opined that this perception changed drastically as they walked through 44 villages and a total of 160 kms. Each village helped them see the real rural Bharat with its own set of good and bad. Walk Within was a first step for urban dwellers to engage with rural Bharat and gain first-hand experience of their challenges and opportunities. It also helped the participants challenge their own limits physically and mentally.  

The carefully planned walk began every day with yoga and meditation, followed by a session by Dr. R. Balasubramaiam, Founder, SVYM and GRAAM, transact walk through the villages to talk and engage with the community and understand about their life and priorities, ending with a session to reflect on the day. Lunch at Government Schools, a dip in river Kabini and visit to temples were the added highlights of walking for almost 15 kms every day. 

On Dec.26, the participants also witnessed a celestial show of Annular Solar Eclipse guided by  Praveen, a Science enthusiast and Deputy CEO, SVYM. 

During the walk each day the team observed and discussed about urbanisation and its effects in villages and perspectives of villagers; water and sanitation, unemployment, livelihood creation, agriculture, health and education, alcoholism, poverty etc.

The team observed that there were many facilities from the Government which were either not utilised or underutilised especially open defecation despite toilets in villages; public healthcare centres without doctors etc. Many villagers expressed that these days villages are becoming centres for senior citizens due to migration of youth in search of labour as they are not taking up agriculture for livelihood.

Dr. Balasubramaniam shared that Walk Within is a journey that will help everyone to gain an insight on what contribution can be made by each individual towards nation’s development. Around 70 participants from across India from an age group of 17 to 64 years completed the 8-day walk with enthusiasm, gaining a new dimension to life.  

Donations raised through Walk Within will support Chiguru Ashrama of Mysuru, a shelter for mentally challenged women and SVYM’s Palliative Care Centre, a 16-bed institute to support people with Cancer, HIV, cardiac conditions and other illnesses.