The scenic village of Hodka, situated near the Rann of Kutch, is a famous tourist destination, known for its art of embroidery. This art is taught to girls at a young age to keep this art thriving. The embroidered piece is exhibited on the interiors and exteriors of their mud houses. In fact, each house has its own style, design and pattern, leaving the visitors with a flamboyant image.

In a world where ancient Indian languages are losing their significance, there is a village in Karnataka keeping India’s oldest language, Sanskrit, alive. 90 percent of the villagers of Mattur are well versed in the language and choose to converse in pure Sanskrit daily. 

Considered to be the model village for sustainable development, Ralegan Siddhi, is located in the state of Maharashtra. It wasn’t always the case with this village. In the year 1975 the village was hit by drought, poverty, and illicit liquor trade. Under the guidance of Anna Hazare, the village has flourished today becoming one of the richest in the country. What is noteworthy is the sustainable development of the village. They carried out programs like tree planting, terracing to reduce erosion of top soil, rainwater harvesting, solar power, biogas, windmill and percolation tanks. Today the village has a grain bank, milk bank and a school. 

This small village of Karnataka has a fascination for nature and birds. Some of the very rare species of birds are seen visiting this village. They have a separate area in the village dedicated to birds. They even have a place for wounded birds to rest. In a village that survives on agriculture, instead of seeing birds as a threat to their crops, their presence is rather embraced. 

Piplantari village in Rajasthan has a unique way of celebrating the girl child by planting 111 trees at their birth! Not only are they making a conscious effort to save the girl child but also increasing greenery in the village. The trees are looked after by the community as the girl grows up. The parents are required to abide by a legally binding affidavit stating that daughters will receive education, marry after reaching a legal age and planted trees will be looked after.

Chappar village is a part of Haryana, the state which is said to have the lowest sex ratio. But the story is different for the Chappar village. Here sweets are distributed to welcome every new born child irrespective of their gender. The village even has a woman Sarpanch who has managed to transform the attitude of villagers towards women. Education of women is emphasized now and women are now no longer required to put a ghunghat anymore. The breaking away from ghunghat tradition has broken the ice between women and men in the village.

The villagers of this east Indian village, situated 90 kms from Shillong, painstakingly clean the entire village themselves. Their efforts have earned them the reputation of being the cleanest village of India in the year 2003 by the Discover India magazine. The village is flooded with dustbins at every nook and corner to maintain cleanliness and as a result not a single piece of plastic bag or cigarette butt is found liitering the roads!

For the last 30 years, Dharnai village is India’s first village to be completely dependent on solar power for all its energy requirement. Greenpeace India solar powered micro grid made it possible for the village to earn this status. Located in one of the poorest states of India, Bihar, it is quite an achievement.

The pothanikkad village of Kerala has a literacy rate that puts several cities to shame. According to the 2011, the village has 17,563 residents all of whom are literates!

When one thinks of Indian villages, what comes to mind is, no phone network or data connectivity, poor transportation, unhygienic water etc. But Punsari village of Gujarat breaks away from this notion. It has facilities of 24 hour wi-fi, independent bus service, CCTV camera in primary school, solar powered lamps, clean drinking water. The villages even have an accidental cover of Rs 1 lakh and medi-claim of Rs 25000. All this made possible by simply using government schemes to the best.

With the leadership of Sarpanch Popatrao Pawar, tides were turned for the village of Hiware bazar and it became one of the richest villages of India. Situated in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, it has a reputation of a whooping 60 millionaires and a virtual absence of poverty. This was made possible by banning addictive substance and incorporating rainwater harvesting along with cattle farming in the village. It follows the model of Ralegan Sindhi, village developed by Anna Hazare. The per capita income rose from Rs 830 in 1995 to Rs 30,000 in 2012.

Located 350 kms away from the city of Mumbai and 60kms form the popular pilgrim Shirdi, the village of Shani Shingnapur is one of the safest Indian villages. It is so safe that the houses here do not have doors! They don’t even have a police station in the village. In fact, they even boast of the country’s first ever bank without locks. This practice stems from the villagers’ belief that God Shani punishes those who attempt theft. Recently in the news - for the wrong reasons - this Indian village is surely a role-model for all of us!