Students in the village taking part in cleaning activities
'Swachh Bharat' may be the newbuzz word after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for a clean India but onevillage in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra did it ten years ago.
In a state which has a record for farmer suicides, HiwareBazaar's 236 families, comprising of 1,233 people, boast of 60 millionaires andjust three families living below the poverty line. It is also spotlessly clean.
This transformation was brought about by Popatrao Pawar, whoafter completing his studies in Pune, returned to the village and was elected'sarpanch' (village chief) in 1990.
"In 1982, the situation of the village was verybad," Mr Pawar told NDTV. "There was no employment, no water, noelectricity. In 1990 I came to this village and became the Sarpanch and myvision was to make the village the village I saw when I was a kid."
"Now, in the village, we have schools up to 10thstandard. Our focus is not limited to literacy alone but we want to develop aculture in our citizens. We wanted to eradicate drug addiction, improve theenvironmental conditions and improve sanitation facilities," added MrPawar.
25 years ago, this village was like any other inMaharashtra. Poverty, hunger and desperation had forced many villagers intoalcoholism and some like 56-year-old Pandurang Kadam had left for Mumbai insearch of a better life.
But today, Mr Kadam is back and lives a prosperous life.
Mr Kadam told NDTV, "Earlier I had no money and washeavily in debt. Earlier there was no food. Now we have food and money. Allthis happened because of our Sarpanch".
By adopting sustainable crop patterns and making the most ofgovernment schemes, today the village has flourishing horticulture and dairyfarming projects.
The water table here is far better than surrounding areas asover 11 lakh trees have been planted over the years. Water resources areuniformly shared and the village managed on its own during last year's drought.
But that's not all. Hiware Bazaar has done what India istrying to do. Every house here has a toilet.
"We told the entire village the importance the toilets.We told about the benefits and they later agreed to build toilets," saidMonika Padir, a Class 10 student.
The students spend an hour everyday cleaning the entirevillage, including toilets. This is a practice that has been followed for yearsand this ensures the village is spotlessly clean.
With a water conservation system that provides for theentire year, concrete roads and streets lined with trees, Hiware Bazaar couldput any Indian city to shame.
Having earned the title of "an ideal village", the rags-to-riches story of this place is perhaps whatPM Modiwould want India to replicate.
The task, villagers say, is made possible bycommunity-oriented development where the entire village participates.
While Hiware Bazaar has already won many awards from the state and centre, its latest goal is to ensure that the remaining families living below thepoverty line become land owners and thus self-sufficient.