The Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) is a flagship program of the Ministry of Education launched in 2014. This scheme intends to link the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with a set of at least five villages. These HEIs can contribute to the social and economic betterment of the village communities by using their knowledge base under the UBA.
The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT, Delhi) is the National Coordinating Institute for this scheme. The Unnat Bharat Abhiyan scheme covers two major domains for the holistic development of villages in an integrated way, i.e. material (economic) development and human development.
The UBA envisages a transformational change in the rural development process by leveraging the knowledge institutions to build the architecture for an Inclusive India.
The mission of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is to enable HEIs to work with the people of rural India for identifying development challenges and coming up with appropriate solutions to accelerate sustainable growth.
It aims to create a virtuous cycle between society and an inclusive academic system by giving knowledge and practices for upcoming professions and upgrading the capabilities of both the private and public sectors in their response to the developmental needs of rural India.
The main objectives of UBA are as under:
Any registered educational institution in India can join the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan scheme. However, the educational institution must fulfil the following criteria to join as a Higher Educational Institution (HEI) under the UBA:
The institutions that meet the above eligibility criteria will be selected under the UBA scheme. The institutions can apply for joining the UBA scheme on its official website under the ‘Join UBA’ option on the homepage. Any student of the HEIs in India can also be a part of the UBA scheme. The students can join by contacting the UBA coordinator or UBA cell in their institutions for joining this scheme.
The dimensions in which the participating institutes can assist under the UBA scheme are:
The government launched the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0 in 2018, the upgraded version of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 1.0. The Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0 is a flagship program of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). However, the IIT, Delhi, is still the National Coordinating Institute for the UBA 2.0.
Unde the UBA 2.0, 688 institutions are selected on a Challenge Mode, out of which 426 are technical, and 262 are non-technical reputed Higher Educational Institutes (both private and public) of the country. These HEIs have adopted a total no. of 3,555 villages for development through the UBA scheme.
The scope for providing Regional Coordinating Institutes and Subject Expert Groups assistance to guide and handhold the participating institutions is strengthened. Many participating institutes have interacted with the villagers, conducted household-level surveys and prepared action plans. The issues and challenges have been identified through public participation. These action plans will be ratified by the Gram Sabhas and implemented.
The UBA 2.0 has two significant domains for the holistic development of the villages that requires development in an integrated manner. The two significant domains are as follows: