Context: The government has identified and documented distinctive features of more than one lakh villages across the country.

• This entire exercise has been carried out under the Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar (My Village My Heritage) programme of the National Mission for Cultural Mapping (NMCM).

What is the Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar (My Village My Heritage) programme?

• It is being carried out under the National Mission for Cultural Mapping (NMCM).

• The survey seeks to document the cultural identity at the village level by involving citizens to share what makes their village, block or district unique.

• The Ministry of Culture has partnered with the Common Services Centres (CSC), under the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MEITY) for this programme.

• The survey process involves a CSC Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE) conducting meetings with locals and then uploading interesting facts about their village, its places of interest, customs and traditions, famous personalities, festivals and beliefs, art and culture, etc on to a special application.

How many villages have been documented under the survey till now?

• More than one lakh villages across the country have been documented till now. Villages have been broadly divided into seven-eight categories based on whether they are important ecologically, developmentally if they produce a famous textile or product and if they are connected to some historical or mythological events.

• For example, the ecological category includes the Bishnoi village near Jodhpur in Rajasthan, which is a case study for living in harmony with nature and Uttarakhand’s Raini village which is famous for the Chipko movement.

• There are also villages that have developmental importance like Modhera in Gujarat, which is the first solar-powered village in India.

• Suketi in Himachal Pradesh, Asia’s oldest fossil park and Pandrethan in Kashmir, the village of Shaivite mystic Lal Ded are classified for their historical importance.