Context

• Pochampally village in Telangana has been selected as one of the best Tourism Villages by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). 

Key Details

• The Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO Pilot initiative aims to award those villages which are outstanding examples of rural destinations and showcase good practises in line with its specified nine evaluation areas.
• The Tourism Villages is a global initiative to highlight those villages where tourism preserves cultures and traditions, celebrates diversity, provides opportunities and safeguards biodiversity.

  

• It also aims to support villages to enhance their rural tourism potential through training and access to opportunities for improvement. 
• Pochampally village in Telangana was selected as one of the Best Tourism Villages by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation. Recent UNESCO heritage tag for Ramappa Temple and now the Best Tourism Village Award to Pochampally will significantly boost tourism in Telangana.
• The Ministry of Tourism recommended three villages for the UNWTO Best Tourism Village entry from India. These were Kongthong in Meghalaya, Ladhpura Khas, Madhya Pradesh and Pochampally in Telangana.
• Pochampally, was awarded as one of the best Tourism Villages by UNWTO.

Back to Basics

About Pochampally 

• Pochampally in Nalgonda district is often referred to as the silk city of India for the exquisite sarees that are woven through a unique style called Ikat.
• This style, Pochampally Ikat, received a Geographical Indicator (GI Status) in 2004.
• Pochampally’s unique weaving styles and patterns received special focus through Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mantra of Vocal 4 Local as a part of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat.
• Pochampally is also known as Bhoodan Pochampally to commemorate the Bhoodan Movement that was launched by Acharya Vinobha Bhave from this village on April 18th, 1951. Currently a two-room Vinobha Bhave Mandir exists within the village which was earlier the place where he resided during his visit to the village.

About Ikat

• Ikat is a method for colouring fabric in patterns by resist dyeing.
• Ikat is a Malaysian, Indonesian word which means “Tie and Dye”.
• Ikat is believed to have its origin in South East Asia, South America and West Africa.
• It’s an ancient art that was derived from the Malay word, ‘Mengikat’ which means to tie.
• It involves the process of wrapping (or tying) and dyeing sections of bundled yarn to a predetermined colour pattern before they are woven.
• It is often only two colours: the colour of the yarn and the colour of the dye.
• A characteristic feature of ikat textiles is an apparent “blurriness” to the design.
• The blurriness is a result of the extreme difficulty the weaver has lining up the dyed yarns so that the pattern comes out perfectly in the finished cloth.

Bhoodan Movement

• The Bhoodan movement (Land Gift movement), also known as the Bloodless Revolution, was a voluntary land reform movement in India.
• It was initiated by Gandhian Vinoba Bhave in 1951 at Pochampally village.
• Aim: to persuade wealthy landowners to voluntarily give a percentage of their land to landless people.
• Bhave was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s Sarvodaya movement and Gram Swarajya.
• The movement aims to bring about a social order based on equality of opportunities by ensuring balanced economic distribution. Decentralisation of economic holdings and powers by assuring that everybody should have a right on land and property.
• Later, the movement took shape of a law called the Bhoodan Act. The government took the charge of distributing land from the land bank.
• The movement later transformed into Gramdan (village in gift) movement.
• Under this movement, whole or a major part of a village land was donated by not less than 75 per cent of the residents for equal distribution among all village residents.

Source: IE

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