India Blog Watch

Himvani.com, the site which started as a blog on blogspot on February 14th 2006, is celebrating its first anniversary. The site is a Voice of Himachal (VOH) initiative that is encouraging citizen journalism in Himachal Pradesh, a small hilly state in India. It was started with a vision of a ‘sincere effort to generate public awareness and responsiveness towards sustainable living in the state’ and has successfully done the same. HimVani.com believes in presenting and debating the true state of things in Himachal, and to act as a catalyst to trigger social consciousness among the natives. They don’t just take Himvani.com as a mere website. Instead, they name it grassroots journalism since Himvani has been an effort to work at the grassroots and bring solutions for those areas. By augmenting resources, people at Himvani are firm to offer a surfeit of services which will sport entrepreneurial activity in the state focusing on use of resources that are already present in the community. Another good thing I like about the site is that everyone is contributing for free. It is a voluntary effort just for the passion and love they have for the state. We can safely call it a smaller Wikipedia. I am totally swayed away by the noble initiative taken by Himvani to promote citizen journalism in such a small state (not in terms of resources). But the real problem that the guys at Himvani are facing is the non-availability of internet in remote areas. Owing to this reason, many of the potential grassroots journalists are not being tapped. It would be great for Himvani and many other rural projects if internet reaches every nook and corner of Indian states. My best wishes are with the Himvani community and I would love to write on them at their second anniversary.