Yamunanagar, March 18
Dharamvir (46), who once used to pull a rickshaw in New Delhi, spent four days at Rashtrapati Bhawan last week.
The middle-aged farmer from Damla was one of the 36 innovators from rural India who were
hosted by Rashtrapati Bhawan at the National Grassroots Innovation Exhibition held for the first time on its sprawling campus.
As a rickshaw-puller, Dharamvir found the going tough in New Delhi and returned home in 1987. However, he had only two acres and a little more. He started growing Aloe Vera, but had no money to buy even a manual extractor to squeeze out the juice. Extracting the juice manually was expensive and time consuming.
The determined farmer resolved to jig a machine for his own use. After several years of hard work, he came up with a low-cost multi-processing unit, which works as a juicer, grinder, mixer, steamer and boiler, besides performing other tasks. “My multi-processing machine can crush and extract
juice or oil from herbs, fruits and vegetables,” said Dharamvir.This was of course his first visit to Rashtrapati Bhawan, where the innovators were treated as special guests. Overwhelmed after his visit to the Mughal Gardens and a meeting with President Pratibha Patil and her husband Devisingh Patil, Dharamvir is even more elated at the response his machine received at the exhibition.
Devisingh Patil and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit evinced keen interest in the unit and wanted to buy a few of these machines.
He even received orders for supplying his machines to several other countries, including Kenya.
While he admits to earn Rs 60,000 to Rs 80,000 every month, he has provided employment to 30 women in his village, who help him grow strawberry, Aloe Vera, mushroom and several fruits.
The plantation and juice processing keep them busy while Dharamvir spends time in fine-tuning his machine.
