Bhopal: While addressing the 103rd episode of 'Mann Ki Baat' today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned the inspiring tale of a village in Madhya Pradesh's Shahdol that is known as 'Mini Brazil'. The tribal-dominated Vicharpur village of Shahdol has come to the limelight for nurturing young footballers.
Every other house in the village will have a skilled football player. Recently, during his Shahdol tour, PM Modi met the football players in the village and now mentioned about them in 'Mann Ki Baat'.
PM Modi said that he had met many talented football players in Vicharpur village when he visited Shahdol few weeks ago. Sharing transformation of Vichharpur into 'Mini Brazil', PM Modi said its journey had started two and a half decades ago when the village was known for illegal liquor.
Rais Ahmed, a former national player and coach, recognized the talent of the local youth. Despite a crunch of resource, Rais started imparting training to them and presently Vicharpur village is being identified with football, PM Modi told.
The village hosts a program termed Football Revolution that provides training to the local youth. The programme has become so successful that more than 40 national and state level players have emerged from Vicharpur. This apart, over 1200 football clubs have come up in Shahdol and its surrounding areas.
An area which was earlier plagued with several vices has presently transformed into a football nursery of the country. There is no dearth of talents in the country but what is needed is to identify and nurture those.
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PM Modi also praised the water conservation initiative of the Shahdol district. He said that he had met the tribals of Pakaria village in Shahdol and discussed about saving the nature and water. "I have come to know that the tribal brothers and sisters of Pakaria village have already started working on this," the prime minister said.
With the help of the administration, tribals of Pakaria village converted around 100 wells into water recharge system where rain water directly goes into the well, from where it seeps into the ground. This is helping in improving the ground water level of the area which is very low. A target has been set to recharge around 800 wells in the entire area.
