Have you ever heard of the richest village in India, known for staggering annual incomes of its residents?
Hiware Bazar, a village located in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district, is known as the 'village of millionaires' due to the high number of millionaires residing there. Yes, you read that right!
Out of 305 families living in the village, 80 are millionaires, as per media reports. Moreover, 50 families earn more than Rs 10 lakh annually.
Source of income
The primary source of income of the villagers is agriculture. You will be surprised to know that the village once battled with poverty due to severe drought in the 80s and 90s, prompting the residents to migrate to cities in search of livelihood. The situation was terrible that 90% of the families in Hiware Bazar were poor around 1990.
The people of the village joined hands and formed a committee known as the 'Joint Forest Management Committee' in 1990. Under the committee, they started digging wells and planting trees to combat the drought.
They also banned sowing crops that required more water. It is truly the result of their hard work and solidarity that there are now more than 300 wells in Hiware Bazar. Additionally, the ground water level has also increased to 30 feet due to the completion of tube well.
The families residing in Hiware Bazar earn their bread and butter solely through agriculture. Pertinent to note that the per capita income of the village is twice the average income of Rs 890 per month of the top 10 percent rural areas of the country.
PM Modi praised the endeavours of the villagers
In an episode of Mann ki Baat on April 24, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the villagers' sensitivity towards water conservation and how they brought changes in the cropping pattern to prevent the wastage of water.
