Sachin Tendulkar adopts Donja village under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna

Cricket icon and Rajya Sabha lawmaker Sachin Tendulkar has selected Donja village in Maharashtra's Osmanabad district for development under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna.

The programme, under which each Member of Parliament needs to choose one village from his or her constituency and develop it as a model village, was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan, on 11 October, 2014.

"We are happy that Sachin Tendulkar has picked Donja. We are sure this will inspire other villages in the region to emulate this model of development," Osmanabad Zilla Parishad CEO Anand Rayate said.

Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana is a rural development programme focussing on development of villages which include social and cultural development, and spread motivation among the people on social mobilisation of the village community.

Osmanabad has been reeling under severe drought since the last few years and has also recorded a steep rise in incidents of farmers' suicide.

Donja is a village in Osmanabad's Paranda. As per the 2011 census, 582 families reside there. It has a population of 2,863 of which 1,508 are males while 1,355 are females.

In the village, the population in the age group of 0-6 years is 319 which makes up 11.14% of the total population.

The average sex ratio of the village is 899, which is lower than Maharashtra's average of 929, while the Child Sex Ratio as per 2011 census is 910, higher than the state average of 894.

The literacy rate of Donja in 2011 was 72.17%, lower than 82.34% of Maharashtra. Male literacy rate stands at 78.75%, while female literacy rate was 64.84%.

--PTI