the Citizens’ Forum by participating in the forum’s regular meetings and providing employment for local young people in the hotel. Devigarh has also helped to showcase the development activities carried out by the community of Delwara and Seva Mandir by encouraging its guests to go on the tours led the young people trained as guides by Seva Mandir.
The Delwara Heritage and Community Walk
The Delwara Walk started as a project to generate local jobs and publicise the development work accomplished together by Seva Mandir and Delwara’s people over the past 15 years. It has, however, had a wider impact.
Together with a Seva Mandir volunteer, young people from all three major religious communities researched the town’s history and heritage sites and were trained to lead tours taking in its little known heritage sites and visiting artisans practising their traditional crafts (potters, artists, goldsmiths). But, unlike other heritage walks, this one goes beyond physical heritage to consider questions about women’s rights, access to water and toilets, caste discrimination, livelihoods and other aspects of Seva Mandir’s work. Walks are also being organised with Delwara’s schoolchildren so that they too can begin to learn about and take ownership of the development of Delwara.