Dharmaj diaspora starts mapping its presence

Vadodara/ Anand: NRG-rich Dharmaj town is famed for the families who have moved out of the town and made foreign shores their home.
In fact, almost every family in this village with a population of just 10,500 has some or other relative settled in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the African countries.
Now, in an attempt to known the exact status of all those settled abroad, the town has started collecting a global database.Ahead of the Dharmaj Day celebrations which will be organized on January 12 next year for the 13th consecutive year, the village has started sending online links to collect data from each native person, who was either born here, studied in one of the many schools in the village and is now settled abroad.
The 13rd Dharmaj Day celebrations have been clubbed with the 75th year celebrations of Dharmaj Kelavani Mandal, the 1943 established institute which looks after all the educational institutes in the village.
“As we are organizing the Dharmaj Day celebrations with the commemoration of 75th year of the Kelavani Mandal, we will be celebrating the occasion keeping education as the theme,” said Rajesh Patel, part of the committee which will organize the celebrations.
The locals are reaching out to families settled across the globe through flyers, pamphlets, social media groups and through organisations like the Dharmaj Society of London, which itself will be celebrating its 50th year on September 30 at London.
Natives of Dharmaj had started migrating from 1895 onwards. Initially, they migrated to Africa and later to the UK. “Today, there are nearly 1,700 families in UK having their roots in Dharmaj while there are 1,000 such families in the US, 400 in Canada, 400 in Australia and New Zealand and nearly 150 families in African countries because of which Dharmaj is also known as a transnational village,” he said.
“But with the global database for which we have prepared online form and QR code, we will come to know the exact status of all Dharmajians, including the country in which they presently reside, their educational qualifications, their occupations, their age and even their blood group,” he said, adding that the global database will help reach out to all those hailing from this village to remain connected with the generation next and also further contribute in its development.
The organizers are expecting nearly 10,000 people to participate in the Dharmaj Day celebrations for which ground work has already started.