Gone are the days when YouTube was only an entertainment platform. It is now an economic one, a very lucrative economic platform. Millions of people around the globe are earning their livelihood by creating content and sharing it online. Surprisingly there is a village in India, Tulsi Village in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, where out of a population of 3000, 1000 are content creators on YouTube and are earning way more than their previous wages.
There are more than 40 YouTube channels in the village with wide-ranging topics, including education and entertainment. It all started approx. A decade ago in the village, when youths of the village left their jobs and started with content creation.
Gyanendra Shukla and Jai Verma started the YouTube craze in their village. Gyanendra Shukla used to work as a network engineer at SBI. He used to watch YouTube and decided that he should make his content. As of now, he has made more than 250 videos and has around 1.15 lakh subscribers.
On the other hand, Jai Verma had done M.Sc in Chemistry and used to work as a part-time teacher at a private coaching center where he earned around Rs 12,000-15,000 per month. But YouTube has helped him enhance his income three times.
Female artist and YouTuber Pinky Sahu’ said that these groups have helped empower women from the village and are the right step in making the youth aware and abreast with the changing times and trends around the globe.
“It has been 1.5 yrs since I started. We’ve around 40 YouTube channels. Everyone here participates. Women here are generally not allowed to step out of houses, but through our YouTube channel, we have given them a lot of info that girls too can do something,” said Pinki Sahu.
Besides being a source of income generation and awareness, YouTube has also brought out the best in villagers. A heartwarming incident about one of the channels named ‘Being Chhattisgarhiya’ melted our hearts. It has over 115k subscribers and has made over 200 comedy videos. They got a call from a hospital where an elderly patient whose condition was critical enjoyed their videos and applauded them for their work on the call. Since then, the young YouTubers of Tulsi village have decided to make people laugh with their comedy videos.
