Berhampur: The train of Jagriti Yatra, an 8,000km train journey across the length and breadth of India with 417 "yatris", including 15 from Odisha, in an attempt to understand the country, its problems and possible solutions, halted here for few hours on Sunday.

"The basic aim of Jagriti Yatra is how the yatris would be exposed to the problems at the grassroots of our society and they must find out for themselves how citizens can intervene to build a new India through enterprise. The yatris are to visit and interact 15 different role models over a period of 15 days across India during this journey and we stopped here to visit one of the role models, Joe Madiath, from Gram Vikas in Mahuda near Berhampur," said executive director of Jagriti Yatra Asutosh Kumar.

Over the past 10 years, Jagriti Yatra has impacted the enterprise landscape of the country significantly by creating future leaders who believe in building India through enterprises, he said.

The yatris witnessed how the Gram Vikas, a non-profit organisation has been focusing on education, health, sanitation, social forestry and a host of other initiatives to improve living condition of tribal communities in Ganjam, Koraput, Sambalpur and Mayurbhanj districts.

"They realised that even if one man is motivated enough to bring the change, things will change for a better and equal society," Asutosh Kumar said.

The chartered train commenced its journey on December 24 from Mumbai and would end its journey in Ahmadabad on January 7.