The initiative of Jal Sahelis or water volunteers in Central India has won widespread appreciation in India. Several of them have received awards for their inspirational work. When last year the Prime Minister also expressed his admiration for these efforts, this further encouraged Jal Sahelis who decided to take up a significant project at a wider level. This initiative has been mobilized by the Parmarth voluntary organization mainly in the Bundelkhand region, under its director Sanjay Singh.

So far, the presence of Jal Sahelis had been seen and admired for village-level initiatives. Perhaps a time had come now for realizing their wider collective strength to strengthen water conservation efforts and programmes. After considerable discussion, senior members of the Parmarth team like Sanjay Singh and Gaurav Pandey came up with the idea of a foot march that would bring together a large number of Jal Sahelis to be together for a number of days, reaching village after village to know about water-related problems there and suggest solutions on the basis of the inspirational work they had been carrying out in their own villages for some years.

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This, it was hoped, would also strengthen their own sense of solidarity and empower them in terms of the realization of their unity and co-operation. Bundelkhand region, comprising 14 districts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, has often been in the news due to water scarcity but at the same time it should be emphasised that this region has important assets and strengths which if tapped properly can end this scarcity. However the solutions must be based on several specific features of the region and a lot can be learnt from traditional wisdom of conserving water and collecting water, particularly in tanks.

A significant number of such tanks go back about a thousand years to the times of Chandela kings. It has been learnt that the restoration of several of these damaged and depleted water sources provides one of the best ways of meeting the water needs of the Bundelkhand region. Another good option is to revive and rejuvenate several small rivers which used to be the lifeline for many remote villages but have been harmed to the extent of almost vanishing due to over-exploitation, excessive sand-mining, encroachments and other factors.

Parmarth is a leading voluntary organization of the region which has worked in cooperation with the government and local communities to improve water conservation in about 100 villages, helping to renovate about 100 tanks, apart from taking up the rejuvenation of six small rivers. An important plank of this work has been the mobilization of Jal Sahelis, recognized by their sky blue dress, who have been involved in important initiatives of river rejuvenation and tank restoration, apart from improving water supply and sanitation.

Once the idea of a march was born, there were several discussions on its planning in the course of which the idea continued to get bigger and finally a foot-march of about 300 km was planned. Finally this march of Jal Sahelis, called a Jal Sarankshan Yatra or water conservation march, took place recently from Orchha to Jaishankar Dhaam, covering about a 300-km distance in five districts – Niwari, Tikamgarh and Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh, and Jhansi and Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh. While about 100 Jal Sahelis covered the entire distance, about 200 joined them for shorter intervals.

In addition many local people including women joined from one village to another or for longer stretches. At various places along the route Jal chaupals or water dialogues were organized in which various aspects of water conservation were discussed. The Jal Sahelis shared about their own work and also learnt about local initiatives. In the process information about the local water sources was also collected along with suggestions regarding the improvement efforts that were needed.

Such detailed information collected on the basis of interactions with local people can be very useful for improvement or restoration work. What is more, whenever time permitted, some work was also taken up for cleaning up or for preventing wastage of water. The response of villagers, including village leaders, panchayat representatives, women and youth, along the route was very encouraging. They made arrangements for food and organized ceremonies for paying their respect to marchers.

Frequently they showered flower petals on the marchers. All this attracted a lot of attention and support for the cause of water conservation and renovation of traditional water sources and protection of rivers. A big achievement of the march was that in the course of this march nearly 400 more women came forward in the villages covered by the march to enlist themselves as Jal Sahelis of the near future. As the tasks of water conservation have been identified and as future water volunteers have also been identified, it is likely that solutions to water-related problems in these villages will be found soon.

As a follow-up measure, dialogues with water authorities in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh for resolving many of these problems are also being taken up. The morale of the women marchers remained at a high level throughout the march, despite the very tiring schedule. In the evenings, on most days, a review meeting was also held to resolve any problems seen during the day, or to make further improvements. The director of Parmarth Sanjay Singh and several other members also walked with the marchers almost right through the march.

These marches can be a very good way of taking the message of water conservation to people in remote villages and also to spread inspirational information regarding some of the remarkably successful efforts of villagers and particularly village women in the recent past. These can lead to more such efforts by other people. It is really a remarkable achievement that these women not only contributed voluntary work earlier but in addition have also found the time and the energy to come out for a much longer period, despite many farm and family responsibilities, for a wider social cause. Such efforts should be widely encouraged.

(The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Protecting Earth for Children, A Day in 2071 and Man over Machine.)