Small rivers have been getting depleted and sometimes simply vanishing in many parts of the country. This has aggravated the problem of floods as well as droughts, as people are denied access to their water in drought years and during floods, rain water which would have flowed into these rivers instead turns towards human habitations. Keeping in view these problems, efforts that have been made at some places for rejuvenation of several small rivers have been widely appreciated. One such effort has involved the mobilization of communities with the help of women water protector volunteers called Jal Sahelis.

This initiative of Parmarth voluntary organization has been mainly concentrated in Bundelkhand region (spread over 14 districts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh) but is now spreading to other states like Rajasthan. Speaking to several Jal Sahelis in their villages and at training programmes, this writer has been impressed by their deep commitment and ability to contribute voluntary work on a regular basis. Their work has also been praised by the Prime Minister. Among them, Sarkunwar has a special place as she was the first one to be selected as a Jal Saheli.

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I recently met her in Udgavaan village of Talbehat block, Lalitpur district, Uttar Pradesh. She told me how when she heard of a new scheme called NREGA she reached the work-site but was asked to go away as she did not have a job card. She went around trying to get a job card made, but could not succeed. Then she met members of Parmarth visiting the village and they helped her to get a job card. While interacting with her, they found her to be exceptionally courageous and capable of taking new initiatives. Impressed by her abilities as well as zeal they decided to encourage her. Soon she had not just become a NREGA worker but a mate supervising NREGA work. Around this time, Parmarth was coming up with the idea of water conservation and sanitation volunteers called Jal Sahelis.

Keeping in view her extraordinary zeal for such work and responsibilities, Sarkunwar was selected as the first Jal Saheli. Subsequently she was also elected unopposed as a ward panch (representative) and a member of the village school committee. Sarkunwar played an important role in ensuring that quality check dams were completed in time to bring irrigation to nearly 150 farmers whose land was more or less uncultivated due to lack of any irrigation. Similarly she played an important role in planting nearly 15,000 trees under NREGA and in the construction of 120 toilets for her village. She made her presence felt at several meetings on development schemes. In such meetings when only achievements were being mentioned, she would get up and say loudly this may well be so in some other villages but I cannot see this achievement so far in my village.

With such plain speaking, she would ensure that neglected or half-completed development work in her village was attended to properly. All this not only won her appreciation and respect in her own village, people of other villages and even some officials started addressing her as ‘netaji’( leader). It is to a large extent due to the deep commitment of such Jal Sahelis that some significant work could progress for the revival and rejuvenation of small rivers. Some seven such efforts have been in progress. One such effort from a remote village of Jhansi district (Uttar Pradesh) that attracted attention and won much appreciation at the national level has been of about 18 women volunteers of Simravari panchayat for the rejuvenation of Ghurari river.

This river which had been a lifeline for this and several other villages had been in decline after an important check dam got damaged and there was growth of weeds. The panchayat has about 18 Jal Sahelis. After discussion, they decided to take up the work of creating a sack bund on their own as well as cleaning weeds. Braving exceptionally hot weather in March and April, they filled up nearly 1,000 sacks provided by Parmarth with sand and placed these at a carefully selected place in the river to provide a temporary bund. It was a very difficult task and involved entering and walking in the river time and again. As Dhanwanti said, she even lost her payal (ornament worn on the feet) to the river. Similar was the case with two other Jal Sahelis.

This work continued for about six days. After this, four days were devoted to clearing weeds. However as Meera, a Jal Saheli says, all our work was duly rewarded when we heard that even the Prime Minister had praised our work. When Parmarth started working in the village, Jal Sahelis had to go frequently to the city for training. When a mother-in-law objected, the local Parmarth motivator would reply “Mother, why don’t you also come and see what we are doing.” Similarly, any husband who objected was also invited. Today such objections have become almost non-existent. In fact, several families now actively support the work of Jal Sahelis. The inspirational work of Jal Sahelis is clearly giving a boost to the empowerment of women. Now they are focusing attention on Jal Jeevan Mission work, as they want to make ‘hargharjal’ (water to all village homes) a reality.

The work of laying pipelines has been completed in the village but no water has come to the pipelines yet. They have been told that when the water tank is constructed they’ll get water. Jal Sahelis say that they are determined to work in such a way that the objective of water for all village homes is realised quickly.

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