Empowering Villages in Rural India

Dear Friend,

Seva Mandir works to build communities whose members are able to participate actively in the local decision-making which affects their daily lives. Fostering democratic participation in the affairs of the community is the foundation for all of Seva Mandir’s interventions in the region and is a key element of its success in supporting deprived rural communities.

The approach focuses on helping communi­ties in which all members can contribute to the process of designing solutions to local challenges. Once this forum is established, Seva Mandir helps the community to create a village fund, which is managed by a locally elected body.

Through these mechanisms, Seva Mandir encourages the communities in which it is working to take responsibility for, and own­ership of, projects which are implemented for the benefit of the entire community. This approach strengthens the community’s capacity for self-governance which is essential in order to improve daily living conditions and livelihoods on a sustainable basis.

Kaylo ka Guda village is one of Seva Mandir’s working areas. 80 families live in this village. Seva Mandir had started its programme here in the year 1979 with Adult Education Programme and after that Seva Mandir had started its various programmes with the help and participation of the community of the village. Village Institution Program is one of them.

A committee was formed in this village with the help of Seva Mandir and members were elected. After that a group meeting was organized by the committee. All the villagers had participated in the meeting. They discussed about the challenges and problems of the village, and finally come to the conclusion that getting clean drinking water is the main problem of the village.

Previously, villagers used to get drinking water from a common community well, but 4 years back that well had collapsed. So, the villagers specially women faced huge problem in getting water for their families. Everyday they had to walk half a kilometer to get drinking water for their families from a hand pump, but that hand pump was also not working properly.

Keeping this problem in mind the village committee had decided to take the matter to Seva Mandir. The committee had given a proposal to Seva Mandir, they proposed to fix the collapsed well and also to construct a water tank. They also mentioned in the proposal that the villagers will help in doing some labour work and they will also contribute a small amount.

Seva Mandir had immediately started working on this proposal. Renovation and deepening of well was done. Secondly, a water tank was also constructed for the villagers and a motor was also installed near the tank to fill water in the tank.

The committee had also assigned responsibilities to the people of the village, who will take care of the well and water tank.

Today, the villagers are happy that one of their major problem is solved and now they don’t have to walk far to get clean drinking water. Seva Mandir had also provided water filters to all the families of the village.

Thank you so much for all your support to our ‘Empowering villages in Rural India’ project. With your support Seva Mandir has been successful in creating many such communities in the tribal villages of southern Rajasthan, who are now able to stand for their common rights for the benefit of the community.

We would love to hear your feedback and comments on our program. Please do reach out to us at atul.lekhra@sevamandir.org.

Thank you

Regards

Atul Lekhra and the Seva Mandir Team

Follow us on www.facebook.com/sevamandir

Links:

• Seva Mandir's Website
• Seva Mandir's Facebook Page