Gram Vikas

Water Security of rural communities in Odisha is Gram Vikas' key agenda for its fifth decade. To make this happen, we need to approach the water problem creatively; we need to bring three key elements - the communities, the resource and the governance system - together on a common platform. Science and technology applications have to be used innovatively - be it GIS, Remote Sensing or Hydrogeology. Village level capacities have to be built. In addition, Gram Vikas' organisational abilities will need to enhanced.

The Elevate Prize funding will allow Gram Vikas and me to learn more about the problems, search for technology options that are available, train our staff to use these new methods and approaches, build the capabilities of young men and women from the villages to use the technologies and plan and execute measures to ensure sustainability of water resources. It will help us work with the elected representatives of local governments, make them more sensitive and capable of addressing climate change issues in their locations.

 Most of all, the Elevate Prize will boost our morale, as we take this arduous journey towards enabling water security for one million families in Odisha.

In my growing up days, empathy was a much desired personality trait.  A greater common good was prioritised over narrower individual benefits. This upbringing influenced my life choices. I studied rural management at the post graduate level, which gave me remarkable exposure to the realities of rural India. I have been working directly with rural communities, mostly in Eastern India, for the last 25 years. 

 My first stint with Gram Vikas was between 1999 and 2005. During this period, I managed work on natural resources management and understood first-hand, the effects that natural disasters wreak on the lives and livelihoods of the rural poor. When I got the opportunity to come back to Odisha and lead Gram Vikas' work, I wanted to use it to make a substantial change in the lives of the poor in Odisha.

I want to build an organisation that is capable of guiding people to be prescient; be prepared to withstand the effects of natural changes around them. I want people to have their dignity intact, even if the material conditions of their life are not the best. My dream, also Gram Vikas' vision.

Freshwater availability is a global concern. Climate change, rapid urbanisation,  changing consumer preferences - there are many factors that exacerbate the situation. UNICEF estimates that 1.42 billion people – including 450 million children – live in areas of high or extremely high water vulnerability today. The situation in India, and in Odisha, is not different. 40% of Odisha's 43 million people come from historically disadvantaged social groups. Odisha’s groundwater volume, assessed at 16.69 billion cubic metre in 2009 has dropped to 15.57 BCM in 2017, reduction by 6.71% in 9 years.

Social, economic and political marginalisation of the rural communities makes them powerless in influencing public policy and resource allocation decisions.

Gram Vikas works directly with such communities, helping them build their capabilities to address key development issues. Together with the communities, we identify the key problems, prioritise their solutions and mobilise resources to implement these.  We strive to do this at a scale that matters, enabling others to learn from our experiences and adapt the solutions to their contexts.

 We have helped build >55,000 households access clean cooking energy; ~500,000 people access safe sanitation and drinking water - models that have found national and international recognition.

The most significant innovation in our approach is the bringing together of three critical factors for water security:

• the user community
• the resource base
• the local governance system

Most interventions of this kind so far have focused attention on bringing any two of these factors together. Ours will be the first such attempt to have all three as equal parts of the programme design, at a scale that is substantial.

 Having the Gram Panchayat (GP – the lowest administrative and governance unit, in India) as the unit of intervention is not commonly done in the non-government interventions in India. Geo-hydrologically, the GP is not the best unit; its importance is more political and administrative. We believe that our approach will enable creation of a model that bring water resource management to the general business of governance and not as a technically complex one.

 We will make technological tools, methods and applications accessible in remote rural areas. By demystifying geo-hydrology applications to enable rural men and women to measure water recharge and use, we will bring about a new culture of local evidence creation for sustainable development.

In the last 42 years, Gram Vikas has demonstrated how lives of people in remote villages of Odisha can be made better. Our work on renewable energy for cooking has enabled reduction in drudgery faced by women, and also improve survival of forests. Our work in drinking water and sanitation has helped improve privacy and dignity for women and girl children and also better health and nutrition outcomes.

 These were not just technical interventions. They involved building human and institutional capacities in rural India and putting in place mechanisms for sustainable systems changes. We have also demonstrated how such changes can be done at a reasonable scale, and help transfer the lessons for wider application.

 We will continue the approach in the work on water secure Gram Panchayats. This time around, we will have access to much greater pool of scientific and technological tools and aids, that we believe that will help us become more effective. Working directly with the local governance systems will ensure that results are owned and managed more intensively by the local communities. The technology platforms will allow us to measure and monitor the impact of our work faster, and for longer periods of time.