and that government officials were answerable to them. is new feeling induced lifechanging self-confidence in the participants.Of the thirty-five people from six villages who took part in the first training, ninewent on to become “master” trainers, five were women. All nine were provided withadditional training so they could train others. After successfully completing the twomonth training of trainers, each master trainer earned the title “guide” and was presentedwith a copy of the Constitution of India in Hindi. In ongoing mentoring sessions, Ajaystressed the important role of work by common citizens in upholding the provisions ofthe Constitution.After the first training module was completed, Ajay said that if there were not enoughwomen participants for the next training, he would not do it again. But by year two,close to 60 percent of the 100 trainees in the program were women. For each subsequentyear, women continued to comprise at least 50 percent of the group being trained.Momentum was building!
New Heroes Emergee champions of local participation made slow but steady headway in their villages. Onevictory that was a long time coming was accomplished by one of the first trainees, avillage woman named Kamlesh Sherawat. While still in training in March 2009, sheundertook direct action to resolve a dilemma for thirty-three villagers in Dingerhedi, inthe Taoru block of Mewat.More than a year prior, villagers had applied to receive household electricityconnections and paid a deposit, but no connections were made. Having learned aboutavailable community support mechanisms as part of the training, Kamlesh engaged withthe District Electricity Department on behalf of the Dingerhedi villagers.Within a month, meters were distributed to the villagers, and a future date was givenfor their installation. When that date passed, and still nothing happening, Kamleshpursued the matter with the relevant authorities in Chandigarh and was pleased to learnthat a review had been initiated, to be followed by appropriate action regarding the delay.Not ready to celebrate until she saw tangible results, Kamlesh remained focused onseeing concrete improvements. Her dedicated follow-up continued when she learned thatvillagers were now receiving bills for their uninstalled electricity meters!Exasperated but determined, Kamlesh filed a complaint. is time the office of thesubdivisional officer responded to her. Immediate installation of the meters was orderedand carried out, and the erroneous bills were cancelled.Each similar success depended on steadfast perseverance. Dogged determination wasemerging as the hallmark of the trainees and others joining the efforts. An unacceptablesituation in Agon was turned around by the resolve of a villager who learned about
effective citizen participation from his wife, a trainee. ree anganwadi centers had beenabandoned. e assigned childcare workers did not even come to the centers or provideany childcare services. A group of training participants joined with the villagers to submita complaint to the child development project officer.Receiving no response, the trainees held a meeting that brought workers and helperstogether with intended Integrated Child Development Services beneficiaries tocollectively assess the situation. eir findings indicated inconsistencies in service delivery.Many community members were not even aware of the beneficiary services available tothem. e service providers informed the group that some of the intended recipients hadnot been formally included in the support system. ese issues prompted communitymembers, with support from the training team, to ensure that these inconsistencies wereaddressed so that local children would receive the intended support.e group communicated their concerns in a letter on behalf of the beneficiaries torelevant oversight bodies. In response, the relevant authorities requested the localadministration to look into the matter and prepare a report, and to acknowledge thosewho raised the concerns. e result was prompt action from district-level officials. Rationswere delivered to the three anganwadi centers in Agon the same day, and the block-leveladministrator visited Agon and engaged directly with community members to hear moreabout the poor conditions of the service centers and the need for consistent staffing.is example demonstrated how efforts by community leaders showed results as soonas their issues were raised at higher levels of government. When lower-level officials werenot responsive to the problems faced by the village community trying to accessgovernment programs, community leaders made sure that senior government officialswere informed. Villagers found that higher-ranking officials were motivated to improvethe functioning of government programs at the grassroots.A trainee effectively addressed a situation within their own family when a relative wasnot fulfilling her responsibilities at a local community center. e trainee directlycommunicated the expectation to her family member that the assigned duties must becarried out.In another instance, a trainee made an inquiry, expressing concerns about theconditions of schools in the Ferozepur Jhirka block. When school officials, staff, and eventhe trainee’s family suggested withdrawing the inquiry due to potential exposure ofexisting practices and conditions, the trainee persisted and the work resumed onpreviously delayed projects in the schools.Changing the status quo was not easy or quick. At legal literacy camps held in thecommunity, villagers learned more about government programs and citizen entitlements.Separate stalls were set up for individuals to receive help with specific issues, filling outapplication forms, or writing complaint letters. Facilitators followed up with individualconcerns.
Surprised at the growing awareness of villagers, officials were slowly realizing thatimprovements were needed in the functioning of programs and services for thecommunity. As often discussed in the trainings, “Awareness leads to the formation of acollective, and the collective leads to actions that bring results.”New awareness naturally triggered new emotions in villagers—the feeling that changewas possible, and that they could start to make local changes themselves. Communitylevel training was creating change in people’s minds and visibly on the ground at thegrassroots.Because much of SMSF work in areas such as water management and capacitybuilding was done in cooperation with many different government officers,brainstorming sessions were held to discuss how to appropriately interact and respond.e tangible results were truly empowering for the rural communities.As additional valuable information learned by villagers inspired grassroots actions,social inclusion, and further empowerment, the Communications team, led by Pooja O.Murada, explored media options to spread the messages more widely. Community radioas a medium for inspiring change was an exciting idea that could give voices to people inrural Mewat. Starting in 2009, the Communications team did feasibility studies andsurveys in fifty-one villages, and visits were made to community radio stations throughoutother parts of India.After further research and discussion, Pooja began the application process forobtaining a broadcasting license so SMSF could launch a community radio station. estation would be located within the Ghaghas Community Center and be staffed by peoplefrom the local villages. Obtaining the license and approval from the government tobroadcast would take almost three years. During that time, every step in the processdirectly involved the citizens of Mewat.roughout 2009, as the Integrated Sustainable Village Development model wasimplemented in a cluster of twenty villages, and the participatory learning and actionapproach was further refined, research continued to identify the most sustainable andreplicable models for rural development.14 New staff included field researchers whoconducted surveys, baselines, and periodic evaluations. e team conducted impactstudies on local, state, and national government policies intended to benefit the poor.is served as valuable preparation for advocating policy reforms.Research studies mapped progress in various models and projects to determine wherethe most impact was being made and which had the most potential for scaling up. Studiesin water management, agriculture, life skills, education, income, demographics, andvulnerability had the added benefit of helping the team create a deeper understanding ofvillage dynamics.
Due to the crucial need for water in every village, Water Management would alwaysbe a primary foundation program. Water augmentation project successes profiled in theannual report for 2009 included thirty check dams, nallah bunds, contour bunds andgabions, seven new ponds, 650 soak pits, forty-five recharge wells, forty-four roof-waterharvesting systems, six revived traditional ponds, and numerous latrines as well as standposts with taps and hand pumps.Two check dam and recharge well projects completed in Kotla successfully reversedthe village’s water depletion and well salinity. e surface water storage ponds assisted withcrop irrigation and domestic purposes. More girls were back in school instead of fetchingwater every day.Another water project in Kotla sparked efforts to preserve India’s cultural heritage.e village had a dilapidated baoli (step-well), an elaborate fourteenth-century structurefor storing water that measured 60 by 25 feet. At one time, India was peppered withthousands of baolis, which were used for relaxation bathing, rituals, and as rest stops forshepherds and herders. In an inspiring display of shramdaan (voluntary manual labor),villagers, grass pickers, university and grade school students, and field staff wielded spadesand pickaxes to revive the long-neglected well. Together these people contributed 440days of free labor to the effort. Once the baoli was cleaned up, district authorities steppedin to fully restore the structure.In Rangala Rajpur, an Integrated Watershed Development Program was implementedby SMSF with financial support from the Mewat Development Agency. Water collectedin five ponds connected to the check dam, which opened fifty acres of fallow land tocultivation, saved forty acres from flooding and topsoil erosion, and supported a microirrigation system covering 300 acres. is replicable project could now help solve waterproblems in other villages.As a result of long deliberations with community groups on water management, thefoundation team organized a three-day water awareness march as part of the Jal ChetnaYatra national water awareness campaign. e march covered sixty villages, reaching150,000 people, culminating in a large public meeting where villagers shared their waterconcerns with government representatives.In mid-2009 Lalit Sharma and the Water Management team were participating in acommunity meeting in the village of Bhond about building a water augmentation system,when a villager told them about an elderly man named Bhure Khan who had taken someextraordinary measures to conserve water. Many years before, he had single-handedlycreated a pond in the Aravalli hills to provide drinking water for animals.Intrigued, the SMSF team did further research to find out more about this man.Members of the field team went up in the hills to see the pond. ey discovered that
Bhure Khan had done far more than build a single pond. His conservation efforts werenothing less than remarkable.Eighty-five-year-old Bhure Khan was only fourteen when he relocated with hismother from Rajasthan to the village of Bhond in Mewat to find a better life closer totheir relatives. To earn a living, he plowed other people’s fields and raised grazing animals.When taking animals up into the Aravalli hills to graze, he witnessed the drudgery ofwomen carrying heavy loads of firewood and water pots to the bordering villages inHaryana and Rajasthan. Sympathetic to their hardship, he wanted to find a way to solvethe scarcity of water. He scouted for areas that could be used to store surface water. Whenhe found a promising spot, he began digging, and he kept digging for three years!Bhure was twenty-five years old when he completed his first reservoir. Other localherdsmen were inspired by his determination and helped him build a second reservoir.Bhure continued digging to create two more reservoirs to help the community.Seeing that the village women had no proper footpath, he then took several moreyears to forge a walkable path that connected Haryana and Rajasthan. His path wasshorter and easier for the women to navigate uphill.ough he never married and never had a house of his own, Bhure Khan was wellknown throughout the village of Bhond. He was appreciated, cared for, and regardedwith affection by the people in his community who readily opened their homes to himfor a meal or a place to sleep. Because of his unbiased loyalty to everyone in the village, hewas often approached to resolve differences between individuals or families. Bhure Khanwas a binding force within the community.e Water Management team members were happily surprised and greatly impressedto find that the sites Bhure Khan had selected to locate ponds perfectly matched thecharacteristics that Lalit and the team looked for when choosing the best site for pondconstruction. e ponds constructed by Bhure Khan were ideally situated. e groundgradient was gentle, which helped to avoid erosion and silting. e soil type wasimpermeable, minimizing percolation loss. e inflow was greater than the runoff. Treecover on the southwestern side of each pond cast shadows on the water. Either a tree lineor protruding rocks diverted winds to minimize evaporation loss. A natural rockformation at just the right level allowed the overflow of surplus water without causing anyerosion, and the ponds were easily approachable by the users.Lalit wanted to find a way to honor this unsung hero who had worked so hard toprovide water for his community. e team organized a special celebratory event on theevening of November 19, 2009, inviting members of the press. At the large communitygathering, a film screening on water management was presented, and Bhure Khan washonored and thanked publicly for his contributions to the community. People of all ageswere inspired to hear about his lifelong water conservation achievements.
His story soon appeared in four Hindi daily newspapers and was covered by threetelevision stations, garnering the attention of the deputy commissioner. As a result, BhureKhan was honored as part of India Republic Day celebrations on January 26, 2010 (theanniversary of the Constitution of India), in front of dignitaries and thousands of peopleat district headquarters in Nuh, Mewat. He was presented with a commendationcertificate and a wrapped gift by Aftab Alam, the special secretary of the Government ofHaryana, and a member of the Legislative Assembly.When asked by the media what inspired him to do this work, Bhure Khan answered,“I have done this for my family. I don’t have my own family, but the whole village is like afamily to me. Water is the existence of life and is needed in all areas. Without water, treescan’t grow, humans can’t live.”After the event, Bhure unwrapped his gift to find a lovely wall clock. Villagersgathered around him in a spirited discussion about where to hang the clock. Somesuggested he put it in the chaupal, a community gathering place where elderly men of theneighborhood spent their days telling stories or reciting epics. Others suggested thatputting the clock in the local mosque would benefit more people. Bhure Khan allowedhis community to make the decision.Bhure Khan lived several more months after receiving recognition for his lifelongwork on behalf of his village family, leaving behind the ponds and paths, a clock ofappreciation, and an example of a life lived in service of his community. His legacycontinues to inspire others.Agriculture in Mewat during this period became more competitive as more farmersused the tools and methods SMSF introduced to increase yields, and they took advantageof the improved extension services and market linkages to increase their income. Soilhealth and the application of balanced crop nutrition were now recognized as key toincreasing crop productivity. With support from the Haryana Agriculture Department,the team developed a soil fertility map of the entire district of Mewat.e soils in Mewat were degraded due to continuous cropping over many years. erevised strategy of SMSF’s agriculture program focused on soil health managementthrough the application of organic manure and essential micronutrients, and stopping theoveruse of subsidized fertilizers, particularly urea and diammonium phosphate (DAP).Field demonstrations showed the benefits of balanced and need-based fertilizerapplication.Farming practices such as raised-bed planting, deep chiseling, mulching, and drip andsprinkler irrigation continued to spread as farmers’ groups were trained on betterpractices in each village. A field team, consisting of kisan mitras (farmers’ friends),agricultural specialists, and village champions, worked closely with farmers at each stage inthe process, from preparing the land to selling the produce. Linkages with HaryanaAgriculture University, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), the state agriculture
department, and an agricultural extension center provided added information resourcesto farmers’ groups.While looking for ways to enhance farmers’ incomes, the SMSF team looked into thepotential of daincha, which had been tried earlier in a pilot project as a source of biofuel,to increase crop productivity. Because this versatile plant could grow in saline areas and atthe same time add organic content visitors to the soil, it was promoted as a cost-effectiveand natural method to improve soil health.e SMSF team continued to promote daincha primarily as a green manure crop butalso worked in collaboration with India’s National Institute of Research on Jute andAllied Fiber Technology to explore possibilities for using daincha fiber in handicrafts togenerate employment for rural women. e fiber, seeds, and charcoal made from theplant were marketable and had the potential to be developed as cottage industries.e team used soil analysis to show farmers how soil health would improve with theaddition of organic matter, and how crop yields would improve with the use of balancedfertilizer with micronutrients, irrigation, and high-yielding quality seed. Farmers willingto try new methods were encouraged to plant half of their fields in the new way. SMSFheld regular field days on a demonstration plot. Even farmers less willing to experimentcould see the difference on the side of the field where newer methods were used.Due to what became a valuable ongoing partnership with a leading crop nutrientcompany, Mosaic Company in India, the crop productivity model was able to spreadquickly in Mewat. As a result, demonstration plots were planted in many more villages.e visible benefits had a ripple effect, causing more farmers to attempt and adopt newagricultural practices. e impressive results attracted new visitors to Mewat, which madea difference in reaching more potential partners and taking the methodology to morecommunities in rural India. Partners who visited the plots could see successes firsthand inthe villages.A nine-month pilot program in 2009 was carried out in partnership with an NGO,One World South Asia (OWSA). e program, Soochna Se Samadhan (InformationSolutions), was launched in ten villages in Mewat using OWSA’s mobile voice-recordingsystem to provide agricultural advice to farmers within twenty-four hours of receivingcalls. Farmers sent pictures or short video clips of symptoms of diseases or insect pestsobserved in plants or animals. Issues with the technology and local dialect kept theprogram from expanding at that time, and some solutions provided by the experts werenot applicable in the local context. However, several beneficial results occurred during thepilot program. Information on treating animal ailments was used to save their lives,farmers’ incomes increased due to cost savings in controlling the seed rate, excess use ofpesticides was eliminated, and plant and animal diseases and termite damage werecontrolled in a timely fashion. Advice on using optimum plant populations in vegetablesand using good quality seeds resulted in increased crop yields.
e largest impact of the project was in improving soil health by adding organicmatter and using balanced fertilizers with micronutrients. Apart from quantitativebenefits, farmers’ knowledge improved in the areas of integrated nutrient use, pestmanagement, soil testing, and overall better farming practices.Small interventions by SMSF teams in support of education and healthcarecontinued to work wonders, such as building girls’ toilets in schools, and organizingimmunization drives. In addition to the delivery hut in Notki, a delivery hut was revivedin the village of Raniyala. e two huts now served a combined twenty-seven villages. epresence of the huts prompted greater prenatal and postnatal care and was credited withensuring 98 percent of child immunizations. In its first year, the delivery hut in Notkihosted seventy-six deliveries and provided services to 1,670 outpatients. e SMSF teampushed to have the Notki delivery hut integrated into the government database andupgraded to a subcenter clinic for maternity and general healthcare.A disability camp was held in collaboration with the Delhi Council of Child Welfarefor children up to age sixteen in fifty-six villages. Experts identified forty-six patientsneeding mobility aids and forty patients who needed corrective surgeries. Additionalcamps addressed breastfeeding, sanitation, HIV/AIDS awareness, and other health issues.SMSF sponsored a sixteen-day “International Campaign on Violence AgainstWomen” to spawn conversations in the villages about topics not usually discussed openly:domestic violence, participation of women in politics, and the subject of dowries. Visualmedia designs, with input from attorneys, taught women about their rights related toviolence and law enforcement. e event ended with a shared group vow opposing anyform of violence toward women.By the end of 2009, the training program that Ajay Pandey and the team had begunin six villages was now on course to expand to all twenty villages in the cluster. Everymember of the field staff participated in the training.e Capacity Building team now included another attorney, Navneet Narwal, whoseskills included policy training at the grassroots level. Field staff now included two guidesfrom each of the cluster villages. ese master trainers conducted two training sessions permonth in each village. More trainees learned the proper function of a democratic stateand the entitlements of citizens for programs that benefited the most vulnerable—thepoor, women, and children.To share the success of the program and train law students in this methodology, AjayPandey accepted a position as associate professor at Jindal Global Law School. His role atSMSF shifted to part-time. Action groups continued to be successful in prodding officialsto deliver promised services and benefits. Awareness had spread concerning the importantgovernment programs and related policies intended to support citizens’ constitutionalrights and duties. e goal was to make sure these programs were implemented openly
and honestly in the core villages where SMSF teams were working and to make sure thebenefits were spread widely and fairly.In the beginning, the program had inspired a few dozen villagers to speak up; nowhundreds of people were speaking up! With the engagement of villagers, the PublicDistribution System and the programs in Integrated Child Development and Mid-DayMeals were now functioning in the core villages. e new approach was turning passiverecipients into empowered citizens who stood up to improve the delivery of core publicservices in all areas: education, food and water, employment, information, andhealthcare.e team was prepared to help people access the potential benefits, for girls especially,of the new Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (commonlyabbreviated as Right to Education or RTE) that was signed into law in 2009 and wouldgo into effect in April 2010. e new act mandated up to eight years of free andcompulsory education for all children ages six to fourteen, including children withdisabilities, in their own neighborhoods. e Act addressed other aspects of education,such as appropriate school infrastructure and teacher-to-student ratio. e team saw thatthis act had the potential to send many more girls to school in all the villages.As 2010 began, the foundation operations were running smoothly. e Phase 1building on the foundation campus received its official LEED platinum rating from theU.S. Green Building Council! A gala was held in January to celebrate SMSF’s first decadein Mewat and the LEED certification.Construction now commenced on the foundation’s Phase 2 building. e decision toexpand into another building was prompted by the need for adding rooms, or “flatlets,”for visiting student interns, faculty, and volunteers from the United States and othercountries.e employee-friendly facility would be 30 percent residential; the rest would berental property as a source of income to further sustain SMSF work. e Phase 1 buildingwas considered a great success, and the tenants were satisfied.Just as the Phase 1 building was constructed to reflect SMSF’s commitment toresource conservation and leading by example, the Phase 2 building would also meet thehighest standards required for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design(LEED) platinum certification.With Jay in the US, Ramesh Kapahi took the primary role in coordinating the Phase2 project and construction. e same architect and the same building crew were hiredagain. e entire process went more smoothly this time, largely because the workers wereno longer “unskilled.”e building design was similar to the Phase 1 building. Another 400,000-liter storagetank, similar to the one in the Phase I building, was built to collect rainwater. e samequality standards and simple modern design elements were used. e interior was slightly
different. Instead of an atrium and courtyard, the Phase 2 building had a terrace andopen courtyards. Just as with the Phase 1 building, there were no accidents duringconstruction.e certification by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) would be officiallyawarded in 2013 for Phase 2. e IGBC licensed the LEED Green Building Standardfrom the U.S. Green Building Council. Both facilities remain among the very few suchbuildings in India.Suri and Edda Sehgal kept in close contact with the SMSF team and continued theirregular visits to the foundation and the villages. Suri maintained a “light touch” withSMSF staff. He focused on setting clear expectations and providing just enough guidanceto allow teams to be innovative, engaged, and comfortable taking initiative. He guidedhis team to “trust people by default.” Suri called his leadership style “management bywalking around.” He met each manager one-on-one, and listened attentively to theiraccomplishments. He said, “is was motivating for them, and rewarding for me.”e enormous needs in the core villages kept the staff compelled to do more andmore. Even with a tremendous buzz of activity in the cluster of twenty villages, Suri wasonce again feeling that too little was being accomplished in the larger picture. Successfullyimplementing programs in a cluster of twenty out of 640,000-plus villages amounted to amere drop in the ocean of need. He wanted to find more powerful ways to make a biggerdifference to more people and achieve strategic depth in more villages. e dilemma wasfamiliar. SMSF did not have unlimited financial resources. To provide all theimplemented services that were running smoothly in a cluster of twenty villages to moreand more villages was not possible. Yet scaling up was necessary for greater impact beyondthose twenty villages.Suri challenged the team again: How can the foundation expand with limitedresources? How can the vast experience and positive changes already achieved reach morepeople?A decision was made to start raising funds from other sources. Jay Sehgal was in agood position to do this in the United States. e search for a new CEO to be on-site inIndia was ramped up.
Indoor cooking
©J.D. GeertsemaHauling cluster beans for fodder©Mick Minard/REEF Reports
Suri Sehgal with villagers
Washing clothes©Mick Minard/REEF ReportsMaking dung cakes for fuel©Mick Minard/REEF Reports
Jay Sehgal and team with village youthPublic Distribution System depot
Lalit Mohan Sharma and B. R. Poonia discussing water situation in Agon, 2003First group of village champions with B. R. Poonia
Bringing water home©Mick Minard/REEF Reports
Bhure Khan, water activist
Mothers meeting on health©J.D. GeertsemaCheck dam, a water harvesting structure in Kotla village
Water harvesting in AnantapurCarrot harvest
Women farmers event in Alwar, RajasthanDemonstration plot in Rajasthan
Jay Sehgal and scientists, P. Vani Sekhar and Dr. Murali Dhar Gupta, in Sehgal Foundation corn research plots at ICRISAT
Ajay Pandey discussing community participationLife Skills Education
Mid Day Meal at school prior to transformation
Notki SchoolRainwater harvesting in a school
Schematic Diagram: School Rainwater Harvesting System Award-winning model of creating fresh water pockets in salineaquiferSuri and Edda Sehgal honored
On air at Alfaz-e-Mewat
Radio interview in mustard eld in GhaghasFamily listening to radio at home
Mahila Gram Sabha creating village development plan
Jane Schukoske
Legal literacy camp (Vikas Jha with mic, and District Legal Services Authority official)
Sehgal Foundation Platinum LEED-certi ed Phase 1 Building
Suri and Edda Sehgal
Revived community pond
MatiKalp home water lter
Community water tank in Mathura
Reaper machineSolar spray pump use
Laser leveling machineCreating raised beds with bed maker machine
Mini sprinklerDrip irrigation system
Super seeder machine
Tomato harvest, Kolar
Capacity building with Village Development CommitteeGender sensitization learning with a game
Mahila sngathan (women’s collective)Mustard expeller unit in Mathura
Village mustard oil entrepreneurs
Drinking water station in transformed school
Transformed Mid Day Meal locationSchool entrance before and after transformaion
School before transformation
Transformed schoolTransformed playground
New block with separate toilets for boys and girlsTransformed classroomDigital Library and Life Skills Center