It Takes a Faucet: Realizing Village Development Through Water and Sanitation Initiatives (Innovations Case Narrative: Gram Vikas)

Abstract

Vikas, which means “village development,” we have for a number of years struggled with a different question: how can one raise a village, not into maturity, but out of poverty and despair. We engage in activities aimed at improving the living conditions and economic standards among these impoverished and social marginalized people, particularly the area’s indigenous groups, called adivasis; those belonging to India’s lowest caste, known as dalits; small farmers; and landless laborers. Since I founded Gram Vikas with a group of friends thirty years ago we have experimented with a variety of approaches. Over time we came to understand that we can use water and sanitation projects as points of entry for whole-village development, which brings pride and dignity to the villagers’ lives. By overcoming barriers of class, caste, and gender, we seek to nurture truly unified communities wherever we work. This then empowers and motivates the community to further develop themselves and thus start to take their destinies into their own hands and work to improve their lives. At Gram Vikas we base our activities on Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of sustainable “village republics” as the foundation of India’s political system. We seek to do this by developing institutional capabilities and harnessing resources to augment the economic strength of villages. Self-reliance and sustainable long-term development guide all our activities. We do not initiate any projects without the consent, support, and active participation of the communities themselves. We accomplish this during the initial phases of implementation through education, training, and participatory planning, and by establishing contributory village funds. This may seem counter-intuitive, at least in comparison to dominant development para-