On October 11, 2014, the Government of India launched an ambitious scheme for village development – the Saansad Aadarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY). The scheme requires ‘saansads’ or elected MPs to convert 3 villages in their constituency into ‘Adarsh Grams’ or model villages worthy of replication elsewhere in the country.
It endorses an integrated approach towards development that includes better and improved physical infrastructure in the villages, along with building community spirit. It aims for better governance (transparency, accountability and integrity), active people’s participation (mutual cooperation, self-help & self-reliance and improved standard of living & quality of life), and environmental consciousness that can be replicated. It hopes to use the resources from existing schemes for furthering the cause of these villages.
In the water sector, the scheme takes a leaf out of the Hiware village attempt to develop integrated water conservation measures so as to make the village water-secure and free of drought.
How will this scheme work? What are its expected outcomes? Let's take a look at what SAGY implies.
The Gram Panchayat is the basic unit; MP’s will identify a Gram Panchayat other than his/her own or their spouse’s village; Lok Sabha MP will choose from within his/her constituency; Rajya Sabha MP will choose from the rural area of a district in the State from where elected; Nominated MPs will choose from rural areas of any district; For urban constituencies, MP will identify a Gram Panchayat from a nearby rural constituency.
Though each village will have its own individual topical solution, the following points are essential:
The aim of SAGY is to develop a village along the principles of watershed management through:
Several villages in India have already accomplished these aims using water as the entry point. How did they achieve water security while simultaneously building the skills of the youth and helping improve governance? Can these villages serve as a model for the Yojana?
One such way to end the water woes of a village is the Participatory Groundwater Management programme. The SAGY guidelines provide a unique opportunity for dovetailing principles of sustainable groundwater management while helping build skills of the youth and strengthening governance at the village level. On the other hand PGWM is a way to demonstrate sustainable use and management of groundwater through the participation of communities.
A paradigm such as PGWM helps to bridge certain gaps within groundwater-related programmes and allied projects such as watershed management and drinking water and sanitation. The main gaps faced in such programmes are:
The principles of participatory groundwater management have been applied in all districts in Sikkim; Randullabad, Muthalne villages in Mahrashtra; villages in the Kankavati sandstone area and the Kamaguna-Vatachchad areas of Gujarat; 4 villages in Pargi cluster in Telangana & Thanakasoga Panchayat in Himachal Pradesh.
More than 100 training sessions were conducted in 3 years and more than 5000 people were trained in a variety of topics starting from data collection for hydrogeology to crop water budgeting. This has also helped develop barefoot para-workers who can create water security plans and can now go beyond their village and help other areas too.
For example, the para-workers of the Arid Communities and Technologies (ACT), a group working with communities in the arid district of Kutch, Gujarat, have formed their own company to provide services to both villages and industries that want to better manage their water.
Based on this data, 7 basic maps were created to help identify the aquifer and it’s features. This map and the data helped draw out the amount of water available and how much was used. Based on all this information, water security plans were drawn up for the village. In addition to this, protocols for water management were evolved by the community based on an understanding of whether they were water- surplus or water- deficient.
The PGWM initiative helped create decision support for the community, which helped them promote groundwater management. In some of the villages, the communities accepted groundwater as a common pool resource and came up with criteria to manage the demand together. This was based on an understanding of water availability every year, which was made possible by the data they had collected. They also created protocols for water use that were approved in the Gram Sabhas. In Maharashtra, and Telengana the findings were further used to help farmers decide the most profitable crops that should be grown based on water availability.
Awareness and community-level action are key to the success of any initiative; six villages in Maharashtra are testimony to that and also to the fact the PGWM programme can indeed make a gram an 'Adarsh Gram'.