chapter 2 literature review -...
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Literature Review 27
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature Review for the thesis has been carried out on two major aspects: (i) water-
centric adaptation strategies mainly from livelihood point of view; (ii) a review of the
Saurashtra Recharging Movement from a conceptual framework of social movements and
examining the leadership styles, framing techniques in social mobilisation and
communication processes inter alia; and (iii) a review of concepts related to groundwater
recharge estimation methods. While the first named two aspects are dealt with in this
chapter, review of groundwater recharge estimation methods, socio technical approach
and its (proposed) application to groundwater along with rationale are dealt with in
Chapter 4 along with a description of groundwater recharge estimation methods.
This Chapter is divided into three sections. Section 1 gives conceptual foundation for the
adaptation strategies, mainly from agrarian livelihoods point of view. The predominant
livelihoods in the study villages comprise agriculture and livestock, which have (ground-)
water as a critical element, around which the adaptation concepts revolve. Section 2
describes the socio technical approach and the rationale for its application to groundwater
irrigation. While Uphoff (1991) has applied it to physical irrigation systems, limited to
channel, sprinkler or drip, Mollinga (1998) and Narain (2003) applied it to canal
irrigation systems. This thesis extends the socio technical framework to groundwater-
based irrigation systems. Section 3 describes evolution of groundwater as a driver of
development by examining the response by the government and the civil society actors to
water scarcity in Gujarat. Section 4 establishes a conceptual framework for social
movements necessary for the analysis of the Saurashtra Groundwater Recharging
Movement; this includes factors influencing social mobilization, and examining the type
Literature Review 28
and role of leadership, the framing techniques and the key drivers that shaped a
seemingly innocuous, disaggregated recharge activity into a movement.
SECTION 1
ADAPTATION THEORY-CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS
Adaptation often is a Hobson‟s choice, more so in the context of livelihoods, as it
involves uncertainties, and factors, over which one does not have control. People faced
with livelihood challenges are compelled to take certain actions which they hope would
improve their livelihood options. These actions are both immediate and long term, and
often are hard choices. Adaptation may therefore be seen as factors that enable
households to take courses of actions particularly during disaster situations (such as
droughts, floods, earthquakes and volcanoes); importantly, these actions are located in the
extant political, social, economic and systems theory (Moench et al. 2005). Further, the
actions also comment on the relevance and effectiveness of the government programmes
and policies that are expected to aid communities tide over and build capacities to tackle
the adverse livelihood situations.
In the case of the predominant livelihoods such as agriculture and animal husbandry, the
main concern of a majority of the agrarian households is to ensure availability of
irrigation water. In the arid and semi arid areas, groundwater is the most dependable
source. Securing water secures crop yields which comprise the major means of income to
the households. The other aspects that influence income comprise the market, choice of
migration and other systems that enable flows to occur (Moench et al. 2005, Rathore,
M.S., 1998). But more importantly, social capital and institutional arrangements are
critical to ensure not only use and management of resources but also sustain and
improvise adaptive actions. The term „social capital‟ here is inclusive of the ability of the
households to cooperate on mutual and communal basis, to share knowledge, skills and
experiences for individual and common benefit.
Literature Review 29
There is increasing recognition of the linkages between the ecological and social systems
as seen in the past two and a half decades or so. In particular, in Asia, as part of adaptive
strategies, communities have been managing natural resources such as forests, water
bodies, village wastelands, mangroves, and other commons over centuries. This
community management of natural resources has been subjected to fluctuations in
performance and efficiency due to a variety of internal and external factors. Internal
factors relate to the composition of humans in terms of caste, class and creed and power
relations; external factors comprise the governance, policies and hierarchies in
implementation. There are many „obstacles‟ or challenges to the adaptive livelihood
strategies by the communities which are in some sense „externalities‟:
[a] In many regions, hydrological systems have been fundamentally transformed by
regional overdraft of groundwater or by the construction of surface structures (such as
roads, railway lines and embankments) that fundamentally altered water availability and
drainage patterns. This transformation along with the inherently unpredictable weather
patterns, compounded by the increasing climatic change scenarios, limits the ability of
society to regulate regional hydrologic systems (Moench et al. 2005).
[b] Major sources of water supply systems such as rivers drying up result in groundwater
level declines which in turn causes snapping up of environmental flows. The
consequential impact on water security is both immediate and long term more so in arid
and semi arid regions. Areas with shallow overburden and saline zones underlying
productive aquifers limit both recharge and storage and thereby the yield. Such aquifers
are common in arid and semi arid regions (Roy et al. 2002).
[c] Adaptive strategies that address long term water management problems are those that
respond to variability, and work with change processes to reach socially desired goals;
however, these approaches do not provide much practical direction due to need for
greater specification (Moench and Dixit, 2004). Adaptive strategies generally represent
the cumulative experience of the people that includes their own innovations and
experimentation. A critical aspect is whether these strategies are able to draw upon the
Literature Review 30
scientific advancement that often tended to remain in a parallel, protected domain.
Adaptive strategies that possess characteristics of historical connectivity, traditional
knowledge and advances of modern science, coupled with robust civil society and
governance institutions would be ideally situated to address long term resource
management problems. Forest management in India is a classic example where
communities in certain States such as Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and the Northeastern
states have had been managing the local forests over many decades (Mudrakartha &
Kumar, 2001; Kumar and Mudrakartha, 2001); the experiential learning has been passed
on to generations. State intervention since nineties in the form of a policy resolution for
management of forests has triggered more criticism than benefits (Mudrakartha et al.
2001)
[d] In complex societies, social movements contributed effectively to prevention of
ecological degradation. They can successfully challenge the dominant political systems
as needed to not only accommodate marginal voices but also carry out ecological
functions in the interest of the community. However, Shah (1998) contends that many of
the diverse initiatives or responses by people tend to be peripheral and ineffective as they
depend upon a host of factors such as the leadership, vision and a whole set of alternative
approaches and technologies. Further, the „success‟ is also determined by the clarity of
purpose, organisation, scale, technical and social strengths. In matters of common
resources such as forests and water in particular, participation of the people evidenced in
the form of social capital at the command of the leadership is critical. Other factors such
as the degree of social cohesion in the community and enabling externalities (such as
policy environment) play a great role for the various sub groups or collectives to reflect,
identify options and act (Mudrakartha et al. 2005; Rathore, 2003c); COMMAN, 2005).
[e] Innovation is another important element that sustains collective action. When
innovation is encouraged, it tends to build in flexibility in resource management by
providing space for further innovations at various hierarchies. Accumulation of such
experiences on resource management combined with people‟s wisdom helps protect
systems against collapse; the physical and the human systems thus would possess
Literature Review 31
resilience for an effective adaptive management. In contrast, guidelines prescribed for
large-scale implementation of programmes under government funding tend to stifle
innovation.
[f] Not just innovation, but strategic implementation of the innovative approaches is
equally important. This can happen only when critical soft elements are integrated into a
programme along with scaling up arrangements10
. The critical soft elements include clear
messages through policy implementation guidelines on people‟s ownership of the
programme, transparency, co-partnership between government and non-governmental
actors, and display of genuine concerns bereft of political overtones.
SECTION 2
SOCIO TECHNICAL FRAMEWORK APPLIED TO GROUNDWATER
IRRIGATION
Groundwater problems are socially constructed, and so should be the solutions. However,
groundwater is not just a technical resource but also a social resource. Therefore, an
approach that combines both social and technical approaches is most appropriate.
Mollinga (1998) has described the conceptual framework of a socio technical
phenomenon while tracing its emergence to Uphoff (1986) and Huppert (1989). He states
that a comprehensive understanding that integrates technical and social science
10 An example here is in order. When the Sardar Patel Participatory Water Conservation Programme was
launched during the year 2000, the agrarian households of Saurashtra contributed more than the mandated
40% and built three check dams within the budget sanctioned for two check dams. This was possible due to
the maximum labour contribution that formed 40% of the check dam cost. The local leaders by then had
already built up social capital over several years as part of the well recharging activity and hence could
achieve very high contribution with quality. However, when this scheme was sought to be scaled up shortly
thereafter in the name of Sardar Patel Jal Sanchay Yojana (popularly known as the 60:40 or 80:20 scheme),
the Gujarat government only provided for „physical‟ scale up. The implementation guidelines did not
integrate the soft elements, and hence people saw it as government scheme. Therefore, even when much
needed, state sponsored schemes are found to collapse no sooner than the project duration is over, or when
the grant or subsidy comes to a halt. Sometimes, there would be lukewarm response, as in the case of
SPPWCP.
Literature Review 32
perspectives underlies the basic assumption that irrigation is inherently a socio-technical
phenomenon. He further argues that social shaping or social construction approach to
irrigation technology investigates the social dimensions of irrigation artefacts11
. The
social dimension comprises three aspects, namely, social requirements for use, social
construction and social effects or benefits. Put differently, social requirements are defined
as enabling conditions essential for irrigation technologies to operate.
The above framework has been evolved and applied to the irrigation technology
involving surface water. While Uphoff (1991) has applied it to physical irrigation
systems, limited to channel, sprinkler or drip, Mollinga (1998) and Narain (2003) applied
it to canal irrigation systems. This thesis would like to extend the framework to
groundwater-based irrigation systems.
Mollinga argues that irrigation technologies are socially constructed implying that the
designs and technical characteristics (such as use of type of material) not only evolve but
are shaped through social processes such as communication, negotiation, struggles and
decision-making. In the ground-water based irrigation systems, it is proposed that the
starting point is the groundwater, not the irrigation technology or the irrigation artefact.
Availability of groundwater triggers the imagination of the user for potential benefits.
Once the user is convinced about the availability of the resource, the irrigation
technology comes into play. The user now transforms into an active stakeholder from a
passive stakeholder.
In canal irrigation systems, when bereft of external technical inputs (government schemes
or externally funded projects or through NGOs) the shaping of the irrigation technology
is driven by ideas that emerge and improvise from within the community, based on their
experience, traditional wisdom and knowledge. A similar response happens in the context
of groundwater where the irrigation technology comprises the type of well structure, the
water extraction mechanism and the conveyance system; the official technical agencies
11 Mollinga reserves the term artefacts to mean technology for the hardware component of irrigation
(Mollinga, 1998:13).
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predominantly provide the external technical inputs and or funding sometimes.
Historically, such inputs have been provided mostly for surface water supply projects and
very little for groundwater. It may be recalled that groundwater development in India has
been mainly due to private capital formation except for certain schemes that aimed at
promoting groundwater extraction through bore wells such as during the Green
Revolution period (Shah, 2009).
What makes households participate in the process of social construction of irrigation
technology? Is there a difference in participation response to surface water and
groundwater centric activities? Fundamentally, what drives communities to participate is
the social effects, that is, the benefits, that accrue to the households. In surface irrigation
systems, the process of benefits accrual is perceivable, given the ability of the farmers to
connect their irrigation demand with the water stored in the canals and reservoirs. In the
case of groundwater, uncertainties exist even as regards its availability in the first place,
and in quantities needed, assuming the quality is suitable. Therefore, to what extent a
household could readily participate in a groundwater based irrigation system depends not
so much on the household‟s ability to visualise-which is fraught with risk-than upon how
quickly the benefits are accrued in tangible terms. The tangible results here include
irrigation security for crops, crop yield increase, income rise, or fodder security. In short,
the key difference between surface water based irrigation technology and groundwater
based technology is that the resource (that is, water) in the former case is visible, and is
available, for design of a technology or artefact for use or supply. In the case of the latter,
the resource is not visible, and therefore, difficult to envision in terms of availability and
quantum. While this is so for the farmer, it is difficult for planners too as basic scientific
information on aquifer condition is often extremely limited (World Bank and Ministry of
Water Resources, Government of India, 1998). The macro figures such as the overall
level or stage of groundwater development12
in India as 58%, although indicative of a
comfortable situation at the aggregate level, mask the high degree of variability in
availability and development of groundwater (at village and at farm level) throughout the
12
The level or stage of groundwater development is assessed with respect to recharge on a year to year
basis, expressed in percentage.
Literature Review 34
country (Planning Commission, 2007). Data and information based on macro assessments
has serious limitations for use at the village level as it uses several assumptions and often
provides unrealistic information. Further, in the case of assessing groundwater status in
India, the geographic unit of reference adopted is taluka, which is agglomeration of a
village and hamlets-the smallest inhabited area. Since the taluka may contain anywhere
from a few tens of villages to more than a hundred, differing widely in geographic,
climatic and social aspects, the assessment figures such as the stage of groundwater
development are often misleading. It should be emphasised that one of the most critical
uncertainties relates to aquifer delimitation in addition to data inadequacy especially of
water and climatic parameters.
Another dimension relates to the availability of groundwater. Groundwater may not be
available at all places in a given village due to high variations in its occurrence, and
quantum; this is especially true in the current scenario where groundwater
overexploitation is rampant, unlike in earlier decades when groundwater was seen as a
dependable source as “it occurs where you want”. This situation is unlike the canal
irrigation systems, wherein water flows from one place to another, allowing farmers to
tap parts of the flow along the way. However, with groundwater availability in question,
and groundwater storage a limitation due to small aquifer thickness and low permeability,
in particular, in hard rock areas, the groundwater based irrigation technology has to
regress one step in terms of resource augmentation, rather than just design for use as the
starting point as in the case of surface water.
In the past two decades or so, neither groundwater has been capable of meeting all the
irrigation requirements in a given area, nor is the surface water; therefore, both surface
water and groundwater should be used conjunctively. In water harvesting activities, the
surface flows are regulated through checks across rivers, and through similar structures
(farm bunds, farm ponds) on the landed area, as in a watershed programme. In such
cases, the socio technical approaches are guided by the availability of both surface and
groundwater, and their conjunctive use. In the absence of technical information about the
groundwater resource, the community assesses the resource availability and adequacy
Literature Review 35
based on their traditional wisdom. Ultimately, the type and design of irrigation
technology in such situations has to cater to both surface water and groundwater
characteristics.
SECTION 3
EVOLUTION OF GROUNDWATER AS A DRIVER OF DEVELOPMENT
For many decades, groundwater has been playing a major role in agrarian livelihoods in
India. Even during 1930, well irrigation accounted for over 78% of the total irrigation
area as against 10% irrigated through canals (Prakash, 2005). More than half of the
irrigation requirements of agriculture are sourced from groundwater, which, in monetary
terms, contributed to 9% of India‟s GDP (the World Bank and Ministry of Water
Resources, GoI, 1998). Thus, groundwater contributes substantially to the agriculture
sector‟s major share of 28% of the total GDP. Agriculture as a sector is the largest
employer accounting for 60% of the employment and supporting 70% of the India‟s rural
population (Shah, 2009).
However, during the 1960s, large numbers of people in India were suffering from hunger
and poverty, primarily due to unavailability of food grains. The shortfall in food grains
was due to uncertainty in climatic conditions including rainfall, primitive agriculture
practices, low efficiency technologies and high demands from the burgeoning population.
Green Revolution was introduced during mid-sixties to enhance our food grain
production. The focus was on areas endowed with water, where highly subsidised
agricultural inputs were pumped in. For the following two decades, the food grain
production went up and India got transformed from a food deficit state into a food surplus
one.
The 60% of the households from the arid and semi arid regions, not covered under the
Green Revolution, continued to have problems with agriculture; low yields due to
inadequate irrigation and farmer inability to invest in agricultural inputs were the critical
ones. Nevertheless, households borrowed money from private sources against high rates
Literature Review 36
of interest to invest in water infrastructure in the form of wells, bore wells and water
extraction mechanisms hoping that water security would lead to higher returns. The result
was exponential increase in the quantum of groundwater extraction with time. In short,
groundwater extraction beyond aquifer capacity took place almost throughout India
including in the semi arid and arid regions. Many studies have brought out the impact in
the form of unprecedented decline in water levels, groundwater mining and deterioration
of livelihoods aided by the ever increasing horse power of the pump sets to cope with the
increasing hydraulic lifts (Mudrakartha, 2004; Mudrakartha et al. 2005; Kulkarni, 2005,
Moench & Dixit, 2004, Rathore, M.S. 1990, 2003a). The Central Ground Water
Authority which monitors groundwater levels through its own, as well as states‟ network
of well stations has been recording continuously increasing overexploited zones, thus
portending current and potential groundwater crisis (CGWB & GoG, 2005).
A major development in groundwater extraction has been the transformation of the well
structure (Mudrakartha et al. 2005). Until mid sixties, dug wells or open wells comprised
the popular medium of groundwater extraction. Increasing water crisis and depleting
water levels have resulted in households drilling vertical, small diameter boreholes from
the bottom of the wells, in particular in hard rock areas, as digging deeper wells was
either uneconomical or was physically risky. These vertical extension bores, and the
horizontal bores from well bottom especially in hard rock areas, have enhanced the yield
of the wells. However, sooner, these wells have also started drying up as deeper and
deeper zones were tapped through deepening. Deep vertical tube wells came into the
scene, during and post the severe drought of 1966-67, initially for meeting drinking water
requirements (Rathore, 1994). After the drought period, the high capacity, imported
drilling rigs were lying idle. In order to supplement uncertain or inadequate surface
irrigation supply, the Green Revolution farmers commissioned the rigs for drilling deep
tube wells and install submersible pump sets. This paved the way for more and more
private drilling rigs to enter the water sector resulting in ever increasing private capital
formation.
The following three decades saw hectic drilling activity all over the country, including in
Literature Review 37
remote villages. There was competition to catch up with the depleting water levels and
extract groundwater by deploying high horse power submersible pump sets. In the
process a water crisis was being created. A large number of wells were going dry year
after year due to depleting water levels. While the rate of well failure was as high as 70%
(in hard rock areas) in certain states like Tamil Nadu and parts of Andhra Pradesh, it was
50% (in alluvial) in western states such as Gujarat [Shah, 2005; Mudrakartha et al. 2005]
thus creating non-performing assets (Mudrakartha, 2004).
The failure did not elude the small and marginal farmers. In fact, many of these farmers
even from arid and semi arid regions have joined the bandwagon of drilling activity by
borrowing money at high rates of interest from private moneylenders to tap groundwater.
As the secular decline of groundwater levels set in, their wells were the first to dry up
adversely affecting their agrarian livelihood income. Dairy too was affected due to
dependence of fodder on agriculture. The communities under the patronage of non-
governmental agencies have responded by taking up water harvesting activities to
improve water levels. This effort was supplemented by the watershed programme
launched by the Government of India in 1995 implemented through district rural
development agencies (DRDA) and later by some state governments through some other
projects.
DEPLETING WATER LEVELS AND WATER SCARCITY: RESPONSES BY
GOVERNMENT AND CIVIL SOCIETY
Focused efforts on water harvesting or artificial recharging in India have begun in the
past three decades or so. This also includes research and experimentation by government
institutions. With increasing water scarcity, the debate on water harvesting has picked up
in particular in the past two decades. Three basic types of recharging are recognised: [a]
direct, [b] indirect and [c] induced (Sakthivadivel, 2001). In direct recharge, water
percolates down to the groundwater table and helps in enhancing the available volume of
groundwater in that area. For this purpose, the percolated water has to first saturate the
overburden as well as compensate for evapotranspiration losses before it reaches the
Literature Review 38
groundwater table. Indirect recharge is facilitated by structures such as ponds, tanks,
natural depressions and depressions in water bodies facilitating accumulation of water
even during non-flow conditions in the water courses. Artificially induced recharge
involves percolation of water through water harvesting structures constructed for the
purpose such as ponds, tanks, check dams, tube wells, canals and spreading channels.
Two key stakeholders are recognised in these efforts: one, the government agencies, and
two, the civil society (which includes individual households as entities).
Response by the government agencies
The major agencies in the government sector comprise the Central Ground Water Board
(CGWB), the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) and to a certain extent,
state Groundwater departments. In terms of research and experimentation, by far, the
government and research agencies, barring a few NGOs and CSOs, have carried out
plans, designs and evaluation. Among other demonstrations, CGWB has utilised
percolation tanks, check dams, dug wells, surface spreading methods and recharge shafts
in select parts of the country. Athavale (2003) describes some of them:
i. CGWB carried out artificial recharge experimentation on percolation tanks and
check dams in the basaltic terrain of Maharashtra (CGWB, 2000). The
experiments have yielded important results: (i) The total capacity utilisation of the
percolation tanks was found to be as high as 150% as there were several fillings in
a given monsoon season, while that of the check dams was 400%. These
structures also had performed at an efficiency level of 91% and 94% respectively.
(ii) The additional water was part of the surplus flow computed for the subject
watershed13
. (iii) There was overall improvement in the groundwater levels in the
wells; even during the ensuing summer, contrary to earlier situation, wells had
some water. (iv) The experimentation has proved the techno-economic feasibility
of the artificial recharge techniques in basaltic terrain with no adverse
environmental impact.
13
Watershed no. WR-2, Amaravati district, categorized as an overexploited watershed.
Literature Review 39
ii. Another study in Jeur Sub-basin of Ahmednagar district in similar basaltic terrain
carried out on percolation tanks indicated that the recharge to groundwater or
effectiveness of percolation tanks varied from as low as one-third to three-fourths,
averaging half. This depended upon several factors such as the silt/sediment load
in the percolation tank, design, evaporation losses, and above all on the recipient
of the recharged water, that is the degree of porosity and permeability (CGWB
2000). The experiments also demonstrated that recharge on basaltic terrain is
effective due to the vesicular and fractured formation; the evaporation was found
to be within 15% of the total storage.
iii. Artificial recharge was carried out through an injection well using canal water in
the Ghaggar river basin of Haryana. The injection was done both by gravity and
under pressure. The study found that the recharge rate obtained with injection
under pressure is almost ten times the gravity method. During the recharge cycle,
the clogging of the injection well due to silt entry was a serious problem, and
periodical cleaning therefore was essential, in particular, when the injection
pressure exceeded 6 atmospheres. As regards injection under gravity was
concerned, the study found that the inducing zone from the river recharge to the
aquifer should be at least 100 metres away.
iv. CGWB and the Gujarat Water Resources Development Corporation Limited,
Government of Gujarat, have jointly carried out experimentation in Mehsana and
in coastal Saurashtra with UNDP. In Mehsana, known for 150% groundwater
development and severe depletion of water levels, a pilot artificial recharge
experiment was conducted through injection wells, connector wells and by
infiltration channels and ponds. Surplus water from plain aquifers of the major
rivers in Mehsana and tail-end releases from the Dharoi canal system (Sabarmati
river basin) were utilised for these feasibility studies. Similarly, in the coastal
Saurashtra, artificial recharge was injected through injection wells and recharge
basins in order to check the coastal salinity ingress, a serious concern here. Storm
water as well as tail-end releases from the canal system of Hiran river irrigation
Literature Review 40
project were used to inject water.
v. There are a large number of tanks in India existing since centuries. However, due
to lack of maintenance for several reasons, the tanks, in particular the percolation
tanks have stopped functioning. For example, in Yerravcheruvu tank in Andhra
Pradesh, it was noticed that although the tank was full after a thunderstorm, the
well nearest the command area still remained dry indicating that no percolation
was taking place (Athavale, 2003). Removing top layers of sediments/silt have
resulted in enhancing the rate of infiltration of water significantly (Mousavi and
Rezai, 1999).
vi. In order to experiment a siphon method of transferring tank water to an aquifer,
the National Geophysical Research Institute designed a simple method. The tank
water was transferred through siphon method into a well with an in-well borehole
at the bottom. The water was recharged at a rate of 30-40 litres per minute on an
average in an experiment that lasted 190 days (Athavale, 2003).
vii. Other methods researched include groundwater recharge from tanks through a
deep borehole along with adequate filter arrangements for trapping silt/sediments.
While the Andhra Pradesh State Groundwater Department has carried out
experiments in hard rock areas (Athavale, 2003), the author has carried it out in
alluvial areas (Mudrakartha, 2004).
As in some parts of the country, in Gujarat too, there were responses both by the State
and by the civil society to addressing water scarcity. The first type of response by the
Gujarat government was in the form of „grandiose‟ plans and schemes (Shah, 1998)
which has been the overarching policy in India. River water diversion schemes by the
government are a typical example. The rationale was that since there is a huge variation
in rainfall from 300 mm in the south to 1200 mm in the east (south Gujarat), the surface
water from the water surplus south Gujarat should be transported to water deficit north
Gujarat, Kachchh and Saurashtra to „correct the imbalance‟. Small rivers in south Gujarat
Literature Review 41
were linked with the Ukai dam from where the water is transported into Narmada through
a Tapi-Narmada High Level Canal. The Rs.540 billion Kalpasar14
project is another
grandiose scheme, yet to take off, aiming to create a huge fresh water reservoir by
damming the Gulf of Khambhat connecting the east and west banks of the Gulf. It is
estimated that more than 30,000 MCM of inland water flows off into the sea annually
from the basins of Sabarmati, Mahi, Dhadar and Narmada. The proposed Kalpasar dam is
expected to store this huge volume together with the waters from almost 100 (not
perennial) Saurashtra rivers discharging into the Gulf of Khambhat. The stored water will
be used for irrigation, water supply and industrial requirements of the Saurashtra region.
Through a 660-km canal system, 1.05 million hectares of land in coastal Saurashtra will
be irrigated. Power generation of 5880 MW is expected to be generated from the tidal
energy. Other aims of the Kalpasar project include land reclamation, transportation
improvements and fisheries development. A final decision is due in December 2009
based on recommendations of various committees on the extent of the dam from among
the five alignments, the largest being 64-km across will determine the extent of benefits
too15
.
The second type of response by the government of Gujarat is to take off or build up on
the gains of the Saurashtra recharging movement when the Sardar Patel Participatory
Water Conservation Project (also called Sardar Jal Sanchay Yojana-SJSY) was launched
on the 17th of January 2000. This is because the previous effort of promoting check dams
did not meet with success. The SPPWCP is a revamp of the previous experience with an
idea of capitalizing on the Saurashtra recharging movement leadership and participation.
The following reasons have compelled the government to launch the SPPWCP: [a] Till
1999, the construction of Check dams was carried out either through tendering or
departmentally. As per the government of Gujarat‟s own admission16
, the progress of
execution of works was so slow that only 2500 check dams could be constructed till 1999
in Gujarat State out of which 1341 were constructed during 1991-99 under the
14
http://www.gujaratindia.com/Initiatives/Initiative2(5).htm accessed 8 August 2009. 15 DNA, April 10, 2009.
16 http://guj-nwrws.gujarat.gov.in/english/checkdam.htm accessed 9 August 2009.
Literature Review 42
Government sponsored „Own your check dam Programme‟. Even the involvement of
NGOs was not effective. Looking at the tremendous participation in the recharging
movement in Saurashtra and having attended some of the biggest conventions organized
by the movement leaders, the then chief minister of Gujarat has decided to launch the
revamped Sardar Patel Participatory Water Conservation Programme (SPPWCP) all over
the state. [b] During 1998-2000, there was the 90:10 scheme for construction of check
dams with 90% of the cost as subsidy and 10% as local contribution from the
„beneficiaries‟. In spite of the high subsidy, there were not many takers, with less than
200 check dams constructed in two years of the scheme (Shah 1998, Nagar, 2002). In
contrast, people were happily contributing 10-20% or more in the privately supported
well recharging activities, for many years then. [c] The grand conventions organized by
NGOs (like the one on 19th December 1998 and in 1999 by the Saurashtra Jaldhara Trust
(described in section 4, Chapter 2) for which the chief minister of the state was invited as
chief guest encouraged the government to tie up with the well recharge promoters. [d]
There were clear political advantages that could be derived from collaborating with the
promoters of the movement which has stood the test of time for more than a decade by
that time (in 1999-2000). [e] During 199917
(the worst drought in ten years period), the
113 dams in Saurashtra region could store only 140 MCM out of a storage capacity of
2200 MCM (Shingi et al. 2002; Nagar 2002, Rathore, 2005). This storage, which
constitutes hardly 6% of the total storage capacity available, did not suffice even drinking
water requirements. In contrast, many villages that have participated in the well
recharging movement not only did not face drinking water problem, but had reasonable
crop yields and animal husbandry income, even during the low rainfall years. [f] Above
all, the Government had noticed that an intense awakening was taking place among the
people on the importance of water18
. They found that several social workers and service
oriented NGOs had successfully implemented several water conservation projects by
collecting voluntary contributions from the people for harvesting rainwater to recharge
groundwater which addressed can be utilized for drinking and agricultural purposes. With
this background, the GoG launched Sardar Patel Participatory Water Conservation
17
Saurashtra, among other areas in Gujarat, suffered drought a drought spell from 1999-2002). 18
http://guj-nwrws.gujarat.gov.in/english/checkdam.htm accessed 9 August 2009.
Literature Review 43
Project or the Sardar Patel Jal Sanchay Yojana (SJSY) and invested over Rs.1180 million
in the construction of 10,708 check dams distributed over Saurashtra, Kutch,
Ahmedabad, and Sabarkantha region. Saurashtra capitalised on this opportunity by
sourcing more than 95% of the check dams, that is, 10,205 check dams. As part of
making the check dam construction simpler, the government provided six prototype
designs with various costs, maximum being Rs. 1 million. However, small and medium
check dams were given priority. The deputy executive engineer, who is available at the
taluka level, was authorised to sanction check dams upto Rs. 100,000. In this revamped
SPPWCP, the participation of people was encouraging which could be seen from the
following. The scheme covered a total of 1469 villages out of the 4029 villages of
Saurashtra covering 36% of the total. In other words, there was one check dam in 25%
(389) of the villages under the 60:40 scheme, 32% (467) villages had 2 to 3 check dams,
and almost 75% villages had 5 or less check dams; 5% (75) had more than 25 check
dams. The storage capacity of the check dams varied from a minimum of .0001 MCM to
a maximum of 0.7500 MCM. The average storage capacity of constructed check dams
was considered as 0.015 MCM. Depending on the size, the check dam construction took
anywhere between two weeks to 3 months.
The SPPWCP or SJSY was perhaps a step in the right direction as can be seen from the
key guidelines given below which were simple and clear. [a]Any group of farmers/NGO
could apply to the concerned deputy executive engineer of their area, who would give his
approval. [b] Flexibility for own designs by the NGO/farmers group existed which were
however to be technically approved by the engineers. However, the government has
provided 6 prototypes to suit different sites. [c] On completion of the construction
activity, the deputy executive engineer would visit the site, carry out measurements,
verify bills and forward the same to the executive engineer for final approval and release
of payment. The entire procedure was to be completed within seven days of submission
of the bills by the beneficiary group. Strict instructions existed to avoid any delays at any
levels of approvals.
Literature Review 44
Although the independent evaluation by IIMA (Shingi et al. 2002) has considered the
project as overall achieving its objectives, it has also pointed out at the entry of private
contractors to the extent of about 19%, during the later stage (that is, during the second
year of the project itself) and recommended that it be curbed. From then and till now, the
programme has faced major problems for various reasons, and made some gains which
are given below19
:
[a] One of the basic issues with the programme is the lack of „preparedness‟ in terms of
orientation of the executives, namely the engineers at the taluka and district levels. The
government only made provision for „physical‟ scale up through funds disposal but not
for developing the skills of the engineers for dealing with the people and their problems.
Nor, were they trained to learn „tricks of participation‟ from the NGOs who have already
built up the social capital. Social capital too can become weak in the face of temptations
and can prove to be the undoing of the collectives. This has started happening when the
contractors constructed the check dams without any contribution in the form of
participation. The net result was that people saw it as government scheme and the check
dam as a government check dam in place of „our‟ check dam. [b] The payments were to
be made in three stages, that is, at the completion of foundation, super structure and
finish. However, at each of the stages, there was often delay due to the limited number of
engineers available on the staff role, and the large number of check dams under
construction simultaneously (Shingi et al. 2002). The engineers were supposed to visit the
check dam site, monitor, make verifications, and release payments. [c] At each stage, the
implementing person/agency had to invest money in advance and wait for releases which
were inordinately delayed, due to various reasons, including corruption. Guidelines
stipulated that ten per cent of the approved cost of check dam was to be released after the
check dam survived the overflow of rainwater during the succeeding monsoon. While
very few farmers or NGOs could afford these delays, or had capacity to invest and wait
for more than a year for complete payment to happen, the local contractors secured the
work orders in the names of local farmers and made profit. This was just like another
business activity for them. Thus, the whole spirit of participatory programme was
19
These include personal experience with the programme.
Literature Review 45
gradually eroded. [c] Many complaints were made regarding favoritism in allocation of
check dams; totally unconnected, inexperienced agencies such as a marriage bureau,
travel agency were also sanctioned projects. [d] Although monitoring mechanism was in
place, it was bureaucracy-driven and target-driven with no impactful functioning. [e] The
scheme was also open to farmers, either as individuals or as a group. Many individual
farmers have taken advantage of the 60% subsidy to construct check dams close to their
farmlands, which have benefitted them immensely (Mudrakartha, 2005, Reddy V.R, and
M.S. Rathore, 1993).
Wherever the committed agencies or individual promoters have leveraged these projects,
the work went on well with people‟s participation, ownership and work quality ensured.
However, the goings on from the areas in the neighborhood where contractors were
implementing, and no people‟s contribution was collected (it was „subsidized‟ by the
contractor) (Shingi et al. 2002), led to certain amount of „weakening‟ of the contributory
fabric of the people. To counter the undue influence from such areas, leaders of NGO
groups had to put their foot down to maintain their quality and level of work. The role of
diamond and textile business men in the take off of SPPWCP was commendable as they
convinced the unbelieving people to participate. People‟s suspicion mainly related to
government‟s release of instalments. The same people along with the NGOs have
countervailed the undue influence to a good extent. However, there has been a certain
dilution of participation that happened due to government way of approach, depending of
course upon the local leadership and their grip on the villagers.
In the ultimate analysis, the following key points have emerged: [a] Large number of
structures have come to be installed, with mixed „success‟. In any case, the amount of
recharge has increased considerably making a difference to the farmers in terms of
irrigation water availability through wells. [b] Where contractors were involved and
people were indifferent, such structures provided employment in the least. Where local
contractors from villages were involved; the quality of structures was reasonably good, as
the farmer-contractor had sense of belongingness to the area. [c] There was a significant
dilution of people‟s emotional and physical contributions, overall, in the whole process.
Literature Review 46
[d] As can be seen from the guidelines, a lot depended upon the attitude and commitment
level of the concerned engineers, which was highly varying, and who were the key to
effective implementation of the project.
Response by the civil society
As for the civil society response, many small localised efforts have been made. The
notable ones are the pani panchayats (water councils), and the recent Tarun Bharat Sangh
and the Saurashtra Recharging Movement which stand out as large experiments in
groundwater recharging (Rathore, 2003). A pani panchayat is a collective action of
farmers for water conservation and management. The experiment by Vasanthrao Salunke,
a Pune-based engineer-turned industrialist, was begun during the drought of 1970 on a
leased land of 16 acres in Naigon with funding support from local industrialists
(Keermane et al. 2006). The first pani panchayat that emerged in 1979 had clear rules
regarding water sharing, collective crop decisions, and equity principles. Farmers found
that the water was available in their wells for eight months; this encouraged 59 other
villages to adopt the pani panchayat. However, subsequently, Salunke lost interest in
development works after he lost his election to Maharashtra Assembly elections in mid-
eighties; the consequence was that the number of collectives reduced to 19, and gradually
become dormant.
The TBS focused on developing ponds and tanks as key water storage and recharge
structures initially, and later included check dams; Saurashtra recharging movement
concentrated on direct well recharging initially and later moved over to check dams, farm
ponds, gully plugs and tanks. TBS as a non-governmental institution has provided the
lead while for the Saurashtra movement, there has been no overarching institution. The
non-governmental agencies came onto the scene gradually. The following gives a
description of the efforts of TBS and the Saurashtra recharging movement in brief.
Tarun Bharat Sangh, Rajasthan
Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS) is one of the very few success stories that could be termed as
a social movement. It has inspired many individuals and agencies across India and
Literature Review 47
abroad, and has reinforced the belief that with social mobilisation, rivers can be
regenerated and groundwater levels can be improved.
TBS was formed by a small group of youngsters interested in rural development in the
year 1985. Based on principles of gram Swavalamban (self reliance), TBS engaged in
working for soil conservation, improved seeds, collection of herbal medicine, forest
management and water conservation initially through voluntary labour. Rajendrasingh,
the Magsaysay Award winner for 2001, coordinated all these activities to integrate and
gel with a village‟s cycle of rituals and traditions so that people would accept and absorb
the same in a routine manner. TBS also successfully persuaded the government to close
down ecologically damaging mines and quarries in the Sariska National Park under the
orders of the Supreme Court of India. This was part of the effort to regenerate forests that
were felled leading to increases in run off; TBS also focused on regeneration of forests
from 1986 onwards. For this, Singh was awarded Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar
(1994), Tiger Conservation Award (1999) and Jamnalal Bajaj Award (2005) among
others.
In the field of water conservation, TBS has done pioneering work by facilitating
construction of 8600 johads (water harvesting structures) in 1058 villages spread over
6500 sq. km in the districts of Alwar, Dausa, Sawai Madhopur, Karoli and Jaipur in
Rajasthan state. While TBS was instrumental in constructing 3500 johads, the rest 5100
johads were constructed by villages themselves as they had witnessed the benefits of the
structures. TBS also extended its work to Jaisalmer, Ajmer, Udaipur and Bharatpur
districts. Because of all these efforts, five seasonal rivers, namely, Ruparel, Arvari, Sarsa,
Bhagani and Jahajwali in northeastern Rajasthan have now become perennial20
(Rathore,
1998, 2003a; Shiva, 2002).
In terms of institutional arrangements, TBS initiated a (Arvari) River Parliament with
representation from 70 villages that the river flows through, much along the democratic
pattern of governance in India (Rathore, 2003). In the year 2001, TBS has started „jal
20
http://www.tarunbharatsangh.org accessed 6 August 2008.
Literature Review 48
biradari‟ (water community) to create awareness on National Water Policy throughout
India by networking with other NGOs in different states. Further, to create consciousness
and equip people with skills, TBS has started a Tarun Jal Vidyapeeth which offers a two-
year diploma course to any person with or without any formal educational background;
there are also some short duration courses catering to different needs21
.
TBS has carried out jal yatras, water campaigns, conventions and conferences in addition
to networking with other agencies to spread awareness on the need for water conservation
and for social mobilisation. Singh has also served as an advisor to some state
governments and member of committees in the water sector with both governments and
non-governmental agencies. TBS has also adopted a confrontationist approach as and
when necessary such as in the case of the mines and quarries22
and construction of check
dams.
In terms of watershed projects, TBS has worked in 850 villages out of which about 200
have been made drought-proof23
. This means, that even if these villages receive less than
3 inches of rain per annum they will face none of the hardships of drought. The only
awareness that they will need to have is not to take crops which consume too much water
and not to waste any water.
21
http://www.tarunbharatsangh.org accessed 6 August 2008. 22
TBS has filed a case against illegal mining activity in the area reserved as Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan
state. The petition alleged that there were notifications prohibiting all mining activity, and yet the State
Government had granted hundreds of licences for mining marble, dolomite and other materials and that
such section was contrary to law. This was damaging the ecology, environment and was against rule of law.
The Court appointed a committee to ensure due observance of the various Acts and Notifications that had
been issued in respect of the protected area. The committee stated that there were 215 mines completely
falling within the areas declared as protected forest while 47 mines fell partly inside and partly outside the
areas declared as protected forest. http://www.asianlii.org/in/cases/INSC/1993/209.html and
http://www.ecolex.org/ accessed 6 August 2009. 23
http://www.tarunbharatsangh.org accessed 6 August 2008.
Literature Review 49
SECTION 4
SAURASHTRA RECHARGING MOVEMENT: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
FOR REVIEW
This Section is divided into three Parts. Part one lays down the conceptual framework of
social movements for the purpose of studying the Saurashtra groundwater recharging
movement. This section describes social movements and factors that contribute to social
mobilization. Part two applies Oommen‟s criteria of leadership to the Saurashtra
recharging movement and examines the type and role of leadership, and some key
organizations that shaped an innocuous, disaggregated recharge activity into a movement.
Other aspects examined include the role of public events, involvement of political,
religious and spiritual personalities for public discourse, use of slogans, messages, audio-
visual communication and posters as persuasive communication and consciousness
material is discussed. The manuals on „how to do‟ recharging played a critical and useful
role in „demystifying‟ the recharge techniques. Finally, the advent of the watershed
programme during mid-nineties supported by the government of India has given a boost
by enabling systematic, areal implementation of water-biased activities. Part three
analyzes the Saurashtra recharging movement within the conceptual framework described
in Section one. Put differently, this section identifies and discusses the key determinants
of social mobilization in the run up to the social movement namely, the institutions, the
leadership styles, the principles and the approaches adopted by the leaders in contributing
to the recharge movement. Also, the conceptual framework of Oommen‟s alternatives for
a crisis situation, the process of framing employed by the recharge movement leaders,
and Klanderman‟s process of meaning construction and communication are also
analyzed.
Literature Review 50
PART 1: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR STUDY OF SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
This sub-section lays down the conceptual framework of social movements briefly, to the
extent required for my analysis of Saurashtra recharging movement. The framework
looks at the role of individual actors for collective action accompanied by the role of
culture defined by people‟s behavior patterns; the role of identity, narratives, and the
process of meaning construction as part of framing strategies that drives social
mobilization and consequently social movements. The sub-section also briefly describes
the „new social movements‟ around resource mobilization and how it is relevant for the
current discussion.
One of the earliest theories, proposed by Weber (1958, 1968), considered the individual
actor as the fundamental unit in the study of social behavior. He opined that the ideas
arise in and get implemented by the individual actors through a variety of actions. Weber
illustrated the role of an individual‟s motives for action through the famous railway
“switchman” analogy:
Not ideas, but material and ideal interests, directly govern men‟s conduct. Yet
very frequently, the „world images‟ that have been created by „ideas‟ have, like
switchmen, determined the tracks along which action has been pushed by the
dynamic of interest. „From what‟ and „for what‟, one wished to be redeemed, and,
let us not forget, „could be‟ redeemed, depended on one‟s image of the world
(Weber, 1946:280).
In Weberian theory, culture is an important means of understanding basis for action. If
the social actor is an influential individual (king or a ruler, religious leader,
philanthropist, business person, social reformer, caste leader) or an institution, or a
motivated leader, then there is the systematization of processes and procedures, leading to
certain amount of routinization in implementation of activities. There may also be
institutionalization of the activities leading to its being nominated as social movement.
Literature Review 51
Against Weberian theory, Durkheim viewed culture as comprising “collective
representations” reflecting existing cultural practices, moral beliefs and faith. He
considered these representations not just as ideas developed by individuals or groups
pursuing their interests but as vehicles of a fundamental process in which publicly shared
symbols constitute social groups while they constrain and give form to individual
consciousness (Durkheim, 1965; Bellah, 1973). To put differently, social groups evolve
their own shared beliefs and pursue them under their own group identity for commonly
held objects. At this point, we need to clarify the use of terms „culture‟ and „social
movements‟. Although both the terms have evolved over the past couple of centuries and
have been applied in different contexts with different meaning, this study would restrict
to basic operational definitions or understanding as demanded by the thesis. Detailed
discourse on both these topics is beyond the scope my thesis.
Culture
Culture24,25
as a term was first used by the pioneer English Anthropologist Edward B.
Tylor in his book, Primitive Culture, published in 1871, and has become a central concept
in anthropology. According to him, culture is "that complex whole which includes
knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits
acquired by man (or woman) as a member of society." In other words, „culture is the full
range of learned human behavior patterns‟. Culture can easily get lost because it exists
only in our minds: language, governments, buildings, and other man-made things are
merely products of culture; they are not culture in themselves. Culture as a complete
24
http://anthro.palomar.edu/culture/culture_1.htm 25
When the concept first emerged in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, it connoted a process of
cultivation or improvement, as in agriculture or horticulture. In the nineteenth century, it came to refer
first to the betterment or refinement of the individual, especially through education, and then to the
fulfilment of national aspirations or ideals. In the mid-nineteenth century, some scientists used the
term "culture" to refer to a universal human capacity. In the twentieth century, "culture" emerged as a
concept central to anthropology, encompassing all human phenomena that are not purely results of
human genetics. Specifically, the term "culture" in American anthropology had two meanings: (1) the
evolved human capacity to classify and represent experiences with symbols, and to act imaginatively and
creatively; and (2) the distinct ways that people living in different parts of the world classified and
represented their experiences, and acted creatively. Following World War II, the term became important,
albeit with different meanings, in other disciplines such as sociology, cultural studies,
organizational psychology and management studies.
Literature Review 52
whole is influenced by its subcultures. Subcultures are embedded domains with their own
culture, identity, practices, beliefs, symbols and religion, but tend to get mainstreamed
over a long period of time. However, it is seen that subcultures do tend to retain some
identity of their own in spite of blurred boundaries of their own domains.
Social Movements
What are social movements and how can they be defined26
? Social movements are
nothing but behavior of groups or society in a particular way in response to a situation.
They are forms of collective action with a high degree of popular participation, which use
primarily non-institutional channels (Shah, 2008), at least to begin with; they formulate
their demands while simultaneously finding forms of action to express them (Jelin, 1992).
Forms of action could include institutionalization and networking, and expanding to
include larger geographies or extended themes. Research has shown that movements are
neither mere accidents nor entirely the resultants of manipulations by leaders and
demagogues; but the consequence of conscious efforts of men to change systems in the
light of their past experiences, avoiding pitfalls (Oommen, 1990).
At the core of social movement lies social mobilization for which effective leadership is
critical. For social mobilization to happen and sustain, three factors are critical: identity,
communication and benefits. Often, the leadership shapes the movement based upon its
own experience and understanding of the needs of the individuals and the society. In
resource related movements, it is the economic benefits that bind the group(s) from
across areas. The potential economic benefits are used as a critical input into the process
of creating mental orientations, called framing, in stakeholders for visualization of future
scenarios. Slogans, messages and public events help strengthen the awareness raising and
participation through generating interactions and exchange of information, knowledge
and experience not only among the participants but also among the state actors and
26
Shah (2008) discusses difficulties in defining social movements simply because of the variety of actions
that are termed social movements by various authors. This categorization has also been a function of the
influence of the times (in India, it could be pre-British, during and post independence) and prevailing socio-
economic and cultural contexts. For example, the term „social movement‟ which gained currency during
early nineteenth century concerned with emancipation of exploited classes and creation of new society by
changing value systems as well as institutions and/or property relationships (Shah, 2008).
Literature Review 53
representatives, leading to a possibility of policy influencing. Social mobilization
depends on the ability of the leader and his framing skills. Framing implies mental
orientations that organize perception and interpretation for solutions to either social,
political, economic, physical, cultural or resource problems. From a cognitive
perspective, frames are problem-solving schemata, stored in memory of people, for the
interpretative task of making sense of presenting situations. They are based on past
experiences of what worked in given situations, and on cultural templates of appropriate
behavior (Johnston, 1995). This framing by the leader helps trigger action at individual or
at group level, simultaneously or jointly, providing a purposive orientation aided by the
strength of the prevailing social relationships. There is contribution by individuals in the
form of human labor, money, expertise or skills in addition to the group contribution of
kinship relationship and strengths of social networking. Regular group meetings serve as
forums for exchanging and developing narratives. These narratives encompass past and
present experiences, information and knowledge, and tend to reinforce the cognitive
frames. They help in not only strengthening but in proliferation of the movement by
inducing more members from the hitherto passive domain.
Studies have shown that a large number of social movements across the world has been
reactionary, revolutionary or reformist, and have been resisting change rather than
working towards change (Preston, 2000, Shah, 2008). Post modernization has seen the
emergence of social movements that aimed at working for or against change. This is
because post-modernists view current society as an aggregation of fragments, or
embedded domains. Western India has been a treasure house of social movements related
to environment, the Dalit movement, women and peasants (Omvedt, 2003). Study of
social movements has ranged from micro-level studies, which examine the motives and
aspirations of individuals within these movements, to organizational-level studies
(Preston, 2000; Shah, 2008). Oommen (1990) believes that social movements can be
studied by data collected through multiple techniques-participant observation, content
analysis, informant interviewing, and survey method.
Literature Review 54
While the focus of the movements of the west was on improving the quality of life
through equality and rights approach, many social movements in the Asian countries are
about a very wide range of livelihood issues such as related to quality of life, land
reforms, rights of women, human rights, tribal rights, privatisation of water,
marketisation and globalisation, and access to HIV antiretroviral treatment (Shah, 2008).
The actors involved generally comprise the underprivileged, the marginalised, workers
and poor farmers. Not only do they suffer from poverty due to the dependence for
primary source of income on, namely, agriculture and animal husbandry, but also are
increasingly becoming vulnerable due to the economic liberalization, globalization and
marketisation. These individual actors are generally at a great disadvantage in terms of
awareness, knowledge and understanding of the latest techniques of resource
management. Here resource implies water, improved seeds, agriculture and animal
husbandry practices, land development techniques and farm machinery, or post harvest
processing and marketing. Many of the social movements involving the poor, small and
marginal farmers or otherwise have often petered out before achieving their goals and
objectives as the staying capacity of such groups in terms of economic self-maintenance
is quite low. In terms of fighting the state such movements often achieved partial or little
success. However, literature indicates that collectives have done appreciative,
autonomous work, given appropriate motivational, technical and financial
backstopping27
. Chipko movement28
(hugging trees to prevent felling), water
27
The story of Amul from Gujarat, India, is an excellent, one-of-its-kind example of what cooperatives
could do even in most adverse conditions. The productivity of milk, availability of fodder, uncertain rains
and poverty of farmers, mostly illiterate, was all too common a situation when the Amul revolution began
in mid-forties. Registered in 1946, the Kaira District Milk Producers Union Limited, popularly known as
Amul, began with 250 litres of milk collection per day from two villages. As the number of participating
villages increased, excess milk collection led to setting up of a plant to process milk into products like
butter and milk powder. Subsequently, cheese was also produced for the first time from buffalo milk and
many other baby food products. Today Amul collects, processes and distributes over a million litres of milk
and milk products per day on behalf of more than a thousand village cooperatives owned by half a million
farmer members. The turnover of Amul is Rs.22 billion from the branded packaged products sold across
the country and exported to several countries. Each obstacle was converted into an opportunity and today
Amul represents all that is international quality with no let up even after six decades of cooperative
functioning that speaks volumes about commitment at all levels and institutional strength. Studies show
that about half the income of a participating rural household comes from dairy providing income security.
The Amul success has also inspired the „operation flood‟ and heralded „white revolution‟ in India thus
addressing poverty directly. For more details visit:
http://www.indiadairy.com/cont_highest_milkproducer_amulorigin.html;
http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/sep/23spec.htm.
Literature Review 55
conservation (pani panchayat29
) and the recent Saurashtra groundwater recharging
movement are notable ones. The collectives are generally a homogeneous group and the
action is for a common purpose and common benefit. Therefore, the collective identity of
a group plays an important role in the social movements. To sum up, ssocial movements
therefore shape action by defining what people want and how they imagine they can get.
Collective identity
Every social movement that arises revolves around one or more issues and mobilizes
people affected presently or potentially. When individuals come together and act for
common cause, a collective identity is generated. This identity may be pre-existing such
as in caste, class or profession, or may be created such as in the case of earthquake or
flood affected victims who generally form groups to fight for compensation for loss of
property and life from the state. In social movements, the concept of collective identity is
of paramount importance. Collective identity is neither a „datum‟ nor a „thing‟ with a real
28
The Chipko movement was a spontaneous response of the forest-dependent community to the decades
old felling of Indian forests for commercial purposes. They saw that the forests that provided them with
direct livelihood support through food, fuel and fodder, and healthy soil and flowing water resources, were
getting being felled systematically. The first Chipko action happened spontaneously on March 26, 1974 in
the Garhwal Himalayas when a group of female peasants in Reni village, Hemwalghati, in Chamoli district,
Uttarakhand, India, hugged the trees to prevent their felling. This spurred hundreds of such grassroot level
actions, throughout the region. By the 80s, the movement spread throughout India, and led to formulation
of people sensitive forest policies and stopping of open felling of trees in regions as far reaching as
Vindhyas and the Western Ghats (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Chipko_movement). The Chipko
protests in Uttar Pradesh, led majorly by women, achieved a major victory in 1980 with a 15-year ban on
green felling in the Himalayan forests of that state by order of India's then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.
Since then the movement has spread to Himachal Pradesh in the North, Kamataka in the South, Rajasthan
in the West, Bihar in the East and to the Vindhyas in Central India. In addition to the 15-year ban in Uttar
Pradesh, the movement has stopped clear felling in the Western Ghats and the Vindhyas and generated
pressure for a natural resource policy which is more sensitive to people's needs and ecological
requirements. A feature published by the United Nations Environment Programme reported the Chipko
Movement thus: 'In effect the Chipko people are working a socio-economic revolution by winning control
of their forest resources from the hands of a distant bureaucracy which is concerned with selling the forest
for making urban-oriented products.'
29 „Pani Panchayat‟ translates to „water council‟. Started by late Shri Vilasrao Salunkhe in 1973, this
institutional form comprising five village elders, has motivated the villagers of Naigon in the drought-prone
Purandhar taluka of Maharashtra State to harness their meagre water resources for both individual and
common good. The basic plank for development was guaranteed, equitable allocation of water through a set
of technological and social innovations. The village reaped good economic returns from agriculture and
animal husbandry, which was leveraged to bring about social transformation too. Social barriers and
economic inequalities were sought to be addressed through a string of social and economic actions and
sanctions. Many villages across Maharashtra and in some other states got motivated and joined the 'Pani
Panchayat' movement (http://panipanchayat.org/accessed 06 July 2009).
Literature Review 56
existence. It is a concept, an analytical tool or a lens through which we read reality; it
helps to analyze phenomena, or dimensions of them (Melucci 1995). Collective identity
is a shared definition of a group that derives from members‟ common interests,
experiences, and solidarity (Taylor, 1989). Melucci (1988) and other social movements
analysts differentiate collective identity from the social psychological concept of social
identity which is based on caste, for example. In contrast, collective identity is seen as
constructed, activated, and sustained only through interaction in social movement
communities (or submerged networks, Melucci‟s) and as shaped by factors such as
political opportunity structures, the availability of resources, and organizational strength-
in other words, matters of resources and power. Individuals who act as leaders and
promoters of social change often initiate the process of creating an ideology-based
collective identity.
Thus, collective identity is a process of „constructing‟ an action system that combines
ends, means and a field or fields of action (Melucci, 1995). Construction of an action
system draws upon the networks of active relationships between the actors, who interact,
communicate and influence each other, negotiate, and make decisions. Collective identity
also defines the capacity for autonomous action, produced and maintained by self-
identification, and rests on the ability of a movement to locate itself within a system of
relations (Melucci, 1995). When the ends, means and actions are well integrated, the
actors convert it into a strong, vibrant social movement that is capable of moving ahead
on its own. In short, in resource-centric social movements for livelihood enhancement,
the (natural) resources play a complementary but critical role in public performance of
the collectives or groups contributing to the social movement‟s achievement of goals and
objectives. The role of institutions and its structure, leadership patterns and other
institutional networks also become very crucial components.
Further, forms of organizations and models of leadership, communicative channels, and
technologies of communication are constitutive part of this network of relationships
(Melucci, 1995). The kinship relationship serves to bring in emotional ties that not only
strengthen the societal identity but convert it to action in terms of collective formation
Literature Review 57
and cooperation. Such a societal identity sees beyond the economics and the collective
domain; the environmental concerns and the larger geographical scales also become a
part of the thought process. Depending upon the strengths of the institutions and the
collectives, and the extant political environment, the concerns get integrated into the
planning process. Thus, the whole cultural production process contributes to the social
movement in gaining or developing additional resources for livelihood security.
Thus, the success of the movement depends upon (a) the degree to which the individuals
are „prepared‟ through cognitive frames not only in the identification of the problem, but
also in problem solving strategies and clarity on possible individual and collective
benefits, and (b) the combination of processes that are employed by the leaders and the
institutions for meaning construction.
Framing, culture and process of meaning construction
Framing implies mental orientations that organize perception and interpretation. From a
cognitive perspective, frames are problem-solving schemata, stored in (human) memory,
for the interpretative task of making sense of presenting situations. They are based on
past experiences of what worked in given situations, and on cultural templates of
appropriate behavior (Johnston, 1995). Regular group meetings, which serve as forums
for sharing and learning through narratives, tend to reinforce the cognitive frames, and
help in not only strengthening but in proliferation of the movement by inducing more
members who were hitherto passive audience.
Klandermans (1992) distinguishes between three different processes of meaning
construction in the context of social movements: public discourse, persuasive
communication, and consciousness-raising. In these processes, the set of actors are
different, and therefore not only the dynamics but also the strategies need to be different.
While public discourse is general in nature and addresses everyone in a society or a
particular set of actors within a given society, persuasive communication is employed to
address only those actors who need to be targeted. The third type of the process of
Literature Review 58
meaning construction, namely, consciousness raising, is aimed primarily at the
participants directly concerned with the objective of the social movement. Often, such a
process of meaning construction at an individual or group level tends to become
expansive as there is indirect audience, who may also get benefited either immediately or
with a delay. This phenomenon is commonly witnessed in social movements concerned
with natural resource conservation and livelihoods. Examples include joint forest
management and watershed programmes in India. Thus, the rate at which the expansion
of the domain of actors occurs (scaling up), and the active participation of actors
determines not just continuity of the movement but also its sustainability.
The production of culture in a social movement therefore is continuously fed by the
strengths of the embedded small groups (and cautions drawn from failures), that may
have their own identity. Some strengths include the groups‟ network of social relations,
cultural resources and its communication network. The broader social network facilitates
the origination of actions, cultural diffusion, and the framing and reframing of movement
ideology and demands (Haase, 1996; d‟Anjou, 1990:8; Snow et al. 1986).
Further, for a given social movement, networks among the concerned groups, both within
the “movement geography” or beyond contribute to the expansion of the consciousness
raising, provided similar concerns and issues exist. The expansion comes about through a
variety of actions such as rituals and story-telling, in addition to sharing, dissemination
and media due to the fast spreading telecommunications technology. Research has shown
that story telling in social movements is quite effective, given the conditions of literacy or
education, backwardness and other constraining conditions. Story telling essentially
comprises narratives, by individual members, in various forms, by word of mouth and
through media. Narratives create social spaces in which audiences are encouraged to
identify with the situations, problems, and concerns of others (Fine, 1995). It helps to
strengthen the beliefs of the other members through an image of positive change (through
framing techniques) thus leading to movement allegiance and enhanced commitment to
the objectives of the social movement. These stories, which are “bundles of narratives”
and usually told about oneself (Goffman, 1974), may be expanded to include episodes
Literature Review 59
and related, subsidiary forms as gossip or anecdotes. All these give rise to informal
history of the social movement that lives in the memory of individuals and passed onto
generations, sometimes captured in different format depending upon the access to and
development of communication channels at the given point of time. There might also be
constraining conditions of opposition by other forces opposed to change.
The expansion of the narratives is also generally found to be highly anecdotal to capture
the imagination of the audience, whose members immediately tend to visualize the
effects to address their own similar needs. One of the major advantages is that the
capacity of risk taking of social actors too gets enhanced due to the presence of
“experienced actors” who actually have got “benefited”. The Weberian perspective
indicates that the reasons of incentives, benefits and value addition, tend to keep
movement adherents together leading to internalization of the culture.
The culture production resulting from the above processes attains a symbolic legitimacy;
the role of movement leaders here becomes significant as they guide continuously to
improve the performative factor with their own knowledge and wisdom, employing
frames as necessary. While people look at leaders as repositories of knowledge and
wisdom, the leaders are themselves continuously engaged in updating their own
knowledge through observation, reading learning and creative actions. In the process, the
culture of knowledge building gets diffused to individual actors, who in turn, may also
contribute to the process of knowledge creation. By conceptualizing culture as a stock of
knowledge that allows a person to perform as a competent member of a society, the
performative approach allows for creative and adaptive processes with the movement
itself (Johnston and Klandermans 1999).
Oommen (1972a, 1990) argues that to cope with a crisis situation, one of the three
alternatives may emerge: [a] appearance of a charismatic leader who promises to lead the
people to a new utopia, [b] emergence of a new ideology which champions the cause of
the deprived, and [c] establishing a new organization to deal with the problem at hand.
Literature Review 60
Interestingly, the „new social movements‟ are capturing the imagination of the individual
actors due to the materialistic focus on resource mobilization in the backdrop of resource
dependency at individual and collective levels. These new social movements have been
occurring since seventies and eighties and have revolved around issues such as forest,
water, mines and rights. Since most of these movements are also concerned with issues of
democratic and human rights, equality, justice, environmental stability and development
they are also referred to as „movements for environmental socialism‟ (Sanghvi, 2003).
The experiences are also shared and learnt across regions of the world due to the
globalization process by which the world is becoming highly interconnected through
economic, social, political and cultural contacts (Jogdand & Michael, 2003).
Globalization also involves flows of goods, capital, people, information, ideas, images
and risks across national borders, combined with the emergence of social networks and
political institutions (ibid).
PART 2: PIONEERING INSTITUTIONS, LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL
MOBILIZATION
Tushaar Shah (1998) defines the Saurashtra groundwater recharging movement as
spontaneous, self sustaining and self-propagating that has become popular and adopted
by thousands of households over a two-decade period. The recharging movement was
ideated and experimented by a few individual farmers, promoted by leaders who brought
together groups of farmers to further experiment without any institutional support to
begin with (Shah, 2008). Since the movement‟s aim was to address water scarcity, a
problem faced by all the farmers, attention of farmers was drawn cutting across castes
and classes. Leadership was provided mostly by the patels who are often rich, influential
and enjoy close-knit network, both within and outside the country in order to draw funds
and political support. Thus, the response of human behaviour to addressing a basic need
called water scarcity generated increasing response over time from both patel and non-
patel farmers alike. The movement has also seen „patterns of learning and improvisation‟
occurring continuously over time that determined the culture of the movement to benefit
the agrarian community.
Literature Review 61
This section describes the pioneering farmers, key individual leaders and organizations
that kept the movement growing. In doing so, the leaders and promoters have used
narratives and techniques of meaning construction through public discourse, persuasive
communication and consciousness-raising as part of framing strategies. The personality
traits, principles and approaches of the leaders have contributed to the shaping of the
movement although the leaders differed between themselves. Significantly, there was no
conflict or working at cross-purposes. Although not working as one entity, or under one
umbrella, these organizations across Saurashtra have contributed to the movement
retaining their own identities.
The pioneering farmers
The origin of the Saurashtra recharging movement lay in the pioneering direct dug well
recharging by the Dhoraji-Upleta farmers during 1987-90 just after the drought spell of
1985-87. Babubhai Chanabhai Parmar of Bhayavadar village, Sukhabhai of Kodaki
village, Dhirubhai Sitapara of Navagam and Raghunathbhai village, Savdasbhai Patel of
Mandlikpur, Yogesh Kumar Dhirubhai Patel of Kathrota and Muljibhai of Rana Rajiwada
are among the pioneering farmers. The ideas that they adopted are as follows:
Babubhai Parmar simply inundated his farmland by raising the farm bunds so that
the rainwater gets accumulated and infiltrates. In addition, he also diverted water
into his well nearby through pipes from the farm bund at a lower elevation.
Babubhai had a channel dug up all along the bund on the sloping side of the field
to collect the run-off from his 20 bigha land. He connected the channel to four
cement pipes of 6” diameter. By closing the pipes, the flow from the farm is
directed into the well. Before allowing water into the well, Babuhbhai constructed
a silt trap, mainly for reducing damage to insides of well due to high velocity run-
off water. However, he made further modifications later. When the well gets filled
up, he opens the caps of the pipes to allow draining into the stream adjacent to his
farm. Premjibhai Patel interacted with him and motivated him to construct a
check dam across the stream abutting his farm. He provided only cement from his
personal funds while rest of the labor and other expenses was borne by Babubhai
Literature Review 62
as agreed between them (Shingi, 2003). This is one of the earliest check dams that
further convinced farmers about the efficacy of water harvesting.
Mandlikpur in Jetpur taluka of Rajkot district was known as a „village with no
water‟30
in entire Saurashtra due to occurrence of hard rock at shallow depth. In
1987-88, Savdasbhai Patel, a farmer, took the initiative and facilitated recharge of
wells in the village with farmers‟ own contribution. To address the drinking water
crisis in the village 86% of the 220 wells were recharged, along with other
activities such as roof water harvesting and underground tankas31
with the support
of an NGO.
Yogesh Kumar Dhirubhai Patel was the first farmer to have attempted well
recharge successfully in Kathrota village, Upleta taluka of Rajkot district, during
1997-2000 under the guidance of Antala, when IFFCO (Indian Farmers Fertiliser
Cooperative Ltd.) came forward with a big programme. Earlier experiences in
Upleta taluka promoted by Premjibhai Patel were on a much larger scale and
dispersed across villages. People knew about the useful results. As part of the
programme, IFFCO provided material support to 84 wells out of 124. Similarly,
many agencies and individuals provided pipes and cement for construction of pit
for well recharging. Over a period of years, the well recharging concept spread to
other districts. People like Shyamjibhai Antala, Premjibhai Patel, Swadhyaya
Parivar and Swaminarayan Gurukul have played the role of mentor and provider
in the process.
Individual leaders and Institutions
(a) Hardevsinh Jadeja-Rajsamadhiyala Village
Rajsamadhyiyala, a village about 22 km from Rajkot along Rajkot-Bhavnagar highway,
has been one of the pioneering cases of social transformation and successful water
conservation. The development story began in the year 1978 when Hardevsinh Jadeja
was elected sarpanch. He was determined to put an end to the social „evils‟ and
30
Na pani gaon, a Hindi phrase to mean village without water. 31
Traditional storage structures.
Literature Review 63
superstitions such as witch practice and other blind faiths prevailing in the village that
amply indicated its backwardness at that time. He strengthened the existing village
development committee (VDC) comprising 11 members representing all existing castes
and communities. The committee drew its power and authority from the gram sabha and
was empowered to take decisions in all matters of village development. In that sense, it
was practically more empowered than the local bodies of village panchayat. Jadeja
exhorted and guided the VDC to devise norms and practices that checked the exploitation
and social evils. This met with stiff resistance initially but with VDC asserting its powers,
the dissent was controlled. The support to Jadeja and the VDC enhanced when families
started deriving benefits from the rainwater harvesting structures initiated from 1987
onwards. Around 46 structures were constructed over an area of 1090 hectares that
included check dams, causeways-cum-check dams, percolation tanks, and farm ponds
(Down To Earth, 2002). The financial support was sourced from projects and schemes of
District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Government of Gujarat drought
programme, Gujarat Water Supply and Sewage Board (GWSSB), Sampurna Gramin
Rojgar Yojana (SGRY)32
and some support from social welfare trusts like Rajkot
Lodhika Sahakar Sangh (Sreedevi et al., 2006). The watershed programme started
launched in 1996 yielded further benefits from the various land and water related
activities. Rajsamadhiyala has received awards such as “Jalkranti Mahaprerak Award33
”
for 1999-2000 by the Saurashtra Jaldhara Trust for excellent community participation in
resource management. Other awards include “Namami Devi Narmade Award” and “Jal
Bachavo Jivan Bachavo-Lokseva Award”.
Jadeja is aware of his tough, no nonsense approach but believes that it is essential for the
task at hand and given the social conditions. Mark Tully (2000) describes Jadeja as „a
formidable autocrat who has dragooned his village into harvesting water so successfully
that the taps are still running in every house, and he can irrigate his own crop of
bhindi‟(okhra vegetable). Jadeja believed in a holistic approach to development which
begins with social transformation. In addition to Village Development Committee, the
32
Employment Assurance Scheme in rural areas. 33
Translates as exceptional motivator for water conservation crusade.
Literature Review 64
Watershed Association and the watershed committee, Self-help and User groups, have all
been promoted to ensure effective participation of both men and women in the watershed
programme.
Although Jadeja is no more the sarpanch, his opinions continued to be valued by the
people. He has developed a charisma and a stature that people respect. Under his overall
leadership, the VDC continues to act without bias or favour in matters of village. Even
VDC members are not discriminated in matters of penalty when acts of omission take
place. There is no delay in taking decisions or in implementation. Government
programmes are leveraged so that employment is available as well as benefits derived.
There were two detailed studies made on Rajsamadhiyala water harvesting activity. One,
a PhD thesis34
by Hiren Tilala from Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh; two, a
study by ICRISAT. The first study found that water harvesting structures in
Rajsamadhiyala have resulted in clear advantages to the beneficiaries in terms of
increased yield and net income from various crops, reduction in unit cost of production,
efficient utilization of resources, higher labor productivity, decline in income inequality
and improvement in water use efficiency compared to control villages. The study by
ICRISAT (Sreedevi et al. 2006) has found substantial investment of 16.25 million rupees
(US$ 0.36 million) in rainwater harvesting in one village-Rajsamadhiyala- created
storage capacity to harvest 16% of the mean annual rainfall of 503 mm which is
equivalent to 100% of potential runoff during a normal year. The study believes that in
view of the percolation seepage and evaporation losses, 40% of annual mean rainfall
could be harvested and stored underground. Due to typical topography, there is surface
run-off at least 2 or 3 times during a season. This has been found to have benefited the
downstream villages, Anilaya and Katurba Dham benefited in terms of increased
groundwater availability, reduced siltation and flooding through the base flow seepage
water and excess runoff. The agricultural productivity also was found to have increased
in these villages by 25–30%, improved groundwater availability by 25%, and reduced
34
The title of the thesis is Water Harvesting Structures: A Sustainable Way for Equity and Income
generation under the guidance of Prof. RL Shiyani.
Literature Review 65
distressed migration. In the case of Rajsamadhiyala, the agricultural crop productivity has
increased by 119% in case of groundnut, 53% for cotton, 95%for wheat and 50% in case
of cumin seeds. The cropping intensity has risen by 32% in 8 years. Enhanced
groundwater availability has assisted diversification with high-value crops like cumin,
vegetables and fruits. Food, fodder, fuel sufficiency substantially improved along with
the increased incomes, literacy and social development. Increased income from
agriculture and other allied sectors such as livestock rearing, enabled farmers to maintain
a higher consumption status and enhanced standard of living, this provided the farmers
enough work opportunities in farming.
The study also points out that Rajsamadhiyala has recently doubled the number of
borewells as also the number of pumping hours; there may soon be a situation when
water levels start declining and the whole efforts are undone.
(b) Shri Pandurang Shastri Athavale-Swadhyaya Parivar
Shri Pandurang Shastri Athavale of Swadhyaya Parivar may be termed as the forerunner
among the visionary leaders because he talked about water conservation as early as in the
late seventies as part of his discourses on self-transformation and self-empowerment.
In the year 1942, India was in turmoil due to sense of insecurity and prolonged „battle‟
with the British government. Pandurang Shastri Athavale, at the age of 22, has started
discoursing upon social problems such as exploitation, indignity and deprivation suffered
by masses in particular of lower caste, tribal and dalit (ex-untouchable) populations. The
Swadhyaya, which means self transformation, run by his father eventually came onto his
shoulders. In addition to Bhagawad Gita, he also studied Indian history, religion and
philosophy, Karl Marx and Mahatma Gandhi, and came to believe that a universal human
religion across and above all religious barriers (Sheth, 2009) alone would address the
evils of society. He interpreted „Bhagawad Gita‟ in such a way that people found
solutions to their predicament of material and spiritual life, both at individual and social
Literature Review 66
levels35
. He proposed an alternative vision, based on self-less love, dignity accorded to
all, and co- sharing of community, well and weaving in to a unified approach to life.
Parivar means „family‟. Swadhyaya Parivar is strikingly different from any religious
congregation; religion and god are used only as a means of social mobilization for
community good. The spiritual organization has a large gathering among the elite, the
peasant community and the unorganized members-women and men alike.
For any activity, Athavale has imposed certain non-negotiables that were fundamental to
his philosophy of unique synthesis of the individual, society and God. He located his
philosophy in the wider social and historical perspective (Sheth, 2009). Athavale took
personal care in devising experiments and schemes that have an overwhelming approach
of combining individual needs with the environmental and spiritual tenets. Those who
aspired to become Swadhyayees had to adhere to certain strict principles laid out by the
„Dada‟ (meaning „elder brother‟). The overarching of these principles is the inculcation
of „bhaktibhav‟ (feeling of devotion as offered to God), and this feeling to permeate in
action (kruti bhakti) and shram bhakti (devotion through labor) as a worshipper of God
(pujari). Any wealth, material or money, or in any form generated by such collective
effort is treated as impersonal wealth (apaurusheya laxmi). This impersonal wealth is to
be used exclusively for the purpose of welfare of the society.
The evidence of effectiveness of Athavale‟s approach lay in the huge following of about
15 million touching 100,000 villages in India36
. He has received many awards for his
exemplary approach of self-transformation and self-empowerment which include Ramon
Magsaysay Award for 'Community Leadership' (1996), Templeton Prize37
for 'Progress
35 Dr. Rudolf Haubst (Institute for International Research on St. Nicholos of Cusa): „I have Studied
"Bhagvad Gita" in Germany but after listening to Pujya Dadaji's analysis of "Bhagavad Gita", I feel that
even Saint Nicholos, the great scholar of Chritianity would have been attracted towards "Bhagavad Gita".
Through the depth and width of his discourses Rev. Dada reaches the heart of the listeners‟
(http://www.dadaji.net/way). 36
http://www.dadaji.net/way. 37 Sir John Templeton (at the Award ceremony of Templeton Prize) remarked : „Today we rejoice that the
person that is selected by the nine judges who come from all the five major religions, is someone who has
done something new in the spiritual information that is different from anything done before. It is a new
concept which thrills me. I could not have imagined 100,000 villages would now be living by the principle
Literature Review 67
in Religion' for originality, effectiveness, creativity and progress in religion and
spirituality (1997), Indira Priyadarshini Award for 'Temple of Trees' (1987) and Padma
Vibhushan (1999).
Some of the innovative schemes formulated and implemented include:
Yogeshwar krushi (God‟s agricultural farm): The responsibility of farming on this
plot of land was given to the village community while all farming inputs
including labor are willingly contributed by the village. Groups took up this
responsibility in rotation.
Vruksha Mandir (tree-temple) is a large plot of land usually managed by a cluster
of twenty villages. This land under lease is generally wasteland on which orchards
and forestry plantation are cultivated.
Shridarshanam (The abode of God): A group of people come together comes
together to develop and cultivate a large plot of land. All the inputs for
development is contributed by a cluster of twenty villages.
Lokmath Amrutalayam (the immortal abode of people‟s Lord). This is a model
village temple built by total contribution of villages; further a couple is given
responsibility for daily worship on rotational basis. The couple belongs to any
community or religion.
Another unique scheme was the Matysagandha in which the local affluent were
convinced to donate a corpus which was used to purchase boats for fishing by the
Parivar. Managed by the local pujaris (priests), the boats were given to boatless
fishermen who were expected to part with a portion of the catch as offering to
god. The activity was laced with songs of devotion and gratitude, thus imparting
spiritual value to a simple economic activity. The offering was used to buy more
boats and cover more assetless fishermen families.
of Mr. Athavale. Perhaps this concept would be useful in America, Europe and many other areas. This is a
thrilling new invention in spiritual development information. It is a great joy to see what Mr. Atahvale has
achieved, accomplished in one lifetime and how it is rolling in future‟ (http://www.dadaji.net/way).
Literature Review 68
In all, there are above 3000 yogeshwar krushi farms, 20 vruksha mandir farms, 10
Shridarshanam plots and about 100 Amrutalayam shrines in operation established by
Athavale‟s Parivar; majority of them are located in Gujarat, while the rest are in
neighbouring states. It can be seen from the above that all the activities are for resource
enhancement through which the livelihoods of the people is addressed.
Another unique feature of Swadhyaya Parivar is that the Swadhyayees are always self
dependent for all their food and other requirements even when they go and participate in
schemes for the benefit of people of other villages. If a farm pond is to be deepened in a
farmer‟s land, the few leading swadhyayees not only organize their own food but also
mobilize equipment and volunteers from the same village and from neighbouring
villages. Similar approach is adopted in case of common activities too such as tank
deepening, new tank construction, channels and desilting of check dams. Swadhyayees
on a regular basis visit villages based on the requests received and organize work there.
The works are slated depending upon the swadhyayees‟ own farm schedule and other
engagements in consultation with Athavale. The swadhyayees offer selfless labor in the
name of God (shrambhakthi-devotion of labor); they do not display traits that might
indicate that they are helping someone low in economy or caste or any such.
Differentiation on any count is not acceptable in the Parivar principles. People also get
highly motivated with this exemplary behavior, become members and contribute their
best to any activity through Parivar. For example, a 100-metre long earthen bund was to
be constructed in a village; 1000 men and women worked for almost nine months in
shifts, while carrying out their own farm work and other activities. The bund which
otherwise would have cost Rs.0.40 million was completed with only expenditure made on
purchasing some explosives (Sheth, 2009)
From around mid seventies, Athavale started focusing on water related issues looking at
the recurring drought problems faced by farmers. However, his approach was not focused
on narrow water domain. He located the problem in the context of symbiotic living with
nature and therefore any imbalances that occur due to whatever reasons need to be
corrected. Thus, he talks about unison of physical and spiritual needs. In line with this, he
Literature Review 69
exhorted farmers to carry out water conservation activities through invoking the slogan
“If you quench the thirst of Mother Earth, she will quench yours” (Shah, 1998).
However, it was only after the 1985-87 drought spell that his preachings found greater
response, perhaps also aided by the ambience created by the pioneering farmers of the
Dhoraji-Upleta. A group of swadhyayees‟ got motivated by Dada‟s exhortation, got
trained from local agricultural scientists in Junagadh on inexpensive methods of
recharging wells and took off well recharging along with some volunteers. According to
one estimate (Shah, 1997), between 92-96 thousand wells were recharged through
Swadhyaya Parivar and Swaminarayana Sampraday.
Nirmal neer (pure water) is another activity that is aimed at enhancing the storage
capacity of community tanks and ponds so that there is increased recharge to the nearby
wells. The swadhyayees chalk out a labor contribution programme on a selected pond or
tank for a specific number of days; the excavated earth is often used to strengthen an
existing bund, or build a new barrier across a stream flow. All the required implements
for earth excavation such as tractors, trolleys, spade, and pick-axes are pooled from
parivar members from neighbouring villages and the work is executed in a relaxed
manner. The work load is also shared by women. The activity spreads an ambience of
love, goodwill and empathy while the activity remains a means of bringing people
together (Raju et al., 2000) for individual and common good. More than 400 such tanks
have been covered under this activity.
The organization has faced a serious setback after the death of Shri Athavale in late 2005
due to management issues.
(c) Swaminarayan Sampraday
The goal of Swaminarayan Sampraday is „inspiring a peaceful, progressive life, free from
crime, aggression and addictions.‟ The Sampraday has 3,300 centres worldwide and has
large number of followers in India and in many other countries across the world. They
Literature Review 70
undertake a wide variety of activities in the spiritual, medical, environmental, social,
relief and women‟s programmes. Over 12,600 weekly assemblies for children, teenagers,
youths and elders are held regularly. As part of the environmental activity, they have
undertaken waste management, paper recycling, afforestation, etc. In Gujarat, the
Sampraday has recharged 5,475 wells in 338 villages, distributed over 300,000 water
conservation awareness posters and leaflets. They have also established the first & largest
drip irrigation system in Gujarat in Sarangpur. Aslo de-silting of Veri Dam, Gondal
taluka was taken up creating a storage capacity of 170 million litres of water.
In 1994, for the purpose of well recharging, the Sampraday have donated 30,000 metres
of cement pipes and organized technical help to the farmers. Further, Sampraday has also
printed and distributed 20,000 information leaflets through teams of sadhus and
volunteers. A total of 4,593 wells were recharged in 240 villages, most of which are in
Saurashtra; this includes 1005 wells across 68 villages in Rajkot district alone. The
efforts for well recharging have been continuing. In addition, the Sampraday has
constructed 85 check dams, 21 percolation tanks, 118 farm ponds, 55 underground tanks
and carried out 218 gully plugging38
.
In addition to action at the BAPS level, the key role they have played is the participation
of the senior sadhus in the public meetings and camps held by organizations such as
SLMT, SSS and SJT.
(d) Premjibhai Patel-Vruksh Prem Seva Trust
Premjibhai Patel, an octogenarian today and founder of Vruksh Prem Seva Trust, started
off as on an individual basis trying to address water scarcity through self experimentation
on capturing rainwater. He is one of the earliest and well-known innovators of
Saurashtra. Tired of Mumbai (a metropolis) life, he abandoned his business and came
back to his native place in Upleta. He chose to be in social service as against joining
politics which he found too murky. Incidentally, at that time, he happened to see a play
38
http://www.swaminarayan.org/activities/environmental/index.htm
Literature Review 71
“Jher to pida jani jani”39
written by Manubhai Pancholi, a well known educationist in
Gujarat and got motivated into social service. His first activity however was promotion of
plantation which he began by himself planting seeds in wastelands, on the roadside and
on tank/pond bunds.
Patel zeroed in on Prosopis juliflora, for good reasons. He says Prosopis juliflora is one
plant that grows anywhere and fastest, hardy, needs no tending, fixes nitrogen, and serves
as fodder and fuelwood to the poor people. He says there are lots of benefits from this
plant, and therefore, wanted to spread all wastelands with this plant. To begin with,
during early eighties, he targeted temple premises, and later schools in his native village
Bhayavadar and neighbouring villages. In addition to hiring people to do this work, he
himself started planting the seeds during weekends and on holidays by going on his
motor bike; over time, he got obsessive. His contention was that Saurashtra is a dry place
with lot of dry land which does not facilitate recharge to groundwater. He believes that
the more the vegetation, the more the rains. To speed up tree planting activity, he
modified his motor bike to fit a pump through which he used to spray the prosopis
juliflora seeds collected by paying incentives to people, especially youth and children
from neighbouring villages. He also encouraged people to collect and sell him the seeds
which he distributed free of cost except for an undertaking and meeting transportation
costs. He even gave advertisements in newspapers notifying free availability of seeds. He
carried out all these activities out of his own funds which are estimated as roughly
Rupees 3.5 million (Chokkakula, 2001). This became his obsession which is recalled by
many people even today40
. The title of his organisation „Vruksh Prem‟ means „tree lover‟.
Patel first experimented with recharging his own well in his farm in the year 1968-69.
Subsequently, during 1973, he carried out roof top rainwater capture in the backyard of
39
Premjibhai Patel was inspired by a character called Gopal Bapa who regenerated a large forest that gave
employment through horticulture. 40
His obsession got a further boost when in 1987 his industrialist-son had presented him with a Gujarati
translation of a book, „The Man who Planted Trees‟ by the famous French novelist Jean Giono published in
a local magazine. The author desired that people should get motivated to plant trees; so, he presented it as a
true story of an old man, Elzeard Bouffiard, a shepherd, who spent his retired life dedicated to tree
plantation. In the process he created a very large forest all by himself. Premjibhai Patel got inspired by this
„true story‟ and took up retirement in consultation with his son, who encouraged him, and took up tree
plantation.
Literature Review 72
his residence in Rajkot city which continues to function till date (Field visit, 2003-4).
Thereafter, he recharged his own well in his farm. While simultaneously engaged in his
own business of supplying explosives for well blasting and deepening purposes, he took
up supply of PVC pipes for recharging purposes as the recharge activity was picking up
all over Saurashtra villages. After retirement from business, from 1987 onwards, Patel
got seriously into recharging activity. He encouraged well recharging and construction of
cement tanks, and supplied cement and pipes free of cost to those who requested for. He
supplied approximately 60 trucks (17,000 metres) of PVC pipes till 1994 from his own
funds. To his credit, he has provided cement to Babubhai Chanabhai Parmar of
Bhayavadar village, one of the pioneering farmers who took up dug well recharging, to
construct a check dam across a stream course by the side of his farm. Cement cost usually
works out to one third of the estimate for a check dam. He continued this „cement teko‟
(support with cement) programme from 1988-1995 from his own funds estimated at Rs.
3.5 million until the watershed programme began (Field notes, 2003-4).
It was not that he did not face discouragement, or got despaired. Often, in the initial
years, people used to make a mockery of his obsession with tree plantation and his
„madness‟ in spending personal money for buying and donating pipes; few people also
tried to cheat him on cement as he used to reimburse money against bills. They tried to
submit fake or inflated bills. He remarked, “We supplied pipes by trucks to as close to the
site (place of use) as possible. Sometimes, even when a farmer is non cooperative, we
unloaded the pipes ourselves, while the farmer commands us to arrange the unloaded
pipes properly, with hands in his pockets.” He also recalls his well wishers advising him
against going to villages such as Pipardi and Anchawa, the darbar dominated villages,
where alcoholism is quite high (Field notes, 2003-4).41
However, over the years, people
have begun to appreciate his honesty and sense of purpose, and have cooperated with him
including the above indifferent two villages.
In 1990, he formally registered his organization as Vruksh Prem Seva Trust and got full-
fledged into development work after handing over his business to his son. Even before he
formed his Trust, during 1987-2004, Patel has helped construct more than 500 check
41 Personal communication during field visit.
Literature Review 73
dams by providing cement against vouching of free labour by any farmer. Initially, 100
bags of cement were provided per check dam. As the check dams were constructed and
people started realising the benefits, there was lot of demand. Patel gradually reduced the
quantum of cement to 25-30 bags; rest was contributed by the people themselves. In
some villages, there was 100% contribution. The cement support was provided by Patel
mostly from his own funds and from those mobilised from his industrialist son (Field
notes, VPST occasional release dated 1.11.2005).
Since the launch of the watershed programme in 1996, Vruksh Prem Seva Trust has
constructed 1200 small/big check dams in 27 villages of Upleta taluka of Rajkot district.
For a couple of years, there was lukewarm response to his watershed efforts mainly
because the grant was released only in February 1998 (VPST Occasional release dated
1.11.2005).
In all these watershed programmes, majority of budget was spent on constructing check
dams (Progress Reports submitted to DRDA by VPST). The Trust also focused on post
construction maintenance of check dams by organising desilting activity every year; the
scooped up fertile soil was used in the farms.
Patel went about the watershed works systematically. His analytical ability and writing
skills in Gujarati have seen him address every issue incisively. The field data collection
included many such releases which he marked to all the concerned government agencies
including bureaucracy, NGOs, researches and politicians. For example, the occasional
release of 1.11.2005 is a 20-page foolscap note covering most of the issues related with
rainwater harvesting, watershed, public participation and budget. The note also reports on
the work done by the VPST, the approach adopted, details of expenditure, people‟s
contribution etc. He also raises questions about the technicalities such as the dimensions
of check dams related with the stream characteristics, siltation in check dams issue,
corrupt practices, quality of construction, people‟s participation related issues, lack of
engineers, delays in fund releases, and many more. He also advocates increases in
people‟s contribution in later years of watershed where people have already benefited
Literature Review 74
from earlier years, shows how his organisation has saved money on administration and
against SORs (Schedule of Rates).
One of the noteworthy contributions of Premjibhai Patel is reduction in costs of
construction. He has constructed check dams at one-third of the cost as per the standard
schedule of rates. In the place of one, he has constructed almost three. How was this
possible? He says that this is possible because of [a] higher local contribution-20% as
against 10%; [b] avoiding contractor‟s profit of 20%; and [c] at least 10% saving on
payment of corruption. He also makes known his logic to everyone by speaking up in
conferences and meetings, and through his occasional writings/releases (dated
1.11.2005:5). He has also demonstrated the cost reduction in the construction of storage
tanks. VPST has saved an amount of Rs.1.14 millions out of the first batch of watershed
projects (1995-2001). Using this amount, the Trust has constructed water storage tanks of
206 tanks of 15,000-litre capacity which according to Standard Schedule of Rates costs
Rs.20,000/-. The provision was actually Rs.15,000/- for a 10,000-litre capacity tank.
Thus, VPST demonstrated cost reduction in this also by mobilizing more beneficiary
contribution. captured his process-oriented approach for cost reduction as follows: one,
he convinced the farmer that by constructing the check dam, his returns from crop yields
would increase significantly, in addition to an assured crop. Two, he motivated them to
contribute as much labor as possible. Three, he also encouraged people to use stones
available locally as far as possible to reduce the cost. Four, he used the ingenuity of local
masons in the design and construction of check dams. Five, he did not employ any
supervisor for monitoring the construction, but made the concerned farmers themselves
responsible for the quality of construction, thus reducing the overhead costs. This way, he
could have tens of check dams constructed simultaneously. His charisma and stature
commanded honesty from the farmers with the result that the check dams built were of
good quality and of lowest cost.
Many watershed implementing agencies and government agencies were by and large
unhappy with VPST. From interviews with government officers and some NGOs, the
study has gathered that the extent of savings on administration, salary, training and other
Literature Review 75
aspects made by VPST and shown to DRDA is not possible by other agencies. VPST has
few volunteers and retired persons who are paid only honorarium. He has low overheads
on salaries as he does not generally employ engineers or other qualified staff. Watershed
guidelines insist on employing qualified personnel. His delegation style has worked
because of his stature and his own level of honesty. NGOs tend to employ qualified staff
with vehicles for travel and reasonable compensation and other overheads.
If we look at the cost reduction, overall cost reduction is possible in the cost of
construction. The fact remains that there has been cross-subsidization through enhanced
people‟s labor contribution, and minimal supervision/management costs. Although the
fact remains that the money paid out works out to almost one-third per unit of work, this
cannot become a standard across the table as the minimalist approach can be
representative of the optimal approach. The social capital obtaining prior to launch of any
project or programme dictates the costs and its efficiency.
The Trust also promoted silt traps to reduce silt into the wells during direct well
recharging. The Trust believes that check dam is an effective water conservation option
for addressing Saurashtra water scarcity problem because it captures the run-off water,
allows maximum percolation of rainwater and does not need a filter which reduces the
inflow to recharge, thus resulting in „loss‟ of water. Some excellent check dams have
been constructed such as the Phophal dam which ingeniously makes use of the outcrops
to cut down drastically on the total cost.
Other innovations include semi-circular small check dams underneath culverts. The flow
from one side of the road to the other side will happen only after the water gets stored up
to the height of the check dam. With the small cost of say Rs.2000-4000 per unit, a huge
storage using the natural depression is achieved. Another innovation is the construction
of single tier or double tier piped wall at the place where water from the farms overflows
into the other farm or onto the roadside drain. The small outlet pipes can be closed as per
storage need in the farm. This is a simple low cost technique, which can be done by
anyone. Similarly, VPST has enhanced recharge of rainwater into the root zone of plants
Literature Review 76
in wastelands and rocky lands, by replacing the soil adjacent to a plant with sand encased
in a PVC pipe. The germination and growth of plants is thus enhanced and ensured.
Patel‟s approach sometimes is unique. For example, in a watershed programme, the
component of labor should be 60%. Due to the diamond polishing industry, a lot of labor
goes to work in the cities. In the absence of labor availability and in time, Patel argued
with the DRDA for use of JCB and tractors to complete the earth work in the watershed
programme so that the season is not lost, and permanent employment is assured. The
DRDA agreed to his logic and he completed the work accordingly (VPST occasional
release, 1.11.2005). Premjibhai Patel has received awards for his selfless, tireless crusade
for water conservation including the highly valued „Munishree Santbal Award‟ in 2003.
(e) Mansukbhai Suvagiya-Jal Kranti Trust
Jal Kranti Trust has been one of the first in the recent decades to construct check dams
and ponds in Rajkot district for rainwater harvesting. The Trust began its work in 1996
when its leader Mansukhbhai Suvagiya, who was serving as a government engineer,
resigned and led the recharging activity. He won over the confidence of the people by
himself working as a voluntary labour in the field during construction of rainwater
harvesting structures. The impact of his direct involved demonstration is such that people
still recall his hard work during extreme summer heat for 40 days at a stretch. His
objective was to convince people that they should act themselves to solve their own water
problems and not wait for the government or any external support. He also believes that
this approach helps develop the spirit of ownership, and thereby ensures maintenance by
people by developing ownership. The principles of Suvagiya, his personal commitment,
hard work and sincerity of purpose won him the confidence of the people. With
credibility established, the Trust embarked on construction of check dam with local funds
and own designs. The Trust discouraged seeking or expecting funds either from the
Government or from any external donor. Rafala was the first village where Suvagiya built
13 check dams with just Rs.100,000 for material such as stone, heavily supplemented by
voluntary labour and use of local material.
Literature Review 77
Himself a water engineer, Mansukhbhai developed inexpensive designs for small check
dams at a cost of Rs.4000-6000. Jamka, Vichhavad, Chanaka, Mota Kotada and Rafala in
Junagadh district were one of the earliest villages of Gujarat that constructed the low
cost, locally designed check dams in 1996 wholly through collective inputs and locally
raised funds. During 1996-97, Jal Kranti Trust has also motivated villagers of Mota
Munjiyasar, Bagasara Taluka of Amreli district, to implement a new method of storing
diverted rainwater in abandoned stone mines.
The tremendous people‟s response, and the social capital created by Jal Kranti Trust
could be gauged by the fact that 51 check dams and two ponds were constructed, and ten
thousand trees grown, all at a cost of Rs.1.3 million, in less than three months. People‟s
labour contribution was more than 20,000 person-days; this means that 225 persons were
working for 90 days continuously! The impacts were quite encouraging: annual
increment in agricultural production was more than Rs.20 million with annual
agricultural labour creation of 30,000 person days; migration was completely checked
due to in-village availability of employment. With the groundwater reserves increasing,
the drinking and irrigation water crisis in the village was addressed to a great extent
(Summary report, Jal Kranti Trust, 2002).
In yet another effort, the Trust has promoted an Ideal Well Recharging Scheme as part of
which 40 wells were recharged in the village Khijadiya (Khari), Amreli, with locally
raised funds and shramdan (voluntary labour). No government support was sought. The
Trust has also designed and implemented an innovative filter, which trapped silt before
the rainwater was diverted into the well.
The recharging scheme caught the imagination of the people from the neighbouring
districts. The Trust has expanded its work to Amreli, Junagadh and Jamnagar. In fact, the
influential and rich patels have come forward to participate in the movement with
donations. Although no documentation was done until circa 2000, the Trust claims that
one check dam helps to raise the returns from agricultural productivity by Rs.200,000-
300,000 annually. There are differential benefits to the farmers; however, every farmer
was benefited with either full irrigation or partial irrigation support.
Literature Review 78
Interestingly, witnessing the impact of the Jamka scheme (one of the first five villages in
Gujarat to experiment with low cost check dams promoted by Mansukhbhai of Jal Kranti)
which was done only by people‟s efforts and locally raised funds, the state designed the
Sardar Patel Jal Sanchay Yojana, first of its kind in the country in the year 2000.
Popularly known as the 60:40 scheme, any farmer, village institution, cooperative or a
group could access the check dam scheme for which 60% of the estimated cost and
design were to be provided by the government and 40% was to be contributed by people.
This was later modified as 80: 20 for certain regions with tribal predominance, 20%
being the local contribution. The movement had picked up and in a matter of four years;
by 2003, under the SJSY scheme, 18,000 check dams were constructed, and 5000 check
dams desilted across Gujarat state.
According to Mansukhbhai, who has constructed more than 200 check dams in Gujarat,
the 60:40 scheme has worked in killing the voluntary spirit of the people who were
actively engaged till then in developing and managing their own water resources and
related structures. He feels that people have stopped acting pro-actively as they were
expecting sanction of the scheme and thereby the funds; the sense of ownership is lost as
the check dam is considered to belong to government and therefore no one bothered
about maintenance. He further states that the scheme has many loopholes as it is designed
to favour contractors who could invest the initial amount and wait until the instalments
are released over many months after the completion of work.
It spread to many villages and cities in Rajkot and Jamnagar districts. In many places,
villagers themselves constructed these low cost check dams and well recharging
structures. During mid-nineties, he also experimented with the new idea of diverting
rainwater into abandoned stone quarries in Mota Munjiyasar of Bagasara taluka in
Amreli district. He also instituted an organization called Jal Kranti Trust operating from
Rajkot. The board of trustees consists of at least 16 members from different parts of
Saurashtra. These people belong to industry (including diamond industry), academics,
social workers and local reputed leaders. Mr. Odhavjibhai Patel, the Chairman of Ajanta
Watches, and the chairman of ORPAT Trust (another leading agency of recharging
Literature Review 79
movement and a study area) is also a trustee42
. Mansukhbhai Suvagiya has been
appreciated for his contribution by the Minister of Irrigation, Government of Gujarat,
Shri Madhavpriyadasji of Shree Swaminarayan Gurukul, Rajkot, and Dr. K.L. Jadav,
National President, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh.
(f) Mathurbhai Savani-Saurashtra Jaldhara Trust
Among the later entrants into the recharging movement is Mathurbhai Savani, a diamond
businessman hailing from Bhavnagar. Savani, a standard V passed, began as a low-paid
worker in a diamond polishing industry in Surat. By the time he got interested in water
conservation after visiting the Rajsamadhiyala experiment in 1998 along with 150 of his
friends from Khopala, and the jal yatra idea of Tarun Bharat Sangh of Alwar district in
Rajasthan. He was the owner of a Rs.1bn diamond industry at the age of 38 (Kishwar,
2003).
Savani came to play a key role in raising the pitch of the recharging movement through
display of commendable skills of social mobilization, organization and fund raising
(DTE, 2008). Much more than this, he introduced a unique way of enhancing rainwater
capture through loan of earth excavation equipment (JCB43
) in combination with people‟s
voluntary contribution.
Initially, during 1997-98, although based in Surat, Savani focused on raising awareness in
his native village Khopala in Gharda taluka of Bhavnagar district. He analyzed the main
reasons for the acute water crisis in his village as (i) overexploitation of groundwater for
irrigation and (ii) heavy run-off of rainwater (CSE, 2000) which resulted in missed
opportunity for irrigation. He started interactions with villagers for awareness raising;
alongside, he mobilized his other industrialist-friends from Mumbai, Surat and
Bhavnagar to visit and also contribute to constructing check dams. For the purpose of
42
Sources: Field Visit and discussions with Mansukhbhai Suvagiya, Jal Kranti Trust brochures and other
literature, Article „Saurashtra Recharging Movement is not the task of one or two persons‟ in “Saurashtra
Bhoomi” daily from Junagadh dated 8.10.2002. 43
JCB is an earth excavation and moving equipment that was launched by Joseph Cyril Bamford in 1945
in a small garage of 12 x 15 ft and bears initials of his name-JCB. It has become popular by that name.
Literature Review 80
transparency, he formed a “Khopala Navnirman Vikas Samiti” (Khopala development
council). Within six months of laying of foundation stone by the then chief minister of
Gujarat, Keshubhai Patel in December 1998, Savani organized construction of 25 check
dams under „own your check dam‟ scheme offered to farmers. However, he realized that
there was need for 200 check dams (DTE, 2008), 25 farm ponds and 22 channels (Raval,
2001). For all this, he mobilized Rs.4.8 million at the rate of Rs.300 per bigha in addition
to labor contribution. The remaining amount was mobilized from businessmen from
Mumbai, Vadodara and Surat (CSE, 2000). The monsoon of 1999 saw water levels in
550 wells rise and farmers witnessing crop production higher by 60% and increased
fodder availability (Raval, 2001)44
.
Savani then thought of institutionalizing his efforts by forming „Saurashtra Jaldhara Trust
(SJT)‟ in October 1999 with registered office in Rajkot. He deftly drafted trustees, as
many as 37, belonging to all walks of life-diamond merchants, local politicians,
industrialists, social workers and others-based in Gujarat, in India or abroad. One
diamond businessman, Rajesh Mehta, based in Belgium, has been a big donor who was
impressed by the early work of Savani in Khopala. The Trust made it its mandate to serve
all the needy villages from Saurashtra, Kutch and North Gujarat as these are it felt that
these are the most needy, dry areas of Gujarat.
Savani has adopted a strategy of motivation-action-motivation. The SJT has adopted a
unique method of reaching out to people in their efforts of water conservation.
Encouraged by Khopala experience, the SJT laid down a pre-condition for voluntary
service for extending its help in the construction of check dams or for tanks, or any earth
excavation related activity. While the villagers provided voluntary labor, the trust
provided cement for construction of check dams. Thousands of check dams have been
constructed in this manner (Raval, 2001). For one village, the Trust provides 2000
cement bags free of cost, which at the rate of Rs.135/-, per bag, works out to Rs,
275,000/-. If cement in excess of 2000 bags is required, then it is provided at a subsidized
44
„Marching towards Green Revolution through series of check dams by united villagers‟. Booklet (2001)
published „by Saurashtra Jaldhara Trust.
Literature Review 81
rate of Rs. 105/- per bag. More than 80,000 check dams have been supported in this
way45
. For construction of new ponds, tanks or deepening the old ones, or desilting the
check dams, the SJT provided JCB (earth excavator). The Trust bought 20 JCB machines
and gave them on loan to villages from Saurashtra, Kutch and North Gujarat against
written request signed by the village. The machine was made available for 500 hours per
village free of cost. The machine came with an operator and all the required material
such as grease and oils; repairs, spare parts and servicing is taken care of by SJT . Only
running cost of diesel was to be borne by the village. The market rate of hiring a JCB in
the year 2000 was, say, Rs.550/hour. For 500 hours, the cost of hiring works out to
Rs.0.275 million while the diesel cost works out to only Rs.50,000/-. Put differently, the
SJT‟s assistance to each village works out to Rs. 0.225 million. The rates have now gone
up significantly, but the service is still available. Many villages got benefited from this
scheme of SJT which made villagers to cooperate to draw individual benefit.
SJT also has been promoting educational and awareness campaign for use of drip and
other efficient water use methods (CSE, 2000).
One of the first things Savani ensured was to involve every community in the water
campaign. For example, Khopala was 80% patels, and the rest comprised Brahmins,
harijans, rabaris and others. VPST enlisted representation of one (preferably young)
person from a cluster of 40 families of a particular community, including non-farming
families (Kishwar, 2003). All these representatives formed the village committee which
was the supreme decision making body. Saurashtra Jaldhara Trust has adopted the jal
yatras (water campaigns), sammelans (conferences), and village walks to generate
awareness and mobilize people for water conservation in their own village. This the Trust
has done very successfully. Beginning in December 1998 when VPST could manage to
involve the chief minister to lay the foundation stone for the 200 check dams and 25 farm
ponds, he organized several events involving ministers, religious leaders, diamond
industry owners and other industrialists. The following are some examples46,47,48
.
45
www.saujaldhara trust.com/advantagecheckdam.asp accessed 23 February 2008. 46
www.saujaldharatrust.com accessed 23 February 2008.
Literature Review 82
From 14-19 November 1999, a 250 km awareness walk was organized which
went from village to village for 6 days and nights, touch basing about 30,000
people. Launched by the then speaker of Gujarat Legislative Assembly
(Dhirubhai Shah), the event was joined by many well known diamond merchants
from Bhavnagar, Surat, Ahmedabad and Mumbai and other places.
A huge convention was organized in the year 2000 in Surat wherein 30 million
people from Saurashtra, Kutch and North Gujarat were present and a vow
administered to conserve rainwater. Chief Minister of Gujarat was present.
This was followed by another convention in Gadhada in Bhavnagar district which
was attended by Shri Morari Bapu, the highly respected, eminent orator on
Ramayana (Hindu religious epic). The thousands present took vow to conserve
rainwater.
A mammoth 300 km long „jal sangrah abhiyan yatra‟ (water conservation
campaign‟ was held in October 2001 from Talgajarda in Bhavnagar district to
Probander through four districts. The yatra which was launched by Shri Morari
Bapu had 400 persons throughout as the core team. The yatra passed through,
Bhavnagar, Rajkot and Jamnagar districts to culminate in Porbander. All along
the 400 team and many others who joined motivated the villagers in their own
way using pamphlets, videos, posters, stories, data and other material.
Many other conventions throughout the dry areas of Gujarat were held and oaths
administered in the presence of eminent persons, ministers, politicians and social
reformers.
The Trust also has begun giving away awards to villages that did exemplary work
on water conservation. In the year 2001, 150 villages were given awards by the
Chief Minister of Gujarat and letters of appreciation by Shri Morari Bapu.
Newspapers, TV channels (both local and national) have covered the events of SJT. This
has brought about a big awakening in Gujarat in addition in the Saurashtra, Kutch and
north Gujarat areas. SJT has also used print media in a big way-such as pamphlets,
47
Times of India, 11 October 2001. 48
http://indiatogether.org/manushi/issue118/reclaiming.htm
Literature Review 83
posters, books and booklets in millions in Gujarati and to a certain extent in English.
Audio, video cassettes, banners, hoardings were also used. Mobile vans with videos were
pressed into service to reach each village and show the documentaries and films on the
need and ways of water conservation49
.
In short, it could be said that VPST under the leadership of Savani has displayed vision in
trying to address the water scarcity systematically. A self-made hard working
entrepreneur who made a rags-to-riches story, Savani managed to mobilize the rich and
influential patel community together for a common cause of addressing water scarcity
through water conservation. He convinced them to donate liberally to a common
livelihoods cause. To ensure participation of all families irrespective of caste, and to
ensure equity, he established a village committee that was supreme in taking decisions
and actions. He mobilized people in many ways such as by appealing to their wisdom,
applying peer pressure by religious and political leaders, and by voluntary labor. People
obtained quick benefits too in the form of enhanced and stable crop yields; combined
with the multiple communication strategy, the messages reached people and set them to
thinking. A majority has responded positively.
(g) Jayantibhai Raval-Sarvodaya Seva Sangh
Sarvodaya Seva Sangh (SSS) believes in „for the people, by the people and to the
people‟. SSS has been working in one of the most backward areas called panchal area in
Wankaner taluka of Rajkot district for the past 20 years. It believes that natural resources
should be in balance; if the balance is disturbed, then the livelihoods get affected.
Therefore, in order that man does not destabilise nature, it is important to ensure the
quality and interdependency of jal, jameen and jangal (water, land and forests). Since the
watershed programme is designed on these lines, SSS has taken up watershed programme
in 5000 hectares covering villages, namely, Matel, Anandpar, Bhaktanpar, Oan, Virpar,
Varkusar, Palas, Lakadhar and Vithalpar. This was part of the first batch of watershed
programme was introduced from 1.1.1996. The Secretary Jayanthibhai Raval is the key
49
For more details, visit www.suarjaldharatrust.com/awarenessprog.asp accessed 23 Feb 2008.
Literature Review 84
person who organizes the entire work. He is a strict follower of Gandhian principles. For
the purpose of implementation of watershed programmes, he has encouraged people with
integrity to take up leadership in the watershed association and the committee, and other
groups. The leaders played a key role in enlisting cooperation of the entire village, and
ensuring that all communities including womenfolk participate in the decision-making.
Vithalpar is one of the study villages which has carried out watershed treatment
programme. SSS identified Vithalpar as a model village and put in efforts to develop it
so. There were just 3 hand pumps to cater to the drinking water needs of both men and
livestock. Due to the efforts of SSS under the leadership of Jayantibhai Raval, Vithalpar
has evolved as a „model‟ village and has been awarded the „Jal Sanchay Gaurav
Puraskar‟ – 2003 by the Gujarat finance minister Vajubhai Vala for „noteworthy water
conservation programme‟. The village has a population of 500 families; till date there is
no police station established in the village because there are no conflicts. Adopting
Gandhian principles also implies abstinence from liquor. Hence, there is no liquor shop
nor anyone consumes liquor. For implementing the watershed programme, SSS has
facilitated formation of the Sarvodaya Watershed Project; for each village/
microwatershed, a watershed association and watershed committee was formed.
All the ten villages covered under the watershed programme are more or less contiguous.
Most of these villages including Vithalpar were mostly rain dependent for irrigation
support. Very few wells were present; in Vithalpar there were only 7 shallow wells that
were providing critical irrigation support to (52 bighas). Kharif was the main crop while
land sown under rabi was around 20-30%. For the 500 families of Vithalpar, the poor
agriculture also meant fodder insecurity, and low milk yield. The income was at
subsistence level.
SSS organized a inter-village meeting and strategized to take up water harvesting
activities during the first year of watershed itself. This was because most people felt that
irrigation water security would really make a difference to their economic vulnerability.
As decided, within a year or two, by 2000-2001, five check dams were constructed across
Literature Review 85
Mahi river abutting the watershed villages. While constructing these check dams, the
presence of outcrops in some places, e.g., in Vithalpar, was made use of. With
enthusiastic participation of people, the overall saving per check dam worked out to 25-
30%50
. Further, impounded water from the check dams was transported to the farmlands
by laying almost 27,000 metres of pipeline. Thus, the irrigation support was extended to
850 bighas. Moreover, in addition to kharif, rabi crop area also has increased as discussed
in the chapter 6. A similar strategy was adopted for other villages too.
SSS has organized many awareness programmes in the villages, distributed pamphlets
and other information material about the watershed before, during and at the end of the
programme. They also invited politicians, social reformers and government officials to
visit the sites, meet people and give their opinions and suggestions. The
report/information on the various activities is distributed in printed form which indicates
the transparency and confidence. The entire work is done through the watershed
committees who take decision and are aware of the income and expenditure details. One
booklet (undated) printed and distributed by SSS gives complete details of the
programme including financial details. It also gives at least 80 half-page case studies
from various watershed villages along with a photograph, and data regarding before and
after scenario, in terms of crop yield increase, milk increase and overall income change.
Interestingly, all these case studies belong to farmers who have mostly 1-3 bighas and
very few up to 5 bighas.
(h) Oddhavji Raghavji Patel-ORPAT Trust
Odhavji Raghavji Patel (74), a teacher has turned entrepreneur at the age of 46 when he
began manufacturing wall clocks in the year 1971 in Morbi taluka51
of Rajkot district.
Beginning in rented premises and with 100,000 rupees as investment, his company now
50
Field notes (2003-4) and Information booklet/report, 2001 on Vithalpar by Sarvodaya Seva Sangh. 51
Morbi, where the trust has its office, and is one of the villages where water harvesting has taken place, is
a coastal town, close to the Rann of Kachchh. In addition to the water quality in the area being saline, there
is also the scarcity issue.
Literature Review 86
(2008) turns over Rs.50 million annually52
. The growth of his company is attributed not
only to his continued innovation in terms of improving quality of clocks but also
providing them at prices affordable, even by the poor. He is called “father of wall clocks”
for his pioneering range of product creation. Over the years, his company diversified into
manufacturing a range of consumer goods and appliances, in addition to clocks.
His clocks became very popular, not only within India but also outside the country. He
earned awards for his company‟s outstanding export performance. Among several
awards, he also received “Man of the Year” award by the Government of India in 1992.
Being a native of Saurashtra and coming from a poor background, Oddhavji Patel had
first- hand experience of its adverse climatological conditions especially on livelihood
occupations53
. He was also aware that Saurashtra has an inverted saucer topography
making rainwater retention difficult; agriculture and animal husbandry, the main
occupations of a majority of the population often faced challenges, leading to migration
of farmers. Women were often left behind at home along with children to take care of the
siblings, the old-aged, diseased and the infirm. He evolved a two-pronged strategy: one,
to provide employment to women, who, he believed, are more dependable and committed
to their work; two, to support direct implementation of water recharge activities. When he
offered employment to women in his factory in order to implement his first strategy, no
woman was forthcoming. After a long thought, and informal interactions with many
families, he realized this behavior as due to „cultural‟ reasons. He made up his mind to
somehow break this mindset. As a first step, he prevailed upon his own daughter-in-law
and his domestic help to work in the factory. His efforts paid off; today, more than 5,000
out of the 7,000 employees in his company are women belonging to nearby villages
(Raghu, 2007). The company also organizes buses to transport women from and to their
villages. This has been a win-win situation for both Oddhavji and the women. While
Patel recognized that women are honest and dependable, thus turning out their best, the
52
http://orpatgroup.com accessed 26 March 2008. 53 Personal discussions, 2003-04.
Literature Review 87
employment provides them with the much-needed stability of income source to support
their families.
Importantly, employment with the company provides the family the much-needed cash
flow, in particular, during the drought periods when agriculture and animal husbandry go
even below subsistence level. Further, access to money helps women to take and
implement certain decisions that have far-reaching significance to the family. For
instance, it is often found that women, who remained back at home, continued to send
their children to school, pay for their school expenses, and provide better food, while
their men-folk migrated in the initial years. As can be seen in the later sections of Section
4, the migration in many villages has come down significantly or halted completely, due
to increase in groundwater availability, thus further improving the school attendance and
children‟s health. Patel, thus, deftly combined his business requirements with the
employment needs of the people creating a win-win situation.
As regards his second strategy of helping people address water scarcity is concerned, he
could not find ways to act till he witnessed other villages take to recharging of wells
during late eighties and early nineties in other parts of Saurashtra. Oddhavji began
promoting and constructing check dams in many villages of the neighbouring Halvad,
Dhrol, Morbi, Wankaner and Jodiya talukas. As water levels in the wells increased,
farmers started having enough work on farm and the migration came down. Patel actually
has a traditional mindset and believes in all family members living together, even at the
cost of earning a little less compared to what one would earn through migration to other
places. Interestingly, his water harvesting programme has helped scores of families to
again begin living together with migration reduced significantly in many of the villages
he worked. It is witnessed that the employment of women in his factory had been a boon
to the family in terms of enhancing stability in income and vulnerability reduction in
agricultural income due to enhanced water storage in wells.
After relinquishing business to his son, around mid-nineties, Oddhavji began operating
his ORPAT Trust, the NGO, from his palatial home in Morbi. He got full time into the
Literature Review 88
social work and has developed very good rapport with the common people despite his
stature and advanced age. The trust employed one mechanical engineer and five social
workers. Thus, the overheads are quite low. When workload increases such as when
recharge activity is to be carried out, the trust appoints volunteers from the village itself.
It is a loosely run organization, where systems and procedures are followed to the extent
formally needed by the government or the donor agencies as the case may be, or for the
trust‟s own internal purposes. Due to limitations on personnel, monitoring is minimal.
Oddhavji Patel, already 74 years of age, desires to do many things, other than water
harvesting; however, limitations on staff, and their limited capacities come in the way.
So, he throws his weight with other agencies to help in other social causes. For example,
he has helped mobilize Rs.7.8 million from the people of Saurashtra during 2007-08 to
run hostels hosting 50,000 girls and boys meeting their food, boarding and study material
requirements. Similarly, he has mobilized significant support and funds for post
earthquake (2001) rehabilitation work especially for shelter construction. While photo
documentation is good, written documentation and other forms of communication are
prepared only to the extent that is required such as reports.
Established in 1993, the ORPAT Trust has taken up watershed programme in Haripar-
Kerala (and Bella which is a hamlet) since 1996-97 in the first batch of watershed
projects sanctioned by DRDA. It has constructed farm bunds, farm ponds, gully plugs,
check dams, afforestation and fodder plots which are standard activities. There was only
one dug well before the watershed project and the agriculture was predominantly rain-
dependent. The Trust has formed watershed association and user groups as per watershed
guidelines and submitted periodic reports to the DRDA.
(i) Shyamjibhai Antala-Saurashtra Lok Manch Trust
Shyamjibhai Antala (72) has been playing a unique role in the Saurashtra recharging
movement over the past two decades. His role could be described as something that has
successfully knit the various interventions by various actors on the movement canvas.
Literature Review 89
Antala himself was motivated by the dug well recharge experiment of the Dhoraji-Upleta
farmers during 1987-88. He began understanding and disseminating the results of the dug
well recharging activity rationally. It could be said that his contribution was more
towards (i) developing “frames” within the minds of the people about the benefits of
recharge activity (this point is discussed in next sub-section), and (ii) information and
“do-it-yourself” manuals. This has filled an important gap in the recharge activity.
Working as a journalist in “phoolchhab”, a popular daily published from Rajkot, he was
anyway covering the stories of recharge activities. Further, in spite of the 1985-87
drought spell, the degree of response and enthusiasm to water conservation from the
people during late eighties did not satisfy Antala. He desired that there should be a mass
awakening and action. His restlessness gave him a flash to try and involve the religious
gurus as Saurashtrians are closely-knit religious people. He contacted and managed to
convince Madhavpriyadasji of the Swaminarayan sect and Swami Kishorchandraji of the
Pushtimarg Vaishnavas to interweave water conservation in their exhortations. Being
highly respected gurus, people heeded to their advice and also to the various others in
different parts of Saurashtra. Small nuclei of recharge has started happening. Alongside,
Antala networked with NGOs, Swadhyaya Parivar and other groups, and embarked on
conducting jal yatras (water campaigns).
In the year 1989, Antala has registered an NGO called Saurashtra Lok Manch Trust. He
could mobilize some of the powerful and influential Saurashtra Patel Seva Samaj trustees
on to his board to expand reach of his activities. His approach to recharge activity was
scientific. In his articles, he explained in simple, layman‟s terms linking the amount of
water that can be harvested corresponding with the rainfall and the dimensions of the
well. He studied the various wells recharged, and developed manuals giving designs and
other necessary details (SLMT, 1996). He identified seven different methods of
recharging dug wells and four different methods of recharging hand pumps, which are
simple and inexpensive (SLMT, 1996; Antala, 2007). The manual was first published in
May 1996 later a revised, improved version along with some articles was published in
April 1997.
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To expand reach of his crusade, he organized jal yatras networking with other actors
such as the Swaminarayans and the Swadhyaya Parivar. The yatras witnessed the theme
revolving around water scarcity in Saurashtra and how to address the same to improve the
economic status of the people. The unique geology and topography of Saurashtra was
also the focus and how these low storages could be beneficially utilized. The core idea
was to „satisfy the mother earth‟ which is also indicated by the title of the manual „Dhara
trupti‟. While the 1993 jal yatra witnessed farmers‟ participation from 700 villages of
Rajkot district, the 1996 event covered six districts and a walk for 3000 km punctuated by
meetings, discussions and functions during the 10 nights. In the latter yatra, SLMT has
published several posters, pamphlets and booklets of techniques of recharging dug wells,
borewells and hand pumps, both in rural and urban locations. It has organized 1500 gram
sabhas (village meetings), 150 taluka level sammelans (conventions) and 3 maha
sammelans (large conventions)-all in Saurashtra. Through these, it has reached out to
750,000 villagers and farmers. SLMT has also come out with a unique approach of
reaching out to people through group weddings. Called samooh vivahs, these group
weddings are quite common in Saurashtra where large number of people gather. SLMT
used 42 such wedding occasions to provide demonstrations, speeches and distribution of
manuals, thus covering 500,000-600,000 people (Antala, 2003).
Antala‟s writings have been one of the major source of fuel to the spread of the
movement. He has regularly written in “phoolchhap” daily where he was employed. In
addition, he also wrote in many other newspapers and other print media in all totaling 200
plus articles. In addition to focusing on the local areas and Gujarat state, his articles also
tried to give a broader picture of occurrence of water in nature and how the future
scenario would become challenging say in 2025 (Antala, 2001).
In view of his advanced age, Antala has stopped activities through SLMT few years ago
except for attending workshops, conferences and board meetings of which he is a
member. He has been advisor to Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Orissa governments on
Literature Review 91
invitation and has helped them design water conservation programmes. In recognition of
his work, he has been awarded at least 25 state and national awards54
.
PART 3: KEY DETERMINANTS OF SOCIAL MOBILISATION AND THE
BUILD UP TO THE WATER-CENTRIC SOCIAL MOVEMENT
This sub-section will analyze the Saurashtra recharging movement within the conceptual
framework described in Part one. Part two has discussed the organizations, the
leadership styles, the principles and the approaches adopted by the leaders in contributing
to the recharge movement. This Part three applies the conceptual framework of
Oommen‟s alternatives for a crisis situation, the process of framing employed by the
recharge movement leaders, and Klanderman‟s process of meaning construction and
communication. Put differently, this sub-section identifies and discusses the key
determinants of social mobilization in the run up to the social movement.
Leadership and Work Philosophy
Oommen (1972a, 1990) argues that to cope with a crisis situation, one of the three
alternatives may emerge: [a] appearance of a charismatic leader who promises to lead the
people to a new utopia, [b] emergence of a new ideology which champions the cause of
the deprived, and [c] establishing a new organization to deal with the problem at hand.
Study indicates that it is not a straightforward case of application of one of these three
alternatives. The one that comes closer is alternative (a). Oommen‟s (1972) criteria at the
outset do not seem to be applicable here.
The study reveals that there has been no single charismatic, overarching leadership that
aimed at leading the recharging movement over whole of Saurashtra; nor is there an
overarching institution or an institutional arrangement. Further, such an institutional
structure or an arrangement has not evolved nor exists in any form today. The
54
Source: List of awards to Shyamjibhai Antala from 1996 to 2007 compiled by Prof. N.K.
Dokariya, 2007.
Literature Review 92
institutional structure or arrangement here implies „stake‟ of at least the major actors in
Saurashtra who are connected in a formal way, problems and solutions discussed,
implementation done, funding leveraged in part or full, documentation for knowledge
sharing and growth in place and policy advocacy carried out. There is at best some
informal interaction between various actors, that is, the leaders. A forged coordinated
effort does not exist. What existed surely was that the widespread water crisis situation in
Saurashtra and the frequent drought spells have witnessed pioneering efforts in direct dug
well recharging by Dhoraji-Upleta farmers‟ during 1987-90. This effort served as trigger
to almost all the actors reviewed in the previous section and also others not included
there. Many villages have witnessed local or cluster level leadership emerging and
leading people unto recharging activity. As discussed in the foregoing, many leaders were
also experimenting directly and indirectly, and feeding results and experiences into the
recharge activity. Overall, a scenario of dispersed „nuclei‟ of dug well recharging and its
varieties thereof was emerging during the period late eighties and early nineties. The
watershed programme that came onto the scene from the beginning of 1996 in Saurashtra
and had well defined guidelines for implementation with funding support from the
national government through the district rural development agencies gave a shot in the
arm to the recharge movement.
Interestingly, the watershed programme in Rajkot district had a heavy bias towards water
harvesting structures; especially, by those agencies which were already engaged in water
harvesting and were fully convinced about it. While the guidelines do not permit 70-80%
of the watershed budget to be spent on water harvesting structures as is done by the
Rajkot (and some other agencies in Saurashtra), the agencies did not mind „flouting‟
these guidelines, because of which at least one pioneering agency had to face audit
queries. The irony is that if one restricts oneself to these guidelines, innovation is not
possible, as innovation itself demands “thinking beyond the box” of guidelines or rules.
My visits to these agencies confounded my contention of need for flexibility in the
watershed programme. In the initial years of watershed programme, Mr. BN Yugandhar
(member, Planning Commission, Government of India), then Advisor to the PMO, and a
strong promoter of the common guidelines, agreed to my contention that the
Literature Review 93
implementation machinery actually considers guidelines as rules. He admitted by saying
“…..a guideline (when handed over from the ministry) becomes a regulation etched in
stone by the time it reaches down the rung leading not only to hindrances in successful
implementation but also eradicating any creativity that would have been possible”
(Mudrakartha, 1999). The factor to reckon here is the concern of the bureaucracy in the
lower rungs which does not want to take any chances of being caught in the wrong foot.
Thus, there is a need for thorough change in the “mind-set” of the bureaucracy along with
necessary accompanying instructions and re-orientation programmes.
Thus, we could distinguish two types of leaders: [a] Visionary leaders and [b] Action
leaders. Certain characteristics of these leaderships could be listed: Visionary leaders are
those who may have begun at an individual or a small scale, but have over a period
enlarged their vision to see the resource management holistically, and over larger
geography. They are flexible to ideas, learnings‟ and interactions not only with the grass
root level actors but also the researchers, academics, bureaucracy and the politicians, and
other actors. They are tireless workers who might have given their best over many years,
without prejudice to caste, class, creed and gender. They had demonstrated their honesty
of purpose either before entering the water conservation activity or in the initial years so
that people would accept them as leaders.
Action leaders are those who would be satisfied with promoting the known techniques
and technology, and facilitating their implementation at local or larger scales, directly or
through other groups. Some of these action leaders also would show innovation,
including when applying techniques and technology at larger level. Those leaders who go
beyond their village and aim and reach out many villages should be distinguished to
come in between action leaders and visionary leaders.
[a] Visionary leaders are the persons who visualized, prima facies, the potential of the
dug well recharging experiments done by the Dhoraji-Upleta farmers in addressing water
scarcity. These leaders over a period of time have also institutionalized their efforts as
they witnessed the efficacy of further innovative experiments done by themselves or by
others. Each leader had his way of contributing to the recharging movement. Shyamjibhai
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Antala of Saurashtra Lok Manch Trust, Premjibhai Patel of Vruksh Prem Trust and Shri
Pandurang Athavale of Swadhyaya Parivar belong to this category. Over the years, they
have expanded their work by taking their experience in rainwater harvesting across
Saurashtra, and to other parts of Gujarat (Rathore, 2003a).
Shyamjibhai Antala has successfully reached out to play a key role in the planning of
water harvesting programme of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh invited
as an advisor in addition to his work in Gujarat. He also served as a strategic link for the
recharge movement by between action and rationale that he tried to provide through
explanations, documentation of success stories, publication of manuals and personal
interactions. Swaminarayan Sampraday and Pushtimarg Vaishnava Trust, two popular
religious organizations with a huge Gujarati following, both within India and abroad,
have been drafted into the movement by these visionary leaders to take benefit of their
presence and exhortations.
[b] Action leaders are those local leaders who have primarily focused on their village or a
cluster of villages. This also includes institutionalization. ORPAT Trust, Sarvodaya Seva
Sangh, Saurashtra Jaldhara Trust, Jalkranti Trust etc. come under this category. SSS,
however, has been working on other development themes for a long time. Interestingly,
these agencies have forayed into watershed programme since 1996. In the watershed
programme too, most of these agencies have ended up spending 80% and above for land
development and water harvesting. Some of these organizations have begun working
from early nineties by financing construction of check dams through or leveraged private
funds.
Saurashtra Jaldhara Trust under the leadership of Mathurbhai Savani has contributed in a
unique way to the recharging movement as described in the previous sub-section. The
Trust has begun with „cement teko‟ programme and later providing JCBs for earth work
for various storage structures; people only had to pay for the fuel (diesel) expenses which
was amounting to about one-fourth of the total expense. Savani organized numerous
village-level meetings in which he used to analyze the problems of water not as scarcity,
Literature Review 95
but because of two reasons: (i) overexploitation of groundwater for irrigation without
commensurate recharge, and (ii) 90% of rainwater running off to the sea. Therefore, he
projected the issue as affected not just an individual, but the entire village (CSE, 2000).
So much so that he promoted not only recharge but also water efficient technologies such
as drip. People‟s maximum participation was another key element in his programmes.
Mansukhbhai Suvagiya of Jalkranti Trust first established his own credentials by working
equally along with other labor in the construction of the first storage structure. He was
ready to get into action too in order to encourage people towards self –reliance. Later he
innovated to build low cost check dams using his professional (engineering) skills. Till
the watershed programme was sanctioned, he and his Trust have worked only with
locally raised funds.
All these Trusts have a strong component of local fund raising using the kinship link
through the trustees. The links mostly were connected to successful business persons
residing in India and abroad.
Identity-Saurashtra farmer and entrepreneur
One of the tasks in framing involves identity. In typical challengers versus protagonists
situation that existed till around eighties, the activists defined who they are, usually as
"'we,' typically in opposition to some 'they' who have different interests and values"
(Pellow, 1999). The Saurashtra recharging movement falls under the new social
movement where collective framing too which involves „stakeholders‟ as well as state
actors is resorted to. The Saurashtra movement was triggered by peasants and led by
either peasants or by people with peasant background. The cross cutting issue of water
scarcity for agriculture has been the plank on which the actions were based and the
movement built upon. Historically, Saurashtra economy has been agriculture-centric; the
region has been the producer of export quality cotton55
, a distinction which is maintained
even today.
55 The climate and geography of Saurashtra is very much suitable for cotton. The black cotton soil
combined with hilly topography, and surrounded by sea, with a temperature range between 14°C to 44°C
Literature Review 96
Gujaratis in general and Saurashtrians in particular have been highly enterprising. For
example, the diamond industry in Gujarat accounts for 72% of the world‟s processed
diamonds and 80% of India‟s diamond exports through 6547 diamond processing units56
employing approximately 700,000 persons in the State (Task Force, 2009). The total
annual turnover is Rs.800 million. Most of the Trusts that emerged for well recharging
movement have a majority of trustees hailing from important revenue earning business
segments such as diamond industry, textiles, and gems and stones. As part of business,
either the trustee or one or more family members of these trustees resides abroad, and in
places like Mumbai and Surat (in Gujarat state) which are hubs of business. Himself a
diamond businessman, Mathurbhai Savani, for instance, has mobilized many diamond
industry owners to contribute funds directly to his Trust, SJT, out of which he bought 20
JCBs and extended the machinery free of cost to any farmer.
Interestingly, a majority of the trustees constitutes patels. However, the well recharging
movement leaders have leveraged their support not as patels but as farmers by projecting
the issue of water scarcity. Antala, for example, has leveraged the powerful and rich Shri
Saurashtra Patel Seva Samaj Trust for funding his manuals as far back as in early nineties
(„Dharatrupti‟-Manuals). He has drafted good number of them into his Saurashtra Lok
Manch Trust as trustees (SLMT brochures).
during the cotton season have helped produce excellent quality cotton fibre. The Shankar-6 variety which is
widely used by farmers has more maturity, good elongation and good dye affinity; the fibre surface has
extra wax so much so that Shankar-6 from Saurashtra has assumed a leading position in the world market.
Saurashtra has a total land area of 6.34 million hectares, of which 4.17 million are arable. In 2008/2009, the
area under cotton is put at more than 1.6 million hectares and production is forecast to reach between 7.0
and 7.5 million bales (of 168 kilos). This amount would represent approximately 65% of production in
Gujarat and 25% of total production in India. Cotton production in Saurashtra has increased by leaps and
bounds during the last ten years owing to the rise in cultivated area and also increases in yield. Bt cotton
seed varieties have contributed to the increase in production. Farmers in the region are hard working, aware
of technology and apply scientific methods of cotton farming. In Saurashtra, average lint yield is 900 kilos
per hectare but the maximum obtained some districts can be as high 1,500 kilos. Output has quadrupled
over the past four years and the possibility exists of further increases. Dynamics and New Developments of
the Ginning Industry in Saurashtra by Anand A, Popat, Secretary, Saurashtra Ginners Association,
Managing Director, Jalaram Cotton and Proteins Pvt. Ltd. in Cotton Outlook, December 2008, Cotlook
Limited, Merryside, U.K. http://www.cotlook.com/SpecialFeatures/India_08.pdf accessed 22 July 1009. 56
The diamonds, after cutting and polishing, are returned to the supplier and are ultimately exported by the
businessmen engaged in the activity. As the finished product is exported, the survival of the industry
depends on overseas markets, especially in view of the limited domestic demand (Task Force, 2009).
Literature Review 97
Thus, we see kinship relation has not only helped combine the ends, means and field of
action, bring in emotional ties, but has also gone beyond the economics to convert
individual actions into a strong social movement capable to move on its own. Further,
this factor was also used very effectively for attracting the generally indifferent political
leadership to take a closer look at the much talked about social movement around water.
Policy advocacy requires special skills and can happen only based on one‟s ability to rope
in the politicians and bureaucracy. The leaders sold the idea that the movement is across
Saurashtra by inviting them to jal yatras, conferences and other big event campaigns
described previously. Having seen the response among and the impact on agriculture
yields, the political leadership used the opportunity for consolidation of its own vote bank
across Saurashtra. The 60:40 scheme for instance was the result of this advocacy which
benefited farmers per se and not just patels, such as would happen if it were a business
where poor, marginal and small farmers would not be privy.
Although Saurashtra is dominated by (leuva) patels, the houses are not segregated by
castes. There are other castes such as Brahmins, kolis, rajputs, harijans, muslims and
scheduled tribes. In some villages such as Vithalpar (one of the study areas, kolis are in a
majority). The strength of kinship of Saurashtrians could be seen from their response to
the so-called Godhra riots that took place in response to the burning of Sabarmati Express
train on 26 February 2002 at Godhra railway station in Gujarat. The burning of the train
killed 58 pilgrims, including 26 women and 12 children, mostly from coach S-6; another
43 persons were with different degrees of burns. The communal violence was mainly
confined to Central and North Gujarat while Saurashtra and South Gujarat (tribal
dominated) remained relatively peaceful (Tewatia et al. 2002).
Framing for Mobilisation
Framing57
is defined as mental orientations built into the minds of the followers (that is,
the primary stakeholders). Till seventies, framing used to be dominated more as “we”
57
Triandafyllidou, Anna and Fotiou, Anastasios (1998) "Sustainability and Modernity in the European
Union: A Frame Theory Approach to Policy-Making," Sociological Research Online, vol. 3, no. 1, http://www.socresonline.org.uk/3/1/2.html; accessed Abstract on 23 July 2009. Frame analysis has been
often used by scholars studying New Social Movements to analyze their discourses and their ability to
Literature Review 98
challenging “they”, they usually being the state and similar actors in „authority‟.
However, a new form of collaborative framing is emerging in recent times adopted
mostly by the new social movements in which the challengers actually engage in
collaborative framing with their adversaries. Environmentalists actually draw up on a
mixture of confrontation and negotiation in this innovative form of collective action also
called as consensus-based-decision making (CBDM) (Pellow, 1999). In CBDM, both
conflictual (traditional) and collaborative (cutting edge) approaches come together,
identify the problem and find solutions to address it. However, it may not always be that
this type of an „ideal‟ situation might exist to begin with. It may happen later too.
In the case of Saurashtra recharging movement, there have been significant attempts at
collaborative framing involving politicians, religious, spiritual leaders, industry and
bureaucracy from village, taluka and zilla panchayats while working with the people. The
framing strategies utilized cognitive schemata and was a continuous exercise occurring
on a day to day basis as well as in conferences, water campaigns and jal yatras (discussed
later). Almost all the agencies coined slogans and messages to motivate and propagate
action. The slogans, messages, posters, films and other tools and symbols were of direct
and indirect type. The direct type asked people „to do‟ action while the indirect ones
appealed to their thought process in order to conjure up scenarios.
Further, the dynamic framing process in the two decade period of the Saurashtra
recharging movement is evident from the initial focus on direct dug well recharging in
late eighties to holistic recharging on watershed basis from mid-nineties. The structures
for recharging too underwent change-from simple on farm diversion to filters, check
dams, farm ponds, farm bunds, gully plugs and holistic treatment on watershed basis
although with a very heavy bias for water harvesting.
Pellow (1999) argues that frames consist not just of words and pronouncements, but also
can include collective action events and the implementation of strategies and tactics. As
mobilize people (Triandafyllidou et al. 1998). For a detailed discourse on advantages and limitations of
application of 'frame analysis' in the context of both social movements and institutional actors, please refer
to Triandafyllidou et al. (1998).
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the old adage goes "actions speak louder than words," and social movements often use
forms of collective action as "signifying agents" (Snow & Benford, 1988).
Broad based involvement of stakeholders has also led to formulation of government
schemes such as the SPPWCP and the SJSY (80:20 or 60:40) based on learnings‟ from
the recharge movement (DTE, 2000 and Letter of Minister58
). There has not been much
of an anti-establishment approach except by Premjibhai Patel of VPST. His critical-speak
was mostly tolerated by the state representatives or at worst ignored by virtue of his own
proven track record as a pioneer, innovator and a missionary.
The following sub-sections describe how the movement was strengthened by action,
narratives and meaning construction for communication contributing to the framing and
re-framing from time to time.
Narratives as tools of meaning reinforcement
The social construct of meaning for the well recharging movement relied heavily upon
the narratives of individuals who actually carried out pioneering experiments. These
narratives tended to become biographies or autobiographies in a limited sense; and, a
sense of achievement was visible whenever these “pioneers,” “leaders,” or “local
representatives” narrated their experiences of the past and the present and confidence in
achieving irrigation and drinking water security in future through the movement. For
instance, Shyamjibhai Antala‟s tryst with water conservation was published in written
form (ToI, 2000; Navbharat Dainik, 2003) and also his own narrative (Antala, 2003). He
has also consistently written in the print media backed by data and information. These
articles included his own, and collected experiences from visits to villages. Similarly,
such narratives were also produced by SJT in the form of brochures including a hundred
brief case studies (SJT, 2001) and websites already referred to previously. Occasional
writings of Premjibhai Patel (VPST, 2005) and documentation of key experiences during
58
Lr. No.MoI/103/3711/2002 dated 20 August 2002 from Babhubhai Bokhiriya, Minister of Irrigation,
acknowledging the strengthening of the idea of SJSY scheme to his visit to Jamka village, Junagadh, for
studying check dams constructed by Jal Kranti Trust.
Literature Review 100
construction of check dam (VPST, 2007) and a compilation of experiences of farmers
from across VPST field villages (VPST, 2007a) are some.
While these were written narratives, several of these leaders were regular invitees to
many conferences and workshops where they were asked to narrate their experiences. For
instance, Hardevsinh Jadeja, Shyamjibhai Antala and Premjibhai Patel were regular
invitees to the International Water Management Institute‟s IWMI-Tata Annual Partners‟
meeting every year from 2002 onwards. Similarly, they have attended many workshops,
conferences and events organized by government, NGOs and donor agencies (VPST
occasional release, 2005). The author has attended many events where these leaders were
present and shared their experiences.
While narratives by leaders is one aspect, the social movement draws its sustainability
and strength from how a common man perceives benefits; how common is the topic and
what the churning of communication is doing to the same. In most of the cases, the
villagers were able to connect the need for water conservation with the water scarcity
history of the village arising due to a combination of factors such as the uncertain and
inadequate rainfall, topography and lack of surface water storage structures. The stories
were exchanged in the farm, on the bus, in informal groups, in the village meetings, and
everywhere. One effect of the story telling was that groups of farmers from within the
village and outside started visiting the sites of experimentation wanting to witness by
themselves the way the well recharging was done. The interactions provided an
opportunity for generating more ideas in terms of improvisation for both the visiting
farmers and the experimenter. There was ambience of action, innovation and expectation
to tackle the perennial problem of water scarcity.
The narratives by the leaders and promoters lent credence to the recharge activity and its
subsequent scaling up. Shyamjibhai Antala, who was a paid employee of a Gujarati daily
newspaper, has never received remuneration or compensation for his service to society
from either individuals, agencies or governments (Antala, 2003). Antala has been able to
provide more details in his narratives and writings and asked people to visit and check
Literature Review 101
out on what was happening. Premjibhai Patel, a man of action, has provided cement
support to many farmers for several years for well recharging as well as construction of
check dams. Further, there were many local village level representatives who were
pioneers and practitioners themselves across some districts, and who positively
contributed to the media consumption.
Over a period of time, there was a chain reaction in terms of increased number of news
stories being covered by the respective local media in different districts, especially the
print media. With time, stories were not just of news value but on the process of well
recharging and the innovations carried out, often with graphics and details (Navbharat
Dainik, 2003; Madhurkar, 1997; DTE, 2000; Kishwar, 2003). Importantly, how
vulnerability due to uncertain rainfall was checked by villages adopting groundwater
recharging in toto was observed by people, which also got covered in the media through
interviews (Madhurkar, 1997; CSE, 2000). There was clear distinction between crop
returns obtained between farmers adopting recharge and those not adopting; the same
distinction was visible at village level. For farmers, crop output is the most important,
tangible outcome. Hence, when informed of increases in crop yields and returns on
agriculture, groups of farmers visited such experimental villages, studied the methods and
came back inspired. Back home, with or without funding support, tens, if not hundreds,
of farmers were taking up well recharge and introduced further innovations described
elsewhere.
Do these narratives constitute a deliberate and conscious effort at build up of images of
prosperity in the minds of the farmers and their families? Was that a conscious „framing‟
strategy adopted by the leaders and promoters of the recharging movement?
There is no evidence to indicate that there has been a conscious, planned effort by the
leaders and promoters of the initial recharge activity, nor was there a whole-Saurashtra,
or even Rajkot district59
effort. There is even today no organization that has embarked
upon covering entire Saurashtra in action as against a wishful domain reflected in the
59
An important city in Gujarat state with recurring water scarcity problem.
Literature Review 102
organization‟s bye-laws. The efforts were promoted with innocuous intention of helping
willing farmers to capture and divert rainwater into their wells. However, in some
villages such as Bhayavadar in Upleta taluka of Rajkot district when significant number
of farmers were coming forward for well recharging and later for check dam
construction, hopes of addressing water scarcity at village and then Saurashtra level have
been raised. In particular, when the watershed programme began in 1996, the approach
was treating entire drainage line of the village. On an average, 10-45 check dams of
different sizes were constructed depending upon the size and extent of the village (Field
data, 2003-4). In addition, each watershed unit comprised 5000 hectares of 10 villages.
Although the leaders were aware of their own limitation in terms of their outreach, this
did not stop them from dreaming about the whole of Saurashtra. This is evidenced two
ways: one in the articles by some leaders, and two, in the naming of their organization. (i)
For instance, Antala estimates presence of 750,000 dug wells, about a million borewells
and numerous hand pumps in Saurashtra (Antala, 2003). Through recharging he estimates
1.8-2.0 million acre-feet of water storage and economic returns through agriculture to the
tune of Rs.2.5-3.0 billion per year. His ideas on mass well recharging started taking shape
from around the year 2000 which can be seen from his advice to the Madhya Pradesh
Government which under his guidance has recharged 140,035 wells, 50,968 borewells
and 765,403 hand pumps (Antala, 2003). While there could be debates about the exact
number of recharging structures whether in Saurashtra, Gujarat or Madhya Pradesh, what
is important to note is that there has been a regional level thinking which also guided
actions and ideas, such as working with the government as there was recognition that
Saurashtra‟s water problem cannot be solved by any one person or agency (Saurashtra
Bhoomi, 2002)60
. The article also throws light on challenges in scaling up due to
differential response from villages even within the same area. (ii) Most of the
organizations have „Saurashtra‟ in their title such as the Saurashtra Lok Manch Trust of
Shyamjibhai Antala, Jalkranti Trust of Mansukhbhai Suvagiya and Saurashtra Jaldhara
Trust of Mathurbhai Savani. Suvagiya of SJT has ambitious plan of converting
Saurashtra into a green and water crisis-free zone. SJT plans to treat the 78 rivers with
60
„Saurashtra Bhoomi‟, a local language newspaper published an article titled „Saurashtra‟s water
conservation activity is not the proprietary domain of one or two persons‟ dated 8 October 2002.
Literature Review 103
check dams that „empty‟ into the sea; in addition, advocacy for irrigation efficiency
through low water intensive technology is aimed to be promoted (CSE, 2000). This is in
addition to the use of their 20 JCBs for continuing with the recharge promotion activity.
Thus, one can see that as against a planned strategy, Saurashtra as a domain for recharge
activity has emerged with time that converted into a movement. The watershed
programme implemented since 1996 has given a boost to the efforts of individuals and
non government agencies that have done more systematic work village wise in batches of
10 villages per watershed unit. It may not be fair to assume that all the farmers are
involved in the movement. Like in any other movement, the participation has critical
mass and therefore the movement moves on.
The movement also employed communication methods such as brochures, guidance
manuals, leaflets that served not only as communication tools but also helped strengthen
community‟s future frames of prosperity at individual and village levels. Aided by
drawings and pictures, the materials focused on the simplicity of implementation of
various methods that could be adopted to harvest water as discussed below. Water has the
highest degree of value as an elixir of crop for not only the farming community but also
for those who indirectly depend on farming such as agricultural labor and dairy farmers.
The pictures that depicted rejuvenated rivers, overflowing wells and lush green crops,
supported by estimations of volumes of rainwater that could be captured through a
variety of recharge activities61
both at individual and village levels, fired the imagination
of the people (Dharatrupti, 1996; Shabdved, 2001; Antala, 2003). Among older
generation, the pictures could easily bring back memories when, forty years ago, during
the sixties and the seventies, the water situation was similar to that presented (Focus
group discussion, 2003-4). Rendering of success stories by individuals as well as village
representatives, informally, and often orally, as well as verbally during water campaigns
and jal yatras, both within and outside of the village, district and the state levels, were
61
Antala, (2003) estimates that dug wells of Saurashtra are of 30-50 metres depth with an average diameter
of 4-5 metres. Depending upon topography, seven methods of well recharging and four different methods
of recharging hand pumps could be carried out. One dug well can recharge nearly 900-1110 m3 of rain
water.
Literature Review 104
aiding the framing practices and the communication strategy. The following are some
slogans and messages given out by various agencies to promote rainwater conservation:
Saurashtra Lok Manch Trust (Dharatrupti, 1996):
Recharge farm rainwater into ground.
Recharge residence and street rain water.
Recharge water from ponds by strengthening bunds through voluntary labor.
Contribute to success of well recharging by recharging your well and hand
pumps.
Capture rainwater in farm ponds to facilitate recharge.
Green the earth by planting trees.
Adopt low cost and simple artificial recharge techniques.
Make well recharging a success by your active participation and experimentation.
Vruksh Prem Seva Trust (Occasional releases, and pamphlets):
Premjibhai Patel uses innovative methods of raising questions and coining slogans. The
following are some:
Gratis or support? Which one do you prefer?
Emphasizing on self reliance and self esteem as against gratis and dependence;
Roof water harvesting or ground-compound (premises) harvesting?
Farm pond or field pond?
Labor payment for attendance or payment per work done?
The Vaccine of drought is Check Dam; that too when it is built in series (VPST
Occasional series, 2005).
VPST has also been promoting the concept of an ideal village through occasional releases
from time to time by giving a check list of characteristics which included the following
(e.g. VPST occasional release dated 7.7.2007):
Every house has a toilet, soak pit, a bath room, a gobar gas (biogas) plant.
Literature Review 105
All streets are free of waste water.
Women have passed at least tenth standard.
No illiteracy.
Model clean village.
No police case during the past five years.
Tobacco and other injurious items have disappeared.
No expectations of government or donor agencies funds.
Sustainability after completion of watershed programme, whose funds are meant
for people.
No inclination for foreign goods.
Jalkranti Trust (JT): Common overarching message of all the organizations to farmers is
that water is extremely valuable. The “rainwater in your farm belongs to you” and “the
rainwater in the village belongs to the village”. This approach was aimed at producing
individual as well as village level effects (Dharatrupti, 1996; VPST Occasional release,
2007). Interestingly, along with such supply augmentation methods, water efficient
methods such as drip irrigation and low cost sprinklers were introduced as part of the
watershed programme that began during the beginning of the second decade of the
movement in 1996. SJT, in particular, has popularized drip irrigation technology by
installing drip in phases in Khopala and covered one-fourth of the total agricultural land
(CSE, 2000). SJT has also pioneered in recharging wells through construction of farm
ponds; these and other methods such as gully plugs, farm bunds and check dams were
used to not only show but encouraging farmers to visualize benefits of such scenarios in
their own farms (Chokkakula, 2001; VPST occasional release, 2001).
Issues of downstream and upstream were also not so much in prominence because the
activities tended to be inclusive. Whether it is „cement teko‟ programme or dug well
recharging or construction of check dams, the support was equally available. Absence of
conflicts can itself be construed as the ability of the promoters to be able to reach out to
every farmer.
Literature Review 106
Thus, the movement made use of frames that provided clear images of achievable results,
fulfillment of desires and promise of prosperity. These have been reinforced by
experiential information and knowledge, credible social leaders and a supportive media.
Process of meaning construction
How did the leaders accord and construct meaning to their individual-centric activities so
as to convert into a social movement? The leadership of the recharge movement has
effectively made use of the three different processes of meaning construction, namely,
public discourse, persuasive communication and consciousness-raising as theorized by
Klandermans (1992). This process strengthens the narratives described above.
(a) Public discourse communication
The process of public discourse was used by organizations such as the Swadhyaya
Parivar, the Swaminarayan Sampraday and Saurashtra Lok Manch Trust. Shri Pandurang
Shastri Athavale used to address swadhyayees and the common folk which included large
number of farmers, as far back as in 1975 to adopt water conservation. He gave the
slogan, “If you quench Mother Earth‟s thirst, she will quench yours” thus weaving
emotion and culture for water resource management. However, the strategy was not very
effective until the drought spell of 1985-87 has occurred. His discourses as part of the
Swadhyaya continued which were invariably attended by thousands as he had been a
highly revered as a master guru (great spiritual teacher)62
. Saurashtra Lok Manch Trust
too failed initially to mobilize people in spite of the recurring water scarcity or drought.
He subsequently sought to involve religious gurus such as Madhavpriyadasji of the
Swaminarayans and Swami Kishorchandraji of the Pushtimarg Vaishavas whom people
revere to spread the message of self-reliance in well recharging (Madhurkar, 1997). The
religious leaders and their disciples pitched the need for well recharging saying, “if the
villagers do not act now, Saurashtra would be a desert in 30 years”. Vruksh Prem Seva
62
Dr. Helmet Pfeiffer (Translator of 'Vision of of God', a book dedicated to Rev. Dadaji from German to
Latin) on the crowd pulling power of Athavale said (www.dadaji.net/reflections.htm): I cannot but believe
the fact that half a million people assemble to listen to one man who talks about God. Where else it could
happen?
Literature Review 107
Trust has had a different style of operation; the founder Premjibhai Patel has always been
individual oriented supported by a few dedicated workers. Driven by commitment,
restlessness and passion, he likes to do things in the quickest time possible. He used to
motivate and respond to farmers on individual basis by personal interactions, provide
them cement support in the first decade, till mid nineties, and demand action and results.
He also exhorted groups of farmers by visiting villages far and near with missionary zeal;
he gave examples of others who have already carried out well recharging and benefited
from increased crop yields. In his cement support programme in the initial years, he was
cheated by a few farmers with fake bills but they were soon exposed. He had advantage
over others as his committed work in promoting afforestation, primarily through prosopis
juliflora, was known to many (Chokkakula, 2001). He believed that villagers themselves
are the best means of spreading the message, with authenticity; once they are convinced,
the message would spread because they have identified their problem as well as the
solution63
.
During mid nineties and later, there were newer entrants into the movement, notable
among them being Jalkranti Trust and Saurashtra Jaldhara Trust. Both these agencies
have continued with the idea of involving religious and spiritual personalities such as
Shri Morari Bapu, an eminent orator of Ramayana64
and the Swaminarayans in addition
to many noted ministers and politicians. They included He also involved the then Chief
Minister Keshubhai Patel and many industrialists to attend and address water campaigns
and jal yatras. There were a series of conventions, jal yatras and water campaigns which
were inaugurated by these religious, spiritual and political leaders where they draw
content from the already „successful‟ well recharging activities in various villages65
.
63
Personal communication in Field 2003-4. 64
Hindu religious epic. 65
Multiple sources include: Phoolchhab, 21.11.1999. „Water revolution will render Saurashtra green:
Sachchidanand‟; 21 September, 2002. “Mansukhbhai Suvagiya‟s water revolution produces miracles‟ (in
Gujarati), Sandesh, 6.9.2001.„Water Crusader Mansukhbhai deserves Magsaysay Award: Sachchidanand‟
Literature Review 108
(b) Persuasive and consciousness-raising communication
SJT has come across as a strong agency that put in efforts to reach out each and every
village using communication channels effectively. The following provide evidence of
their persuasive and consciousness-raising communication efforts66
:
One of the key members of the SJT, Rajeshbhai Mehta, who resides in Belgium
led a team of 200 dignitaries from Surat in 1998 and in 2000 that included
diamond industry stalwarts, textile industrialists and gems and stones
businessmen, in addition to politicians to tour villages in order to motivate them
through direct interaction of the team with the villagers. Mehta and team‟s tour of
over 600 villages encouraged the village committees whose enthusiasm was
boosted.
A 250-km pad yatra (walk) was organized in November 1999 in which 400
diamond businessmen from Bhavnagar, Surat, Ahmedabad and Mumbai
participated. Another pad yatra of 20 days organized from Talgajarad to
Porbander a distance of 325 km led by 1000 persons.
A huge convention was organized by SJT during 2003 in Surat which was
attended by the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Keshubhai Patel. Around 300,000
people from all walks of life attended. A vow was administered at the end of the
convention to conserve rain water. This is seen as the first time that such a huge
gathering assembled for the cause of rainwater conservation in the entire country.
In the year 2000, five grand conventions were organized on successive days in
different places. These conventions held from November 1-5 were attended by
many cabinet ministers such as the irrigation, water resources and the Narmada
Development. In addition, the speaker of the Assembly and the chief minister
Keshubhai Patel were also present. Social workers such as Anna Hazare, a
crusader against corruption and Rajendrasingh of Tarun Bharat Sangh, Rajasthan,
spiritual and religious leaders such as Shri Morari Bapu, Swami Sachchidanandji
66
Personal communication 2003-04, Field notes, SJT, (2001), Kishwar (2003), CSE, (2000);
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/misd-649037365,prtpage-1.cms;
http://www.saujaldharatrust.com/awarenessprog.asp; http://www.saujaldharatrust.com/sammelans.asp.
Literature Review 109
of Dantal Ashram and many others were present at these conventions. At the end
of each of these events, people took a „vow‟ to carry out groundwater recharging.
Five one-day shibirs (camps) held with gram panchayat members.
SJT has made special efforts to reach out to all villages of Saurashtra, Kutch and
north Gujarat, the water scarcity regions in Gujarat. The Trust has written a letter
addressed to sarpanch, talati, village leader and other respected elders of each
village exhorting them on the need for water conservation and extending required
support. They have distributed 100,000 posters, 500,000 pamphlets and 8,000
banners, in addition to 400,000 booklets, 100,000 audio cassettes and 300 video
cassettes. These materials contained all information on water conservation and the
techniques.
An audio-visual van provided with a large television set was continuously
showing videos, documentaries and exhibits to share and motivate.
SLMT has played a critical role in terms of persuading through rationale and logic.
Shyamjibhai Antala has published more than 200 articles in various Gujarati newspapers
including in Phoolchaab published from Rajkot where he worked for two decades. He
used to raise simple questions which a common man would ask in the context of water
conservation and make it the theme of the article. He also covered many success stories
by giving details of the farmers who adopted recharging and exhorted people to go and
see for themselves. He also gave details of increase in crop yields and the income raise
thereof. At a different level, he wrote about hydrologic cycle, the balance in nature, and
the perils of disturbance of the balance. These articles are published as a collection in
Gujarati language. In the initial years of well recharging during late eighties and nineties
he used to interact with farmers in various villages by himself whenever time permitted.
Simultaneously, he focused more on knowledge collection and generation, and
dissemination. He therefore attended many meetings, workshops and conferences within
Gujarat and in other states of India, shared Saurashtra experiences and brought back
issues for further experimentation.
Literature Review 110
SLMT has also organized numerous posters and booklets and distributed the same. The
trust has organized 1500 gram sabhas (village meetings), 150 taluka level sammelans
(conventions) and three maha sammelans (grand conventions) in Saurashtra to which
religious, spiritual and political leaders were invited similar to what SJT did in the later
years as described. SLMT has also organized jal yatras. One such event was supported
by the Information Bureau of Government of Gujarat, covered 3000 kms over ten days.
More than 100 group meetings were held with villagers and the youth (Antala, 2003).
VPST has not by and large organized any big rallies or conventions, and is generally
against it. However, in order to persuade people, Premjibhai Patel and his main workers
visit villages, interact with them and convince them to take up well recharging, also
providing incentives such as cement in the late eighties. Later, this incentive was given
for check dam construction. Patel used another approach to persuade people and raise
their awareness. This was through estimates of crop yield increases due to additional
water, stories of water level increases from those who adopted and through his occasional
releases. On the practice side, he has been a leading innovator in terms of low cost
designs of check dams, improved farm bunds, gully plugs, farm ponds, storm drain
treatment etc. These structures have made distinct difference in terms of water levels in
the surrounding wells, and the farmers reaping benefits of the same in terms of enhanced
crop yields. Water levels continued to sustain for rabi and then to summer crops. He has
constructed a check dam at the junction of three rivers, namely, Phophal, Rasnal and Moj
thus leading to not only huge storage but also at low cost; the Phophal river now flows
for most part of the year. All these have resulted in increasing number of farmers
participating in the recharging activity.
ORPAT Trust and SSS have adopted a standard institutional approach although the
founder-leaders Oddhavji Patel and Jayanthibhai Raval respectively have wielded
personal influence on people due to their commitment to ideals of helping the poor and
the women. The overall ambience of recharging has influenced the Morbi and Wankaner
talukas too. These talukas face additional challenges in the form of a top clay layer and
Literature Review 111
shallow overburden which reduces overall recharge67
. Both these agencies did not also
engage in any big size events of involving politicians or spiritual leaders; however, they
carried out village level meetings to motivate and persuade people not only to take up
water conservation but also overall social transformation for a happy life. A focused work
through watershed programme was taken up and implemented efficiently helping raise
the income and economy of the villages (SSS, 2003-4). Jayanthibhai Raval of SSS has
been awarded „Jalsanchay Gaurav Puraskar-2003‟ for the good work. While Oddhavji
Patel has first won over women members into taking up employment in his watch factory
as a way of helping them contribute to family income, he has subsequently involved all
the people from his field villages to take up water conservation activities as part of
watershed programmes (Raghu, 2007). Oddhavji has contributed his personal funds for
many social welfare activities and also threw his weight for raising funds for public
purposes. For example, his appeal has helped raise Rs.780 million for expenses towards
food, boarding and study material for 50,000 girls and boys living in hostels (Raghu,
2007).
Similarly, SSS has also helped improve water availability through provision of pipelines
to farmers combined with persuasion. In sum, the process of meaning construction in
case of both ORPAT Trust and SSS comprised the personal commitment of the leaders
and their organizations combined with their past credible work. However, limitations of
adopting a standard institutional approach also limited the spread and intensity of work.
The additional challenge of adverse hydrogeology added to the problems of the
organizational work.
The following Table 2.1 provides a brief summary of the key elements of each of the
three organizations studied for the purpose of a comparative understanding.
67
Field data-well inventory, 2003-4.
Literature Review 112
Table 2.1: A Comparative Table of the Study Organisations, and some salient
features/characteristics
Orgn Vriksh Prem Trust;
regd society/trust
Sarvodaya Seva
Sangh
regd society/trust
Orpat Trust
(Ajanta clocks, telephones,
torch, electric press, vacuum
cleaner etc.
regd society/trust
Year of
initiation68
2001-2 2001-2 2001-2
Taluka Jamkandorna Wankaner Morbi
Castes Patel Koli Patel, Vankar
Study
Villages
covered
Amaredi Jalsikka, Vithalpar Kerala-Bella and Haripar
Name of the
founder/key
person
Premjibhai Patel Jayantbhai Raval-
secretary
Odhavjibhai Patel – Owner,
ex-chairman
Occupation Ex-explosive
dealer,
businessman
Vidyapeeth
product; trained
social worker,
Gandhian
Teacher; entrepreneur;
multimillionaire, simple
Full time honorary Paid worker Full time honorary
Type of
organisation
NGO NGO NGO
Single-track
approach,
Emotional, instant
decisions on water
structures.
Reasonable
documentation
Traditional,
information
sharing, enlisting
participation, fixing
of responsibilities,
proper
documentation, O
& M aspects
Presence of a Committed
Chairman who gave up
business to work full time
with the Trust; leverages
govt. programmes, donates
as and when necessary.
Team not so efficient or
committed.
The founder of the
local NGO enjoys
people‟s support,
trust and goodwill;
fondly called
premji bapa
The Secretary of
this all-India
organisatin enjoy‟s
high reputation;
The Chairman of the local
NGO (and former chairman
of a corporate) has good
reputation and rapport;
spends time with people;
Change in
SoR
Promoted strongly
the cost reduction
to the extent of
30% in the SoR
Supported the cost
reduction
Initiated 30% reduction in
the cost of construction
68
Although this is the legally registered date, the organizations have been working for the past few years to this date.
Literature Review 113
Technical
manpower
BRS/MRS
qualified-3 nos.
total 1+3 + village
volunteers
6; accountant plus
qualified staff; 1
diploma engineer
(retd.)
1 Mechanical engineer; 5
social workers; plus
volunteers
Transport 1 jeep + 3
motorcycles
1 jeep +
motorcycles
3 motorcycles
Computers 1 computer 1 computer 3 computers
Salary to
staff per
month
Reasonable 9,000-
12,000
Low; max 8,000 Moderate-around 5-6000
Building Rented premises Rented premises Trust building (ex-show
room of Ajanta clocks)
Funding Initially own
funds, then raised
funds locally and
then drew Govt.
watershed program
funds
Sourced Govt.
watershed
programme funds
plus KVIC
Sourced Govt. watershed
programme funds
Mobility Most traveled,
exposed, also
encourages staff
Within Rajkot
district
Minimal both for self and
staff
Contributed
personal money in
the initial years
Nil, only project
funds
Donates liberally for
religious causes
Special
traits
Honest, dedicated;
desire for low cost,
innovative;
transparent
Honest, dedicated;
desire for low cost,
innovative;
transparent
Honest, dedicated; desire for
low cost, innovative;
transparent
Weakness Narrow focus -
believes in „give
water to farmer
and he will
manage the rest‟;
after WH structure,
nothing else;
Too slow in taking
decisions;
Jayantbhai-centred
decision-making;
People employed
are above 60 years.
Poor follow up ; unable to
take forward chairman‟s
promises on other non-water
development works except
water related activities; does
not believe in spending on
administration, vehicles etc.
adversely affecting
efficiency and follow up
Follow up,
monitoring
Informal approach,
no strict formal
monitoring
mechanism
Close monitoring,
although no formal
monitoring
mechanism exists
No fixed pattern; mostly
depends on workers report. It
is my backyard approach.
Photodocum
entation
Excellent Excellent Good
Only watershed,
that too on check
dams
Literature Review 114
Check dam
designs
Not strictly as per
engineering
parameters; belief
that people are
equivalent to
engineers;
Compromise on
cost by not having
engineering designs
(?) problems such
as siltation; no
upstream simple
checks done;
defects
Mostly Earthen bunds with
masonry spillovers; bunds
maintenance poor; slope
poorly designed.
Innovations
in check
dams/ water
harvesting
structures
Highly innovative;
attempts to arrest
every drop of
water; immediate
benefits seen by
people and hence
ideas get scaled up
Traditional Adopts newer tested
techniques.
Check dams Structures in tact
due to low slope/
gradient/ low
velocity
Structures in tact
due to low slope/
gradient/ low
velocity
Structures in tact due to low
slope/ gradient/ low velocity
Hard rock area -
Basalt
Hard rock area-
basalt/ sandstone
Clayey soil up to 60 m
(200ft.), 60 km from
seashore
Groundwate
r quality
Ok Ok Saline including top layers
Crops People grew by
themselves Bt.
cotton
Irrigation through
pipelines
Introduced Bt cotton,
improved seeds,
vermiculture, micro-
irrigation
Communica
tion
Open door policy;
available even
without notice;
documentation
available, photo
collection and
dissemination,
excellent
articulation
Easily available;
documentation
good; all PRA maps
and photos
available;
Available in certain slots;
reports/ records available;
Linkages Good with
Government,
NGO, development
groups
Proactive Proactive Active Active
Literature Review 115
To sum up, the Saurashtra recharging movement has emerged from direct dug well
recharging conducted by a few farmers late eighties and reached a watershed approach
with a heavy water harvesting bias. Till the watershed programme was launched in
Saurashtra in 1996, the recharging activity-cum-movement was funded by private
persons and trusts. The funding was leveraged using kinship from businessmen from
within India and abroad. The innocuous recharging activity was promoted, among others,
by leaders like Shyamjibhai Antala, Premjibhai Patel, Swadhyaya Parivar and the
Swaminarayan Sampraday by invoking Saurashtra farmer identity.
The social movement has witnessed adoption of framing strategies by the leaders who
employed narratives as a means of building future scenarios of prosperity through water
conservation activities. The leaders themselves played an important role in terms of not
only story telling by themselves, but also by those who benefited by the recharge
techniques. To expand the movement, the spiritual and religious leaders were cleverly
drafted in, who exhorted farmers by giving slogans such as “the water in your farm
belongs to you, and the water in your village belongs to our village”; and “if you quench
the thirst of Mother Earth, she will quench yours.” Innovative leaders such as Premjibhai
Patel of VPST and Shyamjibhai Patel of SLMT have carried out experiments, and
alongside produced manuals along with sketches, and how-to-do procedures. Thousands
of pamphlets, booklets, posters, videos and other audio visual material were produced
and disseminated in water campaigns, jal yatras and conferences. Politicians were
included by design along with spiritual, religious and local leaders to convey the message
of dire need to address water scarcity. The then Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues
were made part of the conferences to enable them witness the action and the euphoria;
clearly, this strategy worked and the powers that be formulated some farmer-friendly
schemes such as the SPPWCP, 80:20 and 60:40 schemes. Later entrants into the
movement have devised unique methods of contributing to water conservation activity;
for instance, SJT has purchased 20 JCBs (earth excavators) which were provided almost
free of cost against request by any village for earth work so that maximum rain water is
captured in storage structures created such as ponds, tanks and check dams. In almost all
the cases, the organizations have involved the diamond, textiles and gemstone industry
Literature Review 116
businessmen invoking not only the kinship factor but for developing the parched
Saurashtra. Since most of those businessmen from different parts of Saurashtra retained
their roots, they found a ready connection and vested interest.
Analysis shows that the Saurashtra recharging movement was not something that was
planned by any one organization or a group of organizations; the movement took shape
out of the pioneering efforts of a few farmers and was built up in local nodes, promoted
ably by a number of local leaders and organizations. Interestingly, even today, there is no
overarching organization that addresses entire Saurashtra although the domain of work is
chosen as Saurashtra by organizations such as SLMT, SJT, JKT and others.
What qualifies it as a recharge movement is that it has a critical mass in terms of
participation of villages and farmers; however, there are still many villages which are not
part of the movement as the study reveals. The watershed programme that started after
almost a decade of the recharge movement supported by private entrepreneurs has given
a shot in the arm as it has led to more systematic, area based efforts leading to visible and
tangible impacts. Although the watershed programme is launched all over the country,
what makes it unique in Rajkot district where the study villages are located is the heavy
bias towards water conservation related activities by the implementation support agencies
(ISA) constituting 80-90% of the expenditure ( Progress reports of VPST, JKT, SSS).
The Saurashtra recharging movement in conclusion can be termed as a unique social
movement which had been spontaneous, self supporting and self-propagating. There has
been a diversity of leadership not only in terms of geographic spread but in the character
and type of the leadership. The diversity in fact was energising by giving room to a
variety of experimentation aided by the bottom line clarity for addressing water scarcity
well entrenched in the minds of the leadership. It can also be viewed as a movement that
has successfully influenced the policy instruments of the government. Although the
government schemes have tried to build up on the social capital generated through hard
work by civil society actors, lacunae in implementation have ensured only partial success
of the schemes.