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dam-l Three Gujarati Women Create Waves at Hague WWC meet: Indian Express Story, 20.3.2K (fwd)
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Subject: Three Gujarati Women Create Waves at Hague WWC meet: Indian Express Story, 20.3.2K
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SOURCE: INDIAN EXPRESS, MARCH 20, 2000
When three illiterate Gujarati women talk, world stops to
listen
DAVINDER KUMAR
THE HAGUE, MARCH 19: Kunvarben, Shantaben and Poonaben
are the
typical rural Gujarati women. They walk miles to fetch
water for their
homes, they sing popular folksongs when they get
bored, and for taste
they like khakras and bhujiyas. This was the case till
last week.
But currently, the three are testing the waters at the
Hague. With a big
bang.
The three women from the parched districts of North
Gujarat have created
a splutter at the second World Water Forum by
narrating their long-drawn
struggle and eventual success with the water scarcity
problem in their
regions.
Attending the conference as project leaders of the
Self Employed
Women's Association (SEWA) of Gujarat, the three are
stealing the grand
show which has everything from mermaids swaying at the
dining hall,
fairies pouring carbonated water from heavens to
protestors taking bath in
open.
Taking time off from breathing, thinking and actually
fetching water back
home, the three are enjoying the cool environs of the
picture-perfect
Netherlands. Wearing new boots, guzzling canned orange
juice and
savouring Dutch cheese they can be spotted at the
Congress hall
surrounded by the participants, international media
and even children who
have arrived here from all over the world.
Interestingly, all three of them are
illiterate but are masters in their respective fields
related to the watershed
development projects they are running in their
villages.
``I am here to tell the world that women can be the
best participants in
solving the water issues as they are the ones who have
to suffer the most
because of that,'' says Shantaben Solanki from Kamli
village in
Sabarkantha district.
Championing the cause of water woes of the womenfolk
in her village,
Shantaben volunteered to take a formal training in
handpump repairs last
year. ``Our village has got a lot of handpumps but
most of them would not
work due to bad maintenance. The contractor appointed
by the
government would never service the hand-pumps and just
take the money
for it. The women had no other alternative but to
fetch water from four
miles away. Hence I decided to take the training,''
she says.
This time SEWA has been given the contract for
maintenance of
handpumps and Shantaben is in charge of her entire
block. ``There are
400 handpumps in my block and every month I end up
repairing at least
20,'' she says. This also gives her enough income to
make both ends
meet.
``The men are amazed when they see me repairing the
handpumps,'' she
says with great pride as she talks of each and every
part of the handpump
ranging from piston, 5-number spanner and pipe-lifter.
Her colleague Poonaben Bharawad from Dhokawada village
in
Banaskantha district is a rural specialist in
plastic-lined pond
management. Education has not been a barrier for
Poonaben. ``She is
very intelligent and full of ideas,'' say the SEWA
project coordinators
accompanying her.
Faced with saline water, abject poverty and deaths of
cattle, Poonaben
took up the leadership in reconstructing an old pond
in her village.
Poonaben brought together all the women in the village
and got the old
pond cleaned up and the converted into a larger one
lined lined with
plastic.
``After the minor irrigation department turned down
our proposal labelling it
too small, we got the technical support from Indian
Petro Chemicals
Limited,'' she says. ``Now our 100-women group has
also undertaken
self-employment project through embroidery. This helps
us earn some
money, make savings and generate loans for
ourselves,'' she adds.
Kunverben Rajpur from the Surel village in
Surendranagar district talks of
survival against all odds. Her village is located
right in the middle of the
desert. The only source of water is the saline pond
situated two kms away
from the village. This too is availabale only during
winter and the
monsoons.
``For us the biggest task in life is fetching water to
survive,'' she says.
After attending a workshop on roof rain water
harvesting, Kunverben was
determined to implement it in her own village
comprising 500 households.
``Not all agreed with me. But with whatever support I
got, we constructed
the underground tanks for water harvesting. After lot
of persuasion and
persistent efforts we got the approval for the
project,'' she explains.
Women themselves dug the ground near their homes for
making
underground tanks of 10,000-litres capacity . ``The
men warned us that
the children would fall and die in the pits if we
stored water in them,'' she
says. ``But we continued and today there are 100 such
tanks in our
village,'' she adds.
Cynosure of all eyes, the three women narrate their
success stories in
gestures to hundreds of participants and are in great
demand. It's thirsty
work, but fortunately there's mineral water at hand.
``After working hard to
fetch a pitcher full of saline pond water at home,
this is a nice experience,''
they say.