Extreme personal distress and adversities can sometimes push people into despair and loneliness, but some also respond with a strong determination to overcome extremely difficult situations. Sirkunwar is one of those persons who never give up. Her struggle is all the more inspiring because this led her not only towards providing better security for her family but she could go much beyond this to help hundreds of people in her village and some neighboring ones as well.
Sirkunwar is a middle-aged woman of Udguwan village in Talbehat block (Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh). As their farming based livelihood faced several problems, her husband had to frequently go to Indore city for work. Here he had a serious accident due to which he has been disabled. Even after several years he cannot walk properly and cannot do any work requiring much physical activity. Now she had a lot of hopes from her son for helping the family to get some security. But one day he suddenly died at a very young age in what appeared to be an accident but have been an assault. Now Sirkunwar was suddenly denied her son’s help and instead had the additional responsibility of helping her daughter-in-law and her two children.
What has been Sirkunwar’s response to these adversities? She has gone right ahead to take up several social responsibilities relating to the welfare of her village and neighboring areas.
In fact it was her involvement in wider social responsibilities, the satisfaction, happiness and confidence this provided which helped her to overcome her distress and reset things in such a way that her family could meet its basic needs and in addition she could find the time to continue her active involvement in social mobilization.
He talents for a wider social role were first recognized over a decade back by a voluntary organization Parmarth under its program of creating a cadre of women volunteers, called ‘Jal Sahelis’ (translated as water friends), dedicated to water conservation and related activities. She in fact had the honor of becoming the first Jal Saheli under this program which has been widely appreciated.
Sirkunwar played an important mobilization role in the considerable stepping up of water related programs in her village, resulting the construction of three check dams and providing more hand pumps, hence meeting needs of conserving water as well as providing water supply nearer home. A lot of water conservation work is being done these under NREGA program of rural employment, and Sirkunwar also helped to improve it, first independently and then also by becoming a mate under this program. Her involvement has been helpful in improved functioning, including more timely payment of wages, of NREGA.
As several households had been left put in the first phase of toilet construction, she took up a campaign to get these toilets constructed, resulting in the construction of about 120 more toilets. She has also campaigned for improving drainage system and has extracted an assurance from the pradhan or village headperson that this work will be taken up soon.
While drawing attention to inadequacies of any programs, Sirkunwar has not hesitated to take up responsibilities herself. This happened not only in the context of NREGA but also in the context of Ujjwala scheme. When she complained about some aspects of the functioning of this scheme, an official asked her if she can take up some of the distribution in her village. She agreed and this led to much better results.
Sirkunwar makes periodic rounds of anganwadis and mid-day meal cooking centers to see if the nutrition and maternity care programs in her village are functioning properly or not.
Sirkunwar has extended her social mobilization role beyond her village and contributes with her experience and enthusiasm in neighboring areas too. Her presence in various development initiatives and meetings of the area is considered a must. Not just villagers but even village and block-level officials have taken to addressing her as ‘Neta Ji’.
She has combined this important social role with taking good care of her family’s farmland of about six acres. In addition she is cultivating a beautiful kitchen garden growing a diversity of vegetables. She helped her daughter-in-law to get work as a mid-day meal cook so that she can become more self-reliant, and also helps her in taking care of her two children.
When I went to meet her in the small shelter she has created to be close to her farm, she was full of enthusiasm both regarding the work she has been doing and what she plans to take up in future, presenting a truly inspiration story of arising from the setbacks of personal distress to help not just her family but hundreds of other people as well.
Recalling an old incident, she told us how she had once fallen down in a well when the rope of her bucket broke. However she was rescued well in time by other villagers, and has gone on to contribute so much to improving water supply and conservation.
Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Man over Machine and A Day in 2071.
