MSRLM, Paani Foundation and Umed Satyamev Jayate Samrudh Gaon Spardha.....

MSRLM, Paani Foundation and Umed Satyamev Jayate Samrudh Gaon Spardha.....

MSRLM Umed works for the empowerment of women through self help groups and community based organizations. Social, financial, economic inclusion leading to sustainable livelihoods are the four pillars of the mission which have led to its phenomenal growth. Today the Mission has more than 4.2 lakh self help groups and over 48 lakh households associated with it. It has created over 17000 village organizations and over 600 cluster level federations. It has over 1500 prodcer groups, 15 FPOs and over 8000 enterprises. It has created over 12 lakh livelihoods in the fields of Agriculture, Animal husbandry, Fisheries, Food Processing, Handicrafts and Handlooms.
The Mission derives its it strength from Dashasutri, the ten cardinal principles which not only keeps the groups together but also instills a sense of discipline in them. It is the regular weekly meetings, savings, internal lending, repayment of loans, writing books of accounts which makes the SHGs prosper economically. The emphasis on health-nutrition and sanitation , education, participatory governance, right to entitlements leading to the most important principle of sustainable livelihoods provides them with a vision to develop comprehensively.
Some time during April 2019 one of my colleagues, Mr Nanaaware who has joined the Paani Foundation on his retirement contacted me with a request to collaborate with Paani Foundation by providing support to the Water Cup in 75 drought stricken blocks of Maharashtra.  Since Paani Foundation was making efforts to motivate and chanelise people to vountarily undertake water conservation and water harvesting activies in drought stricken Maharashtra, MSRLM decided to collaborate with Pani Foundation.
More than 1000 members of the staff and cadre of MSRLM were trained and due to their combined efforts more than 5 lakh women participated in the campaign period of the Water Cup.
MSRLM was invited for the awards ceremony at Pune and was also felicitated by the Paani Foundation. It was during the awards ceremony the idea of collaborating for livelihoods and sustainable development with Paani Foundation occurred to me and I kept following up with Mr.Nanaware and Mr.Bhatkal.
A chance interaction with Mr.Amir Khan at the Mumbai airport on my journey to Delhi gave me an opportunity to show case the efforts being made by MSRLM to propagate sustainable livelihoods.
Working for water conservation singularly without a plan for the overall development and growth of the village was incomplete. I was able to drive home the point that it was important to work for sustainable livelihoods. The Paani Foundation took it's time to do their due diligence and homework.
Mr.Satyjit Bhatkal's visit to Mahalakshmi Saras 2020 and our further discussions enabled us to come up with a plan and from it emerged the " Umed Satyamev Jayate Samruddha Gaon Spardha".
Going beyond water conservation, this competition aims at transforming the ecology and economy of the villages and creating a movement in sustainable livelihoods.
The competition is a step forward in the Water Cup as it has set certain benchmarks. Only those villages which had attained at least 30 percent success during the water cup are eligible to participate in the Umed Satyamev Jayate Samruddha Gaon Spardha. So only 1130 villages in the 40 blocks of 18 districts can participate.
The competition will begin from 1st April 2020 and end with the awards in June 2021. In the period of one year apart from water conservation all men and women in the villages have to undertake soil conservation activities, water management, afforestation, fodder cultivation, soil health and preservation. The program emphasizes on creation of Self-help groups and undertaking income generating activities leading to sustainable development. The concept of Lakhpati Kisan is also an important aspect.
Capacity building is the strength of MSRLM and it will collaborate with Paani Foundation to build the capacities of SHGs and their households which will actively participate in the year long competition. These will include the SHGs, VOs, CLFs of MSRLM which will work towards making their villages prosperous and also get an opportunity to be a winner in the Umed Satyamev Jayate Samruddha Gaon Spardha.
The program kick-started with a video conference of the team members of both the organizations to understand each other and etch the way forward.
As individuals, we cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community. Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others.
Also real prosperity comes from everybody in the country working together in a growth mode. It comes as a result of people's own initiative and efforts. As Rush Limbaugh has stated, "Prosperity, if it comes from the government, is not prosperity. It's an existence or a subsistence or whatever, but it isn't prosperity."
It is therefore important that the people work towards their own prosperity. MSRLM Umed just does that by facilitating sustainable livelihoods. I hope that the changing face of Paani Foundation and MSRLM 's Umed Satyamev Jayate Samruddha Gaon Spardha will facilitate transformation of many villages and lead them to neverending prosperity.