And Jal Saheli Shrikunwar became the leader of the village

Dr. Utkarsh Sinha

Shrikunwar, 36, an active member of Shrikunwar Jal Samiti.  Over a period of time  Srikunwar emerge as an independent leader of her village, although she says that the main reason for this is the encouragement of the Parmarth, a charitable social organization woking on water issues.

Shrikunwar’s husband Hazrat Singh Rajput is disabled. Despite living in the village, he has given all possible supports to his wife. Mother of three children Shri Kunwar lives in village Udgunwa of Talbehat block of Lalitpur district. In association of more than a decade with Parmarth , Shrikunwar has done tremendous work regarding water conservation. From digging a pit for installing a hand pump to improving the hand pump she has done everything.

About ten years ago, Shrikunwar was leading a normal life, but Sanjay Singh of Parmarth samajsevi sansthan,(known as Bhageerath of Bundelkhand), inspired her to join the Water Committee. At first she was nervous, but later he joined in. She says – “I was associated with an organization related to cleanliness, but in Parmarth I learned to work in a completely different and unique way.”

Shrikunwar has the image of a social leader not only in her own village but many nearby villages, because of her dedication to the work.

She worked a lot for water. Earlier there were only two or three hand pumps in the village. She also used to be in poor condition most of the time, but he took training in repairing hand pumps and repaired the hand pump. Later, through agitation and giving memorandum, more than half a dozen hand pumps were installed in the village.  – Sanjay Singh( Parmarth Samajsevi Sansthan)

The situation was such bad that children used to go to school in the village, where there was neither toilet nor hand pump. Children used to fetch water from two kilometers away. A child from the village tells that if he went to drink water more than twice, the entire school time would be lost. In such a situation, Shrikunwar fought to improve the village school. She informed the block level officials about this, but since there was no hearing there, she gave a memorandum to the district education department officer and the District Magistrate. Action was taken on this and a hand pump was installed in the school. Besides, a toilet was also built in the school.

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Shrikunwar says that she has built 150 toilets in the village, whereas earlier there were only 60 toilets here. People of nearby villages know Shrikunwar as Jal Saheli, who works with water. Shrikunwar has also built hand pumps, wells, check dams etc. in and around his village. She does all this work with the help of her water friends.