Structures for rainwater harvesting (RWH) and borewell recharge are in place and as many as 1.76 lakh saplings have been planted in Rewari district of Haryana, as a part of the ongoing Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA) that is currently underway across the country.

Production and income from five acres of unproductive land only was not sufficient for an eight-member family of Bimla Singh, a resident of Ayyari village in Balarampur district of Chhattisgarh. The cost of cultivation was high and had no capital to purchase agricultural inputs. Thus, Bimla and her husband had no other option but to work in others’ field, as wage labourers. This was the situation for several years after her marriage.

Introduction Tambhere Gram Panchayat is situated in the Rahuri black of Ahmednagar. The area falls in the drought-prone zone of the state. In the absence of basic irrigation facilities, Tambhere GP had a traditional cropping pattern. Farmers grow bajara (pearl millet) and jowar (Sorghum vulgare) during the kharif season, while the land remains uncultivable during the rabi season due to lack of irrigation facility. It was decided in the Gram Sabha to construct farm ponds for rainwater harvesting as a drought mitigation initiative.

In order to facilitate the formation of Eco WASH Clubs in schools across Punjab, to provide awareness on hygiene and sanitation including menstrual hygiene management (MHM), a two-day training programme was held in Jalandhar, Punjab on 27th and 28th May, 2019.

Married at an early age of 15, Rinku Devi of Khagaria was taking the entire responsibility of her household. Like most women of her age in the village, she accepted this as her destiny. One day she was contacted by some women who came in the CRP drive to form new SHGs in her village, she was approached to become an SHG member which required her to attend the group meeting and save Rs.10 every week.

Introduction Kodasiya Gram Panchayat is located in Lailunga block of Raigarh District. While 95% of households primarily depend on agriculture, only 5% have irrigation facilities. The villagers mainly relied on rainfall for cultivation. The farmers were facing problems due to the degradation of natural resources and low agricultural production. The water conservation approach in cultivation was in high demand. The groundwater recharge was low due to sloppy and undulating terrain and high run-off.

As many as 1660 water conservation works have been sanctioned in the district of West Godavari in Andhra Pradesh, of which 1096 are in different stages of progress, according to Central Nodal Officer (CNO), Mr. Sudhaker Shukla, Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Rural Development.

Augustina belonged to a low-income family, which has no agricultural lands. Her husband works as a carpenter and was the sole earning member of her family. Before her marriage, she was inspired by the work of a local voluntary organisation named as Loka Kalyan Parishad, that was working on livelihood development in her parent’s village. She got an orientation on Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA), SHG formation, and Kitchen Garden from that organisation. After the orientation, she formed an SHG in her village and practiced Kitchen garden in her backyard.

Introduction Banjhimunda village is located in Kantamal block of Boudh District in Odisha. The village experiences frequent droughts and acute drinking water shortage due to its location and untimely rainfall for at least 4–6 months in a year. Frequent droughts forced people to either migrate to other places for employment or depend on forest for livelihoods. The average annual rainfall in the district is 1,510 mm but most of the rainwater received during monsoon drains away damaging agricultural fields and the main road, and it remains dry during the rest of the year.

Tamil Nadu is among the foremost states in the country to have established solid waste management (SWM) systems with collection, segregation and waste disposal facilities in all its 12,524 village panchayats. The southern state has also engaged 66,025 motivators (Thooimai Kaavalars) for door to door collection of waste, segregation into bio-degradable and non bio-degradable and safe disposal of the same.