Sachcast

I used to work with a large sized organisation which funded social causes. I handled some agriculture based poverty reduction projects in Bundelkhand. It is a region in north central part of India and is spread across 10 districts along the boundaries of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The region does not have any large city, gets frequent droughts, has hunger problems and the resultant abject poverty. Add to it, extreme social inequalities and corrupt governance and it creates an ideal recipe for total hopelessness. One of the activities we supported was erecting bunds in the fields and retaining as much rain water as possible. The intervention had a unique problem. For saving their black gram crop, in the event of excess rainfall, farmers were breaking the bunds, since the crop could not withstand water stagnation. Now all this work had a larger purpose, a technical design, required efforts and money. All of that was in danger. An idea sprung up in my mind. It could save the fi...