Sustainable Development Projects in India have a varied range. Often they entail working outdoors in the so called model villages or other green tasks. I have been a keen water environmentalist and it was rather difficult to find Socially Responsible Projects of my field outside the domain of the Indian rivers, until the Google search channelised me onto an event by a unique CSR Foundation run by Le Passage to India, a prominent DMC in India. Their CSR website, www.shaping-lives.org mentioned a place about 50 miles from the pink city of Jaipur. I requested my travel agent to assist me in spending time on such a Sustainable Development Project in India. It helped. The DMC gave details of the Shaping Lives head and not only did he provide me every possible detail I wanted but also set up a meeting with ‘The waterman of India’… a man who has walked the length of all major rivers in India and whose NGO near Jaipur has changed the arid land into fertile cultivable area.
It was a delightful experience meeting him and learning so many low cost but extremely effective water management techniques from his team of trained locals. Some members of the team were even illiterate women …illiterate in reading etc perhaps but ‘hands on’ work …whoa!!!! … I had a lot to learn. What a wonderful week I spent in their hamlet. Pure vegetarian local meals, early morning to dusk work and water management experiences and the evenings filled with the smells and songs of the desert wafting in from the surrounding village.
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