Swades Foundation hosted a round table with Shri Girish Mahajan, Cabinet Minister for Water Resources and Medical Education, Government of Maharashtra, to discuss their learnings from working in providing drinking water through taps in schools and homes in Raigad for the last five years.
Interesting anecdotes were shared of how Swades decided to go ahead with their firm belief of a tap in every home well before the announcement of the PM Narendra Modi’s ‘Nal se Jal’ mission. They faced tremendous difficulties initially including from donors who were not ready to pay the 20% extra costs and surprisingly even from the community. However, Swades pushed forward to change mindsets, and they shared stories of how proud and empowered the women were after they got a tap in their home.
2nd phase of CM Fadnavis yatra from today
This is a part of the Swades’ unique 360 model of rural transformation. They have built 424 water schemes consisting of either springs, wells or bore wells and impacted over 32,000 households, and 150 schools through drinking water and over 2,100 acres of land through irrigation.