In Sajjangarh block of Rajasthan’s Banswara district, most of the population belongs to tribal communities. The people live scattered across hills and hamlets, with neither adequate irrigation nor stable livelihoods. Families here depend on rain-fed agriculture and daily-wage labor. When rains fail or crops are lost, entire families migrate to cities like Ahmedabad for construction work — sometimes for more than six months a year. The deepest toll falls on women’s health, children’s education, and the social fabric of the family. Climate change has only sharpened these hardships.
Against this difficult backdrop lives Dayabai Motilal Dodiyar, in the village of Bijalpura. Forty-six years old and part of a family of five, she owns eight bighas of land. But because farming depends entirely on rainfall, only one crop could be grown each year. For the rest of the year, migrating to Ahmedabad with her family for wage work was an inescapable reality.
Near Dayabai’s field, the Gram Panchayat of Godawada Narang had constructed a check dam back in 2013. But more than a decade passed, and silt accumulated to the point where the structure was entirely non-functional. It still stood, but no water was retained, and no benefit reached the fields. The farms of other members of the Saksham group — Binubai Dodiyar, Hira Dodiyar, Radhika Dodiyar, Meera Dodiyar, Sangeeta Dodiyar, Rajkumari Dodiyar, Manjula Dodiyar, Kali Dodiyar, Lakshmi Dodiyar, Shila Dodiyar, Devli Dodiyar, and Sita Dodiyar — also adjoined the same check dam. For all of them, that crumbling structure was a shared problem, yet no one had ever made an effort to find a solution.
Around the same time, Vaagdhara, in collaboration with the Hindustan Unilever Foundation, was working in the area on sustainable agriculture and efficient water use. Through Gram Swaraj groups, Saksham groups, and Bal Swaraj groups, regular training sessions and meetings were held to make communities self-reliant in water, forests, land, livestock, and seeds. Community facilitators encouraged people to return to nature and tradition. From 2023 onward, the program began a focused dialogue on building, repairing, and sustainably managing water conservation structures. Awareness around water gradually deepened.
During one meeting of the Bijalpura Gram Swaraj group, discussions turned to water conservation and repair of water structures. Dayabai was present, listening carefully. When the conversation turned to the water structures in their area, she remembered that long-dormant check dam. She thought that if it could be deepened, not only her field but all surrounding farms could receive water.
Dayabai first discussed the idea with her Saksham group companions — Binubai, Hira, Radhika, and Meera. All agreed unanimously that the proposal should be placed before the Gram Swaraj group. When Dayabai and her colleagues presented the proposal for deepening the check dam at the meeting, everyone gave their consent. After collective deliberation, a formal proposal was prepared in the name of Gram Panchayat Godawada Narang and submitted by Dayabai and the Saksham group members at the Gram Sabha, under the oversight of the Gram Swaraj group. The Gram Panchayat accepted the proposal, and the work was sanctioned under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
When the deepening was complete and the rains came, water began to collect. In that gathered water, these women saw their own future. They resolved that this time, there would be no migration. This time, they would stay home and cultivate their own land. That single decision changed everything. Across sixty-two bighas of farmland connected to the check dam, fourteen farmers sowed rabi crops. Chickpeas, wheat, maize, and pigeon peas began to thrive — a satisfaction that no wage labor could ever offer.
The impact was not confined to the fields alone. Groundwater levels in nearby wells, hand pumps, and bore wells improved. The area under irrigation expanded, and animal husbandry also found relief, as livestock no longer had to travel far for water. During the deepening work, approximately seventy neighboring families received continuous employment for two months, generating around 2,200 person-days of work.
The efforts of Dayabai and the other women demonstrate that when women learn to raise their voice, and when traditional knowledge meets modern schemes, change is certain to follow. Today, Dayabai is no longer confined to the limits of her home. She regularly reaches out to other women to strengthen the Saksham group and educates her community about the importance of water, land, forests, livestock, and native seeds. Her husband and other family members, who earlier migrated for more than six months at a stretch, now farm their own land and live together as a family. Only an empowered community can lay the foundation for its own secure future.
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*Freelance writer
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