 "Noble cleanup cause")
In September 2015, the people of Moti Mohalla village on Srinagar's iconic Dal Lake, were asked something they had never been asked before. What changes would they like to see around them? The majority replied unhesitatingly that the dirt and weeds suffocating all life within Dal Lake was something that bothered them. On hearing this, the folks from Goonj who had been working there since the 2014 floods asked if the community would like to clean the lake themselves instead of depending on anyone else to do the job. Over 300 villagers braved the cold and fog and contributed two days of labour each and 130 shikaras carried the weeds and waste from the lake to the banks where it was used as compost and cattle feed. Every volunteer was given a household kit containing warm clothes and blankets to ward off the coming winter chill. And over one lakh square metres of the lake was cleaned without a single rupee exchanging hands.
In monetary terms, the clean-up of Dal Lake would have cost a minimum of Rs 4 lakh, says Anshu Gupta, the founder of Goonj. But when the local community volunteered to do it themselves, it revived the sense of pride and ownership they felt for the lake. They cleaned the lake because it was important to them, and not because an external agency said so. Catalysing the entire process were the truckloads of clothes, blankets, medicines and school supplies that Goonj collects through the year from all the major Indian metros.
This is what makes the seemingly simple concept of Goonj's Cloth For Work programme so revolutionary. By inducing local stakeholders to volunteer their labour to carry out tasks that directly benefit their own community, and giving them the essentials they need in return, Gupta and his team are doing much more than dignifying the act of giving. They are enabling disaster and poverty-stricken villagers to become agents of change and transformation. Since the 2013 flash floods in Uttarakhand, for example, the Goonj team has convinced the residents of 600 villages to chart out their rebuilding goals. The villagers cleaned the debris left by the flood, repaired their destroyed bridges and roads that connected them to civilisation and, most important, gained their dignity. In the time that it took for other NGOs to gather funds and begin their restructuring efforts, Goonj's villages were well on their way to recovery.
At present, much of Goonj's effort is focused on drought relief in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Bundelkhand. "Through our Cloth for Work program in these states, we are working to clean and deepen existing wells" says Gupta.
Named by NASA in 2012 as a game-changing innovation and arguably India's largest non-monetary resource agency, Goonj carried out 2000 such projects in 2015. The financial implications of this work are huge. For example, Goonj's recent drought relief work in 14 villages of Madhya Pradesh (well deepening, tube well repair, construction of check dams and so on) used 1,060 human days of voluntary labour. According to NREGA's recommended minimum wage for unskilled labour (Rs 159 per day), this activity would have otherwise entailed Rs 1,68,540 in wages alone.
That is why Gupta and co have come to realise that repurposed urban waste can be an effective currency to carry out community based projects. The task ahead, however, is never-ending. They believe floods, fires and earthquakes are one-time disasters that need to be immediately and urgently addressed, says Gupta, but poverty and meagre resources, poor access to health services, education and livelihoods are disasters that millions of Indians face every day.
The Goonj model of community partnership makes an important case for people taking up their own causes, instead of waiting for any external support. It is easily replicable and as the award-winning NGO has demonstrated, a cost-effective solution to many of rural India's infrastructural issues.
In monetary terms, the clean-up of Dal Lake would have cost a minimum of Rs 4 lakh, says Anshu Gupta, the founder of Goonj. But when the local community volunteered to do it themselves, it revived the sense of pride and ownership they felt for the lake. They cleaned the lake because it was important to them, and not because an external agency said so. Catalysing the entire process were the truckloads of clothes, blankets, medicines and school supplies that Goonj collects through the year from all the major Indian metros.
This is what makes the seemingly simple concept of Goonj's Cloth For Work programme so revolutionary. By inducing local stakeholders to volunteer their labour to carry out tasks that directly benefit their own community, and giving them the essentials they need in return, Gupta and his team are doing much more than dignifying the act of giving. They are enabling disaster and poverty-stricken villagers to become agents of change and transformation. Since the 2013 flash floods in Uttarakhand, for example, the Goonj team has convinced the residents of 600 villages to chart out their rebuilding goals. The villagers cleaned the debris left by the flood, repaired their destroyed bridges and roads that connected them to civilisation and, most important, gained their dignity. In the time that it took for other NGOs to gather funds and begin their restructuring efforts, Goonj's villages were well on their way to recovery.
At present, much of Goonj's effort is focused on drought relief in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Bundelkhand. "Through our Cloth for Work program in these states, we are working to clean and deepen existing wells" says Gupta.
Named by NASA in 2012 as a game-changing innovation and arguably India's largest non-monetary resource agency, Goonj carried out 2000 such projects in 2015. The financial implications of this work are huge. For example, Goonj's recent drought relief work in 14 villages of Madhya Pradesh (well deepening, tube well repair, construction of check dams and so on) used 1,060 human days of voluntary labour. According to NREGA's recommended minimum wage for unskilled labour (Rs 159 per day), this activity would have otherwise entailed Rs 1,68,540 in wages alone.
That is why Gupta and co have come to realise that repurposed urban waste can be an effective currency to carry out community based projects. The task ahead, however, is never-ending. They believe floods, fires and earthquakes are one-time disasters that need to be immediately and urgently addressed, says Gupta, but poverty and meagre resources, poor access to health services, education and livelihoods are disasters that millions of Indians face every day.
The Goonj model of community partnership makes an important case for people taking up their own causes, instead of waiting for any external support. It is easily replicable and as the award-winning NGO has demonstrated, a cost-effective solution to many of rural India's infrastructural issues.
For more, visit goonj.org/ or listen to Anshu Gupta's 2015 TEDx talk here www.youtube.com/watch?v=J67Xxlo-TPk
Next fortnight, the story of a young woman who has given voice to over 300 of Gujarat's nomadic tribes in their fight for their land rights and place in society
Next fortnight, the story of a young woman who has given voice to over 300 of Gujarat's nomadic tribes in their fight for their land rights and place in society