Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has been known to provide employment to millions of laborers and others from economic weaker section till now. Numerous people belonging from a rural background have benefitted from the Act which provides them with a source of steady income and security.
Commissioner of the MGNREGA department, Mr. Anirudh Sravan recently came up with ideas through which he could not only provide benefits to the rural labor but also contribute his bit in saving the environment, about which he spoke exclusively with Indian Masterminds.
FARM PONDS
Karnataka is the second largest drought-prone state in the country after Rajasthan, with huge patches of dry land spread all around. After having worked in the MGNREGA department for seven years, Mr. Sravan realized that the most beneficial gift he could give to Karnataka would be Farm Ponds.
“During monsoons, the farmers would be able to save water and when the weather goes dry; they could easily pump out water from the ponds and use it for irrigation. Also, in case of heavy rains, this will also protect the farms from flooding thereby saving the crops,” Mr. Sravan told Indian Masterminds.
BENEFICIAL IN THE LONG RUN
If not for the farm ponds, all the rainwater would run away or dry, providing zero benefits. These ponds will also help in recharging the underwater table and fertilize the soil even more.
LEARNING FROM A LESSON
Talking about how he came up with the idea of forming farm ponds to collect water, Mr. Sravan reminisced about an extremely bad drought that struck the state back in the year 2009.
“It was one of the worst. A few years later, 2015-16 also gave us a terrible drought. That is when a renowned scientist of agriculture, Mr. MS Swami Nathan, holder of the honored Padma Bhushan, suggested that a pond in every farm is the only solution to ensure that farmers don’t suffer from lack of water,” said Mr. Sravan.
CONTRIBUTION OF MGNREGA
The MGNREGA scheme commenced in 2005 and today, 16 years down the line, there are still several villages wherein people want employment but it is getting difficult to employ everyone. Mr. Sravan decided to diversify their work.
He stated, “One of the formulas to diversify work was to form farm ponds and field bunds (trench-cum-bunds).”
WORKING DURING CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
The work commenced in March, 2020. Through MGNREGA, people work together in groups of hundreds but due to the coronavirus pandemic, he couldn’t gather large number of crowds to work together.
“At the same time, the Government pushed the department to provide more and more employment for the jobless migrant workers. However, the demand for getting work done was extremely low, since the nation was under lockdown and nobody was getting any work done,” held Mr Sravan.
This situation put Mr. Sravan in a dilemma so he started thinking of ways to make it work. He found a solution and decided that instead of employing 100 people in one place, he would put them in groups of 10-20 people and employ them in 4-5 different places.In this way, he could also reduce the risk of exposure to the virus.
CAMPAIGN FOR KARNATAKA
Mr. Sravan launched a month-long campaign in Karnataka in March 2020, wherein he announced that every gram panchayat in the state shall take the responsibility of bund making and farm ponds.
“6010 gram panchayats were asked to take 50 bunds and at least 25 farm ponds each. Owing to the diverse geography of the region, they were allowed to modify their work in hilly regions, but this was non-negotiable in dry areas,” he told Indian Masterminds.
SUCCESSFUL PROJECT
In a month’s time, the department with the help of gram panchayats completed the construction of over 1 lakh field bunds and over 40,000 farm ponds. Since then over 2 lakh farm bunds have been formed.
Furthermore, he also focused on plantation around the field bunds and farm ponds. Fifty thousand hectares of plantation was completed in this time.The officer called it, ‘A bund in every farmer’s field is a smile on every farmer’s face.’
It was a huge campaign and Mr Sravan asked the people to go around the panchayats and get work. Everywhere everyone was asking for bunds, which was the only structure that small farmers could afford since they could not lose major chunk of their farm in farm ponds.
Mr. Sravan is trying his best to push the campaign further so that the people as well as their farms are able to benefit from it. His effort did not just save water and farms, but also provided the unemployed with employment that too in the midst of the pandemic.
