| Gram Vikas Nav Yuvak Mandal (GVNYM),
or the “New Youth Village Welfare Association,” is
a youth-led, volunteer association and non-governmental
organization (NGO) based in the village of Laporiya,
in the Dudu block of the Jaipur district of Rajasthan
in northern India. Founded by Laxman Singh to help
the Laporiya community revive their desiccated
soils, barren pastures, and dying livestock, GVNYM
enlists village youth to work on water conservation,
agriculture, and health issues. Since GVNYM’s
founding in 1990, Singh has implemented an indigenous
method of rainwater harvesting in Laporiya that
has notably transformed the degraded, barren ecosystem
into a lush and abundant one. Drawing on traditional
cultural values as well as the religious beliefs
and practices of Laporiya villagers, Singh and
GVNYM work to raise awareness about water scarcity
and water conservation in this arid region of India.
Using traditional water harvesting and management
techniques, such as tapping water from every path
it takes within its natural watershed, building
earthen percolation tanks and water storage units,
and diverting stored water to garden plots and
pastures through canals and aqueducts, GVNYM has
succeeded in solving many of Laporiya’s serious
ecological problems. To bolster and sustain these
traditional systems, Singh and GVNYM have revived
local customs and rituals that foster environmental
responsibility, water conservation, and reverence
for nature among the villagers. Small shrines dedicated
to Hindu deities and local guardians of water preserves
accompany the village’s many small tanks
and wells. Certain trees and plants (such as Tulsi
and Peepal) are worshipped regularly on household
altars; seasonal and family celebrations often
begin and end by honoring nature deities; and daily
water drawing entails ritual blessings of the Hindu
deity, Shiva, at well shrines. In addition, adaptations
of traditional rituals, such as the festival of
Raksha Bandhan in which “the protective tie
of brotherhood” is applied to trees to symbolize
the villagers commitment to protect trees as kin,
have helped to forge a conservation ethic in Laporiya.
Through these measures, GVNYM has succeeded in
raising the water table in Lapoira from sixty feet
below the surface in 1991 to merely fifteen feet
below in 2002. Because of its success, Singh’s
indigenous approach to ecological restoration in
Laporiya has spread to some 200 neighboring villages. |
| Hinduism |
India
(Rajasthan) |
| 1990–Present |
GVNYM was founded in 1990 by Laxman
Singh, a post-graduate in social work from Rajasthan
University, who sought to alleviate the severe
water shortage afflicting the village of Laporiya
by reviving its water harvesting systems. In
1991, Singh began digging fifty new wells, three
natural
water tanks, and a water collection system composed
of dykes. That same year, Singh notified villagers
that any person to cut down a tree would have
to submit a written apology, pay a small fine
of rice,
and plant another tree in its place. In 1994,
GVNYM began work on fifty hectares of pastureland
and helped
Laporiya residents restore their old water tank,
the Anna Sagar (“Ocean of Grain”).
In 2001, Laporiya made the news as the sole village
in the drought-prone district of Jaipur that
did not require assistance in the form of water
tankers.
|
| "GVNYM seeks to mobilize villagers to restore
their local ecosystems and conserve natural resources
by reviving traditional resource management systems
and a deep reverence for nature." |
| None Listed |
| None Listed |
Pritha Sen, “Respect for
Water Reaps Plenty,” The
Changemakers Review, vol. 4, no. 2 (December
2002): 22–28.
|
| None Listed |
Laxman Singh
Gram Vikas Nav Yuvak Mandal
Laporiya
Dudu
Jaipur 303 008
Rajasthan, India
Ph: +91 01428 24486 |
