Wasteland Development

Much of the land owned by the government or village, and reserved as fodder ground is wasteland. Most of the wasteland in Rajasthan is barren because of over grazing and desert-like conditions. The Barefoot College helps rural communities to regenerate this land.

The College by providing seedlings from its nursery of drought-resistant trees, shrubs, and grasses, has developed more than 500 hectares of wastelands into pasturelands. The villagers had since 1980 taken up the responsibility of planting trees to develop the wastelands. These have now been handed over to the villagers who maintain them.

The Barefoot College aims to drought proof these areas by employing various strategies:

• Popularising traditional systems of water storage.
• Recharging old open dugwells from rainwater harvesting units.
• Preserving desert culture and mobilising peoples' action.
  

Rainwater Harvesting

Rainwater harvesting initiatives have achieved:

• 470 underground tanks(tankas) with a total capacity of 29 million litres built for rainwater collection in Rajasthan employing 109,000 persons.

• The tanks (tankas) were constructed in schools and community centres.

• Because of the availability of potable water the attendance of girls in these schools has increased significantly.

• 4500 landless labourers have given 150,000 days of employment to build these tank (tankas).

• Villagers have contributed 1.5 million rupees (INR) worth of their voluntary labour in the construction of the tanks(tankas).
  

These projects demonstrate how traditional methods and skills can be utilised in providing long term sustainable solutions. The practice of building underground tanks in homes is also becoming increasingly popular since this allows rural people to have direct control over their own source of water.

Social Work and Research Centre
Tilonia, Rajasthan, India