Much of the Sansthan’s work as Implementation Support Agency under Jal Jeevan Mission takes place in village meetings. The photographs from these meetings, taken between May 2022 and December 2023 in villages of Sant Kabir Nagar district, show three kinds of gatherings, each identified by the banner displayed at the venue.
Public awareness meetings
The public awareness campaign meetings are held at the Gram Panchayat level under the Mission’s “Har Ghar Jal” banner. In one such meeting the villagers and the Sansthan’s team stand around a large map of the settlement chalked on the ground — a participatory rural appraisal exercise in which the community itself marks out lanes, households and water points. Mapping in this way is a standard method for discussing where tap connections are needed and who is responsible for them, and it lets people who do not read maps take part fully.
Monthly meetings of women and men
The monthly Gram Panchayat meetings of women and men are organised by the Sansthan as Implementation Support Agency, with the District Water and Sanitation Committee and Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam named on the banner as sponsors. The photographs show women seated together under the veranda of a village building while a facilitator addresses them, and a woman facilitator demonstrating with water containers at the front of the group. Attendance by women is a consistent feature of these meetings, reflecting the Mission’s emphasis on the household users of the water supply.
Village Drinking Water and Sanitation Committee meetings
Meetings of the Village Drinking Water and Sanitation Committee — the Pani Samiti — are held in the open, under trees or in front of the Panchayat building, with the committee’s banner naming the Sansthan as organiser. The Sansthan’s role is to help these committees function: to explain their responsibilities for the village scheme, to keep the community informed and to support the committee’s regular meetings.
One photograph also shows an awareness session attended by children and adults together, seated on the ground in a village courtyard with the Mission banner behind them, and another shows a larger meeting held under a tent with the Mission’s banner on the stage.
Scope
These meetings are documented by the Sansthan’s own photographs and their banners rather than by a separate written report, so this article describes what the photographs show and does not attach numbers of participants or outcomes to them.
