India's 11 Ordinary People with Extraordinary Tales

Sarjubai Meena
Sarjubai Meena is the 50 year old grandmother who cares a lot about the environment and is gladly engaged these days in building an efficient community sensitive to the environment. She thanks the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) which turned her life around. She said, “Ten years ago, most of my day went in getting water from the handpump for my goats. Then the FES sahib came. They taught us to build anicuts to recharge groundwater and save our forests,” as reported by TNN. Now there is full water in her well and rest of the water bodies for the entire year.

Munia Murmu
Munia Murmu’s family barely survived with a meal a day for years, until after she married Ramesh Kisku in the 1990s and learned to process silk yarn from cocoon. It was bit of a rough start for Munia, but now her family is better off and saves up to Rs 50,000 a year. She said, “Things changed in 2002 when I came to know about the NGO,Pradan (Professional Assistance for Development Action).” Pradan is the agency that implements the Central Silk Board's Tasar Silk Project and trains women.

Also Read: India's 10 Most Trusted Personalities in 2013