DILIPBHAI SAKHIYA

Founder

DILIPBHAI SAKHIYA is the founder of Girganga Parivar Trust [1], an Indian non-profit working on water & sanitation and rural & agriculture from Rajkot.

Dilipbhai Sakhiya is a Gujarati farmers' leader and social worker who is the founder and president of the Girganga Parivar Trust, a Rajkot-based charity working on water conservation and groundwater recharge in the drought-prone Saurashtra region of Gujarat.

He established the trust in 2017, initially as a grassroots initiative concerned with cattle welfare (gau seva) and rural livelihoods. From 2019 its main work became the construction and desilting of check dams, recharge bore wells and other decentralised water-harvesting structures.

Career

Before founding the trust Sakhiya was president of the district Kisan Sangh in Rajkot. The Girganga Parivar Trust describes him as a grassroots leader and water conservation advocate with more than two decades of community work.

He leads the trust's '1,11,111 Jal Sanchay Sankalp', a campaign to build or rejuvenate 1,11,111 water conservation structures, mobilising farmers, gram panchayat representatives, youth volunteers, civil society organisations and corporate donors. The trust reports work in 10 districts and 53 talukas of Gujarat.

In 2024 the trust signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Jal Shakti, and it is registered on the National Stock Exchange's Social Stock Exchange. In 2026 it organised Jal Katha – Apne Apne Shyam Ki, a mass public pledge on water conservation.

Recognition

Under Sakhiya's presidency the Girganga Parivar Trust received the Jal Prahari Award in 2023, organised with the Ministry of Jal Shakti, UNOPS and the National Jal Jeevan Mission; the Mayor's Award from the Rajkot Municipal Corporation in 2024 for its work under the Pani Bachao Abhiyan; the Global CSR and ESG Award in 2025; and second rank at the all-India level as Best NGO under the Ministry of Jal Shakti's JSJB 1.0.[2][3][4]

Girganga Parivar Trust

Girganga Parivar Trust builds check dams, borewell recharge systems and water-harvesting structures with rural and urban communities across drought-prone Gujarat, having worked across 588 villages and 171 urban water-stressed locations in 10 districts.

Girganga Parivar Trust reports the following, on its own site:

19,592+ water structures built (check dams, borewell recharge structures and percolation pits)
588 rural villages and 171 urban water-stressed locations reached across 10 districts of Gujarat
11.4+ lakh people impacted, including 2.25+ lakh direct beneficiaries