Mahesh Sharma

Co-founder

Co-founder of Shivganga Samagra Gramvikas Parishad

Mahesh Sharma is the co-founder of Shivganga Samagra Gramvikas Parishad [1], an Indian non-profit working on tribal welfare, water & sanitation and rural & agriculture from Jhabua.

Mahesh Sharma is an Indian social activist who works on rural development, water conservation and tribal self-reliance in the Jhabua region of western Madhya Pradesh. He is a co-founder of Shivganga Samagra Gramvikas Parishad, an organisation based at Jhabua that works among Bhil communities in the Jhabua, Alirajpur and Dhar districts.

Sharma is widely known locally as the 'Gandhi of Jhabua'. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2019 for his work on the empowerment of tribal rural areas in Madhya Pradesh.

Early life and education

Sharma was born in the village of Ghughsi in Datia district, Madhya Pradesh, the third of six brothers. He attended a government school near Pitambara Peeth and later took his degree in Gwalior.

Career

Sharma joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and worked as a pracharak before moving to social work in Jhabua. In 1998 he became general secretary of the Forest Residents Welfare Council in Jhabua, and he subsequently co-founded Shivganga Samagra Gramvikas Parishad, which has been active in the district since 2007.

The organisation's central method is the revival of halma, a Bhil tradition in which villagers gather voluntarily to complete work for a member of the community in difficulty. Shivganga has used mass halma gatherings, notably on the Hathipava hill above Jhabua, to build contour trenches, check dams and other water-harvesting structures and to plant trees. It reports the construction of more than 5,000 water structures across some 350 villages, and works alongside programmes in youth mobilisation, afforestation and rural livelihoods.

Recognition

In 2019 the Government of India conferred the Padma Shri on Sharma for his contribution to the empowerment of tribal rural areas in Madhya Pradesh. Shivganga has also received the National Water Mission Award from the Ministry of Jal Shakti in 2019 and the Chiranjilal Dhanuka Smriti Samaj Seva Award for 2020.[2][3][4]

Shivganga Samagra Gramvikas Parishad

Shivganga Samagra Gramvikas Parishad is a voluntary organisation registered in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh in 2007 that works across the Bhil-dominated districts of Jhabua and Alirajpur. It revived Halma, a Bhil tradition of unpaid collective labour, into an annual mass water-conservation gathering at the Hathipava hills, and runs programmes in water conservation, forest enrichment, tribal livelihoods and women's self-help groups. Founder Mahesh Sharma received the Padma Shri in 2019.

Shivganga Samagra Gramvikas Parishad reports the following, on its own site: