Sharmishtha Jagawat

Founder

Founder of N. M. Sadguru Water and Development Foundation

Sharmishtha Jagawat is the founding trustee of N. M. Sadguru Water and Development Foundation (1974)[1], an Indian non-profit working on water & sanitation, rural & agriculture and tribal welfare from Dahod.

Sharmishtha Jagawat is an Indian rural development worker and the managing trustee and executive director of the N. M. Sadguru Water and Development Foundation, based at Dahod in eastern Gujarat. The foundation works on water harvesting, lift irrigation, afforestation and rural livelihoods in tribal districts of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

She led the organisation alongside her husband Harnath Jagawat, who was its co-director for some four decades.

Career

The Navinchandra Mafatlal Sadguru Water and Development Foundation was established in 1974 under the guidance of Sadguru Shri Ranchhoddasji Maharaj of Chitrakoot and with the support of the industrialist Arvindbhai Mafatlal. Its early work concentrated on water conservation and community-managed lift irrigation in drought-prone tribal areas.

The Jagawats built the organisation from very small beginnings; Harnath Jagawat described the first two years as one person carrying out every function on a minimal budget. A substantial increase in foreign and matching government funding from 1990 allowed the work to expand.

Sharmishtha Jagawat is listed by the foundation as founder trustee and executive director. Under the couple's direction the foundation extended its programmes to more than 550 villages across the three states, combining water-harvesting structures and lift irrigation schemes with tree planting, agricultural extension, drinking water supply and women's savings and credit groups. Its work has been the subject of academic study as a model of partnership-based poverty reduction.

Recognition

She was among the names recommended by the Government of Gujarat for the Padma awards in 2014.[2][3][4]

N. M. Sadguru Water and Development Foundation

N. M. Sadguru Water and Development Foundation has worked since 1974 with tribal and rural communities in Dahod, Gujarat and surrounding districts on water resource development and natural resource management. It builds irrigation and lift irrigation systems, promotes watershed development and sustainable agriculture, and supports livelihood programmes aimed at reducing distress migration from tribal areas.

N. M. Sadguru Water and Development Foundation reports the following, on its own site:

9.25 lakh acres and 6.83 lakh households covered under improved farming practices
41,000 farmers trained
4,19,813 households covered under various programmes (including overlapping beneficiaries)