“Who other than us will solve our own issues……”

This story is from Mann taluka’s Pachvad village, by our leader Megha and efforts by the women in the village. When we talk about Pachvad village, it only reminds us about the drought situation there and its conservative thoughts. It is 20 kms away from Mann taluka and since past 2 years, CORO has been working in this village, addressing water-related issues there.

Water conservation work is successfully being completed through regular group meetings, women in, Pachvad. This group of women are playing an active role in other issues of the village. On one such day, while facilitating a women’s group meeting, it was observed that Pachvad and the Bijwad road remained the same for the past 10 years, without any repairs. This road has several potholes; it is difficult to gauge whether there are potholes on the road or the road is built on potholes. During elections, many leaders have assured time and again that they will repair this road. The issues discussed in the group meeting came up in the village meeting and some youths along with women became aggressive, and insisted that the village road should be constructed. Women and youth, led by our leader Megha, prepared a statement and decided to set up a delegation, interact with the village machinery, but the village system replied that they would look into this matter, but didn’t show much interest. They even suggested to the women that they shouldn’t get into any politics.


The Gram Sabha would meet and would plan further, it was decided. The women planned to complete the road repair work with the help of taluka system and communicated it with CORO’‘s representatives. Thus, some women and leader of the village Megha came to the tahsildar office. After seeing so many women in the construction department, the officials got confused and they called them inside the office, respectfully. They were asked to sit down, give water, and respectfully checked on everyone. And, all the women put up a detailed questionnaire. Deputy Commissioner Mr. Khot and Beat Engineer assured that the construction department officials will take appropriate action on it. After that, the key person from the village continued to pursue the officials, but the women of the village were leading from the front, because they wanted to prove a point to everyone. And, one day the deputy engineer informed the team that they had taken the appropriate action on their request and sent it for approval. “You can take a copy of it , we will do the next process soon and we will do our job by March”, the officials informed. When these women shared this success story with everyone, they were overwhelmingly happy and thanked CORO for encouraging them and insisting them to believe that

“Who other than us will solve our own issues…..we ourselves have to”.