Swades Foundation's 'Swa se bane Des' - Transforming Rural India

For decades, India’s villages have struggled to develop in tandem with their urban counterparts. Successive governments and non-government groups have attempted to bridge the gap by addressing the many issues that mar the landscape. Significant among them is Swades Foundation. Founded by Ronnie and Zarina Screwvala, the non-profit is focussed on rural empowerment through holistic development in over 2,700 villages. 

The foundation seeks to empower one million rural lives every five years so that they can take charge of their own lives and that of their communities. Swades has adopted a model of comprehensive development by leading transformation in the areas of education, health and nutrition, water and sanitation.     

Beginning of Swades

Ronnie and Zarina Screwvala started their philanthropic journey with SHARE (Society to Heal Aid Restore and Educate), which was later renamed The Swades Foundation in 2013. The non-profit is named after the Hindi film Swades, an Ashutosh Gowariker directorial, co-produced by Ronnie Screwvala. The film revolves around a NASA weather scientist’s quest to transform rural lives in India. 

When Zarina and Ronnie decided they wanted to lead holistic development efforts, their friends and colleagues discouraged them, advising them to focus on one cause instead. But Ronnie and Zarina were insistent on doing something more holistic. They travelled across the country to study the landscape but finally found inspiration in the work of Sir Faisal Hasan Abed, founder of BRAC, one of the largest non-governmental organisations in the world. A conversation with him reinforced Zarina and Ronnie’s conviction in the idea of holistic development.        

Community ownership to drive sustainable change

Swades Foundation initially approached its work with a philanthropic “push”. But over time, the organisation observed that long-term transformation can only happen if change comes from within. Consequently, they shifted to a “pull” strategy more focussed on community ownership and community-led change. 

This led Swades Foundation to create a community-centric model powered by Village Development Committees at its core. The Village Development Committee (VDC) is the backbone of Swades’ work, something the organisation considers mandatory before entering a new geography. Community members comprehend, voice and address their concerns through these groups of self-motivated community representatives responsible for driving change in their hamlets. To ensure inclusivity and fair representation, VDCs are mandated to have adequate gender, caste and economic representation. 

Challenges in the villages addressed by Swades

Some of the challenges facing rural communities that Swades Foundation is seeking to redress through community leadership are: 

 1. Lack of access to drinking water: Women often spend 3-4 hours every day walking several kilometres to obtain safe drinking water. Arduous roads often take a toll on these women’s health. Fights break out often while filling water.   

 2. Open defecation: A lack of toilets means people in these communities have to defecate in the open, causing infections and spreading disease. Women have to take greater care and often have to wake up very early in the morning or wait until it’s dark to relieve themselves. This often makes them vulnerable to snake bites and animal attacks. 

 3. Health and hygiene: Inadequate water and a lack of washrooms have a detrimental effect on overall hygiene. Further, rural communities often have little access to healthcare. Moreover, there is a high incidence of cataract among older populations and no facilities for children with special needs. 

 4. Education: Many communities don’t have access to quality education or basic school infrastructure.

 5. Agricultural challenges: Scarcity of water combined with the soil’s inability to retain water has made farming a challenge in several parts of rural India. Add to that, most agriculturists are small or marginal farmers. Farm mechanisation is often difficult due multiple reasons, prioritising subsistence farming among most of the population. 

6. Livelihoods: People in villages have little scope to pursue any other profession except farming, which is not especially profitable. As a result, youngsters in these villages are forced to leave home to seek menial daily wage labour in nearby cities and towns. 

 7. Mental poverty –  This is the lack of hope to live better, owing to generational poverty. Being isolated from opportunity makes one habituated to an underserved life.

 8. Migration: The above reasons contribute to a weak rural business ecosystem. This leads to youngsters migrating to neighbouring districts or cities such as Mumbai, Pune and Surat. 

Swades’ way of empowerment

Swades Foundation works in four main areas of development - Water and Sanitation, Health, Education and Livelihoods. This includes providing each home with access to a drinking water tap inside the house, an individual toilet, making primary healthcare accessible to the villagers, providing scholarships and faculties for school infrastructure, livelihood opportunities etc.

For this, Swades employs the 4E strategy - of Engage, Empower, Execute and Exit. Engage with the community, empower them to transform their lives, execute programs by working with local administration, corporates etc and finally exit - after passing the baton to the village community. 

Image: Republic World