How Four Women Sparked Change in Rajasthan’s Remote Ghatol Villages

In the hilly villages of Ghatol block, Banswara district, Rajasthan, four women have become the primary link between state welfare schemes and the communities those schemes were designed to reach. The article profiles Indra Devi of Goj Rathore, Meera Devi of Jajor Kanta, Taku Devi of Kanela, and Mani Devi of Jethalia, most working through the non-government organisation Vaagdhara, and documents how they have filled the gap left by absent or inaccessible institutional extension services and gender-sensitive interventions.

Indra, a farmer working drought-prone land, learned about the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (a scheme that seeks to improve irrigation and on-farm water efficiency) through Vaagdhara, then spent years taking families through the scheme’s bureaucratic requirements herself. This includes collecting forms from government offices, explaining eligibility, linking Aadhaar cards to mobile phones, coordinating with banks and helping families register for the scheme. Over 250 families in and around Goj Rathore have accessed the scheme through her. Meera, who never attended school, taught herself to navigate the documentation process for the Palanhar scheme (which provides financial support to orphaned and destitute children in Rajasthan) and now goes door to door helping other families access state support. Taku conserves and distributes indigenous seed varieties across Kanela, and shares that knowledge with women, encouraging the adoption of traditional farming practices and biodiversity preservation. Mani, an Anganwadi worker in Jethalia, is an advocate against child marriage. She also works to provide nutritional security to women in her village.

This is a case of women farmers becoming the implementation infrastructure of agricultural and welfare policy in regions where formal extension services do not reach. It’s significant that despite their radical interventions, their work remains largely uncompensated.