Pic caption:
A spoonful of fun makes the water taste sweeter!
By Sekhar Seshan
Children's laughter and shouts of excitement ring out as a two girls play
on a seesaw in the Government Primary School at Bagdunda
village in Udaipur district, Rajasthan. There are two boys on a neighbouring seesaw, both pairs
competing to see which can jump faster.
A boy cups his hand to drink water at a tap nearby. Two girls wait for their
turn. The water is pumped to the tap from a borewell by the up-and-down
movement of the seesaws. A WOTR field worker thought out of the box to make the
boring, tiring chore of using a hand-pump. Now, instead of just pumping up
enough water to drink immediately, an overhead tank gets filled while the children
are having fun.
"They come even after school hours to play on the seesaws, making sure
that the tank stays filled all the time," says Gyanprakash Berwal, who
heads WOTR in Rajasthan. "They have also planted saplings. Each child
waters and takes care of one. The plant is labelled with her or his name, increasing
the sense of ownership and responsibility."
