Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

His mission – to make Swaccha Saragur by encouraging segregation of wet and dry waste at the household level. A plan for managing it long term both scientifically and sustainably.

He knows changing the mindset of people is not easy when it comes to managing their own waste. It calls for a different approach. People look at a differently abled person with a lot of curiosity. It gives me an opportunity to convey a message that is often ignored.

When he was young, he fell from the stairs while playing with his brother and soon started having seizure attacks. His parents took him to different temples, yet the problem persisted and later affected the entire right side of his body. His right arm and leg forever caught in a tight muscle contraction. He grew up with a conviction not to depend on others, often doing odd jobs.

He’d sell lottery tickets, unwantingly earning himself a title of ‘Lottery Bhadra’. But he wanted to reclaim his identity, the identity his parents gave him, the identity others just couldn’t see. All that was needed was a disruption in his story. SVYM approached Veerabhadra through its Program for Specially Abled Persons, offering him a proposal to apply

for Swacchta Saarthi Fellowship for Govt.’s Waste to Wealth Mission & lead the campaign of household level waste segregation in his Saragur Town in Mysuru District. By fate or by design, Veerabhadra saw it as a chance to redeem his identity.

SVYM has engaged with the local community in Saragur and neighbouring areas for WASH related interventions for nearly a decade. Role models like Veerbhadra are agents of sustainable change to encourage community taking ownership of development.

Our approach of building the human & social capital serves in making development an organic process that is directed from within – facilitating sustainability by being contextually relevant & culturally appropriate.