When a Village Learned to Walk Together

It began with a clay pot. 

Jeevaram Charagra bought it with his own money and placed it at a Bhil shopkeeper’s stall. In the nana village of Rajasthan, even drinking water was divided by caste. Bhils and Garasiyas never touched the same vessel. The Garasiyas would consider themselves as the upper caste and would not sit with the Bhils. Initiating a change in the customs, Jeevaram put a clay pot in a shop, visible to everybody. The pot would be filled every day, for anyone - Bhil, Garasiya, man, woman, to drink from. At first people hesitated. But slowly, one after another, they bent down to cup their hands under the same stream of water.

That act was not just about thirst. It was about dignity. And for Jeevaram, it became the first crack in a wall that had stood for generations. 

Jeevaram wanted this change to last longer. He wanted people to initiate changes from their own. He had once been a part of a training on Constitution with We, The People Abhiyan in collaboration with Astha Sansthan. There, he realised that the key ingredient to bind people together. “Earlier, I was working without a base,” he admits. “I realized the foundation has to be values. If people are bound by constitutional values - equality, fraternity, dignity - the impact lasts”. 

This realization helped him in planting his next steps. He wanted people to be connected in such a way that even after one issue was resolved, they would not scatter, but remain bound together.  As a result, after the water pot, he turned to meals to tackle the discrimination. Since he was working there on a project, he was familiar to people and they trusted him. On any given day, he would encourage inter-dining between the communities. Bhils and Garasiyas would sit together, sharing food and eating together. It began as a change, but soon became a habit. 

This push for fraternity grew bigger in 2016. Jeevaram introduced Ganesh Chaturthi as a collective festival for the first time to inculcate the feeling of fraternity within people. With no funds, he brought together young people, who formed a committee and raised over ₹40,000 themselves. He supported them and initiated the management to the youth.The festival was a success. On the day of visarjan, the entire village gathered. Bhils, Garasiyas, children, elders, everyone danced, prayed and ate together in the procession. What had started with a clay pot ended with the sight of an entire village moving as one. 

Today, Jeevaram is working as a fellow with Astha Sansthan, ensuring the livelihood of communities through NREGA. Till now, he has helped more than 1,051 families secure over 100 days of work. However, for him, his work goes beyond livelihood - it is about dignity and equality. It is about ensuring that along with livelihoods, communities also gain the strength to shape their own future. Coming from a remote tribal village in Rajasthan’s Pali district, where he had no access to electricity, teachers, or clean water, he was able to finish his graduation only when his father shifted the family to Nana, a nearby town. Having received education through these struggles, he believes that unless children learn in better surroundings, the old patterns of inequality will continue. “When families earn,” he says, “children can go to school, they can get healthcare. Otherwise, the cycle of poverty never ends.”

This realization has also become the compass for his next step: forming Aravalli Vikas Sansthan, an organization rooted in values that can bind communities through every challenge. Jeevaram dreams of building something that will stand by people, no matter what obstacles arise. His stubbornness, his refusal to stay silent, his constant search for new ways to confront problems, and his tireless struggle have been the thread running through his journey. And he knows that thread will not break.

He says it simply: “I am still learning. But I will not stop.”

The above story has been written and published with the explicit consent of the individual involved. All facts presented are based on WTPA's direct interaction with the individual, ensuring accuracy and integrity in our reporting.