ASBM Life Time Achievement Award – 2013
Ramon Magsaysay Award Winner
Dr. Rajendra Singh
Selected for
ASBM Life Time Achievement Award – 2013
This Award was conferred on him in 22nd August, 2014 at Bhubaneswar
Rajendra Singh after finishing his studies joined Nehru Yuva Kendra in 1982 as a National Service Volunteer at Jaipur. He was Project Officer under the youth education Programme of the Ministry of Education, Govt. of India till 1984. That was the year twenty-five years old Singh left his job and committed to rural development.By this time district Alwar of Rajasthan had been opened to miners and loggers, who decimated its forests and damaged its watershed. Its streams and rivers dried up, then its farms. Overwhelmed by these calamities, villagers abandoned their Johads (traditional water harvesting system). As men shifted to the cities for work, women spirited frail crops from dry grounds and walked several kilometers a day to find water. Thus was Alwar when Rajendra Singh first arrived in 1985. Initially, he worked with nomadic tribes and tried to understand issues in natural resources management in rural areas.
Guided by Gandhi’s teachings of local autonomy and self reliance, Singh has introduced community led institutions to each village, i.e. Gram Sabhas, Mahila Banks, River Parliament etc. He initiated an awareness campaign for Gram Swawlamban, which is organised every year during the summer months for forty days in different hundreds of villages. In this campaign discussion on Gram Swawlamban, soil conservation, improved seeds, collection of herbal medicine and shramdan (voluntary labour contribution) re the activities undertaken. The members of more than 1000 ‘Gram Sabha’ i.e. the village institutions, ‘Mahila Sangathans’ i.e. Women Groups and ‘Yuvak mandals’i. e. Youth Groups have individually and collectively discuss, decide and implement decision collectively taken by them.
The community development and impose self discipline for the common good of the village practicing true democracy in the management of water, forest, and natural resources. They are engaged in Water, Forest and Land conservation.
Singh coordinated all these activities to mesh with the villager’s traditional cycle of rituals. Meanwhile, with others he waged a long and ultimately successful campaign to persuade India’s Supreme Court to close hundreds of mines and quarries that were destroying the ecology of Sariska National Park.At present Rajendra Singh is focusing on “Save River Mission”. Rajendra Singh is a member of National River Ganga Basin Authority formed under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh Ji.
Rajendra Singh has formed a Ganga Jal Biradari in 11 state of the Ganga River Basin. He has organised a Yatra from Gomukh to Ganga Sagar to save river from pollution excess exploitation and encroachment in the Ganga Basin. He has motivated several volunteers to protect the Ganga and its tributaries. He believes in connecting people with Rivers instead of River linking. The Then President of India Mr. K. R. Narayanan flew down to felicitate the Gram Sabha of Bhavta – Kolayala village that is one of the earliest works of water conservation done by Rajendra Singh with the Down to Earth, Joseph C. John Award on March 28, 2000.
Shri Rajendra Singh, General Secretary of Tarun Bharat Sangh was the winner of the 2001 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership (Govt. of Philippines), which is among many other national and international awards received by him in appreciation of the exemplary contribution of Tarun Bharat Sangh under his leadership.
On 3rd November 2003, The Prince Charles of Britain also visited the water conservation works done under leadership of Rajendra Singh.