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August 2008 Edition

Rita and Umesh Anand
New Delhi 

The development sector lost one of its most sincere and hardworking leaders when Anil Rana, director of the Janhit Foundation, Meerut, passed away on Friday, July 18. The end came suddenly. Anil died of brain hemorrhage at the young age of  47. He was a friend of ours and a supporter of this magazine canvassing all the time for subscribers. But more importantly he was a man we admired greatly for his vision, his commitment to action and his amazing ability to be self-effacing despite his many achievements.  Anil was a true change leader, championing the cause of poor people and their environment. His death is a loss to the nation. His absence will be felt not only by his family but also by all those who worked with him and knew him.

When Civil Society did a cover story on his work with farmers and visited the villages every farmer we met was deeply grateful to Anil and Janhit for their help. “Without him, we and our farms would have surely perished” they said. His vision was to turn Meerut into an organic district in the next five years. For his work in organic agriculture, he was recently conferred the prestigious One World Award. Janhit was selected as one of five finalist organisations in the world which have constantly contributed towards nature conservation, biodiversity conservation, organic agriculture and activities which have brought change in the lives of the community economically and socially. Anil had been busy the past few months preparing a policy on groundwater for Uttar Pradesh (UP). On Sunday, July 13, Janhit had organised a meeting in Meerut to discuss the policy threadbare with government officials, activists, local people, journalists and lawyers. In his characteristic inclusive manner, Anil had involved all stakeholders.

Anil was born on May 20, 1961. He came from an academic family. He too became a lecturer in English teaching at  Kurukshetra University in Haryana. He had studied at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and enrolled for a PhD there. In 1998, Anil left his university job and founded the Janhit Foundation, swapping the easy-paced life of a lecturer for the uncertainties of being an activist. He was keen to revive the lost environment of western UP. In a region once crisscrossed by rivers, people were scrounging for clean , drinking water. The water table was falling dangerously. 

Every river and channel was filled with dirty water polluted with industrial effluents, chemicals from farming and sewage. People were recklessly tapping into groundwater. Farmers, who once practised natural farming, were poisoning their fields with chemical fertilisers and pesticides and producing food at such  great expense that it was driving them into debt. Chemical farming was also harming public health.

Anil realised it was of utmost importance to restore the water table. But for this to happen he needed to influence a diverse range of people who had little in common with each other but were all responsible for the mess: industry, farmers, the government, ordinary citizens. He put together a team of young people and worked day and night. First, Janhit found out what the ground realities were. Under him thorough research was done on the exact nature of pollution, its impact on people and what could be done. All research was action oriented. Janhit’s reports on pollution of rivers like the Hindon, Kali and the surrounding groundwater are rich with scientific and social detail. 

Each chemical was identified, the source of contamination traced and its effect on  health investigated by door to door surveys. This is how Anil discovered  that village after village in Western UP had people suffering from cancers. Anil did not confine himself to UP but also studied Malsinghwala in Punjab’s Mansa district where in desperation people had put up their villages for sale. Pesticides, salt and heavy metals had wrecked the soil and groundwater of these villages. Villagers were deep in debt because of crop failure and many were dying of cancers and other illnesses. It was Anil who came forward to help them.He treated every poor person’s problem as his own. 

Anil’s research was not merely academic as research often is.  After finding out the reason for the sufferings of people he and his team went about taking corrective steps. They would  create awareness, prescribe what should be done and lobby for change. Anil was a soft spoken person, yet he was a leader. He left an impression on those who met him and influenced people with his ideas. Most of all, he was an implementer. Work was always carried out on deadline in a thorough manner. He looked into every detail of each project he undertook.

In just 10 years the Janhit Foundation has an impressive list of achievements to its credit. Anil set up UP’s first Rain Centre at Meerut to educate people about the benefits of rain water harvesting.  The centre provides every little detail from construction to maintenance of such systems. He emphasised restoration of  Western UP’s historic water tanks, some tracing their history back to the Ramayana and Mahabharata. He tried his best to persuade industry to stop causing pollution and when factory owners did not listen he took the matter to the High Court in Allahabad.   Janhit’s significant achievement is that it got factories of the DCM Shriram Group at Daurala, 14 km from Meerut,  to stop putting their effluents into the Kali river. Janhit did research and published a pamphlet “Daurala Hell on Earth’. It lobbied with Members of Parliament and the Supreme Court’s Committee on Waste Management. It created awareness among the people of Daurala, led protests and finally got the company to commit itself to a clean- up programme.

Anil was given an Appreciation Certificate by Water Aid and by the UP government for his efforts towards water conservation. Anil pioneered organic farming in Western UP. He got 100 farmers deep in debt to shake off their inertia and begin farming naturally. He helped them at every step with training, seeds, soil rejuvenation, crops and certification. Realising that farmers would worry about not being able to sell their organic produce or get the right price, he even set up Meerut’s first ever organic retail outlet  called Organic Aaharam where organic produce could be sold directly to urban consumers and farmers could earn more. With his death, India has lost a true agent of change.

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