Gram Vikas: Toilets and Piped Water for Every Household, or None

Since 1979, Gram Vikas has organized villages across Odisha and Jharkhand around its MANTRA model: no household gets piped water or a toilet until the entire village opts in, forcing wealthy and marginalized families to cooperate as equals in construction and upkeep. The approach has reached more than 600,000 people across 1,700 villages, delivering household toilets and bathing rooms alongside gravity-fed, community-owned piped water systems. It has also helped over 54,000 families switch to biogas for cooking and supported regeneration of more than 10,000 hectares of degraded wasteland for farming, fuel and fodder. Independent evaluations link the program to sharp declines in waterborne disease and big gains in women's safety and school attendance.