A HELPING HAND
Pankti Jog’s work can only be described as an essential service, especially in the times that we live in. She and her team at the Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel (MAGP) have helped train thousands of people in RTI (Right to Information) filing techniques across eight states, including Kashmir. Dipak Chauhan, a farmer in Punagam village in Bharuch district of south Gujarat, sums up the effort, “RTI is a weapon to get justice, not just for individuals but for society too.” Chauhan was not getting an electricity connection for his tubewell even months after applying it. He did a short training course in a workshop organised by Jog and then filed an RTI asking the state government for details on the connections released in his area. To his surprise, he found that many people who had applied after him had got their power connection. The case forced the state to frame new guidelines in allotment of power connections for irrigation. One of MAGP’s big successes was with the salt pan workers in the Rann of Kutch, along with another NGO, the Agaria Hitrakshak Manch (AHM). Due to their efforts, the Gujarat government has now provided solar panel-powered water extracting motors to 1,000 of the 6,000 families there, bringing them out of years of debt as they don’t have to spend on diesel anymore. The state has also provided 34 ‘education buses’, equipped with learning tools and a teacher to school the children. These buses come right to their doorstep deep inside the Rann.
With the MAGP’s help, the salt farmers took up the case of Narmada dam authorities releasing water into the little Rann of Kutch without notice. The overflowing water would destroy the salt pans and even the stored salt. In the end, they used RTI and forced the authorities to formulate a procedure under which the salt farmers now are informed a day in advance when the water is being released.
Pankti used to be a physical oceanography expert at the Indian Institute of Oceanography in Goa. The trigger for her leaving her job and taking up social work was the 2001 Kutch quake and the devastation it wreaked. She has not looked back since. Her helpline has attended to 600,000 calls in the past five years. She has taken out RTI yatras in eight states to enlighten citizens about their rights. Jog says, “My mission is empowering the people, getting them justice. It is more important than anything else.” ■
“MY MISSION IS EMPOWERING PEOPLE, GETTING THEM JUSTICE. IT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING”