Raju Narayanan

Kovalamkuppam, tucked away from the East Coast Road that connects Chennai to Pondicherry, has become one of the first villages in post-Independence India to implement rainwater harvesting in the whole village. It had been years since Raju Narayanan, founder of Coastal and Rural Development Trust (CRDT), showed an active interest in rainwater harvesting (RWH) but never got the support from agencies specialised in managing water resource. A notification by the State government finally woke up the villagers.

They are now willing to listen to Narayanan. Where village welfare is concerned, these fishermen sink their differences and work together for the overall good of everyone. The village has done a lot. Long before the State government launched its scheme of rotating loans from a corpus fund to be managed by women, Kovalam had its own scheme going. Such and many other villagers who may be illiterate but understand the significance of community initiatives when it comes to the availability of basics are the true heroes of a changing India.