Geetanjali Krishna: A cleansing act of self-sacrifice

The season of giving is a good time to think about what philanthropy really means. Think charity, and it's usually the rich and famous who come to mind. But recently, I had the privilege of talking to Manorani Yadav, a daily wage-earning widow from Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, who showed me what it took to understand what it really meant to give.

Manorani Yadav lives in a tiny village in Bahraich. Her village used to have little by way of infrastructural conveniences - no roads, few avenues of employment and, until December, not even a single toilet. Things are pretty much the same, except for one big change, thanks to Yadav's intervention. "I was working in my field where we grow vegetables for home consumption. Suddenly, in the distance, I saw some officials. There's not much new that happens in our village, so I went to find out what they were doing," she recounted. The officials were talking about constructing some public toilets in the village. "I, with other women in my village, used to go to the jungle half-a-kilometre away from the village to relieve ourselves. We would brave any kind of weather to walk far away to avoid glances," she said. "Over the years, the women had learnt to wait till dusk to answer nature's call! Often, I used to wonder what I would do when I became old to cover such a long distance," Yadav said.

As she listened to the officials, she realised that although they had had some funds sanctioned, they were unable to find land suitable for the purpose."I realised that having toilets in the village would significantly improve the quality of our lives. What a shame it would be if the officials couldn't get the toilets made because nobody was willing to give their land for construction. So, I told the officials if they found my little piece of land suitable, they could use it," she said.

This was a huge sacrifice for the widow, who supports her eight children (six girls and two boys) by earning Rs 30 as a daily wage labourer. "I can only afford to send my sons to school. My daughters, like me, are illiterate. Five of my girls are unmarried and I face the prospect of completing all my duties single-handedly," she said. Yet, she never had second thoughts about donating her land. "All I could think of were the good consequences it would have," she added.

The public toilet complex in Yadav's village was officially inaugurated on December 15. "Today, every woman in my village uses the new latrines and is no longer compelled to relieve herself in the open," said Yadav.

The story of Yadav's generosity caught the attention of several people. Sulabh International, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) doing seminal work in the field of sanitation, was so impressed by her generosity and her enlightened efforts to promote the use of toilets in her village, it appointed her its brand ambassador for the region to propagate sanitation awareness. The NGO has also awarded Yadav a Rs 200,000 cash prize, as well as a monthly gratuity of Rs 10,000 in recognition of her crusade against open defecation. The founder of the NGO, Bindeshwar Pathak, said in his citation, "She has set an example worth emulating."

He is right. For it shows while the poor, illiterate widow from Bahraich may not have a lot of material wealth, the vastness of her heart can put the world's biggest philanthropists to shame.