There are 3,425 GVP -many of whom, women- across over 5,000 villages in Karnataka. Average collections have gone up 30% and service quality for consumers has got better. Power theft and bill default have practically disappeared. Villagers don’t have to travel to a nearby town and waste all day to pay their bills - these are collected at their door-steps.

With bonuses and incentives, a GVP can expect to earn Rs 4,500 per month, which is a considerable income in villages.

You can read the full story told at length in the April 24, 2000 issue of Outlook Magazine.

The CEx admits only young Adivasis and Dalits. Over 5 months, they are tutored in communication, IT and management skills, and are also helped with personality development. They are paid Rs 2,000 per month as stipend. The idea is to make them better able to compete with young people from more privileged backgrounds.

The initiative seems to be paying off. Of the 208 alumni to date, 35% have moved on to greater opportunities in jobs or education at IIMs and IITs. Could this be a better approach than the dishonestly implemented quota system?

Yet in 2000, it was a mere sewage. Villages and towns had been dumping their waste and a railway factory in Kapurthala, its effluents. Weeds and debris made it a cesspool. That’s when Sancherwal jumped in for a different kind of dip: to awaken the people. He began cleaning it single handedly until his example and narrations of history, drew hundreds of followers to the task.

Today, the river’s banks have been raised, inflows of waste, plugged, the river-bed desilted and flowering plants alid along its length. Kali Bein is clear and - flows! UNI reports that, in the next few months President Kalam is to visit the river to honour Sant Sancherwal.