Since the early 1970s, Gram Vikas has been working on improving education, sources of income, health and living conditions of local communities in Odisha.

In 2004, Gram Vikas initiated its flagship Water and Sanitation Programme – MANTRA (Movement and Network for the Transformation of Rural Areas). Most rural communities have poor access to clean water and sanitation facilities. This makes them more prone to diseases. Thus, they remain unwell, demoralized and are unable to come out of poverty. This programme aims to break this cycle, which is also the root cause of poverty in rural populations in India.

Through this programme, Gram Vikas has empowered communities by mobilizing, educating and training them on how to construct, manage and maintain their own sanitation facilities.

As part of the programme, community members pool resources to construct identical toilets and bathrooms for each household. These toilets and bathrooms are, in turn, provided with clean, piped water from a community-constructed water tank.

Sunlit Future designed and installed an off-grid, self-sustaining solar pumping solution in the respective villages to supply water to the community-constructed water tanks and trained Gram Vikas staff to perform necessary maintenance.

Till date, Sunlit Future has installed more than a hundred pumps for Gram Vikas, which have benefitted the lives of around 50,000 people. Through this partnership with Gram Vikas, Sunlit Future is helping rural communities lead a healthy and hygienic life. This work is aligned with the goals of the Swachh Bharat Mission to make India open defecation free by 2 October, 2019.