People of old age are often looked at in pity in our society, but don’t let their helpless image passed around in society fool you. Powerful figures like Amla Ruia are rapidly changing the perception we have of the dada and dadis of India.

Amla Ruia’s Initiative

In order to tackle the drought season causing the government to have to transport water supplies to villages through trains and trucks, Ruia has initiated a dam-building project. The 71-year-old activist is helping improve an issue that affects over 300 million people. She works in one of the highly affected states of Rajasthan where she has built 200 damns in ten years alone! The initiative works by, “The trust works with local communities to find parts of the landscape that can capture water, like a reservoir. Instead of building man-made reservoirs from scratch, they use the natural contours of the hilly landscape, building slopes, and shoring up spaces, to catch and keep water in these semi-natural basins or check dams.” Additionally, “They are cost-effective, and unlike major dams and reservoirs, there is no mass displacement of people when they are built.”

Ruia and other elderly activists like her prove age really is just a number!