When the monsoon takes a “U-turn” by September, life in Rajasthan’s desert can quickly become a struggle for water, fodder and livelihoods. In villages where settlements may be 20 to 30 kilometres apart, even reaching basic health and education services can be difficult. It is in this challenging landscape that Ramesh Saran, Secretary of URMUL Trust, has spent years working with communities to strengthen livelihoods, education, healthcare and access to opportunities.
For Ramesh Saran, development in the desert cannot be separated from the realities of geography. URMUL works across the border districts of Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Barmer and Ganganagar, where rainfall is scarce. Ramesh Saran points out that the entire year’s rainfall in the desert is equivalent to only 20 to 25 days of rain in Central India. Agriculture therefore remains heavily dependent on the short monsoon, while livestock becomes an important source of livelihood.
Working With the System, Not Around It
URMUL’s approach has its roots in the dairy movement of the 1970s. The organisation’s origins are linked to the “White Flood” milk movement and Uttari Rajasthan Milk Union Limited. While the dairy union focused on milk production, the Trust was established in 1987 to work with the people behind that production.
Over time, this evolved into a broader model of community development. Rather than creating parallel systems, URMUL has chosen to work within existing government structures, believing that the state remains ultimately accountable for delivering essential services.
While speaking to The Logical Indian, Ramesh Saran explained the importance of this approach. URMUL has worked closely with government officials, with its advisory board having included the District Collector and Chief Health and Medical Officer. At the same time, collaboration has not meant avoiding confrontation when communities need support. The Trust has been involved in Public Interest Litigations related to malaria and participated in movements such as the Right to Food alongside activists including Aruna Roy.
This balance between cooperation and advocacy has remained central to the organisation’s work.
When Fodder Becomes a Question of Survival
The desert’s environmental challenges shape almost every aspect of life. With agriculture vulnerable to an uncertain monsoon, families often depend on cows, sheep, goats and camels. When fodder becomes scarce, communities may migrate in search of water and employment.
Ramesh Saran highlights an irony in how agricultural waste is viewed across different parts of India. The “parali”, or crop stubble, that becomes part of pollution debates in Delhi can be a vital survival resource for cattle in Rajasthan’s desert.
The scattered nature of settlements adds another layer to the challenge. With villages often separated by long distances, delivering health, education and other basic services becomes difficult. URMUL’s work has consequently focused not only on access, but also on finding ways for communities to build sustainable livelihoods closer to home.
Turning Traditional Skills Into Livelihoods
One of the Trust’s key interventions has been to support traditional skills and connect them with markets.
URMUL has worked to revive and strengthen crafts such as Sindhi embroidery, a tradition brought by refugees after 1971, along with hand-spinning and weaving. Instead of treating artisans simply as beneficiaries, the organisation helped establish 10 to 12 for-profit offshoots, including Rangsutra, which are owned and managed by the artisans themselves.
Together, these enterprises have a collective annual turnover of roughly Rs 20 crore and supply major buyers including IKEA.
For Ramesh Saran, his own professional background unexpectedly became useful in this work. He came from a Chartered Accountancy background, and his family was initially shocked when he chose social work. As he recalls, they believed that “you didn’t need a degree to walk around villages”.
But his financial training eventually helped him understand and develop market-oriented value chains for artisans. His experience illustrates a larger principle behind URMUL’s work: social development and economic opportunity do not have to operate separately.
The same approach can be seen in the Trust’s work with camel herders. URMUL helped commercialise camel milk and develop products such as camel milk soaps and cookies, creating additional livelihood opportunities for communities dependent on camels.
Bringing Girls Back Into Education
Education is another major area of focus, particularly for girls who have been pushed out of school.
URMUL works with girls and young women between the ages of 14 and 29 who left education because of child marriage or migration. In recent years, around 10,000 girls have been brought back into the mainstream.
The objective goes beyond simply returning them to a classroom. The focus is on helping them complete Classes 10 and 12, qualifications that can open pathways to government employment, including roles such as Patwari and health workers.
In conversation with The Logical Indian, Ramesh Saran also spoke about the importance of giving rural young people access to opportunities that are often concentrated in larger cities.
From a Desert Village to the Army
URMUL’s work with young people also extends to sports, physical training and preparation for the armed forces.
The Bhairon Singh Academy was established in the village of Bhairon Singh, the BSF soldier whose story was portrayed in the film Border. The academy provides young people with physical and academic training for the army as well as sports opportunities.
Its results have offered a glimpse of what such opportunities can mean for rural youth. In one recent batch, 11 students were selected as Agniveers.
For URMUL, such interventions are part of a larger effort to ensure that a young person’s location does not determine the opportunities available to them.
Supporting Women at Their Breaking Point
Women’s rights and safety form another part of the Trust’s work.
URMUL provides legal and social counselling at police stations to support women facing atrocities. Ramesh Saran recognises that reaching a police station can itself represent a significant moment for a woman, because by then she has often reached a breaking point.
The intervention therefore attempts to provide support at a moment when women may need both legal guidance and social assistance to navigate what comes next.
Carrying Forward a Community-First Philosophy
The philosophy behind URMUL’s work can be traced to its founder, Sanjoy Ghose, an IRMA graduate from its first batch. Ghose pioneered the idea of community-owned development and built a philosophy around putting communities at the centre of development.
His life came to a tragic end after he disappeared in Assam in 1997 following a conflict with the ULFA. Yet the principles he brought to URMUL continue to influence the organisation’s approach.
For Ramesh Saran, this community-first thinking also provides a practical framework. Instead of creating solutions that communities remain dependent on, URMUL has sought to build enterprises, skills and systems that communities can own and sustain.
Looking Beyond Access
The next phase of URMUL’s work is focused on making these opportunities more sustainable and equitable.
One of its targets for the next five to 10 years is to create employment for 10,000 young people through farm and off-farm value chains. Water is another priority, but the focus is shifting from simply ensuring access through pipes and tanks to improving drinking water quality. Poor-quality water can create significant health costs for families, making quality as important as availability.
Digital access is also emerging as an important part of the Trust’s vision. URMUL wants to introduce smart schools, digital libraries and digital literacy in remote border villages, with the larger aim of narrowing the urban-rural divide.
The underlying question is straightforward: why should a child in Bikaner have fewer educational and digital facilities than a child in Jaipur or Delhi?
For Ramesh Saran and URMUL, the answer lies not in bringing temporary solutions to the desert, but in building systems that allow communities to create their own opportunities.
The Logical Indian Perspectives
Ramesh Saran’s journey with URMUL reflects a model of social development that places communities at the centre of decision-making and economic opportunity. From supporting traditional artisans and camel herders to bringing girls back into education and preparing rural youth for the armed forces, the Trust’s work addresses challenges that are closely linked to the realities of desert life.
What stands out is the emphasis on building sustainable systems rather than treating communities only as recipients of support. Artisan-owned enterprises, education pathways, engagement with government institutions and efforts to improve water and digital access all point towards the same goal: enabling people in remote regions to have greater control over their livelihoods and futures.
In a landscape where distance, water scarcity and migration can shape everyday choices, URMUL’s work offers an important reminder that meaningful development begins by understanding the community, its environment and the resources it already possesses.
Can community-led solutions be the key to creating lasting change in India’s rural communities? What do you think?
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