Zafar Iqbal / Jaipur

Religion is the best way to motivate the general masses to work for a change.

Saroj Khan of Jaipur, Rajasthan, is effectively using this basic common knowledge for her mission of spreading awareness on water conservation among the Muslims in the desert state located in western India.

Saroj motivates people of her community by using references from Quran and Hadith. She refers to the practices shown by Prophet Mohammad towards the conservation of water.

Saroj Khan says Muslims must see how the Prophet didn’t waste water even while doing ablations before saying mandatory prayers. While explaining to people, she narrates the Hadith about an occasion when Saad bin Abi Waqqas was doing Wuzuh (body cleansing before prayers) and Prophet Mohammad noticed that he was wasting a lot of water.

He told Saad that he should never waste water even while doing wazuh in a flowing river.

Saroj Khan says that the importance of water in Muslims consciousness can be gauged from the fact that it is mentioned 58 times in the Quran.

Save water campaign

Using these references from the Quran and Hadith, Saroj Khan is mobilizing the people in Jaipur and surrounding areas to join her efforts of water conservation.

Saroj Khan has trained a group of 150 women, who go in small groups from door to door to tell the people about the common and simple ways to conserve water. They even show people who the water used in wazuh can be reused.

Her organisation 'Center for Human Rights and Social Welfare,' also approached Muslim congregations for conveying the message.

Salman Khan, the coordinator of the organization, said that we go to mosques and tell people to reuse the water used during wuzuh. Due to their efforts, many mosques have started re-suing the waters used by the devotees for cleansing body parts before the prayers.

Salman Khan says  water conservation is of utmost importance for people living in the water scarcity region.

Saroj Khan, who has been into her mission for almost two decades, belongs to Jhunjhunu district of Shekhawati, a desert region of Rajasthan where water scarcity is a way of life. Her parents passed away soon and she was raised by her brother who was serving in the Indian Army.

Jhunjhunu is considered to be the leading district in women's education. This was the reason that even after the parents left the world, Saroj Khan studied up to her masters.

Saroj Khan

Sarooj Khan with her team

She preferred to make a career in social work with the aim of spreading amity and empowering the weaker sections, especially women and children.

Her organization also works in the field of informal education of children, reproductive health of women, self-help groups, village development committees, famine relief management, Dalit rights and comprehensive human rights, understanding and trying institution management and networks and advocacy.

In view of her excellent services in this field, his organization was awarded the National Communal Harmony Award in the year 2009.

The Center for Human Rights and Social Welfare has been striving to achieve a "healthy and happy society" since the beginning. The organization is always trying to help the poor and weaker sections of society to get their rights. Equality, justice, harmony, peace and brotherhood are the guidelines of the institution.

The organization has also been organizing training programs for women's empowerment and leadership. The organization has given leadership training to 125 women under the 'Nai Roshni' scheme for women leadership development under the Ministry of Minority Government of India. This organization is currently running a campaign to save water and the environment.