44 year-old Abhay Todkar runs a LPG company which serves over 26,000 people in and around his hometown of Dahiwadi, located in Satara district, Maharashtra. A graduate in commerce and a diploma in education, Todkar was infected with the polio virus as an infant which left him with a 65% disability in his leg. That however, has not stopped him from being a vital part of water conservation efforts in over 60 villages in the state.
“After getting my diploma in education (D.Ed), I wanted to join as a primary school teacher. But a court ruling put a pause to all teacher appointments so I couldn’t join. Instead of sitting at home I decided I should do something and started a wholesale business.” He started by travelling to various villages and towns around Dahiwadi using state transport buses. Carrying bags full of goods on his head to sell them to vendors, he made a name for himself and contacts across the region. “My parents and my wife supported me a lot during this time. Even though there was not a lot of money, the support meant everything to me,” he added.
Todkar said it was sheer luck that helped him become a gas company owner. He applied for an advertisement he saw in a newspaper for an agency of Hindustan Petroleum, and his name was selected through a lucky draw. “When God takes away something from you, he also gives you a drive that makes you want to achieve something. That drive was always there in me,” he says.
However, things did not go smoothly from the get-go. “I got into a very negative mental phase and used to have a lot of fights at home and at work. Before I got the agency I was even suicidal for a bit,” says Todkar who then found himself looking for ways to overcome the low and depressive phase. “I took up a course by The Art of Living which helped me find inner peace. It also helped me get into the social work of water conservation,” said Todkar. His team from the organisation helped people organise and build one of the largest people-made dams on the Manganga river in Dahiwadi in 2015-16, he says. In the following years the team also collaborated with the Paani Foundation, going village-to-village to create awareness about water conservation.
Todkar talks about the concept of ‘shramdaan’ or donation of labour, and the hurdles he faced while doing water conservation in villages. About a village called Pingali-Khurd he said, “It was very difficult to get people together to work for a common social cause. We tried very hard but could not bring the village community together.” This led him to use a unique approach where he took along students from a school for disabled kids to the village for a rally promoting the initiative. “When the villagers saw that disabled children were doing ‘shramdaan’, they thought that even they should. This led to everyone coming together and making great efforts for water conservation in the village. Today the village is self-sufficient in water and even supplies water to other villages” he added.
His team has also received funds from corporate social responsibility initiatives, helping it provide training to over 60 villages in water conservation, ancillary businesses, dairy farming, goat rearing, chicken rearing and chemical-free farming.
Today Todkar, who despite his restricted mobility, runs around villages through the state, is now a source of inspiration to thousands challenging them to chase their dreams and make a difference.
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