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Fifteen years ago, in Doogaron Ka Tala village in Rajasthan’s Barmer district, for every ten boys, only one girl went to school.

In 1995, former sarpanch Kistura Ram called a meeting of village elders to discuss how to persuade the villagers to educate their daughters. They decided to issue a diktat making it compulsory for families to send their daughters to school.

Those who don’t fall in line risk not just a fine of Rs 1,000, but also excommunication from the village. Now, 15 years later, all girls in the village go to school.

Some girls have gone on to study in Barmer city and have completed their under-graduate courses.

Several girls have excelled at sports, too, and participated in national-level kabaddi and kho kho championships.

Goes to show how beneficial decisions taken and implemented at local levels can make a great impact.

In March, 2008, in Jhalawar, Rajasthan, after weeks of intense negotiation with the Kanjars, the police convinced 85 of them to surrender. Subsequently, 200 more surrendered.

Since then, the Jhalawar police have been working hard for the rehabilitation of the people of this denotified nomadic tribe, long associated with crime.

When the Jhalawar police got a reward of Rs. 38,000 for arresting 56 offenders, all of them Kanjars, they gave it to the relatives of those arrested, to be used for bail and lawyers' fees.

The police acted as liaison between the Kanjar and the district administration, to ensure the delivery of welfare schemes in Jhalawar’s Kanjar settlements. They helped them get jobs. They enrolled the Kanjar children in government schools.

Jhalawar SP Gaurav Srivastav says,“Although I will not say nobody has gone back to crime, close to 90 per cent have stayed away.”