Genesis Vikram Rathore has four acresof land on which he cultivates cotton.Some years ago he had grown paddy inone acre which started wilting because ofthe lack of rain. But he did not have eitheran electric motor or diesel engine forpumping water. So he asked his brotherfor his electrical motor to supply water tohis crops but his brother refused to giveit to him.

Since childhood, Vikram Rathore has beenrepairing punctures and dreaming aboutdifferent products and he put this technicalbent of mind to good use to overcomethis obstacle. He observed the mechanismof lifting water using an electrical motorin which one engine rotates the fan whichenables lifting of water. This gave him theidea of rotating the fan manually to seewhether water would come up or not. Hetried it and saw that some water wascoming up. Then he rotated the fan fastand observed that water was coming upwith greater pressure. Then he thoughtof using a cycle to pump the water, but hehad no cycle. At that time, his financialcondition was so strained that he had tosell the jowar in his house which had beenstored for food and buy an old cycle. Hehad seen some old gears lying in the

Cycle operated water-lifting pump47

CONSOLATION

Vikram Rathore (38) is a small tribal farmer from Narsapur village, Utnoor Mandal, Adilabad

in Andhra Pradesh. He belongs to the Banjara community which is a semi-nomadic community

which migrated from Rajasthan several hundred years ago. He earns his livelihood by repairing

cycles and other small machinery. He studied up to the 5th standard and then discontinued his

studies due to financial constraints. He had no children from his first wife and so married again and

now has five children.

compound of an oil mill and he requestedthe owner to give him these gears andbought some other parts from a wasteshop. He also bought a one HP motor andthen started working on his pump. Heattached his bicycle’s rear rim to the fanwith a rope and rotated the bicycles ringsfast and was able to pump a good amountof water from a stream to irrigate thepaddy.

The Innovation This is a centrifugal water pump which isrun by rotating the pedal of a cycle. Thesystem comprises a bicycle, rim, belt-pulley, impeller and inlet and deliverypipes. A bare rim replaces the rear wheelof the bicycle. The rim is connected toanother pulley with a smaller diameter.The supporting shaft of the smaller pulleycarries another rim for second stagespeed increment. The shaft also carries aflywheel to increase momentum of thesystem. The final supporting shaft isconnected with an impeller that rotatesat high speed and pumps water. The power(energy) generated through this processof pedaling is used to lift the water andpush the water from a pipe into the farmfor cultivation. This innovation is useful

AddressAt Jaitram TandaP.O.Narsapur MandalOotnoor, Via IndravelliAdilabad - 504346Andhra Pradesh

third national technological innovations & traditional knowledge awards 123 (Annexure I, 47)47

for pumping water from rivers, ponds, wells and similarwater sources thus enabling poor farmers for pumpingwater for irrigation and cultivation.

AdvantagesThe conventional centrifugal pump needs eitherelectricity or diesel engine, but the present innovationworks on pedaling. This is a non-polluting andenvironment friendly device. Since it is made ofcommonly available materials and costs Rs.3000 it isaffordable to common people. It requires lessmaintenance and minimum input energy is required toget the maximum output of water. This device can betransported easily from one place to another. The systemcan also be used in a flour mill.

RecognitionAdilabad district, from which Vikram Rathore hails, is adrought prone region with hardly 20” rainfall and thattoo unevenly distributed. So this device has greatrelevance in the region and the people in his villagestarted believing him on observing the functioning ofthe device. At about that time the ITDA project officerof Utnoor got to know about this innovation and onseeing a demonstration of this pump, he was veryimpressed. ITDA supported Vikram financially toimprove his design and with this support he boughtsome more cycle rings and designed a new model withwhich he was able to lift the same amount of waterwhich a 3HP electrical motor could lift.

A bitter experience…but undeterredHis innovation had attracted a lot of attention and someyears ago, a few people came from Hyderabadpromising him a big reward. They took him with themand kept him in a house for six –seven days and didnot even feed him properly. He somehow managed toescape and came back to his village. Meanwhilesomebody advised him to file a patent for his pumpbefore doing anything further. He went to the collectorMr. Sukumar who wrote to the higher authorities inHyderabad to help him with patenting but unfortunatelynothing happened. The innovation that he has made

somehow remained localized and did not diffuse despitetremendous interest among the people because he wasnot sure whether he would get credit unless he got thepatenting done. NIF has now filed a patent for theinnovation (371/CHE/2004, 23.04.04).

The various obstacles he faced did not deter him frompursuing his spirit of innovation. He has subsequentlydeveloped a manual flour mill which is operated throughcycle pedal rotation. The flour mill does not requirepower or any other resources. It is efficient and grindsone kilogram of grains into powder in approximatelyfive-six minutes. A man of great imagination anddetermination, currently he has got an idea to generateelectricity using a cycle and promises that if he is givenfinancial support, he could generate sufficient electricalpower to supply to his whole village. An admirableexample of the innovative spirit that flourishes in theremote rural regions where one person’s creativity canbecome the basis for improving livelihood andgenerating jobs.

124 Vikram Rathore Cycle operated water-lifting pump