PRAYAGRAJ, Feb. 28 -- In the dusty lanes of Jasra village, around 20 kilometres from Prayagraj in the district's trans-Yamuna region, a quiet transformation is taking shape-driven by women who are bottling sacred water. At the centre of this transformation is 51-year-old Namita Singh, Block Mission Manager under the National Rural Livelihood Mission.

A postgraduate in Economics, Singh has spent years working at the grassroots, equipping rural women with skills that may seem simple in concept but are powerful in impact-packaging, branding and building market linkages.

Five years ago, she helped form the "Nari Shakti Mahila Prerna Sankul," a self-help group (SHG) dedicated to packaging water from the sacred Sangam-the confluence of the Ga...