During the 1970s UNICEF became a key partner with the Government of India in the world’s largest rural water supply program owing to a series of droughts in India. On request from the Government of India, UNICEF brought 125 hammer rigs, along with trucks and spare parts. Each of these rigs could drill about 100 boreholes a year, theoretically supplying water to 12,000 villages and about 9 million people. The Government supplied the hand pumps. However, a problem arose. Most of the hand pumps in India at that time were poor-quality cast-iron replicas of European and American models that had usually been designed for family use. The hand pumps, designed for single family use, were not up to the wear and tear of use by a community of 500 or more people. Not surprisingly, the pumps frequently broke down. What India needed was a strong, locally manufactured hand pump which could be easily maintained.

This need led to the development of the India Mark II, now the world’s most famous hand pump. UNICEF worked with the Government’s Mechanical Engineering Research and Development Organization and Richardson and Cruddas, a Government-owned engineering company, to develop the India Mark II. But the story really began in Maharashtra where the Sholapur Pump was already in use. They modified this for easier mass production and maintenance and renamed it the India Mark II.

With exports to other countries in Asia, as well as to Africa and Latin America, the India Mark II was well on its way to becoming the best-known deep-well hand pump in the world. Meanwhile, development has continued and a more user-friendly Village Level Operation and Maintenance India Mark III Deep Well Hand Pump has been developed.

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UNDP/World Bank declares it the best      
     
Under the Hand pump project of the UNDP/World Bank, a consumer's testing laboratory in the United Kingdom conducted extensive trials in the early 1980s of twelve different deep well Hand pumps from all over the world, including France, Holland, Canada, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America and India. The pump, India Mark II, was concluded the best for community water supply.

 
   

Bureau of Indian Standards

Mahabir India Mark II pumps are manufactured as per standards laid under the IS 15500 – 2004 (Bureau
of Indian Standards), covering hand  pumps for lifting water from wells of depth of 20 meters  to 50 meters.

Above 50 meters, the efforts put in     for pumping may not give adequate results in terms of discharge of  water and therefore extra deep well
hand pump are recommended.

The main sub-assemblies for the India Mark II hand pumps are as follows:

• Pump Assembly

It consists of head with handle assembly, water tank assembly and stand assembly.

Head with Handle Assembly

Conversion Head: Side plate, back plate, front end top and bottom end plates are made from 4 mm thick MS plates. Bottom flange is made from 6 mm thick MS plates. Handle is machined from 32 mm Square MS bar. Length of Handle is nearly 1170 mm.
 

Water Tank Assembly

Top and bottom flanges are made from 6 mm thick MS plates. Pipe holder is made from solid bars to hold 32 mm Riser Pipes.

Stand Assembly
The Stand flange is made from 6 mm thick MS Plate. The pipe used is 150 mm medium 'B' Class pipe. The angles are 40 x 40 x 6 mm.

• Cylinder Assembly

It is made of 63.5 mm I.D. Cast-Iron cylinder with brass liner and cast iron caps of 32 mm thread with two nitrite rubber cup washer (leather) and Plunger rod are as per IS 9301 - 1984. The lower and upper valve assemblies are made out of gun metal chiefly of lead, tin and bronze.

• Connecting Rods

This connects the Pump assembly with the cylinder assembly.
The diameter is 12 mm and the length is 3 meters. It is made of Mild Steel or Stainless Steel. For corrosive waters it is recommended that Stainless Steel connecting rods be used.

The number of rods required is proportionate to the depth of the water. For instance, for a depth of 30 meters, 10 connecting rods of 3 meter length would be required. 

• Riser Pipes (32mm NB)

It is of 32 mm nominal bore galvanized iron pipes of medium class of 3 meters length. PVC Pipes are also available.

The number of riser pipes required is proportionate to the depth of the water. For instance, for a depth of 30 meters, 10 riser pipes of 3 meter length would be required

Other Details

   1)   Recommended for water level ranging                20 to 50 meter
   2)  ID of the  bore    100 millimeter
   3) Approximate discharge
        per hour              900 liter
   4) Stroke Length   125 ± 4mm

•     The entire pump assembly is hot dip galvanized to ensure that it stays corrosion resistance. We follow the six tank galvanizing process
     in our in house plant to ensure that the consistency of zinc quoting remains consistent.

•     The handle is designed to balance the counter weight of the connecting rods and the ball bearing. It ensures frictionless and effortless 
      operation  making it convenient even for a child to operate the pump with comfortable ease.

•     Specially processed Nitrile rubber cup washer ensures long life and durability