The Divya Chaya Trust (DCT) was established in 1984 mainly to help destitute children and women. Their main aim was to support educational and vocational activities at schools in rural areas and encourage educating the orphans and school drop outs.

Their work is significantly differently as they impart career counseling and provide students with opportunities for further studies. The trust holds confidence building therapies in order to enable women to support themselves financially.

Divya Chaya Trust is located at various states across the northern part of India including West Bengal, New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and is currently working with various child care homes and ashrams. These include the SD Jain Mahila Ashram and Arya Bal Griha at Delhi, Ramakrishna Vivekananda Mission situated in West Bengal and Delhi.

The trust has around 49 employees who work full time for the establishment and betterment of their reach. Apart from the above, there are approximately 50 volunteers who are working for the same mission.

Their remarkable achievement for the year 2007-2008 is that they have sponsored educational expenses for 500 children. They also had organized seven career counseling sessions for more than 150 children who had graduated and were looking out for jobs.

Their contribution towards the growth of special children with various disabilities is also outstanding. Although the government claims that of the total disabled population only 2% are educated and very few are employed, the DCT is doing their best overcome these figures and make them more presentable for the country. To achieve the same, the trust has various services which are solely for the disabled. They have a range of options to reach the disabled, which include financial aids, or even providing them with simple basic necessities like a hearing aid, a wheel chair or even a Braille kit. A contribution from our end towards supplying these necessities would definitely be of immense support to them.

The most disappointing fact, however, remains that their total income is severely lower than their expenditure. The trust did loose a significant amount which could have been well avoided, had there been enough contribution made towards the trust from citizens.
Despite this, the trust did not loose hope and has recently built a residential home for the elderly at Haryana.

It is truly incredible to know that citizens of our country are going beyond their reach to dissolve the bridge between the privileged and under privileged by ensuring that primary education and fundamental living necessities are being provided to significant section of people.

Read more about Divya Chandra Trust here: http://www.divyachayatrust.org.in/

NGO write up done by guest reporter Jheel Parekh.

Gurgaon-based mobile gaming company ZMQ Software Systems has come up with a new offering that will enable women in villages to register their date of pregnancy, and avail of weekly tips on topics like what to eat, what vaccines to get and when to get the next check up. Founders Hilmi and Subhi Quraishi, inspired by many of their formative years spent in socialistic environment of Soviet Union, have been redirecting 12% of ZMQ’s profits into social development programmes, and this is a project they are certain will succeed as it is mobile-based and independent of economic criteria.

Aruna Viswanatha reports in Mint:

ZMQ’s new programme also complements other initiatives around the country to pay women to have their children delivered by professionals, rather than by the untrained midwives more popular in rural areas. “There could be a programmed SMS before the day of the next check-up,” says Chauhan, “and reminders for the first tetanus, the first ultrasound, this would be a real great benefit if it is done.”

Also find what other companies like Enable-M and the venture capital firm Acumen Fund are doing in this space. Biju Mohandas, India business manager for Acumen Fund says he is considering many business plans that intend to use SMS technology in rural health care. Read the complete article here.

The stage: A large hall in Takhel, a remote village about 15KM from Imphal, the capital of Manipur – a small state in North-Eastern India

The actors: A young woman of 27 years by the name of Arambam Romita and an educated farmer Keisham Biren, both news readers for an unassuming news channel

The props: A crude loudspeaker, a PA system, a long wooden bench by the window which serves as a news desk

The scene: The young lady is trying to fix the microphone to its stand, as it had been borrowed the previous day for a farmer’s meering.

This is the setup of the tiny Paothang Channel, the sole people’s broadcast initiative in Manipur. At present, it serves as the trusted news source for many of Takhel’s 5000 residents.

This informative article from Kangla Online, written by Thingnam Anjulika Samom, tells the interesting story of Paothang (meaning ‘news relay’ in the local dialect of Meiteilon) Channel and the people behind its creation.

“It is basically our own interest – not profit – that guides us, otherwise we’d have stopped long ago,” Biren adds. The dilapidated hall is the station’s third ‘studio’ – the first was in a hotel for about a year, then the second at his house for a brief while.

Here’s an example of the two newsreaders, Romita and Biren, presenting a daily news relay:

“Paothang Channel welcomes all its listeners. We are on air,” says Biren. “In this world full of differences of caste, colour, and creed, let’s not be divided by these artificial walls,” he adds.

And then he makes an announcement – the local Communist Party of India branch will be meeting the next day and all its members are asked to attend.

Romita takes over, speaking in a soft voice. There are many good stories today.
Twelve suspected militants were captured with arms in the official quarters of five MLAs. The signing of a memorandum by seven elected people’s representatives of Manipur – one to the Indian Parliament and six to the state legislative assembly – expressing their support for Naga integration. There are more than 20 insurgent groups operating in Manipur, waging an armed struggle against the government of India, mostly for the right to self-determination…

In an isolated village with hardly any disposable income as well as need/ intention to spend on newspapers or TVs and radios, this project created by the local member of the zila parishad Tensubam Ratan, allows the village folk to keep abreast of current affairs in the vast country that they are a part of, however far removed they might be.

It is also good to know that this is not a lone star. There are similar community media initiatives being undertaken in other parts of the country.

According to Sevanti Ninan, journalist, author, columnist and media critic, “such an initiative is actually the forerunner of local community radio, which has recently been permitted by the Indian government. It offers news that the local community needs for its day to day functioning, also news that connects it to the rest of the country and state.”

“The way Romita and Biren respond to a local need is similar to what communities are doing in other parts of the country. In Kurnool and Medak districts of Andhra Pradesh, in Daltnganj in Bihar, in Karnataka and in the Rann of Kutch. They all write their news using conventional news sources, and then find ways to transmit it to their community.

“In some places they record a bulletin and pay the state-run All India Radio’s (AIR) local station to transmit it. In other places they record a relevant local discussion on a tape recorder and move around villages playing it back.

This is indeed a laudable enterprise, and we hope that many will be influenced by the willingness and good intentions of the few who are taking on such responsibilities and bringing about change and progress in entire communities.

Link Credit: Vinay Sreenivasa via Ashwini Bharadwaj