Pravah, an organisation based in Delhi works with young people to impact issues of social justice through youth citizenship action . Pravah believes that sustainable change emanates from individuals. “Change them or their orientation and the system will change.”

Pravah works with both adolescents as well as young adults, through two broad interventions, the School Programs and Youth Action.
In Youth Action they basically have 5 programs:
1. SMILE – which stands for Students Mobilisation Initiative for Learning Through Exposure. The aim of this program is to involve the youth in activities which helps them belong to their background and take more responsibility in whatever they do.

2. Youth For Development – is a partnership between Pravah and Voluntary Service Overseas ( VSO) . In YfD , the individual gets to work in a rural area for six months . Also, there is a 2 week training schedule before the commencement and constant mentoring.

3. Global Xchange – is a 6 month long international volunteering exchange programme in collaboration with VSO and British Council.

4. Change Looms – is a leadership and Organisational development programme that supports , encourages young independent projects or organisations working for social change .

5. Campus Catalysts- is for campus based initiatives for the youth involved in social action on or outside their campuses. The aim of the program is to mobilise social action on campuses.

School Programs are :

1. From Me To We – is focussed on inspiring adolescents to take up active leadership in areas of social change. In this , learning and life skills programs are conducted in cooperation with schools under FMTW. Theatre, games, simulation exercises, stories, case studies are a core component of the curriculum. FMTW currently reaches out to 3500 students in over 30 schools mainly in and around Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Karnataka.

2. Fun Camps – for kids between 13 and 17 , these are 6 day trips to villages, for teachers and various theme based fun trips.

3. Teacher’s Training – Pravah trains teachers for one year to design and conduct life skills program. Educator’s Collective is a network of school teachers, educators working for social transformation.

4. CLAP- Citizen Learning and Action Program is for adolescents between 13 and 17 who feel strongly about a cause. CLAP helps you to take that forward, and develops leadership skills in making social change. CLAP partners with Sanskriti School and Ford Foundation.

Also, they have started the Pravah Jaipur Initiative supported by Sir Ratan Tata Trust. The centre will create knowledge bank for various programmes by offering media fellowships for youth development, workshops, seminars and volunteering placements.

Films With Wings is a collaborative initiative of Pravah and Interactive Resource Centre, a non profit in Pakistan. Founded on the principle that films are a powerful medium in bridging various divides, FWW is an effort which provides a dynamic platform for young minds of both nations to engage, co- create , challenge and capture a variety of experiences and expressions through a serious of Intensive dialogues , workshops between youth of both nations followed by a Film festival.

Website : http://pravah.org

Situated in the lake city of Udaipur, since its foundation on 23rd October, 1985, Narayan Seva Sansthan has been working for the “service of suffering humanity”. Since its inception, Narayan Seva has been rendering its services to physically, economically and socially needy people. The organization helps the physically challenged, especially the polio afflicted and those born with disabilities. The help is not only medical, but goes beyond it to ensure that the people are made self-dependent via employment.

Since 1985, over 95000 polio afflicted people have been able to stand on their legs after getting successfully operated under Sansthan’s move towards self-dependence of the handicapped. Besides free distribution of clothes, medicines, food grains etc. to the tribal in remote areas, it also provides free vocational training to the physically disabled and economically weaker sections of the society. It has provided facilities for the training of these people in wood craft, carpentry, black-smith trade, leather work etc. supplying the necessary tools and raw materials to begin with.

The organization has also been running an orphanage taking care of children who become orphan due to ‘Nata-Pratha’ – a social evil prevailing in this region of the country in which after the death of the husband, the wife goes away to stay with some other man leaving the children behind . Over 600 children have been taken care of and sent back to the main social stream.

As a part of its endeavour to make medical care available to poor patients at their door steps, the Sansthan maintains a mobile medical care unit. Equipped with all necessary modern facilities, the mobile medical unit is always kept ready to rush to any spot when urgent medical care is required. Apart from all of this, the Sansthan is also involved in promoting values of Indian culture as enshrined in some of the epics and scriptures. The Sansthan has been organizing expositions on Ramayana, Puranas etc. with the purpose of spreading the message of humanity.

Narayan Seva Sansthan has been creating success stories and looking after a section of the society that most often gets overlooked.
To know more about the organization visit: http://www.narayanseva.org/

A less traveled track to Tilonia gives one a journey into Indian entrepreneurship and perhaps changes the way our villages are perceived by city dwellers. Tilonia brings you face to face with the real spirit of India. Its misty hopefulness uncovers the nature of the task that is ahead for a social entrepreneur, its uniqueness and challenges.

Tilonia is a small town 25 kms from Kishangarh near Ajmer in Rajasthan. Barefoot College, established in 1972, inspires this town with the conviction that solutions to rural problems lie within the community. These solutions are broadly classified by Barefoot College into solar energy, healthcare, education, water, rural handicrafts, people’s action, communication, women empowerment, income generation, wasteland development, electricity and power as well as social awareness and conservation of ecological systems in rural communities.

Barefoot College was founded by Sanjit ‘Bunker’ Roy, an Indian social activist and educator. Roy was influenced by the philosophy of Mao Zedong, and modeled his organization after Mao’s Barefoot Doctors. Roy has worked all his life with the Barefoot College.

Spread over more than 8 acres of land, the campus of Barefoot College was built between 1980 and 1986, designed by a team of rural ‘barefoot’ architects, masons, blacksmiths, farmers and members of women groups who sat and struggled through the initial basic designing of the campus. This institution believes in imparting informal, non-structured, on-the-job practical training by identifying the poor, unemployed youth who have been unable to finish their formal education and have returned to their respective villages as dropouts. The five principles which are an integral part of the functioning of the college are equality, collectiveness, self-reliance, decentralization and austerity.

The education program focuses on the overall development of rural children, with literacy being just one part of it. It encourages hands-on or learning-by-doing process of gaining knowledge and skills. Lessons are focused on awareness about the environment and socio-economic and political forces that dominate development. The aim is to provide the children with a right balance of education and literacy so that they choose to stay in their village and work for its development. The college has different programs for children and women. There are Balwadis (rural crèches) established for children between the age of 6 months-5 years for the convenience of working mothers. Night schools have been set up for ‘working children’. There are bridge courses, courses for night school children who aspire to join formal day schools. In these night schools, initiatives like the children’s parliament are established which allow them to participate in the management of their schools through a democratic process. Candidates are selected through a proper election process, giving them an idea of the working of a democracy.

There is also a huge emphasis on the holistic development of women by empowering them socially, financially and politically. In the past 38 years, the college has trained more than 15,000 women in jobs ranging from construction work, education, metal craftsmanship, toy making and solar engineering, to mechanical repair and fabrication, health care, water testing, handicrafts, film making and social activism.

Vocational Training at Tilonia

The Barefoot College has setup eight field centers in Rajasthan and a society known as SAMPDA (Society for Activating, Motivating and Promoting Developmental Alternatives) through the collective efforts of which the Barefoot approach is replicated in rural communities across 14 states in India.

The global response received by the organization is worth acknowledging. The institute has witnessed semi-literate middle aged woman traveling from places as diverse as Afghanistan, Cameroon, Gambia, Mali and Sierra Leone to undergo training to become barefoot solar engineers.

To know more about this organization and to read on some of its wonderful initiatives, please visit their website at www.barefootcollege.org.

Flamenco, as Wikipedia defines it, is a Spanish musical genre. It can be both a musical form, known for its intricate rapid passages, and a dance characterized by audible footwork.

Recently, a Flamenco group from Spain performed at the Mehrangarh fort in Jodhpur. At this function, the Spanish ambassador Ion de la Riva announced that the origins of this art form are believed to be in India. Now, the Spanish government plans to set up a flamenco center in Jodhpur, India.

Sohini Chattopadhyay writes in this article in The Open Magazine:

Fernando Casas Granadino, artistic producer of the flamenco troupe says “We would like to eventually develop a festival of gypsy culture where flamenco would be a key element and a meeting ground for possible collaborations between Spanish and other European gypsy art expressions with Indian culture. We’d like to organise in a festival that will include dance, music, but also art exhibits, film festivals, lectures, workshops and master classes and collaborations among different cultures.”

The DNA reports in this article on the similarities between Flamenco and Rajasthani music:

Speaking through an interpretor, Antonio Rey who plays the guitar for the group says that since both the performance art forms — Flamenco and Rajasthani folk music originated from similar backgrounds, it was but natural to try and figure out a perfect co-existence.

Another interesting snippet of information shared in the above articles is the setting up of a Spanish classical music academy in Kolkata. World music coming to the shores of India should augur well for our music to get recognition as well as opening up opportunities for innovative artists.

Image courtesy: Wikipedia (shared under a GNU license)

Introducing SourcePilani, a company that is bringing the concept of BPO to rural India, starting off from the small town of Pilani in Rajasthan.

SourcePilani provides high quality and low cost BPO services by leveraging the hitherto untapped talent that rural India has to offer to the growing Indian economy. In addition to providing employment to the local people, SourcePilani is also providing the rural youth an exposure to the paths of progress being witnessed in the bigger Indian cities.

The basic model followed by SourcePilani includes identifying youth from various schools/colleges who are interested in taking up a BPO career. Since most applicants are from Hindi medium of instruction, they are put through an English training course for a period of 3 months. Post this, the recruits are put on the job under the supervision of team leaders who groom the new comers and make them able to handle the tough requirements of a BPO career. As an outcome of all of this, the youth of Pilani have been able to increase their income levels and over a period of time the economic spectrum of the town will also be enhanced. This is a wonderful way of executing inclusive growth and progress. Here is a sample of a couple of recruits who have joined SourcePilani and how their lives has been transformed:

Rajendar Singh (Raju). Qualification: 10+2 (Hindi Medium) Raju like many of the youth in this part of the country was aspiring to get into the Indian army, unfortunately after several trials he couldn’t get through. His father is a Technician in the workshop in BITS Pilani and he was the only source of Income for a family of 4. Before joining SourcePilani, Raju lived the life of an unemployed for more than 3 years and SourcePilani gave him a chance to build his career in the BPO space. One year back he used to struggle to talk in English and his keyboard skills and computer skills were minimal. After undergoing a 3 month training Raju was put into on-the-job training where he honed his skills and improved upon his language capability. He started off with a petty salary which was <100 rupees a day a year ago and today with his hard work and sincerity he has been promoted to the level of Team Leader, for SourcePilani’s Internet Marketing Team. He manages complex jobs like Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing and he heads a team of 5 members. Currently he draws a Salary of 5000 rupees which is a significant financial support for his family.

Pooja. Qualification: BSc. (Hindi Medium)
Pooja has been working with SourcePilani for over a year now. There are very few girls in the organization today and this is mostly because of the cultural aspects in Rajasthan. Pooja and her parents made the right decision to send her to work, by neglecting all the peer pressure from the society. Like Raju, even Pooja started off with a petty salary and today she earns a salary of over 5000 and she is able to fund the education of her two younger sisters.

Check out the following table to get an idea of the impact that SourcePilani is having on the economic progress of the town’s inhabitants:

To get a visual idea of what SourcePilani is doing and their impact on the society, please check out the video embed below:

If you are unable to see the embed above, please click here to view the video.

You can know more about SourcePilani and contact them at their website: www.sourcepilani.com