The Better India » Social Development

AWIC: Literacy Through Library

Rahul Anand — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:16:53 +0000

Libraries are as the shrine where all the relics of the ancient saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion or imposture, are preserved and reposed. That is a famous quote by Francis Bacon.

Most of us who love reading cherish the time we spent as children in libraries scanning through books of various shapes and sizes with vivid covers and enticing titles. Libraries are the repositories of knowledge. But a large number of children are deprived of this wonderful experience; they don’t get to read which in effect does not inculcate in them the habit of studying.

AWIC, Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children, is a voluntary organisation working towards the promotion and development of literature for children in India. It represents writers, illustrators, librarians, editors and publishers. Founded by late K.Shankar Pillai in 1981, AWIC endorses the ethics and functions of the global organisation IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People), a non-profit which represents an international network of people from all over the world who are committed to bringing books and children together.

The various projects of AWIC include the following:

Children’s Library Project

Winner of the IBBY-ASAHI Reading Promotion Award, this project was started in 1983. Today 114 libraries in Delhi and across India have been setup under this voluntary scheme to promote reading. Each library is provided with free books. The project aims at making good books available to children who have no access to books .

Most of the libraries are managed by AWIC members on a voluntary basis. While most libraries function from the homes of AWIC members, some libraries have also been set up in parks, hospitals, railway platforms and slum areas for underprivileged children. Each year AWIC gives out one Best Librarian award and two Reader of the Year awards!

AWIC initiated IBBY library project – creating children’s libraries at Madi Village in Delhi (NCR), at Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh, at Jaipur, Rajasthan and Daman in Goa.

Literacy Project

In 1995 AWIC launched its Literacy Project and has published two Hindi alphabet books under its schemes, ‘Buy, Teach and Gift’ and ‘Teach and Gift’. Under the second scheme, AWIC distributes these books free in all Indian states, including remote areas where children have no access to good books.

Book Promotion

Book Promotion Cell promotes the cause of children’s books written by Indian authors by conducting book talks. Besides this, the organization participates in national and international children’s books fairs.

AWIC Book Therapy project

The Book Therapy Project is a particularly interesting one and was started after the 26/11 terrorist violence in Mumbai. It was started in order to promote the use of books to help children during those difficult times. Reading can be therapeutic; helping children come to grips with situations that create turmoil in their minds. Book Therapy helps children cope with such stressful situations, and even prepares them for further eventualities. Through workshops AWIC aims to train facilitators to administer book therapy and also develop books, including picture books and anthologies, which provide a healing effect to children.

If you have some free space in your home or office, you too can start a library for the underprivileged! For becoming a member of AWIC, all you need to do is download this application form http://www.awic.in/about-awic/AWIC-Membership-Form.pdf and fill it up and mail to the address provided in the form.

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Innovation: Biomass Cooking Stoves

Dhimant Parekh — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 02:07:26 +0000

In this article, we write about the Biomass Cooking Stove innovation that is being nurtured by the Villgro foundation.

Context and problems with LPG

Micro and small establishments that provide boarding services to 40 – 100 individuals in rural and semi-rural areas face the three pronged problem of not having the access, both financially and in terms of availability , to LPG, having to incur the costs of large amounts of biomass required to run their relatively inefficient stoves and dealing with the associated health impacts that inefficient, outdated stoves generate.
Unlike small households, micro and small establishments rely on purchasing fire wood and not on collecting biomass. These costs average around 2000 Rs. / ton. As such the inefficiency of stoves used by this category of users has a direct impact on their expenditure and thus on their income and savings. When compared to households these establishments utilize their stoves for much longer (upto 10 hours a day when catering to 100 customers) and thus the impacts on wood consumption and health issues are
exasperated.

Burning wood creates CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Establishments, based on size, generate between 20 – 80 tons of co2 a year. While small when considered at a national or global scale, this contributes to climate change in its own way.

Enter Biomass Cooking Stove, an innovation by Svati Bhogle of SustainTech India Pvt. Ltd.

The Biomass Cooking stove is an application specific high efficiency wood burning stove specifically designed for a range of cooking needs. The innovation offers to the end user: saving in fuel costs, by being up to 50% more efficient than conventional stoves and improved health impacts. The features that make the stoves innovative are, optimum air fuel ratios controlled by efficient vents, well designed combustion chamber volume resulting in high combustion and heat transfer efficiencies, good insulation to prevent losses to the walls and an optimally designed chimney to vent the flue gases away from the breathing zone of the cooks and designed to reduce heat losses to the atmosphere.

Salient Features

High efficiency because of controlled burning, good air fuel ratio
Ability to regulate air supply and hence the fuel burning rate
Use of grate for good combustion
Good insulation and a uniform temperature profile across the plate because of staggered finning of the tava (flat plate). This has been designed so that one side of the tava uses preferentially radiative heat and the other side convective heat obtained by burning of wood on a grate.
Increasing the velocity of the flue gases towards the end of the plate, good insulation and an optimally designed chimney

Who is impacted and how?

Owners of micro and small boarding establishments, including semi-portable food vendors will be impacted. This covers a range of individuals with daily revenues between 500 to 5000 rupees per day. A market survey revealed that the total number of tea shops, small & medium hotels and street food vendors to be 73,650 in the state of Tamil Nadu alone.
On the lower end of the economics scale – this includes street side food vendors who spend considerable amounts of their income on firewood. These individuals were shown to spend upto 30,000 Rs. annually on firewood with monthly take home incomes of around 7000 Rs. On the higher end of the economics scale – this includes proprietors of small size ‘hotels’ catering to the needs of approximately a 100 customers a day.

Environmental, social and economic benefits

SustainTech India Pvt. Ltd. (SIPL) is reaching out to the needs of a fuel stressed segment of society – initially the street food vendors, who operate on push carts and where cooking is done inside the cart or on railway platforms, roadside shops and small hotels who with a roof and some seating capacity.
A survey conducted shows that these stoves are in operation for about 10 hours every day and each unit caters to about 100 clients every day. The 65,000 fuel efficient wood burning stoves (considering only the tava, frying stoves and tea kettles) that would be sold by SIPL in the first five years would therefore offer a safer, cooler and healthier working environment to at least 65,000 cooks and 6.5 million people who would eat
around these stoves every day. India has a high incidence of respiratory ailments and a smoke free working environment would reduce the medical expenses of the affected people working around wood fires.
The survey data also shows that 38% of the street food vendors and tea shops use kerosene for their cooking needs. Very limited kerosene is available in fair price shops and this is inadequate. Very often the sector uses unfair means to procure kerosene creating stress and tension besides eroding the profitability.

A Frying Stove Biomass based

Moving to a biomass stove would reduce the stress associated with procurement of kerosene, improve profitability of the business and show that it is possible to replace a fossil fuel with a renewable energy source.
At the global level the movement to a fuel efficient wood stove would significantly abate CO2 emission. A survey conducted in the project area shows that stoves are in use for about 8 -14 hrs every day and for 300 -350 days in a year. Data has also been collected about fuel consumption patterns in conventional stoves and performance of improved stoves tested and some of them certified. With a projected stove life of 5 years, the carbon abatement potential of the venture through installations in the first 5 year planning period would be 3.7 million tons of CO2. (1 kg of firewood saved = 1.5 kg of CO2).
Firewood is purchased by the end users of SIPL products at Rs 2000 / ton. The saving in fuel costs, because of energy efficiency should enable the end user to payback the cost of the stove without financial stress in 12- 18 months. Each stove purchased would on an average save Rs 20,000 – 30,000 of fuel cost every year.

The enterprise projects that through its intervention and in their life time, the stoves installed in the first
5 years period, it would conserve Rs 4000 million in fuel costs thus creating wealth for a very needy community.

SustainTech is now being incubated by Villgro. Villgro is a not-for-profit company empowering rural development by identifying and incubating innovations that could be translated to market based social enterprise models thus impacting thousands of lives. In efforts to impact rural life, VILLGRO actively promotes social entrepreneurship and works with different stakeholders to create and support an eco-system that empowers social entrepreneurship by means of seed funding, mentoring, networking and recognition. Villgro has impacted over 360,000 rural users with technology & solutions reaching the grassroots. Villgro has identified and activated more than 2000 social innovators.

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Conserve India: Using Fashion Against Poverty

Rahul Anand — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 20:20:57 +0000

Urban India is glaring at a huge waste management problem with no clear policy examining waste as a part of the production-consumption-recovery cycle. In India, over a million people find employment in rag picking and recycling of waste; and this is an unorganized sector.

Most of the rag-pickers are poor, illiterate and belong to rural immigrant families. Many commence their profession at the young age of five to eight years. Most of them have never attended any school. While collecting rags they are subjected to chemical poisons and infections. Due to malnutrition, they suffer from stunted growth and anemia. These rag pickers have been weaned out of our social fabric and as begging is being abolished more and more beggars are becoming a part of this scavenging community.

Conserve India, an organisation in Delhi founded by Anita and Shalabh Ahuja was born of a desire to reduce India’s mountain of waste. Their team, after a lot of research, struck upon the idea of Upcycling by washing, drying and pressing plastic bags into sheets.

Handmade Recycled Plastic (HRP) is made from polythene bags picked from Delhi’s streets, rubber from old truck tyres’ inner tubes, old denims and saris. The processes used to make ‘Conserve’ bags and accessories have been specifically developed to be as energy efficient as possible and to keep out polluting dyes and chemicals. This not only helps the environment, it also cuts costs, giving the organisation more money to invest in other social projects.

Santosh Kumar started collecting plastic bags for Conserve India as he could earn three times as much by selling plastic bags to be made into HRP instead of selling the garbage elsewhere.

Ragpickers enjoy working for Conserve as it directly implies that they, perhaps for the first time in their lives, will have enough to feed their families and rent homes that they can be proud of. On an average, a conserve ragpicker earns around $70 a month compared to a ragpicker who earns somewhere around $25.

The ragpicking community is unorganised; it is hard for them to protect their rights. By giving them ‘Conserve Employee Cards’, Conserve India helps them have a voice in the society. Conserve India has also started a campaign called Recognition for Ragpickers. As part of this, the organisation is trying to persuade the Delhi government to create an official register so as to recognize Delhi’s 150,000 ragpickers and give them their right to a fair wage.

Conserve also offers training to its workers so they can do better jobs in their organisation. Conserve supports schools in slums where many of its employees live. With an initial funding from Asian Development Bank, Conserve is now starting two new projects for tracking the general welfare of its workers and providing health clinics for those who have no access to healthcare.

In collaboration with top designers, Conserve India makes high-end fashion items like handbags, wallets, shoes and belts from the handmade recycled plastic.

Conserve India has collaborated with Fair Trade for marketing its products, which are available in stores across US, Japan, Europe . Their products can also be bought online through the Conserveshop.

By buying Conserve’s products one not only gets to be a trend setter in fashion, but also gets to help some of India’s poorest people and its environment.

For more information visit their website http://conserveindia.org. Infact if you want do something about the waste clogging the streets of your city, you can set up your own Conserve and be the change that you want to see in the society. Mail Conserve India at info@conserveindia.org or call on +91 11 43095301.

New! Jobs Listings featuring internships, volunteering opportunities & more. Click here.

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Where the earth meets the sky – Timbaktu Collective

Ranjini Sivaswamy — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:54:57 +0000

This is the story of a land that was at one time lying ravaged, drought stricken and forsaken. It was a committed revolution led by a couple, Bablu Ganguly and Mary Vattamattam, which has now transformed this land into an agro forest habitat. The unproductive soil was rejuvenated, rain water was harvested, trees were planted, crops were cultivated and the entire land blossomed.

Timbaktu in 1990

Twenty years ago, Bablu and Mary set their foot on this barren land in the district of Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh. People had given up on this land, of which Bablu and Mary decided to buy 32 acres; probably the last thing one would expect from a young couple.

The spark that triggered this initiative was a book – ‘The One-Straw Revolution’, by a Japanese author Masanobu Fukuoka. The book carried a very special message on how humanity can live an enriching life hand in hand with the nature. Bablu and Mary carried this spirit and conceived their vision for this land that they called ‘Timbaktu’, meaning ‘Where the earth meets the sky’. Their aspiration was humble and they wanted to keep everything simple – get closer to the land and help it regenerate itself.

They knew there was potential in the land of Timbaktu which was once part of the rich and powerful Vijayanagara Kingdom. Its forests were considered to be the finest, its fruits were savored across the country and various armies fought to keep control of this once fertile land. But everything was destroyed by ruthless deforestation and use of environmentally damaging pesticides and fertilizers.

Over the years, villages in this region have been tormented by chronic drought, unproductive land, unemployment and poor infrastructural facilities. Bablu and Mary decided to build the Timbaktu land by engaging with the villages around and formed an NGO called The Timbaktu Collective. “Our vision is to stop the degradation of the land in Anantapur district and to find ways to reverse it. We want to green the hills and the land. We want to develop alternative lifestyles. Lifestyles that are sustainable and provide more liberty and happiness, than those based on exploitation. The farmers see their land degrade and the wells drying up, but they don’t know what to do, so they just continue their patterns of self-destruction. We want to find a path that leads out of this vicious circle, not without but together with them” – they say.

Timbaktu today

In 1991, the couple decided to put their first crop in the land of Timbaktu and as everyone around them said, the crop failed. That became even more instigating – Bablu went ahead and bought 7000 saplings. He and Mary brought farmers from the villages to build creative water harvesting structures ensuring that every drop of water was judiciously used. Seed dibbling and such traditional farming methods were practiced – and the colour of the land started changing. Timbaktu was transformed from a barren earth to a lush green forest. It’s heartening to see that birds, snakes and butterflies have come back to Timbaktu and a lost glory is reinstated. This is a true success story of eco-restoration and the experiment is being replicated with community support in a 10,000 acre waste land named as Kalpavalli.

The Timbaktu Collective grew to become a 105 member strong team who serve over 140 villages in Chennekothapalli, Roddam and Ramagiri mandals of Anantapur district. The organization runs two schools, one of which is a residential school for children from disadvantaged families. There is also a thrift credit system for the women which has now grown into a well established alternative banking system. Farmers in the villages are given training in organic farming methods and the Collective supports a Cooperative Society that assists the farmers in marketing their organic produce. With youth development, child rights activities, helping the disabled, cultural activities and many such programmes, the Timbaktu Collective has changed the face of humanity here.

Bablu and Mary stay in Timbaktu, in a house that is built with mud, built by them and built using things available in the land of Timbaktu. Their children studied in the school run by the NGO for the villagers. Their organization has made a difference to the lives of over 12,500 marginalized families. How much more purposeful can their lives get? How much bigger role models do we need to start doing our bit for the world around us?

Visit Timbaktu to know the true spirit of this land. Find information about them on their website www.timbaktu.org. Also, watch this video where Bablu and Mary take you through the 20 years of Timbaktu. You can also write to them at timbaktu.info@gmail.com.

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Pravah: Inspiring Youth Citizenship

Rahul Anand — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 10:11:56 +0000

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

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Zameen: Bringing an Agricultural Revolution

Rahul Anand — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 03:00:05 +0000

We have all read and heard about farmer suicides, pesticides in food and issues of child labour. Here is an organization that is working towards the eradication of all of these – Zameen.

Zameen is a unique farmer owned organic cotton trading company working to improve market access for marginalized farmers in India through certification, supply chain partnerships and organizational development.
Cotton farmers in India do not receive a fair price for their produce which leads them to usurious money lenders. Huge debt and inability to support their families leaves suicide as the only dignified option. In the Amravati district of Maharashtra, 5000 farmers commit suicide every year and that is an alarming statistic.

Zameen believes in the ‘trade, not aid’ approach to rural development. Farmers invest their own capital in Zameen and are completely engaged in the process. Zameen has a tie up with AOFG (Agriculture and Organic Farming Group), a non-profit organization, to facilitate the development of independent, legally registered farmer cluster associations that are self managed and are able to sell organic cotton as per strict international standards.

Infamously referred to as ‘dirty cotton’, the commodity accounts for 16% of global insecticide use which is far more than any other crop. Agro-chemicals contaminate local water supplies, degrade soil quality and harm wildlife. Farming communities also face an increased risk of various diseases like cancer. Zameen trains farmers in organic farming which has resulted in drastic improvement in soil fertility and farmers’ health.

As a Fairtrade certified organisation, Zameen farmers are no longer subjected to widespread speculation and fluctuation in market prices. Fairtrade guarantees a minimum price which covers sustainable farming and living conditions. Additionally, a social premium is earned by the farmer community and that premium is democratically invested in community development projects. So far, Zameen’s farmers have invested in wells, their children’s education and ofcourse into their own businesses.

Fairtrade prohibits child labour and encourages movement towards gender equality. Zameen farmers have access to international markets and being organized into an association gives them a stronger collection voice.

Know more about Zameen and their activities.
Website: http://www.zameen.org/
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hyderabad-India/Zameen-Organic/130739011014/

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Ecosphere Spiti: Social Innovation at the Foothills of Himalayas

Rahul Anand — Thu, 27 May 2010 18:02:54 +0000

Spiti, a tranquil valley in Himachal Pradesh at an average altitude of 3600 meters is home to around 10,000 Buddhists. Spiti Ecosphere is a social enterprise formed by the collaborative effort of the local community and professionals from diverse backgrounds with the aim of creating sustainable livelihoods linked to nature and culture conservation.

Spiti Ecosphere is focussing on the economic empowerment, development and conservation of the region through their range of products and services. These include the following:

Eco Travel which takes us close and personal with the mighty Himalayas and the nature & culture of Spiti. It is an initiative to promote eco-tourism in the region. Eco Travel offers various options to the discerning traveler ranging from a Spiritual Sojourn of the monasteries to the Pugmarks where one gets to track the elusive snow leopard and the Himalayan wolf in the midst of this treasure trove of biological diversity.
Organics – Spiti’s unique ecosystem is richly endowed with various indigenous species. Ecosphere has streamlined the process for extracting and sourcing these rare Himalayan herbs including SeaBuckthorn popularly known as the “Wonder Berry”
Conservation – Mountain ecosystem and economics share a symbiotic relationship, and maintaining the balance with the environment is critical to the sustainability of livelihoods. Muse, Spiti SeaBuckthorn Society and Spiti Trans-Himalyan Action Group have been working in the region on the issues of climate change, promoting renewable energy, waste management and the Dhangkar initiative. Dhangkar, originally called Dhakkar meaning ‘citadel on a cliff’, was the erstwhile capital of Spiti . The Dhangkar Monastery is one of the five major monastic centres in Spiti and belongs to the Gelug–pa sect of Vajrayana Buddhism. It is a heritage conservation site in a state of despair listed in the ‘World’s Hundred Most Endangered Sites’ by the World Monuments Watch Program. Check out www.dhangkar.com to know more about Dhangkar

In the near future, Ecosphere plans to come up with some very innovative projects. One of them includes “Environment education in schools”, the belief being that awareness about the environment should start early by educating children in schools. They are also planning to come up with a short documentary showcasing the Spiti way of living and at the same time sensitising travelers and communities on how to ensure that it remains preserved.

To know more about Spiti Ecosphere and the wonderful work they are carrying out in this beautiful valley of the Himalayas, visit their website at http://www.spitiecosphere.com/

You can also connect with them on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=55566667952

For volunteering and other opportunities, mail them at info[at]spitiecosphere[dot]com

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Interview: Ruma of Noida Deaf Society

Dhimant Parekh — Tue, 18 May 2010 07:10:50 +0000

Meet Anil kumar who has a hearing disability. He used to work in a papad factory earning Rs.1500 a month for a daily workload of 10 hours. Then he came to know about Noida Deaf Society and enrolled for their English course in the year 2007. Eventually he got placed in Leela Kempinski Hotels, Gurgaon much to his joy and satisfaction. “I have learnt to commit to my job from NDS, and the value of having a good job and a regular salary,” says Anil.

Noida Deaf Society was started in the year 2005 single-handedly by Ruma Roka and now this organization is impacting over 300 students through its various courses. Here is an interview of Ruma on NDS, her inspiration and the impact she is creating:

How did Noida Deaf Society start? What was the inspiration behind it?

Ruma: I always wanted to do something for the less privileged in our society. In 2004 I learnt the Indian Sign Language. This got me in touch with the deaf community and I started researching about the deaf, their issues and the needs. The more time I spent with the deaf, the more I realized the need to do something. There was no looking back from that point. I realized that there were complex issues facing the deaf in the country including lack of education facilities, lack of resources especially designed keeping the needs of the deaf in mind, no avenues for holistic development and so on. Most importantly there is no access to quality training leading to sustainable livelihood.

I found that in India deaf education was in a bad condition. Deaf students are often forced to speak and use of sign language is discouraged. I also found that since schools are not really preparing the deaf for a responsible and independent life, the deaf end up in menial jobs and get deeply frustrated.

To address some of these issues and to bring about a positive change in this marginalized community, I started an organization called Noida Deaf Society (NDS) in 2005. I started from a small two bed room flat belonging to my husband. I just had five students and I was the only trainer. Through word of mouth the organization started growing. We started teaching English using sign language – since we believe that if the deaf picked up English, they could communicate in the workplace with the written word and hence be employable in multiple professions. Thereafter we started training in basics of IT and subsequently expanded trainings to include Life Skills, Grooming, Desktop publishing and graphics and work ethics. When I started, I was the only trainer but today we are a strong team of 15 which includes 12 deaf trainers and support staff.

What are the projects NDS adopts? How does it go about executing them?
Ruma: Our goal is to enable the complete integration of the deaf into the mainstream through education and specialized vocational programs leading to gainful employment. At Noida Deaf Society we understand the constraints of the Deaf and focus on their abilities to bring out the best in them. We have used the visual medium of IT to enable learning. Training programs are conducted by Deaf trainers as we feel that they best understand the needs of the Deaf and also act as role models for the community. Training is conducted in Indian Sign Language using visual aids and multimedia based material. Our trainings have been developed based on market research and are job oriented in nature.

Training in Life Skills and Work Ethics is a key focus area towards preparing the youth for employment. Regular exposure to the industry is provided through guest lectures by professionals, industry visits and workshops. We are also actively engaging with the industry to build sensitivity and raise awareness about the Deaf through workshops, mentoring programs, collaborative industrial training, employee volunteering and sign language orientation. We have so far been able to employ over 170 youth in leading organizations in profiles such as Graphic Designing, Backend IT and Data Entry, Retail, Hospitality, Teaching, Export Houses, Production Units and so on.

Could you share with us some of the success stories of NDS?
Rumi: Anil Kumar, whom you have already noted about, is one such story. The other is that of Rattan Kumar. Rattan joined the MS Office course at Noida Deaf Society in January 2009. Opportunity knocked when he was close to finishing his course in the form of a contract data entry job at Mobile Creches. They wanted a part time data entry operator. Rattan worked hard and managed well to switch between his roles of a student and of a data entry operator. After his contract got over he was placed in ITC Maurya in Delhi in August 2009. His performance there has been so good that ITC has asked for more candidates from NDS. He has truly been a role model for the deaf and has made us very proud. Despite of coming from a weak family background (separated parents) he has given the best of himself to society.

We have many such success stories put up on our website too.

What are your future plans with NDS?
Ruma: Our student strength is increasing day by day and it is becoming difficult for us to operate from the current facilities. We would like to build a state of the art vocational training insitute for the Deaf, the only one of its kind in the country where we can offer training in multiple trades and enable the deaf to access employment. A permanent facility will also help us to reach out to the many Deaf in the country and enable them to lead meaningful lives. Introduction of new training programs like computer networking and hardware is also on the cards. Another thing that I would like to see happen in the near future is a digitized teaching & learning material for improving English literacy.

Do you have any volunteer or employment requirements that might interest our readers?
Ruma:Yes we do have a vibrant volunteer program where people from all walks of life especially professionals are contibuting towards skill development of our students. We also have employee volunteering programs with many corporates including NIIT and Mphasis.

However, we first encourage people to learn Sign language as then they will be able to contribute in a more meaningful manner. We essentially need help in employment linkages, fundraising, specialized training in computer networking and hardware.

Here is a photograph of Ruma with the entire NDS family:

To know more about NDS and to go through their work, please visit their website: http://noidadeafsociety.net/

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Jhansi Jan Suvidha Kendra: Improving governance

Rahul Anand — Fri, 07 May 2010 07:27:00 +0000

Jhansi Jan Suvidha Kendra (JJSK) comes as a pleasant surprise to those who have been thinking that public grievance redressal systems are highly incompetent or non-existing in India.

JJSK is a quick and reliable telephone based e-governance initiative which has resulted in an easily accessible platform for addressing public grievances anytime of the day, throughout the year!

As soon as the complainant calls on the toll free number 1077, the grievances are recorded automatically on an audio file and stored in a software program. The complainant gets a Unique Grievance Number (UGN) and the concerned officers are intimated on their mobile phones via SMS instantly.

Grievances are categorised as one of A/B/C according to the severity and the time within which they should be resolved. Various reports are generated by the software for weekly monitoring and the quality of redressal/disposal is finally confirmed by the District Magistrate. Reports are continuously uploaded on the website and the concerned person can check the status of the complaint anytime by just calling JJSK.

JJSK‘s attitude towards complaints lies in their line “Grievances are jewels to be treasured.”

Here’s hoping other districts of the country take a leaf out of JJSK’s approach, and help realize a dream of good governance through better use of technology.

JJSK’s website (mostly in Hindi): http://www.jhansi.nic.in/jjsk.htm

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Braille Without Borders: IISE

Dhimant Parekh — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:51:19 +0000

In the midst of the backwaters of Kerala, when you visit IISE (International Institute Of Social Entrepreneurship) you are sure that it is a perfect setting anyone could have imagined for an institute like that. Far from rat race of the cities, situated in Kochivelli, IISE campus is a perfect amalgamation of modernization, simplicity and technicality.

IISE was established as a part of BWB (Braille Without Borders) with an initial vision of finding visually-challenged children with a passion to grow and give them the tools to function independently in society. Sabriye Tenberken, the founder BWB, lost her vision at the age of 12. She went from Germany to Tibet after hearing the terrible circumstances in which the visually-challenged children there lived. She always felt stifled by the constraints on the visually-impaired in Germany and hence decided to work with others who were facing the same pressures but under much more extreme conditions. Sabriye met Paul Kronenberg while she was in Tibet who later went on to create BWB together.

The IISE Campus View

It began as an initiative to create Tibetan Braille and grew into a printing press for Tibetan Braille literature. Then a preparatory school for the primary education of blind children was established. To realize the idea of the blind as an independent section of the society, they opened a vocational training school which provided them employment skills and encouraged entrepreneurship. This included things like cheese farming, animal husbandry, gardening, theatre and painting.

After establishing the centre in Tibet, their objective evolved from empowering the visually-impaired to creating leaders within any marginalized group that would act as a catalyst for change. Hence they moved to this idyllic location in Kerala and started IISE.

BWB runs almost wholly on donations and grants. The ethos of the organization is to help as many people as rapidly as possible, and BWB believes that an open-source model is most effective. Naturally, there is some risk in relying on the goodwill of others to sustain it, so BWB focuses on maximizing its use of capital.

The impact that BWB has had on people can be seen on social, economic as well as the political front. Empowering blind people helps not only themselves but also every individual who interacts with them; the organization that employs them. BWB is demonstrating that not only can blind people be contribute significantly to the society, that they can infact be leaders.

Talking about the economic impact, tooling up 161 million blind people provides as an invaluable work resource. These marginalized groups are able to create assets and jobs as much as anyone else.

For more details on BWB/IISE, check out http://staging.bwb-iise.org/

To know more about Sabriye, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabriye_Tenberken

This article has been contributed by Chandrika Maheshwari. Chandrika is a student in her 3rd year of engineering in BITS, Pilani and holds a vision to do something for the country and contribute in its development. Her interests include social entrepreneurship, traveling, reading and writing.

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