Rural Development

Background :

It would be a cliché to say that “India lives in its villages”. Sevavardhini believes that prosperous, peaceful and self-sustaining rural population can be the foundation of a vibrant nation. However, it is not an easy goal to achieve. The problems in villages are many – and these vary greatly across country. These range from shortage of basic amenities like power water and transportation facilities all the way to healthcare, education, livelihood opportunities, etc.

Our approach :

We believe the answer to integrated rural development has to be found by the villagers themselves. Our model centers around the involvement of a village level leader (called Gramdoot), who integrates the inputs from various people to develop an understanding of the issues and brainstorm about possible solutions.

For the past several years, Sevavardhini has been running various rural development initiatives. Gramdoot is an attempt to integrate it into a holistic approach encompassing all aspect of village life. The Gramdoot idea is being piloted in a cluster of villages in the Maval region of Maharashtra at present. This involves :

1. Identifying and establishing rapport with the village

2. Comprehensive surveys and studies (such as PRA, Socio-economic-survey, Net Planning, etc.) to identify not just the symptoms, but potential root causes of the problems

3. Developing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) encompassing all development activities needed

4. Linking up with CSR and government funding for carrying out the development work

The development activities cover a whole gamut of areas including :

 

The sheer magnitude of issues to be addressed is huge and it requires sustained and concerted effort. A sample table of initiatives that may be undertaken for rural development could be as follows. This is a representative table only – there are many other activities that need support.

If you wish to support the Gramdoot initiative, do get in touch with us : contact us