Vol. 1 No. 1 May 2007   www.gidf.org

Karmani Hite

Karmani Hite is a combination of two Sanskrit words, ‘karmani’ means in action and ‘hite’ means in welfare work. So the phrase Karmani Hite means to work for the social welfare.

Welcome note

Aurobindo Chaudhuri Memorial Great Indian Dream Foundation [ACM GIDF] welcome the readers of its recently launched newsletter KARMANI HITE. ACM GIDF is a Social wing of Planman Consulting and the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM). ACM-GIDF is glad to share its account of social initiatives across 12 states in India with people having social interest and those who dream of making India an educated, healthy nation, free of poverty and its human indignities.

Highlights

Provision for Safe Drinking water

It is estimated that 21% of communicable diseases in India are water related. Of these diseases diarrhea alone kills more than 7,00,000 people primarily children at an average of over 1600 deaths each day. The highest mortality from diarrhea is in children under the age of five. Despites investments in water and sanitation infrastructure many low-income communities in India continue to lack access to safe drinking water. As we are also focussing on the improvement and delivery of Safe Water Systems a pilot project has been initiated in the Ragogarh block of District Guna in the state of Madhya Pradesh. As this block is susceptible to the large scale water pollution due to the discharge of effluents which consists of high percentage of fluoride and other chemicals form two large industrial units situated in the area thereby polluting the ground water. To tackle this issue we have installed five number of water purifiers which would be purifying the water and this initiative would be benefiting more than 1100 children who belong to the socially and economically backward class. This initiative would help a long way to arrest the health risk which was being posed to the children earlier.
Educational Aid

The schools and colleges of rural areas lack lot of facilities because of which the children suffer though they have the potential to excel. As the country today talks of creating a scientific pool but the facilities at the schools and colleges in the rural parts of the country is in dire straits. We took up this challenge and developed a chemistry lab with all the modern equipments and facilties in the Government run college of Ragogarh in the district of Guna, Madhya Pradesh.  This would go a long way in supporting the college staff and enhance the learning capacity of the students. This would be benefitting more than 120 students.

We also provided school furniture, educational aids and recreational aids in seven government primary schools of the block. More than 3000 children from the less privileged section of the society would be benefited from these aids.
Vocational training on dairy farming, poultry, sugar cane farming, electrical, carpentary and tailoring

Livelihood is one of the key functional areas of GIDF. Our work focuses on empowering the marginalized sections of the society by enhancing their decision making capacities through skill building, education and creation of economic opportunities in remote areas of rural and urban India. In this regard, it imparts vocational training and conducts workshops on regular basis. These trainings are provided to the underprivileged unemployed men & women for empowering them economically. These trainings equip the individuals with the knowledge of income generating activities for earning livelihood.

The following livelihood initiatives have been initiated in our Project areas of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

In Pata, Auraiya district of Uttar Pradesh, 6 months basic training have been started from last month. The details are as follows:

  • Electrical training started from 12th April 2007 with 35 partcipants
  • Carpentary training started from 1st April 2007 with 25 participants
  • Training on Tailoring and Cutting started from 20th April 2007 with 20 participants
  • Computer training started from 18th April 2007 with 18 participants

In Guna district, Madhya Pradesh, the following workshops were conducted last month:

  • Workshop on Dairy Farming on 4th April 2007 with 55 participants
  • Workshop on Sugarcane Farming on 6th April 2007 with 55 participants
  • Workshop on Poultry Farming on 9th April 2007 with 55 participants
  • Workshop on Cutting and Tailoring on 26th April 2007 with 164 women beneficiaries
Screening of UNICEF’s films ‘Meena ke Teen Sapne’ and ‘Meena in City’ to children of GIDF’s centres in Mumbai

Unicef’s film ‘Meena ke Teen Sapne’ was screened for 42 children of GIDF’s learning centres in Gyaneshawar Nagar community in the city of Mumbai. The children were able to identify with the depiction of the problem relating to hygiene in the film. Another film ‘Meena in City’ was screened for 28 children in Nargis Dutt Nagar community. The children could relate to the issue of child labour shown in the film. All these measures are a part of GIDF’s endeavour to promote consciousness about the issues of child labour, practice of hygiene and importance of education
Project Ehsaas- An Awareness programme on
HIV/AIDS care and prevention

Health is one of the prime focus areas of GIDF. In this regard, GIDF’s team organized an awareness programme ‘Ehsaas’ on HIV/AIDS care and prevention for the truck drivers in Guna district of MP. The truck drivers are one of most vulnerable section of society relating to HIV virus and AIDS. They are also one of the largest carriers of this dreaded disease. The programme involved street performances on HIV/AIDS among the high risk groups and distribution of IEC [Information, Education and Communication] materials and condoms
Project Sakhi - Formation of Self Help Group [SHG]


GIDF promotes empowerment and livelihood programmes for the economically deprived sections of the society. In this regard, it has identified the formation of SHGs to improve livelihood options. SHG is usually a group of women from homogenous background to pool economic resources collectively and promote thrift amongst them. All the processes involved in the formation of a SHG in Bawdikheda village in Guna district are complete. The group is linked to the GIDF’s Reproductive Child Health [RCH] programme ‘Pragati’ in Madhya Pradesh and will focus on health issues.
Hope, GIDF’s Karmani Hite keeps on inviting cheers and encouragement from its well wishing quarters !
© 2007 GIDF