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Women Empowerment

Vidhayak Sansad has struggled since its inception to battle abuse and discrimination against women, both in the community and at home, through self-empowerment. We work with women through a program called Mahila Thingi (Women’s Spark), which organizes them to enforce their rights. The program raises awareness among women about their rights and how to fight for them. It provides women with practical knowledge about the police, the law, and local governance. For instance, the program holds block-level camps for widows, divorcees, and destitute women to understand their problems, provide counselling, and create awareness about their rights. Vidhayak Sansad advocates for the social rights of women at the local and state levels. It promotes their economic rights by working with women to begin employment generating activities and enterprises through government schemes, such as Self-Help Groups and other forms of micro-finance.

Human Rights Training

Vidhayak Sansad runs training programs that empower vulnerable groups to recognize and protect against human rights violations. Each training program is tailored to a particular group, including women, tribals, dalits, and young people. This training creates awareness about individual rights, the functioning of the legal system, and how to non-violently pressure authorities to enforce the law. In the case of dalits and tribals, for instance, the programs raise awareness about the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and how to file a case against a violator of the Act. The programs also discuss how to prevent atrocities by engaging and dialoguing with potential abusers and the police. Trainers in the program share the experiences of Vidhayak Sansad and Shramjeevi Sanghatana in fighting for the rights of vulnerable groups and the successful tactics that the co-organizations have employed.

Educational Initiatives

Vidhayak Sansad considers it unacceptable that sixty-five years after independence elementary education does not reach every Indian child. Our education programs, therefore, aim to reach those with the least access to schooling: the children of migrant workers, tribal girls, and teenagers who have dropped out or never attended school. These educational initiatives are intended to serve as models for the state government to emulate on a wider scale. We also work with children in the Thane district to run the Bal Sanghatana, an organization managed by young people that runs evening study and play centres at the village level. The organization is active in working with government officials and village committees to ensure schools function properly. The Mahatma Phule Education Guarantee Scheme, a government program that provides education to the children of migrant workers and other deprived students, was established through a campaign by VS and its allied organizations. The Vasti School Scheme, a government residential school program for students from remote areas, has also been implemented through the intervention of VS.

Bhonga School’s

Bhonga Shalas, or “kiln schools,” are a response to the large number of children leaving school each year when their families travel for seasonal jobs at brick kilns. These children leave school mid-year and return six months later, only to be held back from entering the next grade. Worse, they often must work in the hazardous conditions of the brick kilns to supplement their families’ income. The Bhonga Shala school program has benefited more than 30,000 children in Thane District from 1995-2008. The National Child Labor Project, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and the Maharashtra Government have recognized the program as a role model in education.

Children Organization (Bal Sanghatana)

The Bal Sanghatana program organizes evening study and play centres for children at the village level. The program is meant to supplement and reinforce what students learn during the school day. Activities include poetry reading, essay composition, sports competitions, theatre, and helping each other with that day’s homework. The teachers who lead the centres are members of Shramjeevi Sanghatana, Vidhayak Sansad’s allied trade union. They have been specially trained to supervise the children and assist them in schoolwork. A typical evening session at a centre would include a mix of grammar and composition assistance, traditional games, and discussion.

The Bal Sanghatana has a community “watchdog” role as well. Its young members engage with students, their local school administration, and the community about standards and conditions at their school. In numerous cases, Bal Sanghatana members have successfully pressured their local administration to improve the quality of education and school facilities. The members also ensure that every student in their centre has access to notebooks, textbooks, and other supplies. In many blocks, the Bal Sanghatana organizers have created mobile libraries for their communities. The libraries are based in the homes of Bal Sanghatana members, who are responsible for their stock and maintenance.

Malnutrition Eradication Program

Vidhayak Sansad is running Malnutrition Eradication Program in Mokhada block, we are working to implement government schemes already in place, and working directly with local PHCs and the families in their service area. To work for a long term solution we are working to create local employment through Employment Guarantee Scheme, this will stop seasonal migration which is an important reason for malnutrition. We are also working for strengthening the Public Distribution System (PDS), Health agencies, Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) through this Program.

Residential School for Tribal Katkari Girls

This residential school provides a comprehensive education to girls who would otherwise have limited or no access to education. Thane District near Mumbai has a large population of poor tribal families. Among them is the extremely underdeveloped Katkari tribe. Many families of this tribe migrate seasonally, which means that their children, especially girls, never see a classroom. The girls commonly work as balgi (caretaker for younger siblings or a landlord’s children) and gowari (cattle herder). Poverty is so acute that parents must take the help of their children to survive. Child marriage is also widely practised in this community. Vidhayak Sansad established the Eklavya Parivartan Vidyalaya residential school to offer girls from this community the rare opportunity to become literate and aware of their rights as citizens and as women. Tribals have been exploited for generations because of their illiteracy. But the challenge in breaking this cycle is the grinding poverty that requires every member of the family, young and old, to work. This is why the free, residential education offered by Eklavya Parivartan Vidyalaya is so important. It contributes significantly to the socio-economic empowerment of the most deprived and neglected tribal communities.

Agriculture Initiative

Vidhayak Sansad is been working for the Agriculture Initiative since its inception, during the campaign for release and rehabilitation of bonded labour, once these labourers declared themselves free, they discovered that they were outcasts in the community. Without skills, land, or government support, they faced serious challenges in making a living. Vidhayak Sansad assisted them in organizing cooperative farms on hired or donated land. The organization set up a revolving credit fund that allowed farmers to purchase seeds, fertilizer and insecticides. Experts provided technical advice. A grain bank allowed the poor to take interest-free loans of grain during lean periods when they would have otherwise had to borrow from landlords at extortionate rates. All of these measures helped freed bonded labourers to get on their feet.

Later, in recent time’s vidhayak Sansad along with its allied organization struggled to get the title of forest land under FRA Act, VS succeed to avail the title of forest land to more than 15,000 tribal families; VS also struggled to get water in scarcity affected areas.

Vidhayak Sansad has also been focusing on Agriculture; we are working with the Tribal farmers’ group to explore livelihood opportunities through agriculture development. Thane and Palghar districts have a high migration ratio amongst tribals. Tribal’s from the backward blocks of Thane and Palghar District migrates to urban areas, brick kilns and construction sites in the search of jobs. It badly affects the socio-economic empowerment of the tribal. Thus we have decided to work on agriculture development which will indirectly help them to empower socially and economically. We are organizing them, assisting them to avail benefits of government designed schemes, to a selection of crops, availability of markets, providing the training for farmers and creating the models.

Our Activities

Women Empowerment

Human Rights Training

Educational Initiatives

Bhonga School’s

Children Organization

Malnutrition Eradication Program

Residential School

Agriculture Initiative

Health Care