Balajee Sewa Sansthan

Balajee Sewa Sansthan is a non-profit Organization committed to working for overall development of marginal people like economic self-sufficiency, thr Read moreough various initiatives. The organization’s head office is located at Subhash Nagar, Dehradun . Balajee Sewa Sansthan is the rural outreach, providing direct and indirect services in the districts of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The primary focus areas of service have been Health and Hygiene, Women empowerment, Farmers development and Comprehensive Rural Development, Financial Inclusion, Microfinance, Education and livelihood measures

Vision- To serve and benefit through different activities, Ten lakh poor urban, semi urban and rural marginalized and economically disadvantaged families by 2030 & become one of the most preferred member centric NGO’s in North India by 2030.

Mission- To provide need based services to the economically & socially
disadvantaged groups by creating opportunities for self employment & economic development.
In the field of health care and environment, to strive and help build a healthy society with
emphasis on environmental cleanliness and personal hygiene.

A non-profit organization working towards up-lifting marginalized communities through self-sufficiency is the best way to describe Balajee Sewa Sansthan. Based in Dehradun, the organization is known for its rural outreach, direct and indirect services in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and for focusing on health, hygiene, women empowerment, farmer development, comprehensive rural development, financial inclusion and education.
Over the years BSS has worked on several programmes including bank linkage, skill development, training and consultancy, child education, micro-credit, water and sanitation, and tobacco control, to name a few. It also promotes consumer and environmental awareness and empowerment of women.
Balajee Sewa Sansthan adopts a systematic approach to conducting training courses and provides opportunities for skill development. It conducted diploma courses in sewing and beautician training starting from 2014 and continue…. too with the sole purpose of imparting skills for employment, and developing entrepreneurship among women. Donors like Give India Foundation, Sharon Biomedicine have helped in training more than 1800 women in the last 8 years.
The NGO has also arranged for credit from banks to kick-start small businesses. It has provided backward as well as forward linkage for goods and services manufactured. BSS has said its next goal is to start government-funded skill training in partnership with industries. It has laid the focus on mandatory training for soft skills, presentation skills, and personal hygiene.
As part of its focus on water and sanitation, BSS has constructed low cost toilets in Patna & Lakhisarai districts of Bihar. It has constructed over 1890 such toilets so far, under the aegis of the Public Health Engineering Department of Bihar and Give India Foundation. The campaign’s aim is to ensure sanitation in rural areas with a broader goal to eradicate open defecation. It follows a principle of “low to no subsidy” where a nominal subsidy is given to rural poor households for construction of toilets.
To stop the migration in hilly village of Uttarakhand, Organization has developed a successful Home Stay Rural tourism model in Raithal Village of Uttarkashi district in 2016-17 which has been recognised by the Uttarakhand Government. To Increase the income of farmers BSS also working on to make a model of 60 farmers with Support of NABARD in Bareilly district to adopt Integrated farming System Model to get regular income.
Another area where BSS is deeply involved in, is the cause of tobacco eradication. “Tobacco is the foremost preventable cause of death and disease in the world today. Globally, approximately 7 million people die each year as a result of diseases resulting from tobacco consumption,” the organization says, “More than 80% of these deaths occur in developing countries. Tobacco is a risk factor for 6 of the 8 leading causes of death. Nearly 12-13 lakh people die every year in India due to diseases related to tobacco use. Nearly 30% of cancers in India are related to tobacco use.”
No doubt, a majority of the cardiovascular diseases and lung disorders are attributed to tobacco. Tobacco use by pregnant women leads to low birth weight babies, still births and birth defects. While BSS has been working in the tobacco control programme for over 6 years, the focus lies on 6 districts of Uttarakhand with the support of The Union South-East Asia and Health Department-State Tobacco Control Cell. The organization is working towards focused intervention on Smoke-free and Tobacco-free compliance, TAPS ban and protecting minors through provisions of COTPA compliance in the state.
BSS engages stakeholders through workshops on tobacco control legislation. This helps in the implementation of the COTPA provisions in the State. It spreads awareness on the harmful effects of Tobacco. Through combined efforts of the Health department and BSS, Tehri district was declared smoke-free on January 26, 2015. Similarly, Mussoorie was declared smoke-free in the year 2018 on World No Tobacco in 2018. By Efforts of Balajee Sewa Sansthan with collaboration of Health, police, Tourism and other departments Mahakumbh Haridwar 2021 and Chardham Yatra 2022 of Uttarakhand declared tobacco free where “No use, No sale and No advertisement” of tobacco product was allowed during the event.
To protect children and the youth at large, BSS has implemented the guidelines of tobacco free education institution (TOFEI) along with the department of health and education of Uttarakhand. BSS is working with the department of urban development to prohibit the marketing, manufacturing, storage, packaging and processing of any tobacco products in Uttarakhand without a license. Under such provisions, even licensed vendors will be required to comply with the provisions set in the cigarettes and other tobacco products act (COTPA) 2003 and the juvenile justice act, 2015. Under these provisions, the sale of any product that is primarily targeted to children like biscuits and sweets will be prohibited in shops licensed to sell tobacco products. Estimates suggest this order would protect more than 10 million people from the harms of tobacco, and restrict opportunities for children to buy tobacco products.
Recognizing the efforts in implementation of tobacco control legislation, the Health Department of the Uttar Pradesh Government selected BSS to conduct school programmes in Bijnor, Shamli and Saharanpur district in 2016-17. The NGO was entrusted to conduct awareness sessions and workshops in Government/Public Schools on the harmful effects of smoking and tobacco use on health. The objective of course, was to prevent the initiation of smoking among adolescents. In last 6 years 910 schools/colleges declared tobacco free in which 176331 students while 6320 teachers sensitized and taken oath to not use any type of tobacco product in his/her life and this campaign still going on.
Balajee Sewa Sansthan started the ‘No one sleep hungry’ project after the announcement of the lockdown to provide food support to most vulnerable families in Dehradun and Haridwar districts of Uttarakhand. Under the current circumstances, the lowest strata of the society, comprising daily wage workers, construction workers, contract labourers, street vendors, patients suffering from acute health ailments (TB & HIV AIDS) have been the worst hit. These groups have lost the only source of their income and have no means to make ends meet or provide food for their families. BSS also began its relief service by providing dry ration support to most affected people. Till date, BSS has served and delivered grocery kits to 22 500 families. Organization selecting 150 Poorest TB and HIV Patients and providing him nutrition support with dry ration for whole families every month as TB free India Campaign.
Awadhesh Kumar Founder of Balajee sewa Sansthan is the members of various government department comittees and recognised by many awards at state and national level by Government and other organization on his grass root level work Impact.