Society for the Development of the Depressed (SDD)

SDD started functioning in 10 villages through non-formal education programmes in the year 1983. It was officially registered in the year 1989. The ma Read morein objective of SDD is "To help the Dalits to help themselves". Through its intensive educational and organisational efforts, SDD can extend its activities to 40 villages, which are situated in 3 panchayat unions of Peranamallur, Chetpet and Thellar of Tiruvannamalai District. In these villages, SDD has formed Ambedkar Women's Associations for Dalit youth and has assisted these associations in federating under the banner of "Rural Women's Self-Reliant-Movement". This movement addresses the issues of Dalits about their basic needs like drinking water, housing, burial ground, transportation, schools and primary health centres. It also addresses issues related to minimum wages and social discrimination. To effectively take up these issues, SDD is training regularly groups of young people in legal education, leadership skills and social analysis. SDD also trained a group of young women and men in street theatre skills and formed a street theatre group, which goes around the villages performing street theatre programmes, which serve as an effective medium of communication with the people. SDD realised that without the participation of youth, one couldn't succeed in solving the problems of the community. From the year 1999 SDD has involved itself in educating and organising the Dalit youth in the villages. Through these initiatives so far, it has formed youth associations in 10 villages where the youth actively look into development issues of their village communities. The youth groups have also taken up a step to join the young girls to take up saving and credit schemes in 5 villages. The young women have been trained in legal issues and community health issues with an emphasis on traditional medical practices. Every year SDD is training a group of 60 students, both boys and girls who are from an impoverished background and give them specialized coaching to complete their High School studies. They are from the 9th standard and are aged 14 to 15 years. During these coaching classes, they are also given the skill education to prepare them to take up development activities in future in their respective village communities.