Marathwada Gramin Vikas Sanstha

CHILDLINE Project across India is supported by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS). MGVS has partnered in this project to be a nodal child protection agency in the country, providing child protection services to children in need of care and protection. MGVS works in close cooperation and coordination with district administration, judiciary, police, health departments, civil society, and other relevant organizations to ensure protection of the children from abuse. Any calls on issues concerning children to Childline 1098 are directed to MGVS for support and follow-up. Many of these calls pertain to child marriage, child labor, hunger, and distress among children. MGVS staff and volunteers are involved in counseling and directing them to relevant authorities for further follow-up or action.

The accountability framework proposed in the NHM is a three-pronged process that includes internal monitoring, periodic surveys and studies, and community-based monitoring - Community Action for Health (CAH) process.
The role of MGVS has been to strengthen the CAH process. The CAH is a process to get beneficiary feedback on government health services. An effective CAH enables the participation of community members in the assessment of health services. MGVS works with 11 PHCs - 6 in Vaijapur Block and 5 in Gangapur Block - that cater to 55 villages to build their capacities on CAH. Each of these PHCs has committees that monitor the health services. Regular meetings of the committees are held along with the beneficiaries to receive feedback on the services and monitor any corrective measures.
Block-level federations of the PHCs are also formed in Vaijapur and Gangapur blocks. These federations also meet regularly to monitor the health services of the PHCs, sub-centers, and any interventions through the block-level services. They also facilitate the selection and capacity building of Gram Arogya Doots to facilitate effective health services in the villages.

Marathwada is infamous for droughts, unseasonal rains, and farmer suicides in the country. In this context, MGVS has worked intensively in partnership with corporates, donors, government, other civil society organizations, and farmers to significantly bring a change in the farms and farmers.
Towards this end, MGVS has educated communities in 26 villages, helped build 43 CNBs with the participation of the communities, widened and deepened 47 streams and rivers, de-silted several water bodies to increase the water holding capacities, and recharge groundwater. Further, MGVS also enabled the communities to install 45 recharge shafts – technologies that could quickly recharge groundwater aquifers.
All these works have resulted in increased water availability for farming and household purposes in the villages. The increased water availability leads to a better quality of life, improved productivity, and incomes from farms. Almost 6448 households and 14578 hectares of land have benefited from these water conservation activities.

MOMENTUM Routine Immunization Transformation and Equity (MRITE) is a USAID-funded project aimed to increase the coverage of COVID-19 vaccination in Aurangabad, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Beed, and Nanded Districts of Maharashtra state. Since January 2022, MGVS has partnered with the MRITE initiative to facilitate vaccination reach among marginalized communities. This is being done through increased community mobilization and stakeholder engagement, awareness campaigns, facilitating vaccination camps, and enabling physical access to vaccination. These initiatives have led to better coordination among the Government, Civil society, District, Taluka, and village stakeholders, in planning and concerted actions for vaccination of the unreached.
During the crucial times of the COVID-19 pandemic, MGVS executed COVID relief activities in rural and urban areas of the Aurangabad District of Maharashtra by setting up COVID Care Centre (CCC) and distributing food and dry ratios kits to 6000 marginalized and vulnerable families.

Maharashtra is among the States with the highest prevalence of thinness among children as per the same report. The situation is more pronounced among the migrants in Maharashtra. The women and children are the worst hit as they work long hours, travel for days, and live in insecure conditions. The poverty, living conditions, and migratory lives, poses challenges for the families to ensure good nutrition particularly among the children.
MGVS is currently pursuing ways to ensure that children and women among the migrant families of Maharashtra can access their nutrition and health entitlements. In this context, MGVS has done a preliminary survey in the districts of Aurangabad, Beed, and Jalna – the districts that are both source and destination for migrant workers who are mostly involved in the harvest and transportation of sugarcane. During the next five years, MGVS will continue to work with community-based organizations, village committees, migrant worker families, decision-makers, and key stakeholders, in focused villages of these districts to strengthen ways to monitor nutrition and health and enable improved access to entitlements. It is hoped that the model established in this process will be integrated into government policies and interventions for a larger Impact.

The WASH project intends to introduce innovative techniques in schools to increase access to safe drinking water and engage the participation of children/ youth in 6 government schools in Solapur, Pune & Aurangabad districts of Maharashtra. In association with Chilean-based Plasma Water Solutions, Plasma Water Sanitation System (PWSS) unit will be installed in the 3 core schools. The school students are involved in adopting WASH practices and advocating them with their peers and communities. The students also be supported in their initiatives to address the pertinent environmental issues in their schools and communities.
Under this WASH Program, MGVS reached 4500 children in 6 government schools who have access to adequate water supply, hygiene kits, and hand washing stations. At least 900 children in 6 schools are engaged in sustainable development initiatives at school, individual, and community levels and document their actions such as WASH awareness, waste management, water management, organic farming, and tree plantation in Schools. 3 Students Committees are formed in each school, these committees are being trained to run the WASH activities and ensure the sustainability of the project. These student Committees are WASH Committee, Environmental Rights Committee, and Menstrual Hygiene Committee.

At a time when HIV prevalence rate was in the range of 7% in the community, MGVS initiated work with the government, female sex workers, and civil society to raise awareness and promote safe sex practices. Thanks to these efforts, the HIV prevalence is now down to 0.41%.
For the past almost two decades, MGVS has worked with the female sex workers,, vulnerable, bridge, and PLHIV populations to educate them on safe sex practices to prevent Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and HIV. The Peer Educators (PE), Health and Link Workers (LW) trained by MGVS, are from the target group and are constantly involved in sharing such knowledge with others in the target group. Presently, there are 56 PE, 20 LWS, and 20 health workers involved in imparting their knowledge on Prevention and control of STD & HIV/AIDS in 100 vulnerable villages and Aurangabad town. Activities such as Behavioral Change Communication (BCC), care and support, consistent and correct use of condoms, HIV testing, counseling, linkage and networking, Red Ribbon Club establishment, capacity building of Peers and field workers etc., are focused under this program.

The Tobacco Control which began as a project in 2018 is now on a mission mode with several partners – government administration, health department, and civil society, joining in for a tobacco smoke-free society. At present, more than 40 NGOs are part of this movement.
District Level Coordination Committees (DLCCs), with representatives from government administration, police department, civil society, academia, and NGOs, are formed in 18 districts of Maharashtra (Aurangabad, Nashik, and Pune Divisions) The DLCCs are steered by District Collector and aimed to monitor the sale, promotion, and use of tobacco products. There are a set of compliance measures as stipulated in the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) – for instance - adequate signage to prohibit tobacco use, location of points of tobacco sale away from educational institutions, prohibition of sale to minors, and such others. The Aurangabad and Hingoli districts of Maharashtra are more than 80% COTPA compliance while the rest are lagging but progressing towards compliance.
MGVS facilitates regular meetings of the DLCC and builds its capacities for Cigarette and other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) compliance measures. During this year, MGVS distributed about 10000 signage for administration and educational buildings in these districts and facilitates the DLCC to effectively monitor tobacco in the district. The police department is sensitized to the issues concerning tobacco and the ways to regulate it. As a result, the Enforcement Squads in the districts and blocks were successful in the regulation of tobacco sales. The increase in the fine collection in these districts is an indicator of effective monitoring.