Jan Chetna Sansthan

The main objective of health initiatives is to reduce the IMR and MMR. JCS works towards capacity building and developing the understanding of the community to ask for better living conditions from the authority. Expecting and lactating mothers are also taken care of in this programme. Vaccination and immunisation of children and pregnant women was an inseparable part of this programme.

JCS has undertaken a long-term initiative known as the Tribal Self Rule Initiative (TSRI) in South Rajasthan which aims to empower tribal communities to assert their basic rights using the provisions of the "Panchayati Raj Extension to Scheduled Areas Act 1996" (PESA Act).
The TSRI is an extensive effort that covers all Scheduled Areas of Rajasthan. It focuses on capacity building, community mobilization, and organisation building in selected blocks. JCS provides support for networking and capacity building and actively engages in advocacy and lobbying for policy interventions on issues that significantly impact the lives of tribals. The goal is to preserve the peaceful and just governance of the village from external influences.

The primary aim of this program is to offer education to girls who are illiterate and not attending school in various regions of Rajasthan. While the main goal is to integrate these girls into the mainstream education system, in areas with no nearby schools, the programme's focus shifts to certifying these girls through the Rajasthan Board, providing essential support. Objectives of the programme include granting educational access to young girls, ensuring their effective learning and development, and actively engaging with the community to transform the perception of girls' education. Strategies involve identifying villages or hamlets with out-of-school or illiterate girls, establishing community schools to reach these girls, delivering high-quality education through rigorous teacher training, providing personalized support to help each girl reach her full potential, and addressing barriers to girls' education.

Awareness-building activities have been undertaken to engage the general population with various programmes organised at the local and district levels, including election awareness campaigns. These efforts have led to improved cooperation and support for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) in accessing benefits. The Department of Social Justice & Empowerment, in collaboration with JCS, organised four camps in two blocks of the Sirohi district, where many PwDs received medical certificates, pensions, rail passes, and assistive devices. Empowered Disabled People Organizations (DPOs) are actively advocating for the rights of individuals with disabilities. The project involves one district-level DPO and two block-level DPOs, with a total of 360 disabled people becoming members of the District-level DPO.

JCS is actively working to improve the status of women in society. The organisation encourages women to participate in village development. It promotes awareness of laws related to domestic violence and inhuman treatment, urging women to attend Gram Sabhas and actively engage in village meetings. To support widows, single, and separated women, JCS has established the Ekal Naari Shakti Sangathan in Abu Road block, Sirohi. This group strives to ensure a dignified life for single women, helping them access benefits like widow pensions and other government schemes. JCS also promotes the formation of Self Help Groups among women to enhance their economic independence. Mahila Panchayats are organised at the village level, with more than 500 women linked to the programme. The organisation conducts legal literacy workshops, builds the capacity of community-based paralegal caseworkers, and offers legal aid and counselling to women facing crisis situations.

The most marginalised tribal communities in Rajasthan are the Garasiyas and Bhils. This area frequently faces migration to neighbouring Gujarat due to droughts and a lack of alternative livelihoods, while tribes in southern Rajasthan confront chronic starvation. The Government runs various food security schemes, including the Public Distribution System, Below Poverty Line, Antyodaya, Annapurna Anna Yojna etc. However, issues persist in their targeting, budget, and implementation. Recognising the pressing needs of tribal communities, JCS actively participated in the ongoing right-to-food campaign & took initiatives to improve the BPL identification process and held the state accountable for the lack of accessibility to food security schemes thus playing a part in the national struggle for the passage of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which aims to provide purchasing power to the tribal poor, ensuring they have at least two meals a day.

Freedom of expression and the right to information are considered integral concepts in modern democracies. In democracies, the greater the access to information, the greater the responsiveness of the Government to the needs of the community. The right to information has been recognised as a fundamental human right, which upholds the dignity of all human beings. JCS being an organisation for people's awareness tried to sensitise people in the community to know about this Act and practice it. To address this concern many meetings and sammelans were organised from time to time thereby prompting people of Abu Road to seek information from different departments including Panchayats.