Paramahamsa Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation

Paramhansa Foundation's model aims to eradicate poverty from rural India with spiritual, marketing and livelihood linkages. Paramhansa feels that rura Read morel India is affected by ignorance more than poverty. The high rate of migration from rural to urban areas has left so many villages bereft of not only people but also occupations, livelihood and life. Paramhansa has constructed villages which are based on innovation in four major aspects like Livelihood, Skill Development, Housing and Education. There are 7000 Paramhansa Villages which supply high-quality farm and non-farm products at discount prices. They maintain a balance between quality and low prices by utilizing surplus labour through productivity and non-farm diversification for monsoon dependent clusters and value addition concept for farm products. Under Housing, they use novel construction technologies to reduce the cost of construction by 25 per cent. They use soil-cement brick and solar panels in each house in the village and have rainwater harvesting and sewage treatment system in the village area. Under Education, they are providing activity based, affordable digital education through their modern school buildings. They are also familiarising the students with concepts like 'Internet of Things'. For Skill development, their collaboration with National Skill Development Corporation(NSDC) is yielding training of 900 people per annum in areas like farming hospitality, driving, teaching, hardware and software skills and hence, resulting in employment. Paramhansa Livelihood Centres are supported by Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) and provide 250 direct jobs through Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). The jobs are in domains like handloom, farmer markets, construction, rural BPOs, Handicrafts, dairy farming and organic farming.