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Feed the Hungry and Restore Hope

Like all proud Indians and NRIs, we too, want to make India a better country. Even after the typically fierce “but India has a great history” retort, we look down embarrassed and helpless in terms of our rural youth being misguided and unemployed. The education system in rural India suffers both on poor infrastructure as well as an abysmal quality of education.A short clip above gives an overview of our work. Also there are related articles by Dr. Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director, IIM Indore. We have been very lucky to have had the stalwarts from the education &amp; social entrepreneurship sector (Professors from IIM Indore, Bangalore, Udaipur &amp; TISS; Caring Friends, Mumbai, Other NGO entrepreneurs like Vinayak Lohani) and tie-ups with institutions like Head-Held High &amp; Goonj Delhi) guide us through our journey of trying to bring around this paradigm shift. 
 We need your contribution to help the youth realize their dreams. Lets together give them our support and guidance and do our part in giving back to the society we feel proud to be a part of!SSES through its educational initiative SSISM empowers the rural youth with access to quality higher education and employment opportunities. It offers graduation courses with transportation to rural students from the interiors of Madhya Pradesh (70 KM radius). Free computer access education is provided to school children. Special focus is on girl education and parent counseling. Out of 1050 students; 70% are girls, few being university toppers. SSES provides placement &amp; entrepreneurship opportunities to students by exposing them to current industry needs every 6 months via industry visits, training, updated curriculum, vocational training etc. Spoken English classes from Head-Held High, Bangalore headed by CNN IBN Awardee aims to bridge the crucial communication gap that poses a big challenge of these students. 
 SSES target to impact minimum 10,000 direct beneficiaries per year. These include students, their families and all who wants to become self reliant.Since 2010; we have imparted courses &amp; training's to nearly 6000 people. A paradigm shift from being aloof to being aware and focused to parents encouraging their girls to study and become independent have been our key achievements. Some of the achievements are: 1050 total students, 60% girls from 200 villages, 4000+ villagers trained in the basics of computers, 10+ entrepreneurship projects, 14 university toppers, 3 university sports captain and 70+ placements in national and multi-national companies.SSISM alumnis being role models, girls making an exemplary mark by being independent and proving themselves, Emergence of local entrepreneurs. Girls who decide to stay in village are much sought after as teachers at primary and secondary schools, allied industries and occupations like dairy farming, retailing, etc. They are proving to be more aware and dedicated for their family occupation, like farming.

Empower rural youth for a brighter future

Commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) is one of the most disparaging crimes crippling India’s social development and economy and threatening the dignity and security of women and children. In this context, the southern states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are no exception. These states continue to constitute the core destination areas for the victimization of trafficked women and children for economic profiteering at the cost of their human rights. Despite the absence of official statistics on CSE in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, civil society organisation estimates suggest that one out of every four victims rescued from CSE is a child and 60 per cent of all rescued children from CSE are HIV positive. Further, 75 per cent of females in the Telugu region between the ages of 15-35 years are found to be engaged in sex work.[1] Reports in the print and digital news media also indicate that sex trafficking of both vulnerable women and children is progressively on the increase. Given the scale of the issue, the government has not placed due attention and priority on the rescue and rehabilitation of CSE victims in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. In addition, there is a lack of systems and capacity to conduct MEL and research, weak and uncoordinated monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) of existing programs and no investment in empirical research to understand gaps and issues. Rehabilitation of trafficking survivors remains the most persistent challenge within the current legislative framework. Rescued victims require specialised support services to recover from and overcome the years of trauma-induced mental health issues, physical atrocities and social stigma attached to being former sex slaves. In the absence of statutory rehabilitation that ensures complete and sustainable reintegration into society, CSE victims, even if removed temporarily from their immediate environment marked by social, economic, sexual, psychological and physical extremities, are highly likely to end up in the same vicious cycle of sex trafficking, either through the nexus of same perpetrators or new agents who are on the lookout for feeding on their aggravated vulnerabilities for the second time around. On-ground organisations lament that CSE victims who only receive piece-meal assistance and support post-rescue remain uncertain about their future prospects in absence of hope for alternate opportunities to sustain themselves and end up going back to sex slavery. The circumstances surrounding this lack of choice with CSE victims are marked by haplessness and isolation due to lack of specialised support services for destigmatizing their identities and acute availability of comprehensive rehabilitation measures. Given the scale of CSE in both Telugu states, the following issues have emerged:<ul><li>There is no comprehensive protection and rehabilitation policy in place for CSE victims, either in the states or at the national level. Nor there are adequate budgetary allocations in the two states. In fact, Andhra Pradesh does not even have a budget line for CSE rehabilitation facilities and services.  </li><li>Rescue operations for removing victims of CSE from situations of abuse are ill-conceived and ill-executed due to a lack of comprehensive understanding of the crime and tactical expertise and a lack of industry standards for conducting such raids and rescues.</li><li>Institutional infrastructure (shelter homes/protective and rehabilitative homes/child care institutions) for rehabilitation and reintegration of victims of CSE is insufficient and severely ill-equipped to address their complex needs for recovery and effective, holistic rehabilitation, whose numbers are advancing with each passing year. As per an article published in the Indian Journal of Gender Studies, there is a lack of comprehensive protection services such as psychological counselling from trained counsellors through the Ujjawala and Swadhar schemes. This issue was further exacerbated in 2014 after the bifurcation of the Telugu region between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana 2014, where most rehabilitation homes fell under Telangana’s territory and Andhra Pradesh was left with close to none. At present, both states have 5 shelter homes each, for women.</li><li>There is a severe gap in meaningful and relevant data to even gain an understanding of the gaps and barriers in the rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration of CSE victims. A study suggests that though there is abundant literature on trafficking worldwide as well as in South Asia, we still do need region-specific and locally-contextualised data that will yield theoretical and empirical insights, and lead to relevant policy interventions.</li></ul> 
 Sex trafficking is a multi-dimensional problem especially with regard to its impact on the lives of the victims. The tormenting experiences of being betrayed, sold and exploited by the people around (largely includes pimps, brothel owners and customers) takes a long-term toll on the victims. This traumatic situation combined with sexually transmitted diseases, chronic depression, suicidal tendencies, alcohol and drug addiction complicates the cycle of rehabilitation. Hence, the process of rehabilitation has to be an interlinked chain of psychological healing, vocational empowerment, economically viable and socially acceptable. In order to address the physical, emotional and psychological brokenness of the sex-trafficked victims, Prajwala formulated a holistic, therapeutic approach to support the rehabilitation process. The overall aim is to help the victims to overcome their trauma by providing them with psychological and coping skills and tools required to regain stability to lead a normal life. Therefore, the rehabilitation in Prajwala is a blend of psychological healing, civic empowerment and social identity. The three-pronged stages of rehabilitation spearheaded by Prajwala include:<ul><li>Psychological Rehabilitation: Trauma Care, Counselling, Psychiatric Care</li><li>Economic Rehabilitation: Life-Skills, Employability Training, Education/Livelihood program</li><li>Civic Rehabilitation: Aadhar Card, Bank Account, Interim Relief, Compensation</li></ul>A therapeutic community as a safe shelter has been established that provides holistic rehabilitation and has been instrumental in the social reintegration support of thousands of victims 
 600 victims of sex trafficking will be supported every year

Therapeutic Community For Victims of Sex Trafficking

This is a sample description for Women Empowerment. For the purpose of testing I will use the word Women EmpowermentWomen EmpowermentWomen Empowerment.

Women Empowerment

This is a sample description for Livelihood. For the purpose of testing I will use the word LivelihoodLivelihoodLivelihoodLivelihood.

Livelihood

This is a sample description for Community & Rural Development. For the purpose of testing I will use the word Community & Rural DevelopmentCommunity & Rural DevelopmentCommunity & Rural Development.

Community & Rural Development

PRADAN is one of India’s foremost agencies working on large scale rural poverty alleviation. Given the deep deprivation in rural pockets, particularly among tribal and vulnerable groups, we promote sustainable livelihoods, integrated with work on issues of gender, WASH, Health &amp; Nutrition, Climate Change, Education &amp; Skilling, and Governance &amp; access to rights and entitlements. Founded in 1983, PRADAN has been at the forefront of innovations in rural development. PRADAN has played a design improvement role in all major programs like the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), National Rural Employment Programme (NREP), Swarnajayanti Gram SwarojgarYojana (SGSY), Nehru Rozgar Yojana (NRY), and National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) and MGNREGA to improve the field implementation of the Government of India’s (GoI) rural development programs. PRADAN is the National Support Organisation to NRLM, the flagship rural development programme. PRADAN has helped promote sectoral Institutions like Tasar Development Foundation (TDF) and National Smallholder Poultry Development Trust (NSPDT), for small landholders which are among the largest organized efforts in the country. PRADAN’s innovations are adopted by government and civil society organizations at the national, state and local levels. As of March 31, 2022, PRADAN works with 9,63,324 families in 9,127 villages spread across 40 districts, 115 Blocks in 7 States, ~65-70% of who belong to the most vulnerable groups such as dalits (SC/ST) and tribals and PVTGs (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups) (indigenous community). Along with this direct outreach, in collaboration with CSOs/Govt. dept., another ~1 million households were reached out to through various partnership projects. Our primary focus is to help people in marginalized communities (e.g. Small &amp; Marginal Farmers, Tribals &amp; Dalits, Minority Communities, Single Women, Widows, People Below Poverty Line, Women) develop their own skills and initiatives, instead of delivering services or solutions to them. We focus primarily on women because we believe that even people considered to be the most disadvantaged in society are capable of driving the change they need.

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Ankita Singh

Alaka Mohanty

Prakash Gupta

Prem Bhaskar

Disha Wahi

Barsha Mishra

Vijay Gupta

Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN)

This nonprofit is registered as a charitable trust under section 12A of India's Income Tax Act, 1961.

This nonprofit is registered under section 80G of India's Income Tax Act, 1961. This means you can deduct 50% of the donation you made through your tax return.

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As per the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) survey (in 2011), about 80% of India’s poor live in rural areas, and livelihood of most of them is dependent directly or indirectly on the performance of agriculture. The rural farm and non-farm incomes are interdependent such that a strong non-farm rural economy requires a vibrant agricultural economy.The COVID-19 outbreak exacerbated the suffering of small marginal farmers (SMF) as there was an absolute collapse of the rural economy - crops were not being harvested or if harvested were sold at throwaway prices as local haats and mandis were not functional. The farming community ran low on food stock and there was a huge erosion of whatever meagre savings they had. Across Eastern and Central Indian remote rural pockets, farmers are now are running out of capital for seeds, fertiliser’s and other inputs to sow the next batch of crops which feed their own families and the country. In this scenario, PRADAN with its direct presence in 10,000 villages of India across seven states and 500 professionals engaged in the grass-roots is in a unique position to ameliorate the aftermath of pandemic. Reviving the agriculture and allied sectors is now relevant and critical more than ever! Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and Agri-entrepreneurs (AEs) would be the key focus areas to promote and facilitate sustainable agriculture, thereby revitalizing the rural economy. 
 There is need to work with farmers with a ew paradigm. We would need to balance the need of immediate farm incomes by intensive chemical-based agriculture and on the other hand the need for adopting sustainable eco-friendly agriculture practices. PRADAN has the experience on both fronts and can help our farmers to move towards adopting sustainable agriculture. We would be working with 2,50,000 farmers over the next few years so that we can have a measurable impact at scale.With the loss of income and erosion of savings, SMFs, do not have sufficient capital to invest in the coming sowing season. FPOs or similar organized Farmer groups can play the role of providing inputs like seeds, fertilizers, ploughing and other land preparation services to start sowing/cropping process. PRADAN plans to help set up and support 100 such FPOs, who in turn would support around 4,00,000 SMFs through providing such inputs and services on credit. For the coming years, the focus would be on cultivation of cereals, oilseeds and pulses to ensure food security at the household level as well as contributing to the national food security. FPO’s can play an important role in mending the value chain and provide some market assurance to its farmers.PRADAN would also promote 5,000 AEs who would provide various services like custom-hiring centres for small farm implements, providing vegetable seedlings, para-vet services for small ruminants and poultry, and marketing services to the farmers of various commodities. Some of them would also produce organic manure and plant protection products to be sold to the SMFs to reduce their dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides and reduce input costs. 
 We seek to garner support of INR 30 Lakh for the aforementioned 3 areas through this campaign. Your contribution will complement, fortify, and strengthen the assistance we are currently receiving from our other donor partners for these initiatives. Through these holistic efforts, farmers would be facilitated to attain gross annual Income level of ~INR 80,000 which will take them above the poverty line, leading to a virtuous cycle of growth. We look forward towards your support and contribution for facilitating the revitalization of rural lives.

Rural Economy Revival Post COVID-19 - Focus on Livelihoods and Food Security

75% of rural India survives on Rs 33 per day. India ranks 100 among 119 countries on the Global Hunger Index (GHI). Hunger and poverty are more pronounced in the rural landscape amongst small landholders and landless families. An intermingling of multiple phenomena has given rise to deep farming distress in the rural populace: including land fragmentation, limited technical skills resulting in traditional agricultural practices, lack of crop diversification as well as tapping existing opportunities in cash crops. Rising cost of agricultural inputs, non-existent market linkages, lack of irrigation infrastructure and institutional support for the most vulnerable farming and landless groups further fuels disempowerment. 
 PRADAN aims to overcome hunger and poverty through engagement on livelihoods in remote villages of India. When PRADAN started working through Self Help Groups (SHGs) in the village of Debgaon in Chhattisgarh four years back, lack of year-round food security and little income from agriculture were the most pertinent issue in this Adivasi village. Over a course of engagement with the women of the village, a new method of agriculture, System of Root Intensification (SRI), was introduced in all crops. There was initial scepticism in the village about abandoning the age-old traditional methods. But an exposure to another block where PRADAN was working on food security and new technologies in cash crops had convinced Kumari Bai. There was a way out of the farming malaise that had engulfed her and other families in the village. What started as one woman adopting new farming methods, soon picked up by everyone in the village. Integrating both the traditional knowledge of Indian farmers and modern technologies, SRI practice was also introduced through the use of traditional indigenous seeds which are resistant to pest and disease and have high nutrition value. SRI, trellis based creeper cultivation in the village and a strategy of mixed-multi tier cropping pattern ensured doubling of cereal production with farmers selling their vegetables in the nearby market and beyond. 
 Unsurprisingly, it was Kumari Bai who was the first woman in her village to venture into the market to sell vegetables - many barriers of patriarchy and entrenched social norms broke that day. Farmers like Kumari and others now earn more than Rs 30,000 through vegetable cultivation through the Machan system of agriculture. A woman farmer in this village led to this transformation. In its operations across India, PRADAN supports more than 370,000 women for their livelihood improvements through agriculture, market linkages, livestock rearing, and forest-based activities, promotion of enterprises and natural resource management. 270,000 farmers adopted improved production methods (SRI, DSR etc.) of paddy and 120,000 farmers’ intensified diversification to pulses, vegetables and oilseeds for food security, nutrition and combating effects of climate change.

Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN)

Rural Economy Revival Post COVID-19 - Focus on Livelihoods & Food Security

Support Adivasi Women Farmers for Year Round Food Security & Enhanced Incomes

Feed the Hungry & Restore Hope

Empower rural youth for a brighter future

Therapeutic Community For Victims of Sex Trafficking

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