Chetna Vikas

The Anandshala Programme focuses on empowering adolescent girls in Jharkhand's Deoghar and Madhupur blocks through 146 schools. It ensures regular attendance, language skills, and positive teacher-student relationships. Transforming teachers into change leaders, it enhances the education system and promotes 21st-century skills. Emphasizing quality education and life skills, the programme seeks to delay early marriages and pregnancies. It employs strategies like creating change leaders from officials, technology use, and advocacy. With an Early Warning System, enrichment activities, parental engagement, and the impactful Ab Meri Bari Campaign led by 25 champions, it raises awareness and advocates gender equality.

Through its NABARD-Integrated Tribal Development Fund(WADI) initiative, Chetna Vikas addresses the challenges faced by Jharkhand's farmers due to monsoon variability, soil moisture limitations, and rugged terrain. Recognizing the vulnerability of resource-poor communities to invest in costly inputs, the organisation promotes the WADI approach, aimed at diversifying income sources and enhancing productivity for tribal families. This method involves cultivating compatible combinations of fruits, vegetables, pulses, cereals, medicinal plants, and agroforestry on the same land, maximizing land utilization and income. The programme, supported by NABARD, has been successfully implemented in 11 villages of Dumka District, with each family allocated one acre of land for cultivating a blend of mango, guava, and multipurpose plants, imparting knowledge of organic farming and multi-cropping to 300 participating families.

Collaborating with ChildFund India, Chetna Vikas strives to secure a dignified life for vulnerable children and youth. Its initiatives encompass health, quality education, livelihood stability, and empowerment. Covering 82 villages across three districts in Jharkhand and Bihar, it fosters child and youth clubs, empowers child participation, enhances education through training, coaching, and improved libraries. Youth receive life skills, vocational training, and agricultural knowledge. Its approach emphasizes child protection, reducing early marriages, and envisioning a child marriage-free future. Chetna Vikas is committed to nurturing comprehensive development from childhood to adulthood.

Chetna Vikas is engaged in a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project in collaboration with various organisations to enhance child protection systems in India. The project spans two phases: the first focuses on building a foundation of deep learning, community-driven planning, and inter-agency coordination, while the second entails community-driven action. Implemented in three villages, the project aims to understand communities better, facilitate inclusive planning for child protection, and foster collaboration among agencies for stronger child protection mechanisms. Notably, the approach has led to more inclusive community decision-making, with marginalized voices being heard, and the identification of child marriage as a priority concern. OAK Foundation supports this initiative and is committed to addressing global issues, including those affecting disadvantaged populations in India's Jharkhand and West Bengal regions.

Chetna Vikas is actively implementing the 'Jharkhand Inclusive Education Program' in Dumka district's ten blocks, funded by Sightsavers International. This initiative strives to ensure all students, including those with disabilities, are embraced in regular classrooms, and receive the necessary support for learning. Collaborating with Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, the programme focuses on quality education for disabled children. Simultaneously, the 'Jharkhand Social Inclusion Project' aims to enhance the socio-economic standards of persons with disabilities through various livelihood activities, aiming for comprehensive development. The programme enrols visually impaired children in schools, providing them with Braille education, orientation mobility, and ICT skills. Regular teacher training, home visits, awareness campaigns, and Government coordination play vital roles, in working towards inclusive education and well-being for visually impaired children.