VINOBA SEWA ASHRAM

ABOUT US:-

Vinoba Sewa Ashram was founded in 1980 with the blessings of Mahatma Gandhi’s spiritual successor, Acharya Vinoba Bhave, at Brahma Vidya Mandir, Panwar, Wardha in Maharashtra. The guiding force behind VSA is noted Sarvodaya leader Nirmala Deshpande.

The founders Vimla Behan and Ramesh Bhaiya choose a neglected and criminal village Ban Ka Tara, 11 km from Shahjahanpur towards Sitapur on Delhi-Lucknow highway for setting up the ashram headquarters. The ashram began under a thatch erected on a piece of land used as crematorium and gradually people got involved with the ashram. Today the ashram stands is spread over 11 hectare land and carries out host of activities for the development of the most neglected area.

The beginning was really tough as the residents of Ban Ka Tara were involved in distilling illicit liquor and host of other crimes. The breakthrough came when Vimla Behan won confidence of the women through cutting and tailoring classes running almost for one year. Having done this, she got success in putting an end to illicit brewing of liquor with the cooperation of the very same women whom she taught tailoring. Ban Ka Tara residents were now ready to move on the path of progress. The name of the village was changed from Ban Ka Tara to Bartara.

Vinoba Sewa Ashram extended its work in three fields: education, health and self-reliance. Several experiments in these fields were done to empower rural women with the belief that if a woman of household was made aware and put on the path of progress, entire family will develop. Gradually this campaign of ‘human service’ was extended to ‘animal service’. Later three more dimensions of service were added: ‘mother service’, ‘cow service’ and ‘land service’.

Recognizing village as the base of development, Vinoba Sewa Ashram has made considerable progress during its over 29 years’ journey of service to the mankind. It has conducted several types of programmes for the welfare of the rural poor and won their hearts. An effort has been made to create an environment in which each villager recognised ashram as its family and each ashram resident recognised each villager a part of his family.

Through a series of interventions, health facilities for the rural women, education for their children and means of income generation for the family have been made available.

Registration Details

Vinoba Sewa Ashram is registered under the relevant statutes:

·        Section 21 of the Societies Registration Act, 1860

·        Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 1975

·        Section 80-G of the Income Tax Act, 1960

VSA is also registered with the Animal Welfare Board, Khadi and Village Industries Board and All Indian Council for Naturopathy.

Work Culture

Vinoba Sewa Ashram has a transparent work culture. All the members of the ashram work in a team in a friendly manner. Every Member contributes their strength for welfare of rural poor population. In the premises so many worker families are have their quarters for stay. And male and female workers have their separate hostels.

Vision

·        Organising the rural poor communities for reconstruction of village community on the principles of non-violence and collective efforts

·        Promoting village-based cottage industries and crafts for self-reliance in rural areas

·        Initiating women actions through education and health awareness

·        To inculcate the spirit of voluntarism in youth for social cause

Mission

·        To bridge the gap between the rich and the poor people of villages

·        To provide opportunity to live better life in the society with traditional aspects

·        Empowerment of women to make them a helping hand for the family by undertaking income generation activities

·        To develop the skills of women by arranging dialogues among rural masses

Objectives

·        To re-construct and develop villages through collective efforts and constructive works

·        To mobilise resources for establishment of cottage industries in the villages and make them self-reliant

·        To enhance participation in education, health and self-reliance of rural women

·        To develop voluntarism for over all social development of the youth

Physical Resources

Vinoba Sewa Ashram has got campus in two blocks of land, measuring 11 hectares.

The campus has following infrastructure:

·        ADMINISTRATIVE BUILDING: Vinoba Sewa Ashram Administrative Building have the Office of Founder, Director, Secretary, Governing Board Room, Different projects offices and Account Section. 

·        TATHAGAT GUEST HOUSE :          Tathagat guest house is well furnished and with a capacity  of 3 air-cooled rooms.

·        WORKING WOMEN HOSTEL :Women’s hostel with a capacity to lodge 60 participants. Those alone, unmarried and Divorced women’s work in ashram are also stay in that building. We are use this building for Women’s delegates from different trainings.

·        WORKING MEN HOSTEL: Men’s hostel with a capacity to lodge 72 participants. A Entertainment media room is also in that building.

·        GEETA BHAVAN: A big meeting hall with a capacity to seat 200 people. Well furnished and electronic equipment is enabled.

·        AHINSHA CONFERENCE HALL:A well furnished Conference hall with a capacity to seat 50 participants.

·        CHINTAN HALL: Chintan hall (meeting hall) with a capacity to seat 30 participants.

·        TRAINING HALLS: Five training halls with differing capacity to seat 20 to 100 participants

·        Training centre for income generation activities with six halls

·        PRATHNA STHAL: Prayer hall with a capacity to seat 200 people 

·        SARVODAYA LIBRARY: A well organized Library with so many books on Sarvodaya, Health issues and Rural development related issues.  

·        30 residences for workers The following facilities are available inside the campus:

·        VINOBA SWASTHYA KENDRA: Vinoba Swasthya Kendra is a hospital with 10 beds and offering eye care, dental and Homeopathic treatment

·        RURAL MART : A shop for Self Help Groups production. Rural Mart is  promoted by NABARD.  

·        Primary Health Centre Bank of Baroda Branch

·        State Bank of India Branch only for Self Help Groups.

·        Ayurvedic Dispensary

·        Post Office

·        DOT Clinic

Human Resources

VSA has nearly 230 full time workers, 270 part time workers and almost 600 volunteers. This makes the human resource at 1,100.

Expertise

VSA has developed expertise in education, health and income generation sectors. These skills are in implementation, training and presentations.

In its initial days, Vinoba Sewa Ashram observed that only a few children attend schools because of illness and abject poverty in the area. This resulted in designing a number of interventions for the community, mainly children and women:

·        Education

·        Health

·        Income Generation

·        Sustainable Agriculture

Keeping in tune with the best Indian traditions, the ashram does ‘sewa’ (service) to different segments. These sewas include ‘manav sewa’ (service of humans), ‘matri sewa’ (service of mothers), ‘gram sewa’ (service of animals), ‘bhoomi sewa’ (service of land) and ‘gau sewa’ (service of cows) and .

Vinoba Sewa Ashram began its activities with educational activities when in 1981 it established Vinoba Bal Vidya Kendra at Roza Railway Colony in Shahjahanpur.

Vinoba Sewa Ashram Inter College

In 1984 Vinoba Sewa Ashram made arrangement to provide primary education at Bartara village in Bhawalkheda development block. This primary school has now become an Intermediate college. Both these educational institutions are being run with local contribution. This goes on to show that cheap education may be made available to the children in resource less areas even without government support.

Girls Primary Education Programme (Jyoti Project)

An effort was initiated in 1997 for providing primary education to girls in 64 villages of Pihani development block of Hardoi district with support from CARE. In 40 hamlets of the block without any educational facility, arrangements for education for children, particularly girls, in the age group 6 to 14 years, were started through ‘Formal Education Centre – FEC – Our school’. As a part of the efforts, 14 ideal angawadi centres, 75 government primary schools, 108 mothers’ groups and 40 centre management committees were constituted. The project had two major strategies: one, to create demand for primary education in the community, and, two, to ensure supply of quality education.

Adult Education Programme

In addition to children, the ashram has targeted other sections of the society to make them educated. It ran 90 education centres for adults in Bhawalkheda development block of Shahjahanpur district under a scheme initiated by the Ministry of Education, Government of India. The ashram had several achievements to its credit.

Short Educational Programmes (Condensed Courses)

Short educational programmes were run at Roza and Akarra Rasoolpur from 1982 to 1984 under the auspices of the State Social Welfare Advisory Board. This intervention enabled rural women to acquire High School level education in two years time. Similarly, primary education was provided to rural women in Jarsaini village in Badaun district from 1987 to 1989 and from 1996 to 1998.

To make the rural women aware of their rights, training camps were organised in 10 villages of Bhawalkheda, Kant and Dadraula development blocks of Shahjahanpur with support from the Central Labour Board, Nagpur.

Sanskar Project

A project titled ‘Samskar Project’ was run to impart quality, complete and cultured education to the children. Apart from education, the project sought to empower the community by organising it and making it aware on health and environmental cleanliness. This was financed by DSCL, Azbapur. This project was implemented in Pasgawan Block of Kheri district.

Vinoba Prabandan Sansthan

This institution imparts education in management and allied health sciences for self-employment of the trainees. The sansthan is being run as a distance education study centre of Allahabad Agriculture Institute, Deemed University Allahabad.

To improve health of the women and children and bring about decline in maternal and child death rate, Vinoba Sewa Ashram, is implementing/has implemented a number of health projects:

Khushhali Project (Kheri District)

This project is being implemented with support from the corporate major DSCL Group, Ajbapur Sugar Complex, Kheri district. The project seeks to ensure that each person of the village remains free from disease, each child remains healthy and no child remains malnourished. For this cent per cent immunization of the children is being ensured. The villagers are being associated with income generation activities and linked with animal rearing and sustainable agriculture.

Integrated Nutrition Health Project (Pilibhit District)

This project is being implemented with support from CARE – INDIA. The main objective of INHP III is build the capacity of community especially pregnant women, Lactating mothers and mothers of children below two years regarding the basic information which will lead to better health in short term and reduce IMR and MMR in long term with improvement in Malnutrition situation. This Project is implemented in all seven development blocks of pilibhit district.

Radha Project

This project was implemented with the support of SIFPSA in all the development blocks of Shahjahanpur district. The project entailed imparting training to 13,830 village health committee members belonging to 922 village health committees and in turn sensitising the community about health issues. The main objectives of the project were: the village health and welfare committee members understand their work and responsibilities and implement the same in the villages; the members understand health services available at the tehsil and district level; and the members extend help to local health workers for preparing and implementing health schemes. Efforts were made to enable the village residents prepare their health schemes themselves. Development department of Shahjahanpur extended technical support and guidance to the project.

Aan Project

This project was implemented with the support of UNICEF in all the development blocks of Shahjahanpur and Pilibhit districts. Under the project, the community was made aware on promotion of iodised salt through children.

Prema Project

Implemented through the financial support of SIFPSA, this project entailed imparting training to women gram panchayat representatives of the village and bringing about a decline in the largest problem of the rural communities – maternal and infant mortality rate. Women were made aware about their rights and duties under the project.

The earlier projects in health sector were: Kastoori project, Devki project and Rachna project. The Kastoori project was implemented with support from SIFPSA and was aimed at promotion of family welfare programme. This was implemented in Bhawalkheda and Dadraul development blocks. Under the Devki projects training was imparted to 2,120 traditional birth attendants in all the villages of Shahjahanpur district and to 968 TBAs in all the villages of Pilibhit district. The Rachna project entailed improvement in the health and nutrition level of women and children; make them aware of sexually transmitted diseases; and strengthen aanganwadis. This project was implemented in three development blocks of Pilibhit districts – Bisalpur, Bilsanda and Marauri. This project was supported by CARE.

INCOME GENERATION:

In line with the philosophy of Sant Vinoba Bhave, spiritual successor of Mahatma Gandhi, Vinoba Sewa Ashram has promoted khadi as a mean of employment generation. Production of khadi cloths began in the Ashram in 1984. For this six takla charkha cotton is used for spinning and shirt and coating material is produced.

Swawlamban Charkha

Two spindle 200 spinning wheels (charkha) and have been arranged from Akhil Bharat Krishi Gau Sewa Sangha, Gopuri, Vardha, and made available for Rs 1,000 each to such families who have taken a vow to use the cotton thread in their homes. But these families have arranged their Rs 1,000 contribution by selling the cotton thread. An arrangement has been made to enable the women preparing the cotton threads get cloth weaved by paying charges to the weavers. Gradually, the ashram is promoting self-reliance in cloths.

Khadi Production and Sale Centre

A centre has been established in the Vinoba Sewa Ashram compound for khadi sale. The ashram organises Shahjahanpur Khadi Mahotsava every year from January 30 to February 12 in the overall guidance of Khadi and Village Industries Board. Khadi producers from Uttar Pradesh and various other states participate in this mahotsava.

Gram Shri Food Processing Unit

To further promote rural industries, Gram Shri Food Processing Unit has been established in the ashram campus for pickle production. A flour mill and oil extraction unit has also been established in the ashram campus to make quality flour to the people at reasonable prices and make available broken grains for the cows in the ashram.

Saras Bhandar

These rural produce are sold from Saras Bhandar situated at the Vikas Bhawan at the district headquarters. Goods like pickles, honey, soaps, washing powder, aonla produce, dalia, spices, druggets, etc., produced by the groups are sold from this outlet. The space for this outlet has been made available by the district administration.

Vermi-Compost Unit

At present VSA is engaged in the preparation of vermi-compost. A unit of 25 women looks after this unit. Cow dung from the cows housed in Vinoba Gau Sewa Sadan, leaves available in the rural areas  and earthworms are used for producing vermi-compost. Nearly 2,000 quintals of vermi-compost is produced every year. This is a quality organic manure.

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE:-

This programme entails:

·        Promotion of diversification in agriculture

·        Appropriate use of local resources

·        Coordination of home, field and agriculture

·        Use of traditional technical knowledge for enhancing crop production

·        Organization of small and marginal farmers.

The activities include:

·        Sustainable agriculture development – In this activity 15 farmers are selected for promoting of organic agriculture

·        Sustainable agriculture literacy – This literacy is for school children and farmers of villages

·        Ashram established a Kisan Vidyalaya (farmers’ school) for giving the best knowledge by resource persons and giving tools and instruments of agriculture for crop yielding

·        Promotion of diversification in agriculture

·        Use of traditional technical knowledge for enhancing crop production

·        Organisation of small and marginal farmers

As demonstration, the ashram produces organic grains without use of chemical fertilizers. Particularly, wheat and rice are raised this way. Some of the pulses are also processed this way.

Self-Reliance

A number of steps have been taken towards self-reliance of the rural communities:

v  Training to women in stitching and embroidery at Roza town of Shahjahanpur district in 1980 through Shilp Kala Kendra

·        Training to 400 women in use of new model spinning wheel for cotton thread making with support from Khadi and Village Industries Department, Government of India, in 1984

·        Cloth weaving training to 30 women of Sarhi village of Bhawalkheda village in 1991

·        Carpet weaving training to 300 women with support from Oxfam (India) Trust and Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology (CAPART), enabling women to earn Rs 100 a day

·        Tat patti weaving training at ashram

·       Katha embroidery training to 30 Bangladeshi women

Sustainable Agriculture Network in Uttar Pradesh (SAN–UP)

VSA produces organic grains without use of chemical fertilizers. Particularly, wheat and rice are raised this way. Some of the pulses are also processed this way. This is demonstrated to district level NGOs so they can promote organic farming in their areas of operation. As a result, a district level network by the name of Sustainable Agriculture Network in Uttar Pradesh (SAN-UP) has come into existence.