Seva Mandir’s mission is to make real the idea of society
consisting of free and equal citizens who are able to come together
and solve the problems that affect them in their particular contexts.
The commitment is to work for a paradigm of development and governance
that is democratic and polyarchic.
Seva Mandir
seeks to institutionalise the idea that development and governance
is not only to be left to the State and its formal bodies like
the legislature and the bureaucracy, but that citizens and their
associations should engage separately and jointly with the State.
The mission briefly, is to construct the conditions in which citizens
of plural backgrounds and perspectives can come together and deliberate
on how they can work to benefit and empower the least advantaged
in society.
Dr
Mohan Singh Mehta a social worker and an educationalist, founded
Seva Mandir. Read
Moving
beyond education
From its inception, Seva Mandir has sought
to help the poor change their circumstances of deprivation. In
the early phase of Seva Mandir's work, the focus was on promoting
adult literacy among poor peasants. It was believed that with
literacy, the poor would become more aware of their rights and
entitlements. It was not long before Seva Mandir was made to realise
that this single-minded stress on literacy was not enough. The
organisation, therefore, extended the scope of its work to include
developmental programmes that would benefit people in economic
terms.
Giving
impetus to local governance
By the late seventies, people associated with Seva Mandir's programmes
had become popular and well respected within their communities.
Some of them successfully competed for elected office in the village
council and other tiers of local self-government. Seva Mandir
at that time felt that these developments would lead to improvements
in the functioning of the village councils and also in the government
agencies responsible for delivering development services. The
experience subsequent to their gaining office however belied expectations.
Most of the elected representatives, albeit sponsored by the community
of poor peasants, could not bring any meaningful change in the
institutions responsible for development. Their inability to change
these structures of governance was a consequence of the fact that
their substantive authority, control and negotiating power over
resources was dependent on getting along with authorities in the
higher echelons of the political and administrative structures.
By not conforming with those in the power structure they ran the
risk of losing what little support and patronage was available
for development from the State, and if they conformed they became
indistinguishable from the people they replaced on grounds of
their being corrupt and neglectful of the poor.
Building
village level groups
Looking to these structural problems and to the fact that the
nature of people's participation (in Seva Mandir's programmes)
had a patron client dimension to it, Seva Mandir tried to redress
these imbalances by building village groups in the early eighties.
The intention behind this was to enable villagers to demand accountability
from their representatives in the village councils and to pressurise
the government to expand the actual scope of people's entitlements.
These groups were also encouraged to solve their (community) problems
by co-operating among themselves. However, except for a few exceptions,
most of these groups were not able to generate sufficient pressure
to make a significant difference to their situation. Apart from
the fact of acute poverty, the villages in this region are small
and dispersed, which made co-ordinated action extremely difficult.
Thus while people lacked the institutions and resources to bring
about their own development, the hierarchical systems of the government,
even with the best intentions, were inherently incapable of responding
to the localised needs of the village groups.
Building
a village cadre of paraworkers
In the late eighties, Seva Mandir undertook to create additional
capacity at the level of the people. The key idea was that rather
than the poor having to depend only on the State to promote their
development and provide services, there should be alternative
institutional support for the poor to service their development
needs. Village Committees were set up to manage and monitor these
programmes and Seva Mandir systems geared up to respond to village
plans for development.
A cadre of village based professionals called paraworkers was
slowly built up in the fields of health, education, forestry,
childcare, community organisation, etc. They were provided training
in the requisite skills by Seva Mandir, and were given a small
stipend. Over time, many paraworkers have moved into formal leadership
positions through the Panchayats. Strong paraworkers have also
increased the community's ability to hold outside interveners
(such as Seva Mandir) more accountable.
Where
We Work
Seva Mandir operates in the southern part of Rajasthan. Seva Mandir's
work area encompasses 626 villages and 56 Urban Settlements. Majority
of these villages are located in Udaipur District. In total the
organisation reaches out to around 70,000 households, influencing
the lives of approximately 360,000 persons. The region is characterized
by rocky and hilly terrain of the Aravalli hill ranges, moderate
to low rainfall (400-600mm/year), and large temperature variations
(4-48 degree C).
The rural
population in this area consists primarily of tribal (68%) and
other disadvantaged communities, whose resource base is severely
depleted. People are dependent upon subsistence agriculture, animal
husbandry, and wage labour for their livelihoods. The absence
of genuinely empowering institutions through which citizens can
come together on an equal basis—particularly women, youths,
children, and lower-caste groups—presents a major impediment
to the development process. Without appropriate structures in
place at the village level, norms relating to the management of
common resources are abandoned, resulting in the degradation of
the natural resource base on which the people depend, and communities
remain too unorganized to work together for their common development.
Coupled with inadequate service delivery from the government and
the private sector, which almost systematically fails to respond
to local realities, this results in widespread deprivation in
terms of various factors critical to human well-being, particularly
in the areas of health and education.
Udaipur’s
literacy rate, as of the 2001 National Census, was 59.26%. However,
for the rural areas, the rate is much lower. The health parameters
for the women and children of Rajasthan rank amongst the worst
in the country, with extremely high levels of malnutrition, infant
mortality rate (IMR), and maternal mortality rate (MMR). The IMR
for South Rajasthan stands at 86.3 per 1000 live births. MMR for
Rajasthan stands at 670 cases per 100,000 live births. The region
is plagued by high incidence of tuberculosis (TB) and malaria,
at 420 cases per 100,000 of rural population and 4,458 cases per
100,000 of rural population respectively. Complete immunization
rates for children in our area stands at a dismally low figure
of 5%. 90% of children under 3 years are malnourished.
What we do
Seva Mandir seeks to institutionalise the idea that development
and governance is not only to be left to the State and its formal
bodies like the legislature and the bureaucracy, but that citizens
and their associations should engage separately and jointly with
the State.
This is achieved
through the following overlapping strategic objectives:
- To create
and strengthen institutions for development (at the village, organization
and society levels)
- To enhance
people’s capabilities for self-development (both at individual
and community level); and
- To create
sustainable improvements in the livelihoods base;
These three
objectives form the basis for Seva Mandir's three program sectors.
Each of these programs, in achieving its respective goals, is
also designed to build values and social capacities needed to
achieve development and democracy for the poor.
In 2003, Seva Mandir and the National Foundation for India (NFI)
embarked on a new initiative in Delwara, a small town situated
some 28km to the north of Udaipur. Seva Mandir has had a long
association with Delwara through the activities of Sadhna. Sadhna
has enabled many women...... read
more......
Youth Resource Centre Programme
The work with youth in Delwara, seeks to engage the youth in both
their own individual development and the development of Delwara
through a variety of interventions that will be outlined in this
paper. In the context of the work in Delwara, youth have been
perceived as a critical stakeholder group. They represent the
citizens and leaders of the future. By engaging the youth in a
process that help...... read
more......
Patchwork Programme - Sadhna
Nirmala lives in village Sisvi. She is in her early thirties and
has three children. Her husband works in an electronic shop in
Udaipur. He would spend all his money in liquor and would beat
his wife. The fodder and grain production from their agriculture
land was also not adequate. Nirmala therefore wanted to earn some
money on her own. She got to know...... read
more......
Seva Mandir
has three strategic focus areas:
1)
Enhancing people’s capability in terms of health, education
and gender equality.
2) Creating sustainable improvements in the livelihoods.
3) Strengthening village’s institutions for cooperation’s,
transparency, equity, justice and responsible citizens among the
community we work with. Read
More
Board of
Trustees
Ajay
S. Mehta, President, Board of Trustees
Mr Mehta is at present the Executive Director of National Foundation
of India, New Delhi. He was the chief executive of Seva Mandir
from April 1990 to March 1999 and the general secretary from 1986
to 1990. Mr Mehta has also been a consultant for the United Nations
Development Programme to evaluate poverty alleviation programmes
in the Middle East and Africa. He received a Bachelor of Arts
degree in economics from Yale University, and a Master of Philosophy
degree in economics, from Jawaharlal Nehru University. VB Eswaran,
Member , Board of Trustees VB Eswaran is a retired IAS officer.
He has served in Gujarat government as secretary in the public
works and finance departments; in the central government as director
in the prime minister's secretariat as adviser (energy), planning
commission, finance commission, and as adviser to the governor
of Gujarat.
He has been
associated with non-government and voluntary agencies in the fields
of natural resources management, rural and community development
and is also associated to many educational institutions in India.
He has chaired central government committees in the power, petroleum,
urban development and finance ministry.
Jagat S
Mehta, Member, Board of Trustees
Jagat S Mehta
was the president of Seva Mandir from 1985 to 1994. He was also
the former foreign secretary of the government of India. In addition
to this, he has been a part of special negotiating assignments
and special missions on behalf of the government. He has participated
in commonwealth conferences, Afro-Asian conferences and been a
member of state and governmental delegations. On 26 January, 2002,
he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the president of India.
Dr Prabhu
Lal Agarwal, Member, Board of Trustees
Dr Prabhu
Lal Agarwal is a consultant on steel plant operation and management,
and director of three diversified companies. He has a Ph.D. from
the University of Sheffield and a B.Sc. in metallurgy. He has
held various positions such as technical adviser, Krakatau Steel,
government of Indonesia, chairman, SAIL, GM and CEO, Rourkela
Steel Plant. He was assistant professor and reader at the Banaras
Hindu University.
Dr Agarwal
has won a number of awards. These include the Cross of the Order
of Merit - First Class. This was given to him by the President
of Federal Republic of Germany for turning around the Rourkela
Steel Plant. He has received the Platinum Medal and Tata Gold
Medal of the Indian Institute of Metals, and, finally, the National
Metallurgists Award of the government of India.
Mohan
Singh Kothari, Member, Board of Trustees
Mohan Singh
Kothari has a Masters in Engineering and Business Law from Louisiana
State University, USA. He has been a scientist and head of engineering
& design in CSIR National Institutions, adviser to the government
of Sikkim for development, director for industrial and technical
development, government of Sikkim, chief consultant for industrial
development in Punjab and founder GM of soyabean project in Rajasthan.
He was the
President of Seva Mandir from 1994 to 1997. He has participated
in the management of Ramakrishna Mission and is presently the
Chairman, Udaipur division for WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature
- India). He has notable publications in the fields of culture,
religion, history and public administration to his name.
Indu Kapoor,
Member, Board of Trustees
Ms. Indu Kapoor
is the Director for CHETNA Center for Health Education, Training
and Nutrition Awareness, Ahemdabad. She has recently joined as
a member of Board of trustees in 2003. Kanchan Chopra , Member,
Board of Trustees Ms. Kanchan Chopra is also a new member of our
Board of Trustees. She is Professor and Head of Department of
the Environmental and Resources Economics Unit of the Institute
of Economic Growth, New Delhi.
We look forward to your support
Seva Mandir seeks to build on the strong foundations it has created
in over 600 villages. Seva Mandir believes that the complex problems
facing the disadvantaged communities require complex and integrated
solutions. Seva Mandir works on almost all aspects of development
(education, health, environment, livelihoods, institutions, advocacy
etc)- and looks forward for partnerships in all or any of these
areas. You can support us both financially and through volunteering.
Read More
This last
year has been marked by many transitions. As India prospers in
the eyes of the world, international willingness to extend development
aid to development institutions in India is beginning to wane.
This is cause for concern for many institutions such as ours.
Seva Mandir, in this last one year, has had to curtail its field
programmes and adjust to the reduced availability of funds.
Another consequence
of the booming economy is the attrition of staff due to rising
salaries in the country. More and more people working for organizations
such as Seva Mandir are finding it difficult to resist the temptation
of taking up jobs that effectively triple their salaries. Adjusting
to the pressures of declining funding and staff attrition poses
a serious challenge. In response, Seva Mandir has started making
concerted efforts to adjust to these new realities. Fund-raising
has been started in the United States along the lines of the efforts
made by the Friends of Seva Mandir.....
Seva Mandir
Old Fatehpura, Udaipur - 313004,
Rajasthan, India
Phone: +91 294 2451041/2450960
Fax: +91 294 2450947
Email : info@sevamandir.org
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