Janvikas

Our Vision                                                                                                                

We dream of new social order where the under privileged and marginalized people are empowered to freely discover and develop their own potentialities, powers and resources and exercise their rights and duties for the integral growth of themselves and others on the march towards a self reliant, secular, democratic society.

Our Mission

To work for the creation of a conductive environment for the self-sustained and integral development of people, especially for those who are discriminated and marginalized on the basis of class, caste, creed, and gender and those who are deprived, exploited and suffer injustice because of ignorance, illiteracy, poverty and unemployment. We pay special attention to unorganized women laborers, working children, unemployed youth, migrants and nomadic people.

Target group

*          Migrant job seekers in Indore

*          Those who lost in their race for academic      careers (Drop-outs)

*          Those who seek onward mobility in               professional skills

*          Youth -uneducated and unemployed

Goal

Training and guidance of youth in technical, mechanical and professional education leading to career discernment, employment, self-employment and entrepreneurship.

Objectives

• To provide accommodation for job seekers and trainees who are bachelors
• To promote formal and non formal training for integral growth.
• To provide access to work related, skill based and job oriented training.
• To develop workshops for different trades.
• To conduct animation programmes and seminars for capacity building and
• To provide facilities to find a job.
• To promote self employment, entrepreneurship and leadership
• To collect and provide relevant information and literature for job seekers and entrepreneurs
• To collaborate with existing workshops, professional institutions and production centers
• To initiate and maintain strong functional linkage with employers, industrialists and businessmen.
• To restore confidence in the poor and the migrant job seekers in the city of Indore by enabling them for employment or self employment through vocational training, skill development and capacity building.
• To educate and empower the unorganized laborers to work for their integral development by collective action through community based organizations like cooperative society and trade union, as they work to earn a living on a sustainable basis with dignity and self respect.
• To accompany the people at the bottom of the society the poorest, unorganized, oppressed, marginalized and in particular the waste picking women, working children, and the domestic workers.
• To create awareness in the people on the protection of environment and promote activities of environment protection, like the use of non-conventional energy, promotion of organic farming, water conservation.

Urban Youth Ministry

Jan Vikas Kendra (Centre for Human Resource Development) is a registered society, working for the integral development of the underprivileged and marginalized people, who are deprived of their right to live as dignified and responsible citizens, because of their ignorance, illiteracy and poverty. Jan Vikas Kendra  pays special attention to the welfare of the unorganized labourers, waste picking women and children, unemployed youth, street children, migrants and Nomadic people. We collaborate with everyone making effort to create an environment of justice, peace and integrity of creation.

Fr. George Payatikkatt SVD started Jan Vikas Kendra, a Centre for Human Resource Development in the premises of Catholic Ashram Palda, Indore in the year 2002. Indore is often referred as a modern city with a history of more than 400 years. It is the biggest industrial town and commercial capital of the whole of Central India and it is situated in the western part of Madhya Pradesh. The population of Indore city has swollen up disproportionately due to the massive migration of people displaced by Mega Project like Narmada Project on one side and the migrant job seekers who are the rural poor who migrate due to poverty and unemployment.  These migrants put up huts and also live on the foot path or pavements etc or on any open areas.

Over 600 slums of the Indore city are inhabited by the poor landless and homeless people with hardly any means of economic survival. In such living condition, there is no security for the women and children, their health gets deteriorated and children are unable to attend school. Several of these people who do not take to skilled or unskilled casual labour but take up menial jobs or collecting waste from the dustbins or garbage dumps. From the sale of gathered materials, they feed the family. The boys often get addicted to drugs and some even are affected by HIV-AIDS. There are cases where the girls get into the problem of getting trafficked. Men often have no jobs but take to drinking from the earnings of the women. These migrants from 50% of the city population. The migrant women too lack education and professional training. In addition sickness and death are largely attributed to witchcraft, leading to social persecution.

Jan Visas Kendra was started to promote development of resources and capacity building among the poor and the marginalized group of people who flock to the city of Indore in search of employment or skill development. A residence to accommodate all those who come for training was blessed and inaugurated on 26th January, 2003 by late Rev. Bp. George Anathil SVD. “Solidarity with the poor is the main concern in all our social activities”, says Fr. George Payatikkatt, the director of the centre. Poverty of every sort is glaring in rural areas anywhere in India. Rural poverty is aggravated by migration of people, especially the educated and the able bodies from villages to the cities. This in turn has multiplied the problems in city living. Breathing in these problems around, Jan Vikas Kendra has come up with the following programmes for the people.

1. In the field of vocational training courses are conducted for young men in Motor                 Mechanism, Printing Technology, Repair of Electric Appliances, House Wiring, Welding and Fabrication and Computer Education. These courses are designed to be residential for   the students from rural background.
2. Tailoring classes are started for women from the hutments nearby. Twenty eight women are already enrolled for this programme. As they are trained in this skill, they are motivated to take up tailoring work on their own.
3. Non-formation education programme for the children who are not able to attend school. Children are taught the alphabets and to read and write. These children are motivated to get into formal school.
4. Programmes are initiated on Group formation, Saving Schemes etc for the empowerment of women and the weaker sections. The centre plans to take up other social and developmental activities with the people of the slums around Palda.
5. Plans to start health programmes, training grassroots level women health workers to conduct health awareness programmes like health talk to mothers and nutrition programmes, arranging immunization camps and general medical camps.
6. With long term goal in mind, programmes have also been initiated to train the rural youth in improved farming and scientific cultivation.
7. Efforts have been initiated to care for the most under-privileged section of the society namely children, the street children, the child workers, the rag pickers, orphans and children abandoned by the parents.

Cooperative Society

Jan Vikas Kendra has been in the forefront for the last eight years to mobilize a section of the most unorganized women labourers called the waste pickers or the rag pickers. We focused our efforts to bring the waste picking women together under the banner of an organization, wherein they would gain from the collective strength and get the privileges of an organized and registered body. Our dream has now taken shape. A section of the waste picking women took heed and came together to form a registered cooperative society called, Sarvodaya Shramik Mahila Sahakarik Sakh Sanstha (the working women’s cooperative society). These women have begun to experience their strength in unity under the cooperative society. They have a new identity now. The members participate in regular meetings of the cooperative. They take training on issues connected to their life and work, say for example how to resist the exploitation and fight the injustice which they face in their workplace. They make representations to the authorities for their rights. This movement has to grow and the cooperative society has to become self sustainable for which Jan Vikas gives guidance and support.

Over 800 waste picking women and domestic workers have become members of the cooperative society. The main objective of the cooperative society is to work for the welfare and integral development of its members. It has undertaken many attractive saving schemes. It encourages the members to take up income generating activities and provides loans for such activities from its own resources.

The cooperative society has expanded its activities to other micro financing areas too. Recently, it has opened four centres for the purchase and sale of recyclable waste materials gathered by the waste pickers. This is a step to take a major role in the scrap-trade and recycling business. This will help to eliminate middlemen the scrap-trade who exploit the rag pickers in many ways. The waste purchase Centres are incoming generating activities of the waste picker’s cooperative society. Its success will confirm their conviction to work united in the cooperative society for a better livelihood.

2004 Cooperative Society started in the year 2004,   Working area  30 slums, Total Members 925, Total Saving Rs. 20,23,415.00, Loan given Rs. 16,95,100.00,       Loan recovery Rs. 13,08,136.00

The benefits of the shop-Centres are many. They will provide additional income for the waste pickers and prevent the exploitation of the waste picking women by the middle\men-trade. It will improve the bargaining capacity of the women against injustice and oppression in the work. The shop Centres will take the members deep into the experience of cooperative concept. This will add impetus to the process of empowerment of the waste picking women.

The idea of the waste shop-centre, owned and managed by the women’s cooperative, came up originally in the discussions with the members of the cooperative. This step will serve to consolidate the gains of the cooperative and will bring more and more waste picking women into the network association. It will also be a learning process and source of empowerment for the women waste pickers. All members of the Jan Vikas Kendra staff are whole heartedly behind this collective enterprise of the waste picking women for their economic empowerment. They have formed 8 Self Help Groups (SHG) so far in the slum and empowerment is being carried out.

Unorganized scrap Managers Trade Union: An estimated number of over 5000 unorganized scrap collectors (Kabadiwallahs) depend on door to door scrap collection for their livelihood in Indore city. Hard toil of 8-10 hours and long distance of 15-20 kilometers of walk do not yield enough income to feed their families. Hoping to extend a supportive hand in the plight of this category of people Jan Vikas has stepped into organizing and strengthening them. Thus, Jan Vikas has taken initiative to register a trade union of the unorganized labourers under the banner of Unorganized Scrap Managers Trade Union (USMTU). The main objective is to empower scrap collectors to fight collectively for their rights which are provided by law for the unorganized labourers.

Net Working: Liaison or net working is an important element in the success of social work. This year many organization, institution and individuals showed interest in learning about the social activities of Jan Vikas. Staff members from SAMMAN-Bhopal, and Kripa Ujjain came to learn about Jan Vikas social activities. Now Jan Vikas Kendra has net working with many NGOs, and organizations like NIPCCD, Max New York Life Insurance Ltd. KKPKP- Pune, Community Banking Service, State Bank of India, MPVHA- Indore, and Family Planning Association of India.