Parivaar MP surges ahead.

Last month I spent another 2 weeks in adivasi areas of Mandla district in MP where 25 of our Seva Kutir centres (out of total 165 Seva Kutirs in 5 districts are running). In post-Corona-outbreak scenario the scope of Parivaar ( parivaar.org ) Seva Kutirs has been vastly expanded to include the vulnerable elderly. We are serving 30 thousand meals each day at these Seva Kutirs for children along with 3000 meals for the identified vulnerably elderly. A direct cash transfer into bank accounts of more than 5000 elderly of Rs 3000 (totalling more than Rs 1.5 Cr) has been done in last few months. On Educational front all our Seva Kutirs are running and learning and sporting engagement of 5-6 hours daily is being given at these Kutirs. Just our meal component has become the largest free meal program in interior tribal areas of the country.
Some more dimensions are being added (first as a pilot in 20 to 25 villages). They are :
Livelihood Generation Within villages
(a) Usha Silai Schools:
We are collaborating with Usha International which runs Usha Silai Schools for poor rural women. These schools train women in the craft of sewing / tailoring, machine repairing and also enable them to a level where they can themselves become trainers and train other women. To start with, we are implementing this program in 20 tribal villages in Mandla district, and then take this forward in other districts in Madhya Pradesh where we have our Seva Kutirs.
(b) Vegetables Production :
We intend to collaborate and guide some committed farmers from each village who can specialize in vegetables farming. Vegetables provide significantly more incomes as compared to general grains crops. However, because of problems relating to lack of irrigation and low technical know-how, farmers avoid doing this on a big scale. We are trying to address this with the Panchayats and the government officials, and provide them technical knowledge through experts that we can bring from outside. Farmers can sell these products in markets boosting their incomes, and can also provide these at subsidized rates to our Kutirs, thus helping reduce the operational costs of running Kutirs while being economically beneficial to farmers as well.
(c ) Food Processing
There are various agricultural and forest produce that can be processed and then sold at higher rates in the markets. For instance, millets, mahua, amla, fruits such as Bel etc can be processed and various nutritious and tasty food products can be made. Kodo millet is very good for Type 2 diabetes while little millet is good for hearth and in treating asthma. We had
sent 15 girls to Vigyan Ashram, Pune last year who have come back to these villages after taking one year long training in this skill of making food products out of these crops and fruits. We will have to see how we can find some good markets for these products, something that we have been exploring.
The main focus of education in the Seva Kutir Program is enhancing the learning skills and outcomes of children in the age group 3-14 years. In addition to this core component, we are endeavouring to specially prepare children for other available opportunities, some of which are :
(a) Preparing students to get admission in Navodaya Vidyalayas at class 6th level and also class 9th level. We have been doing this for the past one year, and already some students of our Seva Kutirs have been selected in Navodaya Vidyalayas this year. We are also planning to prepare students for Sainik schools.
(b) Preparation for jobs of children in armed forces after Grade 12 level and also for other govt. jobs. We are doing this through collaboration with some institutes which specialize in such training/coaching, through offline or online modes.
Our residential campus for children in Dewas and Sehore districts are getting developed which will house more than 1000 resident children. Two hostels in Mandla town are also running.