why Sarvodaya foundation?
The Sarvodya foundation is necessary because the lack of education and skills within a society puts its members at a disadvantage in utilizing available resources effectively and contributes to their underdevelopment. This, in turn, can lead to the misutilization of resources. However, an educated society can harness available resources for the greater good and promote their efficient utilization.
Today I am going to share with you the story of village named Dharampur-Pathak Bigha located at the borders of state Bihar of India. The village is located at a distance of 40 Km from City. This mean for all basic facilities such as Hospital or better school education one has to travel to the main city. Agriculture is the main source of income in the village. However the agriculture is based on traditional method. The activities such as ploughing is either through ox, buffalo or manual labour. The agriculture is mainly a seasonal affair and there is lack of irrigation facilities.So for most of time there is unemployment in any family.
In order to earn bread and butter for the family or to meet both end meet, the people are generally engaged in unregularized source of income such as working as cobbler, daily wage labourer etc.
Women in the household are not allowed to go outside and work which can earn money. They have the responsibility to do only household work.
Even though these women are willing to do work but there is lack of opportunity for work which can be done from home. There is lack of proper training institute which can make them skillful in carrying out activities which can be done at home. There is lack of resource in the family to buy instrument for earning any income. So the only work they are left with is the farm work where they help their husband to grow crops.
Since the family earning is very low, even the children of the household are engaged in helping the family through activities like grazing the cattle, collecting firewood from forest or helping in field. Since the family doesn’t have enough money to even food, school education of children is not a priority.
Since the family earning is very low, even the children of the household are engaged in helping the family through activities like grazing the cattle, collecting firewood from forest or helping in field. Since the family doesn’t have enough money to even food, school education of children is not a priority.
Since the village people don’t have the capacity to pay thus even the corporates do not have any interest in promoting advance education or skill training in the village. Even there is lack of basic hospital facility in the radius of 5 km. The families who are unable to earn any income can be seen as roadside beggars along with their children.
For any kind of emergency the villagers have to rush to city located away at 40 Km. The poverty is rampant and visible everywhere in the village.
For any kind of emergency the villagers have to rush to city located away at 40 Km. The poverty is rampant and visible everywhere in the village.
Who is the pioneer of Sarvodaya foundation
Sarvodaya foundation is a dream of an army-man who was born in a small village of Bihar. A person who was born poor but hard work, discipline, sincerity has changed not only his upcoming generation but also the village society where no one can be poor.
Let us hear about what is Sarvodaya foundation from Retd. Army-man the one who has laid down the foundation stone.
To understand Sarvodaya- foundation; you need to understand poverty of India. Our objective is “Gareebe Hatao, Gaon Bachao”. It is about making each village a self-sustainable system. A self-sustainability in protecting environment,
better health and education facility by their own participation and various skill set to earn income.
Due to Covid pandemic lock down people of Bihar who have migrated from the village to places like goa, Mumbai, Surat were coming back to village after covering a continuous 3000km journey by sitting in petrol truck, by paddling cycle, by foot. If villages are made self-sustainable than there will not be any compulsion for thousands of men who out-migrate from village to earn merely Rs.8000-9000 a month which is bare minimum to support 5-6 dependent family members in village. Corona pandemic has shown us that even urban cities having overburdened with high population cannot make better life of those who are unskilled migrants. Urban cities like Mumbai and Delhi respect and value those who are skilled. Village is a place which were always dependent on agriculture and due to high population most of the villagers have very less land or no land. So they been historically poor. They earn to meet their bare minimum.
I have seen poverty in real life. I was born in village Pathak Bigha in a family of 14 members with my father being the only earning member. The family economic condition was not good. I have seen days when there were no food in the house to eat. Sometime only rice and salt was available. TV, Cycle, even cloths were a luxury. The family responsibilities forced me to work from my child hood for keeping alive all the members of family. I wanted to study but time was never there. The whole day I used to do Kheti. And in the night going to jajman for making pooja path. Even if I used to get time to study then there were not good school, no good library to sale good books in nearby area. You have to go 50Kms to city for better education and health facility. To save money for purchasing good books, or to save money for marriage of sister, I was compelled to sleep without having food or rest for days. Even though working day and night in the farm or in Pooja path, I was able to arrange only for twice a meal.
I understood it well that a better education can only help me in taking me out of this vicious cycle of poverty. Such income has No money to support quality education of children, or to give better heath facility to family members. Poor education makes the next generation the same unskilled farmer or labourer in the village. I have seen childrens and family members dying in lack of money to afford good health. There were no health facility or health awareness centres in the village. Even agriculture is a seasonal process. Around 8 months of year you have to sit idle with no agricultural income. The poverty has compelled me to leave the family in village and work in Munger district at a monthly pay of Rs.1000 in the year 1997. I was a very hard working child who was having a dream and aspiration to overcome the poverty. I tried to study whatever time I used to get. Such hard work made me an army-man. While being in army I got to see cities like Port Blair, ranchi, Amritsar, ferozpur, Almora, Jabalpur; I saw that education makes you skilled. Such skill help to get job which are high paying. Those having high income are able to afford good health and good education.
people who have migrated from village for work, doesnot earn much. Even after 30 years of service I find that my village people have not been able to make pakka makan, their children are still starving for food, for cloth, for education, for basic facilities. The government has the limitation to employ all the population of country. So only those who are well educated or trained can get the job in government or in cities. Village people lack opportunity to get better education or skill. Women and girls in the family are not allowed to go out of village. Lack of good school forces Man in the house either to do agriculture or casual labour.
In the era of digital technology it is the right time for everyone to associate with us and make atleast one village, a self sustainable village which can fulfil all its needs. There is no compulsion to migrate to cities. Sarvodaya foundation works with the people of village with their active participation to improve the quality of village for better living conditions of the villagers.
The villagers who barely afford a mud house for one to two rooms for the whole family. It is rarely to expect them to have any community hall.
The builders can join us to make a pakka-community hall in every village having 5-6 rooms which can host a village clinic, a library, a training centres and community hall for community gathering. Health institutions can come forward to help us in opening a small village clinic in every village, keeping generic medicines, having facility of tele-medicines to guide by online training of women, children and man about basic hygine and safety. Due to unawareness or lack of money majority of women doesn’t have access to sanitary pads, majority of pregnant women doesn’t have access to Iron tablets, medicines or right guidance. Children lack basic nutrition. Our aim is to provide free of cost such medicines and a routine online interactions from practicing doctors of cities in the village through such Village clinic centres. Educational institutions can join us to provide better quality of education. We have started training and coaching for qualifying competitive exams for central and state government job such ad IAS,IPS, SDM, for qualifying exams for entrance to engineering and medical colleges such as IIT, IIM, AIIMS. The school in the village lack computer facility. We are training children of the village with computer skill of word, excel, tally etc with which they can work from home various digital service related jobs.The women in the household can be trained with Stiching work, pickle making and other training in the guidance of online classes from field experts. In the filed of Agriculture; A digital kisan classroom will help in training such farmers for the promotion of organic farming, compost making, dairy farming.
Forestry/talab: due to poverty people have cut down all the tress for the fuel. Now due to lack of forestry there is lack of rain in the village so no agriculture is taking place. Most of the land have became a barren land. Our plan is to train the villagers with their active cooperation to revive the ponds, lakes and wells by cleaning them and planting of tress to rejuvenate the climate.
Sarvodaya foundation has the pleasure that many IAS, IPS, IITinas who are born in the village soil are committed with us to do their part for the upliftment of village from where they have came.
