Community Development through NGOs

Progress has a plural connotation; it cannot be steered by a single person’. For any society to grow institutional approaches along with the involvement of community is equally essential as today’s world is moving towards greater interdependence. There is no criterion to engage in community development except willingness to help. This same thought was the reason for Mahavir International to emerge which is an NGO working for the marginalised sections of the community. The NGO based on the principles of Lord Mahavir,’Love all,Serve all ‘ focuses on the all round development of women and children across all forms of socio-cultural barriers. The NGO is not receiving any grants from any institution and is self-sufficient with the contribution of its member who are 10,000 in number and there are 385 centres of the Mahavir International at national level. Dr. Rashmi Saraswat ,a doctor by profession represented Mahavir International ,Jaipur and oriented the students about the functioning and initiatives taken by the NGO and the impact of the same. They have started various national projects like ‘Vatsalya’ and ‘Amba’ which are focussing on the health of women during pregnancy and empowering women respectively. These two are just two of the nine national projects the organisation has undertaken to help the community.
As we know that India has a bleak picture to present when it comes to maternal health specially in the case of rural women and hence Mahavir international under various initiatives distribute ‘Poshan kit’which consists of pulses ,nuts ,jaggery ,ORS and glucose etc. Their approach is to provide pregnant women with a nutritional kit that has all the essentials which are affordable and highly beneficial to the health of the women and they also provide women with baby kits which are prepared by the local women who are paid for the number of kits they make and hence this initiative has led to financial independence for women. The organisation thrives on huge participation of the volunteers in various projects they undertake. For women , they run viable skill development programmes and there is self-defence training being organised ,there are awareness programmes regarding POSCO Act and other government initiatives. The organisation also came up with setting up of breast-feeding booths for women in various parts of Jaipur and they would continue to construct more as per feasibility. They also organise health check-up camps from time to time.
The session indeed had a lot in store for the students to understand how NGOs spearhead development. Students did put up questions at the end of the session. It was truly inspirational to know the impact of Mahavir International on society.