It all started with a humble beginning when Sadashiv Chavan and Nitin Ghodke of our foundation approached to a remote locality of Paud-Near Pune, back in year 2010. A small suburb close to Paud village, named Indira Nagar of Katkari tribe. Like many small other outskirt purlieu in our rular setup, Indiranagar, roughly with population of 125, was a familiar neighborhood with around twenty dodgy huts, mushroomed over a hilly slope area, in Mulashi. Community that is starving for basic needs with lack of access point to the outer world, made the matter worst, to reach out, especially in this heavy rainfall region with muddy, mushy, unclean environment thats conducive for all health problems. Unmoved by these challenges, with a holistic and sustained development of the tribe in mind, our foundation team picked up the work. Initially with getting acquainted with the tribe, gelling with them and through distribution cloths and food items. As the rapport established with the villagers along with fruitful interaction, lot of eye opening facts surfaced. These tiny and clumsy shades, each hosted, around 3 or 4 families and every family was having 6 or 7 kids/youngsters, facing malnutrition. Girls were getting married at pre-mature age (so much so that team found out poor ladies turning into grannies at mere age of 35!) posed a different set of problems and health issues. Moreover, along with regular house hold work, women had to deal with physically demanding jobs of fetching the water from more than 6 KM away. With no assured source of income and skills, ironically as a common norm these days, the community was plagued with addiction to alcoholism and its related problems.
Sensitive to the human needs and powered with compassion, Foundation Team launched the mission of improving the situation of this Katkari tribe. Team quickly realized the need of formal education and sensitivity about basic sanitation for the community. With the assistance from a local retired teacher in Paud, Mr. Ganpat Shedage and Mr. Sachin Achakre, team started percolating awareness about education and basic hygiene practices. Team continued understanding the pain areas and follow up with the local government authorities paid off with introduction of electricity and a water tab operating nearby the living area.
As the effort started flourishing, the team continued pursuing the Katkari situation with various stakeholders and corporates. Then came a big break, when the Quick Hill organization extended their helping hand for the nobel cause. Referring to the already realized need of education and health, it was mutually decided to address the problem through a centralized community hall for the tribe. The vision was, this hall will be leveraged for multi purpose activities-cultural, educational, health related as well as to conduct government rural programs. Quick Hill Technology Director Mr. Sanjay and Kailsh Katkar along with company social responsibility(CSR) wing in-charge Mr. Ajay Shirke agreed upon assisting in building a community hall as well as a water tank that will suffice the daily needs of the tribe to set the ball rolling!
Here are sneak peek into the work under construction-
Jeevan Samvardhan Foundation team whole heartedly took active participation throughout the community hall construction. Quick Hill as well conducted regular check ups on the overall progress of the project.
Fast Forward….. after rigorous workout, came out the fantastic news! The hall was ready with consistent efforts from the entire foundation crew along with aid from quick hill CSR.
It gives us immense pleasure that, this community hall was inaugurated last week on 25th June 2015.
Currently, the Hall is equipped with a television set to stay connected with the outside world. Following the directives of Swatch Bharat Abhiyaan, the hall does provide appropriate sanitation facilities and rest rooms/toilets. Also with installation of Water storage, it has stopped cumbersome job of fetching water from far, and women can now concentrate on more useful activities. As immediate steps, in hall, activities like-day care center, a school and a small health dispensary are getting conducted. Encouraging news is, the tribe has also understood the importance and demonstrated their support by sending out their young once(including girls) to schools. They have also given assurance about avoiding pre-mature marriages as well. This inspiring accomplishment certainly is not end but beginning of era to strengthen the Katkari community, as we work hard on our objective of integrated development of the entire society.
All that started 4 years back, slowly and gradually is now getting crystalized. As we commence the transformational journey, one more story unfolds to enrich the life of the people at large, to make it well cultured and socio-ecologically responsible! Way to go..
Don’t you want to be part of our wonderful endeavor? What are you waiting for, come and join us as we together can and we will make a positive difference in our society.
Do write back us on jeevansamvardhan@gmail.com or ‘Contact us’ or we are also available on Facebook!
