Deepalaya Annual Report for the year 1990-91. The report is an account of community work that we as an organization doing for the less-privileged people of society. The report is a detailed document about our work, impact, collaboration, donors, and financials.
A new milestone is achieved – 47% enrollment of girls in all our educational activities. The priniciple of positive discrimination again paid it’s dividend. We have to go a long way to get 60% girls in our activities.
GROWTH IN CARING
HOW WE CARE- Through Education
Deepalaya runs centres catering to diverse educational needs – creches for infants of working mothers, non-formal education centres for working children and those not attending formal schools, remedial education centres for facilitating the needy children attending formal school, adult education centres etc. There are libraries within the colonies, manned by community members to promote learning.
Through Health Services
Preventive and curative community health services are rendered through camps set up at various places, organising awareness programmes and competitions between blocks, streets and associations, with the active participation of community workers. A significant facet is the regular growth monitoring of children, whose nutritional requirements are also met by the Society. Other supplementary services include potable water provision, installation of handpumps, storage tanks, loans for sanitary facilities etc. Basti Sevikas are identified from within the community and trained in grass root health work to supervise the functions of community health.
Through Skill Upgradation
Individuals are organised in to small business development groups which provide scope for self-employment, petty trading etc. Women are trained in sewing /tailoring and avenues for their income enhancement provided. Moreover, usurious borrow ing and the resultant debt traps are discouraged by encouraging people to save through credit/thrift societies etc. Overall management of own rresources is the aim here,
Through Community Organisation
Members of a community are organised into groups – housing group, youth group or yuva mandals, mahila mandals, etc. so that they view a problem collectively, paving the way for a common perspective on community matters and thereby collective decision making. These interest groups are in turn coordinated by geographical/area based associations(22 in no.) Of notable mention here is the community revolvingfund which ensures the community having something to fall back upon on rainy days/emergencies. At a later point of time this fund should take the form of their own development resources.
OUR APPROACH
Our strategy is people’s participation and programme implementation under the active supervision and cooperation of Deepalaya’s personnel. Our focus is an empowering communitiies for self reliance and self management.
Linkage/Networking
We avail of the resources of allied agencies in all related field. Linkages of such nature ensure no duplication of services and therefore no wastage of precious material and human resources. Various government and non government bodies facilitate and support the implementation of programmes – DDA’s Slum Wing, MCD Education Directorate, Delhi Administration, AIIMS, Cancer Research Institute, UNICEF, Venu Eye Institute, Love and Care, ACCORD, H.O. Building Centre, HUDCO, SUCH, Tuberculosis Association of India, TB Hospital, Kingsway Camp etc.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Ensured first generation learners in many communnities
Ensured a 47% enrollment for the neglected girl child
Increasingly receiving demands from new communities to commence developments.
Invited by the Slum Wing DDA to undertake development in the colonies assigned to it exclusively.
Became a grantee of the Human Resource Ministry, Government of India, for running non-formal education centresw.
Integrated in to the mainstream school drop-outs through the services of our non-formal education centrese,
Effectively used innovative training/teaching methods e.g our communication group’Deepam’ enacts plays which are very well received. Two educative plays have been filmed for a more convenient presentation and exchange with the communities.
Formalised 22 area level associations with their own revolving funds.
Have the first Indian child sponsor.
The Organisation
Since development is all about people, Deepalaya has designed its organisational structure to be interaction-intensive. To illustrate, for closer monitoring, for every 150 community members, there is one community worker, who identifies the eligible families and works in close coordination with the community. Our experience has been that such a structure ensures not only effective supervision but also grassroot development.
Deepalaya is fortunate to have a team of committed workers for its development effort. The team of 456 highly motivated members at the senior management, middle, operational and grass root levels, consists of a significant number of professionals/post graduates in social work or allied disciplines. Regular training and refresher workshops are held, and constant updation attemped on the latest relevant trends in the field of development. In addition to the regular personnel, there are subject matter specialists for providing support services in all areas.
Other Significant Happenings
In keeping with its spirit of constant renewal, Deepalaya subjected itself to a Value Study conducted by ACCORD, New Delhi, with support from PLAN. Such an exercise enabled us to introspect on the extent of variation or deviation of the existing operations and the operating force from the set norms and ideals of the organisation. The Situation Assessment and Goal Establishment(SAGE) exercise was successfully completed for our West Delhi project, with the initial feedback being encouraging. Human resource development received a thrust with our introducing job analysis and job description module, which would help us place the right person for the right job.
Visitors
Members of our various funding agencies as also sponsors of children visited the programmes under Deepalaya, and expressed their appreciation of the approach, strategy and the results. They saw for themselves the impact of the programmes by interacting with the community members themselves. The commissioner of the DDA Slum Wing also visited us, and threw in some more challenges besides delineating certain areas needing such efforts.
THE STEPS AHEAD
Expansion
One of the most rewarding achievements for Deepalaya has been the increasing demand from various localities for undertaking development work. We are trying to meet this to the best of our ability. In this year alone, we have commenced awareness drives and community based exercisers which are a prelude to implementing the programmes, in 3 new colonies. The Slum Wing of the Delhi Development Authority invites Deepalaya to take up development work in selected slums assigned to it exclusively. In the new areas the strategy is to animate the community through the exercise of planning-cim-micro realisation(PCMR). The gestation period for starting the programmes is long enough to ensure complete participation of the community through community structures.
For the exising programmes, our focus would continue to be on empowering communiities with the responsibility of planning, organising and implementing the programmes. Increasingly, the staff would limit themselves to constant monitoring and guidance, as necessary,
The existing Deepalaya School at Chittaranjan Park, presently operating from a rented premises and four locations, would be relocated and established(with a bigger physical structure) as a single nucleus unit for all educational activities, besides providing an access to the Open school. Efforts to procure land for the school are on, besides obtaining recognition and grant-in-aid status from the Delhi Education Directorate and Delhi Administration.
Qualitative Growth
To ensure qualitative growth, we are contemplating strengthening the Corporate Office which besides providing direction and future thrust, coordinates the various activities, with a Human Resource Centre, and a Fund Raising Desk.
Human Resource Centre
Meeting the challenges of growth and ensuring effective programmes within a limited period need a competent workforce. The development field needs more than more professionals from related fields – it seeks loyalty and commitment to the cause of the under preivileged. Attributes such as these, combined with the requisite skills for this field, are not easily available in the manpower market. To partly overcome this, we intend to recruit, orient, train fresh graduates to develop a Deepalaya cadre of Trainee Development Workers, who would be exposed to pragmatic and operational realities in tune with the existing programmes. The Centre would also be a resource for all HRD activity including training and development of the existing work force, manpower planning and management development.
Fund Raising Desk
Deepalaya has so far been primarily dependent on foreign funds. In order to prompt any unforeseen occurrences which may hamper the flow of funds and consequently the upliftment of the under privileged, a fund rainsing desk has become operational since November 1990 for raising funds from indigenous sources, It would be our endeavour to begin matching the external resources with the internal ones over the next few years.
ACTIVITIES AT A GLANCE 1990-1991
Sl. No. Activities Units Beneficiaries
A. EDUCATION
1 Formal Education 4 1500
2 Creche 6 100
3 Pre-School 52 3092
4 Remedial Education 84 4157
5 Non Formal Education 36 1017
6 Adult Education ( M) 10 240
7 Adult Education (F) 13 360
8 Scholarships 87
9 Library 5
10 Educational Tour 160 9600
11 School Administration 320
Sl. No. Activities Units Beneficiaries
Health
1 Pre / Post Natal Care 474
2 Supplimentary Nutrition 4033
3 Growth Monitoring 3979
4 Deworming 2058
5 Curative Medicine 1571
6 Clinical Tests 2475
7 Immunization 6598
8 Health Education 36
9 Dental Camps 3618
10 Eye Camp 8 3800
11 Cancer Detection 150
12 Referals to Hospitals 267
13 T.B Patients 114
14 Potable Water 12 3000
15 Individual Tap Connection 46 500
16 Home Improvement 204
Sl. No. Activity Units Beneficiaries
Community Organisation
1 Direct Family Assistance 6500
2 Informal Group 78 5904
3 Formal Asdsociation 24 6500
4 Association Bank Accounts 24
5 Community Revolving Fund 2276225
6 Community Centres 5
7 Communication Group 2 10000
8 Docunented Films 2
9 Legal Education / Awareness Training 3500
10 Cultural Training 2500
Sl. No. Activity Units Beneficiaries
Income Generation &
Resource Management
1 Small Business Units 149
2 Production Units 2 60
3 Vocational Training 580
4 Employment Bureau 1 60
5 Placement 10
6 Cooperative 2
7 Sewing Centre 4 100
8 Youth Group 7 280
