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RGF in Pursuit of Rajiv Gandhi's Vision and Ideals

The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) rededicates itself to the ideals of the late Rajiv Gandhi on his 64th birth anniversary.

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The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) rededicates itself to the ideals of the late Rajiv Gandhi on his 64th birth anniversary. The foundation has been running various social programmes in line with the former prime minister’s vision. The objective of all RGF initiatives is the overall development of society and nation building.

Promotion of education and literacy is one of the most important areas of RGF’s programmes, the Village and Slum Library Project being one of the most popular schemes.

So far RGF has established 1,464 village and slum libraries across 22 states. Since RGF understands that mere bookish knowledge is not enough, it also imparts out-of-school education in life skills and personality development.

Uplift of Muslim girls
Lack of education among Muslim girls is a pressing problem in India. RGF supports four educational centres for 400 girls in the Muslim-populated Yakutpura slum in Hyderabad in collaboration with a local agency, Mahita. In Jogeshwari in Mumbai, RGF runs a similar project called Darakht-e-Ilm. Most participants are first generation learners and are poor. Because parents are loath to send them to evening centres far away from home, the classes are held at the teacher’s house within the locality, thus making "schools at the doorstep" a reality.

Kashmir education initiative
In collaboration with the Human Aid Society, RGF has been running three village libraries in Baramulla since April 2006. It also runs a community library in Srinagar in collaboration with the Help Foundation. In its three years of existence, the Srinagar library has emerged as a cultural centre for the community where theatre, music and art workshops are regularly arranged for children.

RGF has also instituted awards for children in creative writing. In collaboration with the National Book Trust, it has started a programme to get children's books printed in Kashmiri and Urdu. A popular programme for students is a film festival, mainly targeted at poor children. Around 5,000 children have access to the screenings.

Vidya Gyan Scholarships
These scholarships of Rs 500 a month are for very poor Muslim and Dalit girls. As of now, the scheme is limited to Barabanki, Rae Bareli and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh where a high drop out rate in primary school is a matter of serious concern. RGF has begun with awarding 1,500 scholarships for students of classes 6-9. Girls who reach class 10 are given an additional support of Rs 250 per month.

Karnataka teacher training RGF conducted ten training programmes for school teachers, librarians and master trainers in Bangalore, Bidar, Koppal, Mandya, Mysore and Tumkur. The objective was to enliven classrooms with the art of storytelling and making the learning process more motivating. These training camps were organised in association with local NGOs.

Natural resource management
RGF directly implements a series of livelihood promotion schemes in the remote villages of Rajasthan as part of its initiatives on natural resource management. The objective is to empower villagers with sustainable management of the natural resources around them and generate better income for themselves, and to develop a cadre of village volunteers, called Green Corps, to promote various community initiatives.

RGF selected backward villages in Jaipur, Pali and Karoli districts in Rajasthan as the focus area for these initiatives because of serious environmental degradation in the area.
Part of the programme is the Livelihood Promotion Through Rainwater Harvesting scheme, the objective being to augment village water resources.

Currently, the programme is being carried out in 115 villages where 264 water-harvesting structures have come up. RGF has also introduced many follow-up schemes and activities like soil conservation work, livestock development, capacity building and productivity enhancement to boost household and village income. In response to the huge demand from partner communities, 80 more water harvesting programmes are being planned for this year.

Bio-resource conservation
RGF took up a two-year pilot project for bio-resource conservation for long-term food and livelihood security in 50 villages of Ramgarh block of Nainital district in Uttarakhand. The Gene Campaign was the partner agency in this initiative that was successfully completed in November 2007. The collection of 1,312 agro samples and the creation of a gene seed bank were among the project achievements.

Another pilot project, Poverty Alleviation through Cultivation of Aromatic Plants, was taken up in Sahaspur block in Dehradun district with the support of Agrisud of France and the Uttarakhand government. The project was extended for one more year and the NGO, Harac, roped in to ensure aromatic plants processing and market linkage.

RGF has extended the coverage of its Self Help Group to women of the Baiga tribal community in Chhattisgarh. To start with, about 1,500 Baiga women of Kota block in Bilaspur district are being covered. A local NGO, Samerth, is partnering to provide training in bee keeping, cane crafting work and collection of minor forest produce.
RGF is also trying through a similar project to help the Musahar community in Jaharbigha village, Kako block, Jehanabad district, Bihar.

RGF has taken up a programme for 100 landless rural women of Jajpur district in Orissa to impart training in bamboo products.

It is also supporting small landholding women farmers of Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand to make their vegetable farming methods income oriented and market driven. In association with a local help group, MSUS, scientific cultivational practices are being introduced for the women.

Centres of alternate learning
RGF initiated a child development centre at Neemrana in Alwar district in Rajasthan to provide alternate learning avenues for children of daily wage-earning labourers. The unit accommodates 75 children, providing them mid-day meals, health checks and an alternate learning environment. The venture has the support of the state government and help from a local NGO, Humana People to People.

RGF has also collaborated with the Mine Labour Protection Campaign Trust to run another child development centre at Fidusar Choupar. This is for the children of migrant labourers in the mining sector.

Health programmes
RGF has started a range of health initiatives for the poor. These programmes range from HIV/AIDS prevention, creating awareness about the right gender ratio, fighting female foeticide and educating the young about reproductive and sexual health. The Smart Parenthood Campaign launched by the RGF has its focus on creating an enabling environment for youth development. It attends to different aspects such as empowerment of out-of-school adolescents and dental camps. The campaign uses development communication tools and techniques to sensitise the youth and newly married couples, and a secondary target group of stakeholders (service providers, NGOs, panchayats, government officials, school and university teachers, volunteers, media, and other influential sections of the society). The encouragement for the initiative came from a pilot project taken up in the Kurushetra district in Haryana that helped to correct a skewed child sex
ratio there.

Motorised vehicles for the disabled
Distribution of motorized two-wheelers and three-wheelers to differently-abled persons is a programme RGF has been running from 1992. The aim is to help people with disabilities carry on with life without depending on public transport. Every vehicle that is made available to a disabled person is modified according to his or her need. Based on the experience of previous years, the design of the specially-selected Kinetic Nova Bingo scooter is regularly updated for its users. More than 800 persons have benefited from this project.

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