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Karmaveer Chakra and Puraskaar Celebrate Volunteer Efforts

On 26th and 27th November, 10 of Skillshare International's community-based partner organisations, volunteers and development workers were honoured with awards for their commitment to social justice and action at a ceremony in Delhi.

Skillshare International India is a Founder Member of the International Confederation of Indian NGOs (iCONGO), which launched Karmayuga and the Right Every Wrong Movement to bring together and recognise volunteers who are trying to lead their communities towards a better tomorrow.

Seetha receiving her awardThe Karmayuga awards showcase the extraordinary and inspiring work done by people in an effort to right a wrong that they see around them.

The Karmaveer Puraskaar recognises individual citizens' social responsibility, justice and action initiatives in an annual ceremony. In November 2011, the Karmaveer Puraskaar was awarded to a long-term Skillshare International development worker and staff from four of our partner organisations:

Dilip Kumar Meher receives an award for his voluntary workThe iCONGO- Skillshare International Karmaveer Chakra is an award that symbolises volunteerism, solidarity, peace and development. It celebrates the efforts of community volunteers, whose skills have been built by Skillshare International development workers, to empower disadvantaged Tribal communities and other socially excluded groups in India.

  • Dilip Kumar Meher - an Ikat weaver (right) 
  • Daitari Kuldeep - Coaching for Hope volunteer
  • Banita Mallik - community health volunteer
  • Kali - community health volunteer
  • Basanti Majhi - Tribal activist

Julie George

Director of Skillshare International's programmes in Asia and East Africa, Julie George (right), said: "For every high profile media-savvy award winner, there are hundreds of quiet community volunteers and NGO staff who make myriad personal sacrifices. Skillshare International (India) Trust and iCONGO jointly instituted the Karmaveer Chakra award to recognise the role of the community volunteers who play a pivotal role in achieving the MDGs. These community volunteers are backed by professionals who have dedicated their own lives to improving the quality of life in disadvantaged communities. I am happy beyond words that the work of some of these unsung heroes has been celebrated through the award of the Karmaveer Puraskaar and Karmaveer Chakra."

The Karmaveer Chakra was presented to the community volunteers by Mr Mark Parkinson, Principal of the Shriram School in Gurgaon and the Karmaveer Puraskaar was presented by various dignitaries.

Karmaveer Puraskaar Awards

Dr. B. Dinesh Baliga   

Dr Baliga joined Skillshare International in February 2003 after serving as a Medical Officer in India and Libya and then working on the WHO's National Polio Surveillance Project.  As a volunteer development worker with Skillshare International in India, Dr Baliga was placed in the districts of Kalahandi and Koraput in Orissa where he trained community volunteers as health workers and supported the health outreach programmes of Seba Jagat and SOVA. 

He firmly believes that education and awareness are key to improving health. By establishing village health committees and working with the community health workers and Vaidya (traditional healers), Dr Baliga has had a positive impact in a range of areas including:  

  • Prevention and awareness of HIV, malaria, diarrhoea and tuberculosis.
  • Running family health counselling and STI treatment centres.
  • Campaigning for the rights and livelihoods of socially excluded and Tribal communities

Dr Baliga uses innovative concepts and models to understand local needs and improve the health status of vulnerable communities, including role plays, drawings, Mathi Kundi (savings pot to pay for maternity and post-natal care), Annaprasanna (weaning ceremony) and mosquito net lottery. 

Dr. Shylaja Menon

Dr Shylaja receiving the Karmaveer Puraskaar awardWorking with a team of doctors and young people from the local community, Dr. Shylaja founded the Association for Health Welfare in the Nilgiris (ASHWINI) in 1990. Their aim was to create a health system that would be accessible, acceptable, effective and sustainable for the Adivasi community. 

Today the majority of board members are Tribal and there is a strong emphasis on training young people from the community to deliver the services.  The Gudalur Adivasi Hospital is the only facility in a 100km area to provide its level of care.  90% of the hospital's staff are Tribal and ownership of such an important institution has helped to change social equations in favour of the Tribal community who are excluded from wider Indian society. 

ASHWINI's community programme, which is also managed by young people from the community, reaches more than 17,000 people in 300 hamlets and offers unique features including a health insurance scheme and community programmes focusing on mental health and sickle cell disease.  Dr Shylaja is also the founder member of an informal school in Gudalur – Vidyodaya, which has been developed into an open school for Tribal children. 

Roshanara Mohanty

Roshanara has 17 years of experience working with the Kutia and Panga tribes. Her priority has been to build the capacity of rural women and empower them to claim their rights. Committed to social justice and sustainable livelihoods with a special focus on women's health and education, Roshanara has campaigned for equal pay for equal pay for equal work, for women's land rights, and against the illegal liquor shops that are heavily linked to gender-based violence.

Roshanara has supported women from Tribal communities to build livelihoods through sustainable agricultural development such as organic manuring and pest control.  To raise awareness of legal rights, she has trained local women as 'barefoot lawyers'.  She has also worked with members of Panchayati Raj Institutions (village governance bodies) to build their capacity and develop a deeper understanding of their roles and responsibilities.  Roshanara is currently working with Seba Jagat and as a state-level trainer on self-help group promotion, enterprising development, gender issues and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act  (NREGA).                                                             

Seetha Mahendran

Born into a Narikuravar family, a semi-nomadic tribe that faces wide discrimination in India, and unable to complete school, Seetha Mahendran founded an education NGO that has reached thousands of vulnerable and disadvantaged people. 

Seetha and her husband opened a hostel in Devarayaneri for Narikuravar children whose parents had to travel to find work.  The first four years were tough; Seetha walked 10km each day to find food, mortgaged her own land, and she and her family made and sold malas to support the 100 children in her care.  Since then, literacy levels have risen to 55% and students supported by the Narikuravar Education and Welfare Society (NEWS) have reached college level.  She has taught older men and women how to write their names and helped people to write applications for bank loans.  Villages where Seetha has raised awareness of child marriage and female slavery have reported fewer cases of both. 

Thanks to Seetha's efforts, traditional mala-making has been recognised as a handicraft and 1,500 families have benefited from the handicraft section ID card scheme of the central government.  The malas are exported internationally, yielding fair wages for the female artisans.  One of the highlights of her work so far has been the establishment of Chidiya, which works with NGOs including Skillshare International, NEST and Oxfam to provide business training and product development support.  Seetha is also a volunteer health worker and has continued her own education, learning English and IT skills in order to help others.

Tulashi Ballav Dash

Since 1992, Tulashi has been working with Tribal communities in India to build their capacity for income generation. He started by forming a self help group (SHG) of 120 women who would develop the social, economical, political and cultural aspects of their community. Today 470 women from 60 villages have become members of this group and a SHG Federation has been established. Tulashi supported the women by training them in SHG management, leadership, book keeping, microenterprise, microfinance, income generation activities and advocacy.  Thanks to his efforts, many women have taken on local governance roles including seven from this SHG who have taken on the responsibility of sarpanch (elected head of their panchayat - village governance body).

The group provides small loans to members of the community, ending exploitation at the hands of money-lenders, and has released 600 acres of land. The income has enabled Tribal families to gain better access to health care and has provided income generating opportunities for people with leprosy who had been forced to beg for money. The Federation has helped 20 families to generate income through goat rearing and 150 Tribal women through chicken rearing. Tulashi also formed a weavers' co-operative, with 91 women and 21 young members. By providing training on co-operative management, marketing, product development, dyeing and design development, and linking them to national and international buyers, Tulashi has continued to support the weavers.   

Karmaveer Chakra Awards

Basanti Majhi

Basanti, who is from the marginalised Kutiya tribe in Orissa, was abducted and forced to marry at a young age. When her husband committed suicide, 22-year old Basanti was labelled a curse and driven out of her marital home; her poverty-stricken parents would not take her back and she was left penniless. Supported by one of Skillshare International's partners, Seva Bharati, Basanti transformed herself into an effective grassroots leader. She has mobilised her community to claim their rights to land, water and forests, to fundamental freedoms and to constitutional guarantees. As a woman denied access to parental and marital property, Basanti understands the importance of women's ownership of resources and now works with Tribal women to assert their rights. 

Basanti has had a leading role in several campaigns, including:

  • Campaigning to stop a plantation that was destroying land and reducing food security.
  • Opposing multi-national companies who have displaced thousands of Tribal/Adivasi people in many villages.
  • Negotiating the return of young workers who had become bonded labourers in Surat's cotton mills.
  • Facilitating land rights for her community under the Forest Rights Act (FRA).
  • Supporting her community to gain access to State welfare and services such as pensions, seed banks, disability support, and health and sanitation services. 

Basanti also initiated a savings group in Desughati village and was instrumental in setting up a rural bank that has protected many villagers from starvation and bonded debt by providing small loans.  At just 24, she has already achieved a huge amount. 

Read more about Basanti in Skillshare International's newsletter. 

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