We started work in the new geography of MP in 2017, 14 years after beginning of Parivaar in Bengal. Here we worked on the plan to set up Day Boarding (Education cum Meal Programs) for children in the age-group of 4 to 14 in selected pockets of deprivation and malnourishment in tribal districts of Madhya Pradesh.
80 to 130
children are being named ‘Sri Ramakrishna Vivekananda Seva Kutir’
681
centres are already in operation as on 30th November 2020
50,000+
children are getting nutritious meals along with Strongly Supplementary education and life-skills
We are endeavouring to set up 500 Seva Kutirs by December 2023, serving at least 50 thousand children in some of the worst hotbeds of malnourishment in the country. We are setting up at least 100 centres in the Karahal block of Sheopur district of MP, which has a very disturbing record of child malnourishment. We are also endeavouring to set up 50 centres in Khalwa block of Khandwa district which too is one of the worst areas in the country’s malnourishment map.
salient design features
Seva Kutirs
The Seva Kutirs combines two key themes most crucial for children in interior rural areas in the country – malnutrition and education. The Seva Kutirs have the following design features:
Village Community Provided Venue
The village community has to invite us and offer a venue free. Usually it is somebody’s house, Panchayat building, community hall, school in its non-functioning hours, or even a shed / godown. Thus we do not incur any infrastructure costs for this.
Morning and Evening Shifts
Most Kutirs follow a 2-shift engagement with the children (from morning 7 to 10:30 and from 4 to 7:30). In the morning shift breakfast, with seasonal fruits and milk are given, and dinner (roti, sabzi, rice and dal) is served in the evening shift. During day-time the children are sent to the local Government school so that a continued engagement is established with them.
Local Human Resources
To the extent possible we engage all local workforce (cooks, helpers are from the same village) and teachers from the same or nearby area.
Central Resource Team
Resource persons experienced in pedagogy, teacher training, and curriculum design ensure planning and uniform implementation across Kutirs. Central Resource persons specialising in nutrition supervise the delivery of our meals and supplementary dietary inputs to children with severe malnourishment. They also work in sync with Nutrition Resource Centres in government hospitals.
Community ‘buy-in’ in the program
The program is designed carefully to involve people not just as beneficiaries but as stake holders. Institutions like Panchayats and non Government bodies like self- help groups, women- led federations which have seen a growth in tribal areas are being reached out to and is involved in the processes of the program.
Stress on Local Supply
To the extent possible, we are procuring vegetables, milk etc from local suppliers. We are encouraging the poor village communities to produce whatever is necessary for the Seva Kutirs locally. Towards this we will, with help of external agencies, also help and facilitate the local communities to organise themselves into producer groups / organizations.
The Kutirs in the same area are organised under one cluster.
supporting every step
Number Of Seva Kutirs
143
In Sheopur District
100
In Chhindwara District
68
In Betul District
60
In Dindori District
55
In Khandwa District
45
In Dewas District
41
In Sehore District
38
In Anuppur District
30
In Mandla District
28
In Shivpuri District
18
In Sidhi District
20
In Jhabua District
14
In Ratlam District
14
In Harda District
7
In Vidisha District
Parivaar means Family
Complementing and partnering with Government system
The whole concept of Seva Kutir was built on the premise of complementing the existing government systems and schemes. The nutrition aspect that the Seva Kutirs have undertaken is to complement the mid day meal scheme by providing nutritious food for the remaining two meals, i.e. breakfast and dinner. Educationally the Kutirs by holding sessions with government school children in the morning and evening slots (after and before school) aim to assist the children in their school curriculum by making children over 7 years grade ready and under 7 years school ready.
Education
Sharing data: Sharing of baseline and progress data with local schools and also district authorities in regular intervals of 3 months.
Mutually designed curriculum: We are already in discussions with district school authorities regarding our work in Kutirs we have shared our curriculum with them each month. We will be doing so with the teachers in the schools that the Kutir children attend and also ask them feedback and where they require help from us specific to some subjects. In informal discussions with some such teachers they have asked us to particularly focus on Maths and Science since many drop outs in the region are because of inability to understand these two subjects.
Upgrading teaching methodologies: We hold trainings for our Kutir teachers every month; we are going to propose to district education authorities if their teachers from the villages (where Kutirs are) can participate as well.
Kutir space and collaborative social action by children: Many of our Kutirs are right now in personal homes or community / government spaces given by the villages. We are soon holding visioning exercises with our children regarding Kutir and village as a whole on how they would like their village & Kutir to look like and then these children will present it to Gram Sabhas. Also to enhance their agency of social action and civic responsibility we are going to make them regular participants in Gram Sabhas.
Nutrition
Sharing data: Sharing of baseline and progress data with anganwadis, hospitals and child and health department and collaboration for appropriate action like taking a child to NRC etc.
Sharing and feedback menu: We are trying to see how we can complement the mid day meal scheme better by talking to local authorities on our menu for each month.
Collaborating with anganwadi workers and Asha workers in ensuring proper medical attention to the needy children and mothers.
Local Agriculture and Horticulture
We are promoting local cultivation by assuring to buy from the village itself which will help such areas in moving from sustenance farming to commercial farming. We are sharing such plans with agriculture department and are seeking their support on technical and input side. Some of the saplings of Munga or Moringa that we are growing in Kutirs have been given by the agriculture department. We are also in discussion with external agencies in developing kitchen gardens (including green vegetables, peas etc) and plantation of fruit trees (which will be impactful in the long-run for the local villages).
our staff
Seva-vratees
Seva-vratis are a deeply committed group of people and have shown tremendous dedication to the spirit and values of Parivaar.
Seva-vratis, many of whom have been with Parivaar through initial stages become a deep part of the organization’s history and traditions. We can therefore say each one of them is an essential piece of Parivaar, not only crucial in the present state of operations but critically important for the actualization of Parivaar’s continued growth and future goals. It is only with such highly dedicated, capable and long-term devoted workers that we are able to take a long-term view of what it means to change the course of life in India.
