Jankidevi Bajaj Gram Vikas Sanstha (JBGVS)

Natural resource management deals with managing the way which people and natural resources interact. It brings together land use planning, water management, biodiversity conservation etc. Degradation of natural resources has a direct negative impact on livelihoods of the poor people. The extent to which water resources have been exploited, is a major determinant of prosperity in a Marathwada region of Maharashtra. India has 16% of the world’s population and only 4% of the world’s water resources, which are depleting rapidly. Given an ever-increasing need for creating a water efficient country, JBGVS runs its Bajaj Water Conservation Project (BWCP) in the Marathwada regions of Maharashtra and the severely drought prone districts of Rajasthan and Uttarakhand. The BWCP is one of the flagship CSR projects run by the Bajaj Group of Companies with the aim of institution building and establishing good ownership of the local communities towards water conservation through good agro-practices and promotion of alternate livelihood means to reduce the dependency on agriculture.

The first phase of Bajaj Water Conservation Project (January 2015 -December 2017) was launched in 51 villages of Paithan, Gangapur Taluka of Aurangabad district with a total contribution of Rs. 24 crore made by the Bajaj Group. Given the community led interventions planned for the success of the project, the communities made an out of pocket contribution of Rs. 2 crore too. The second phase of Bajaj Water Conservation Project (December 2017 –March 2022) was launched in 110 villages of Gangapur and Aurangabad Talukas of Aurangabad district, where a total of 199 crores was funded by the Bajaj Group. In phase 2 the community contribution stood at Rs. 46 crores creating huge success of the project.

At JBGVS, everything we do in healthcare aims at bettering the health of our most important stakeholder: The Community. The purpose of all the endeavours is to strengthen public health system by strengthening communities. Our CSR in healthcare has up to 150 partners with an amount outlay of approximately………. The positive externalities borne by these projects is multi folds thus contributing to United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 3 of good health and well-being. The core of JBGVS Health programmes are structured on the premises of community needs, promotion of local partners, building sustainable models and leveraging learning from international partners to strengthen local partnerships.

Following the premises, we strive to achieve:

Healthcare infrastructure creation and augmentation
Reduction in Malnourishment, Infant & maternal mortality
Specialized surgeries and treatment programmes
Communicable and Non communicable diseases with special focus on Mental Health

JBGVS believes that to combat the issue of poverty, unemployment and underemployment, there is a need to encompass a set of multidimensional interventions covering a whole range of social and economic aspects. JBGVS endeavours, through its dedicated support structures and partners at various levels, to reach out to all the rural and urban poor households (in its operational area), and empower them to get themselves out of poverty through building their capacities, financial access, and self-managed community institutions (social mobilisation and institution building); through placement in jobs, and/or nurturing them into remunerative self-employment and enterprises. The vision is to ensure that institutions of the poor gradually take charge of supporting their members being in control of their livelihoods, lives, and destiny. (JBGVS) is playing a critical role in empowering the underprivileged people through generation of sustainable livelihood in non-farm sector. It has developed three types of interventions to achieve this objective – 1) Individual Enterprise Model 2) Group Enterprise Model 3) Skill Development and Career Progression Model. Under the three models the underemployed and unemployed poor are encouraged to set up small enterprises relating to manufacturing, servicing, trading, and petty business for which there is considerable local demand.

At JBGVS our livelihood programmes are focused on:

Career progression
Rural and urban poor enabling
Mentoring support
Inclusion and outcome led designs
Capacity building – pre and post-employment support

JBGVS aims to bridge the gap between the current and desired education situation through various internal interventions as well as through partnerships with multiple organizations who specialize in dealing with one or more of the problems that hamper the Indian education scenario today. JBGVS Education programmes are aimed at holistic development of children of all children coming from all walks of life. Our motto is to create enabling learning platforms for children otherwise deprived of it given their physical, mental, or financial predisposition.

Through our efforts we strive towards:

Addressing issues pertaining to Low learning outcomes which is largely caused by inadequate infrastructure, untrained faculty, and properly informed parents. To tackle this issue, JBGVS launched its very own project called BEI (Bajaj Education Initiatives) project which aims to improve the quality of education in Pimpri-Chinchwad (PCMC) and Pune through infrastructure development and capacity building of teachers, students, and parents. The project was implemented in PCMC for municipal and low-cost private schools.
Enabling Early childhood education: The early years (0 to 8 years) are the most extraordinary period of growth and development in a child’s lifetime. The foundations of all learning are laid during these years. Getting the foundations right carries huge future benefits: better learning in school and higher educational attainment, which results in major social and economic gains for society. To do this JBGVS partners with organizations like Gyanshala who works with 3000 urban slum children from poor, marginalized, minority, and migrant families in Ahmedabad who are otherwise not enrolled in any government or private schools in the state.
Accepting that Learning Disabilities exist and currently poses one of the biggest threats in the learning process of a child. JBGVS partners with organizations like Latika Roy Foundation, that work with Children With Special Needs (CWSN) in Dehradun, Uttarakhand to provide them with the required services and therapies so that they can adjust to and be included in the mainstream school and society.
Out school Programmes: JBGVS partners with various organizations for implementation of various out of school programs like remedial classes, mobile creches, work readiness for adolescent children, night schools etc. to ensure holistic development of children. Our ‘Night School Transformation Program’ in partnership with Masoom serve the migrant/working class population of the city that have either dropped out of schools in the grades or have never been to schools. On the other hand, a few other programmes implement a mix of holistic development program and work readiness programs for 7000 adolescents studying in grades 6-10 across 14 ZP schools in 2 districts of Aurangabad and Pune, respectively. Again, Tara Mobile Creche work towards providing holistic and safe development of the children of construction workers in the age group of 0-14 years.

JBGVS programmes are designed to develop local leadership in the villages, empower women through SHGs, promote local cultures, rural sports etc. The idea behind these activities is to empower people and particularly youth & women so that they carry forward the development activities once JBGVS withdraws from the villages. All the activities have inherent objective of leadership development. Mahila melavas (get-together of women) are organized to increase interaction amongst women and also to raise awareness about social issues like dowry, female foeticide, alcohol addiction, domestic violence, pollution, menace of plastic use, environmental degradation etc .

Social development activities in urban areas are conducted by Samaj Seva Kendra (SSK). In 1974, SSK started its activities in Akurdi. After initial resistance from the villagers, the people started responding positively to the activities of SSK. Slowly SSK became a center for women and children to come together, share experiences, design & participate in various programmes. From the beginning of 80s’, the door of SSK was opened to all residents of Pimpri – Chinchwad in Pune. In the beginning, the programmes were limited. However, with changing times, different types of programmes were added. The SSKs in Aurangabad and Wardha were started in 2011 & 2016 respectively keeping the above philosophy in mind as Bajaj Auto has a plant in Aurangabad while Wardha is the karmabhoomi of Bajaj family where Jamanalal ji Bajaj spent his entire life for the upliftment of the poor & the underprivileged. Following the same philosophy, rural development activities is also in Sikar & Pantnagar had been started as Sikar is the birthplace of Jamanalal ji and the new plant of BAL started operation in Pantnagar.