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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION OF NGO
Globalization during the 20th century gave rise to the importance of NGOs. Non-Government
Organizations (NGOs) have become an irresistible global forcetoday. The non-governmental
sector, also known as voluntary sector, is growing in relation to its presence in developmental
activities. Its role in the sphere of human development is now widely recognized and
accepted in most parts of the universe. Basically, an NGO or voluntary organisations are non-
profit making agencies that are constituted with a vision by a group of like minded people,
committed for the uplift of the poor, marginalized, unprivileged, underprivileged,
impoverished, downtrodden and the needy and they are closer and accessible to the target
groups, flexible in administration, quicker in decision making, timely in action and
facilitating the people towards selfreliance ensuring their fullest participation in the whole
process of development. The rapid growth of NGOs has been clearly revealed in a major
multi-nation study conducted recently by Lester Salamon, who finds it as a major economic
and social force. He remarks that the global rise of the non-profit sector may be as important
a development of the latter twentieth century as the development of the nation-state was in
the nineteenth century. A surprisingly large scale of non-profit activity was found in almost
every place the study team looked for the study. The study, covering countries like France,
Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the UK, the US, Brazil, Ghana, India and supports the view
that the sector is undoubtedly making fast strides in many spheres of human activity. The
sector, as the study shows, has turned out to be a big employer offering employment to seven
million people in the US, 1.4 million in Japan, nearly one million in France, Germany and the
UK combined. It forms an average of 3.4 percent of these countries total work forces
employing one in every 11 workers holding service jobs. It is also found that the sector is
spending huge sums varying from 1.2 percent of the GDP in Hungary to6.3 percent in the US
with an average of 3.5 percent. Apparently, the growth of the voluntary sector has been
phenomenal particular during the last two decades. The presence of the NGOs, especially
those engaged in developmental efforts, has been strongly felt during these years. In fact, the
involvement of NGOs in development has become indispensable today.

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It is estimated that about 10 percent -$ eight billion-public development aid world-wide is
now being routed through NGOs. The Indian situation has not been, however, different. It the
proliferation of NGOs is of any indication, the sector is expanding day to day. As per one
conservative estimate, the total number of NGOs is over 0.2 million.
This figure excludes organizations like trade unions, schools and hospital but includes only
those registered for certification for receiving foreign assistance. The magnitude of funds the
NGOs in the country handle today is another index to this growth. The annual budgets of
these organizations are now not a party sum but ranges from Rs. 30 million to 5000 million.
Today, the NGOs in the country assume a conspicuous role in multifarious developmental
programmes and activities. The achievements and success of NGOs in various fields and the
excellent work done by them in specific areas is no doubt a tremendous task that has helped
to meet the changing needs of the social system. However, insprite of its achievements in
various fields, NGOs are facing different problems which differ from organization to
organization, region to region.

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TYPES OF NGOS
NGO types can be understood by their orientation and level of operation.
NGO type by level of orientation:
Charitable Orientation often involves a top-down paternalistic effort with little
participation by the "beneficiaries". It includes NGOs with activities directed toward
meeting the needs of the poor.
Service Orientation includes NGOs with activities such as the provision of health,
family planning or education services in which the programme is designed by the
NGO and people are expected to participate in its implementation and in receiving the
service.
Participatory Orientation is characterized by self-help projects where local people
are involved particularly in the implementation of a project by contributing cash,
tools, land, materials, labour etc. In the classical community development project,
participation begins with the need definition and continues into the planning and
implementation stages.
Empowering Orientation aims to help poor people develop a clearer understanding
of the social, political and economic factors affecting their lives, and to strengthen
their awareness of their own potential power to control their lives. There is maximum
involvement of the beneficiaries with NGOs acting as facilitators.
NGO type by level of operation:
Community-based Organizations (CBOs) arise out of people's own initiatives. They
can be responsible for raising the consciousness of the urban poor, helping them to
understand their rights in accessing needed services, and providing such services.
Citywide Organizations include organizations such as chambers of commerce and
industry, coalitions of business, ethnic or educational groups, and associations of
community organizations.
National NGOs include national organizations such a professional management , etc.
Some have state and city branches and assist local NGOs.
International NGOs range from secular agencies such as Redda Barna and Save the
Children organizations, OXFAM, CARE, Ford Foundation, and Rockefeller
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Foundation to religiously motivated groups. They can be responsible for funding local
NGOs, institutions and projects and implementing projects.
Apart from "NGO", there are many alternative or overlapping terms in use, including: third
sector organization (TSO), non-profit organization (NPO), voluntary organization (VO), civil
society organization (CSO), grassroots organization (GO), social movement organization
(SMO), private voluntary organization (PVO), self-help organization (SHO) and non-state
actors (NSAs).
Non-governmental organizations are a heterogeneous group. As a result, a long list of
additional acronyms has developed, including:
BINGO: 'Business-friendly International NGO' or 'Big International NGO'
TANGO: 'Technical Assistance NGO'
TSO: 'Third Sector Organization'
GONGO: 'Government-Operated NGOs' (set up by governments to look like NGOs in
order to qualify for outside aid or promote the interests of government)
DONGO: 'Donor Organized NGO'
INGO: 'International NGO'
QUANGO: 'Quasi-Autonomous NGO,' such as the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO). (The ISO is actually not purely an NGO, since its membership
is by nation, and each nation is represented by what the ISO Council determines to be
the 'most broadly representative' standardization body of a nation. That body might
itself be a nongovernmental organization; for example, the United States is
represented in ISO by the American National Standards Institute, which is
independent of the federal government. However, other countries can be represented
by national governmental agencies; this is the trend in Europe.)
National NGO: A non-governmental organization that exists only in one country. This
term is rare due to the globalization of non-governmental organizations, which causes
an NGO to exist in more than one country.
CSO: 'Civil Society Organization'
ENGO: 'Environmental NGO,' such as Greenpeace and WWF
NNGO: 'Northern NGO'
PANGO: 'Party NGO,' set up by parties and disguised as NGOs to serve their political
matters.
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SNGO: 'Southern NGO'
SCO: 'Social Change Organization'
TNGO: 'Transnational NGO.' The term emerged during the 1970s due to the increase
of environmental and economic issues in the global community. TNGO includes non-
governmental organizations that are not confined to only one country, but exist in two
or more countries.
GSO: Grassroots Support Organization
MANGO: 'Market Advocacy NGO'
NGDO: 'Non-governmental Development Organization'
USAID refers to NGOs as private voluntary organizations. However, many scholars have
argued that this definition is highly problematic as many NGOs are in fact state and corporate
funded and managed projects with professional staff.
NGOs exist for a variety of reasons, usually to further the political or social goals of their
members or founders. Examples include improving the state of the natural environment,
encouraging the observance of human rights, improving the welfare of the disadvantaged, or
representing a corporate agenda. However, there are a huge number of such organizations and
their goals cover a broad range of political and philosophical positions. This can also easily
be applied to private schools and athletic organizations.
Development, Environment and Human Rights NGOs
NGOs are organizations that work in many different fields, but the term is generally
associated with those seeking social transformation and improvements in quality of life.
Development NGOs are the most highly visible sector, and includes both international and
local organizations, as well as those working in humanitarian emergency sector. Many are
associated with international aid and voluntary donation, but there are also NGOs that choose
not to take funds from donors and try to generate funding in other ways, such as selling
handicrafts or charging for services.
Environmental NGOs are another sub-sector, and sometimes overlap with development
NGOs. An example is Greenpeace. Just like other NGOs networks, transnational
environmental networks might acquire a variety of benefits in sharing information with other
organizations, campaigning towards an issue, and exchanging contact information. Since
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transnational environmental NGOs advocate for different issues like public goods, such as
pollution in the air, deforestation of areas and water issues, it is more difficult for them to
give their campaigns a human face than NGOs campaigning directly for human rights issues
.Some of the earliest forms of transnational environmental NGOs started to appear after the
Second World War with the creation of the International Union for the Conservation of
Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). After the UN was formed in 1945, more
environmental NGO started to emerge in order to address more specific environmental
issues. In 1946, the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was
created with the purpose of advocating and representing scientific issues and collaboration
among environmental NGOs. In 1969, the Scientific Committee on Problems of the
Environment (SCOPE) was funded to increase and improve collaboration among
environmentalists. This collaboration was later reinforced and stimulated with the creation of
UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Program in 1971. In 1972, the UN Conference on the
Human Environment in Stockholm, tried to address the issues on Swedens plead for
international intervention on trans-boundary pollution from other European industrialized
nations.Transnational environmental NGOs have taken on diverse issues around the globe,
but one of the best-known cases involving the work of environmental NGOs can be traced
back to Brazil during the 1980s. The United States got involved with deforestation concerns
due to the allegations of environmentalists dictating deforestation to be a global concern, and
after 1977 the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act added an Environmental and Natural Resources
section.
Human rights NGOs may also overlap with those in development, but are another distinct
category. Amnesty International is perhaps one of the best-known.
During the early 1980s the Brazilian government created the Polonoreste developing
program, which the World Bank agreed to finance. The Polonoreste program aimed to
urbanized areas of the Amazon, which were already occupied by local indigenous groups.
Rapid deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon called the attention and intervention of
UNESCO, who utilized its Program on Man and the Biosphere to advocate against the
Polonoreste program, on the grounds of violating the rights of the indigenous groups living in
the Amazon. In the case of deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon, the environment NGOs
were able to put pressure on the World Bank to cancel the loans for the Polonoreste program.
Due to the leverage that the U.S. has over the bank, in 1985 the World Bank suspended the
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financial aid to the Polonoreste Program. The work of environmental NGOs in the Brazilian
case was successful because there was a point of leverage that made the targeted actor
vulnerable to international pressure.
Even though NGOs might have common goals relating to development or environment
issues, interests and perspectives are diverse. A distinction can be made between the interests
and goals among those NGOs located in industrialized countriesoften referred to as the
states of the Northand NGOs from nations located in developing countriesreferred to as
states of the South. There is sometimes tension between them. Southern states blame the
developed nations for over-consumption and pollution resulting from industrialization, and
for sustaining inequalities in the international economic system
There is also a distinction among groups that take on particular and specific socio-economic
issues. The Womens Environment and Development Organization was created in 1990 with
the purpose to advocate for gender inclusion in work related to the Earth Summit.

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ACTIVITIES AND FUNCTIONS OF NGOS
There are also numerous classifications of NGOs. The typology the World Bank uses divides
them into Operational and Advocacy:
NGOs vary in their methods. Some act primarily as lobbyists, while others primarily conduct
programs and activities. For instance, an NGO such as Oxfam, concerned with poverty
alleviation, might provide needy people with the equipment and skills to find food and clean
drinking water, whereas an NGO like the FFDA helps through investigation and
documentation of human rights violations and provides legal assistance to victims of human
rights abuses. Others, such as Afghanistan Information Management Services, provide
specialized technical products and services to support development activities implemented on
the ground by other organizations.
NGOs were intended to fill a gap in government services, but in countries like India and
China, NGOs are slowly gaining a position in decision making. In the interest of
sustainability, most donors require that NGOs demonstrate a relationship with
governments.State Governments themselves are vulnerable because they lacking economic
resources, and potentially strategic planning and vision. They are therefore sometimes tightly
bound by a nexus of NGOs, political bodies, commercial organizations and major
donors/funders, making decisions that have short term outputs but no long term affect. In
India, for instance, NGOs are under regulated, political, and recipients of large government
and international donor funds. NGOs often take up responsibilities outside their skill ambit.
Governments have no access to the number of projects or amount of funding received by
these NGOs. There is a pressing need to regulate this group while not curtailing their unique
role as a supplement to government services.
Operational
Operational NGOs seek to "achieve small-scale change directly through projects." They
mobilize financial resources, materials and volunteers to create localized programs in the
field. They hold large-scale fundraising events, apply to governments and organizations for
grants and contracts in order to raise money for projects. They often operate in a hierarchical
structure; with a main headquarters staffed by professionals who plan projects, create
budgets, keep accounts, report, and communicate with operational fieldworkers who work
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directly on projects Operational NGOs deal with a wide range of , but are most often
associated with the delivery of services and welfare, emergency relief and environmental
issues. Operational NGOs can be further categorized, one frequently used categorization is
the division into relief-oriented versus development-oriented organizations; they can also be
classified according to whether they stress service delivery or participation; or whether they
are religious or secular; and whether they are more public or private-oriented. Operational
NGOs can be community-based, national or international. The defining activity of
operational NGOs is implementing projects.
Campaigning
Campaigning NGOs seek to "achieve large-scale change promoted indirectly through
influence of the political system."Campaigning NGOs need an efficient and effective group
of professional members who are able to keep supporters informed, and motivated. They
must plan and host demonstrations and events that will keep their cause in the media. They
must maintain a large informed network of supporters who can be mobilized for events to
garner media attention and influence policy changes. The defining activity of campaigning
NGOs is holding demonstrations. Campaigning NGOs often deal with issues relating to
human rights, women's rights, children's rights. The primary purpose of an Advocacy NGO is
to defend or promote a specific cause. As opposed to operational project management, these
organizations typically try to raise awareness, acceptance and knowledge by lobbying, press
work and activist event.
Both operational and campaigning
It is not uncommon for NGOs to make use of both activities. Many times, operational NGOs
will use campaigning techniques if they continually face the same issues in the field that
could be remedied through policy changes. At the same time, Campaigning NGOs, like
human rights organizations often have programs that assist the individual victims they are
trying to help through their advocacy work.
Public relations
Non-governmental organizations need healthy relationships with the public to meet their
goals. Foundations and charities use sophisticated public relations campaigns to raise funds
and employ standard lobbying techniques with governments. Interest groups may be of
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political importance because of their ability to influence social and political outcomes. A
code of ethics was established in 2002 by The World Association of Non Governmental
Organizations.
Project management
There is an increasing awareness that management techniques are crucial to project success in
non-governmental organizations.Generally, non-governmental organizations that are private
have either a community or environmental focus. They address varieties of issues such as
religion, emergency aid, or humanitarian affairs. They mobilize public support and voluntary
contributions for aid; they often have strong links with community groups in developing
countries, and they often work in areas where government-to-government aid is not possible.
NGOs are accepted as a part of the international relations landscape, and while they influence
national and multilateral policy-making, increasingly they are more directly involved in local
action.






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NGOS IN INDIA
The vibrant history of Indian NGOs in the 60 years since independence has resulted in a more
broad-based sector, but one that still has to contend with problems of autonomy and
independence. While the Indian state does not exert absolute control over the NGO sector, it
is able to keep it in check and away from the national-level political processes, and in effect
set limits on NGOs role as empowerment agents. There are two major trends in Indian civil
society that have had an effect on development NGOs in the 2000s: first, the activist groups
of the 1960s and 1970s have abandoned the NGO as an institutional form, preferring informal
networks that are completely separate from the state regulatory frameworks and scrutiny,
seeing the state as inherently oppressive and not to be trusted (Chandhoke and Ghosh 1995;
Murthy and Rao 1997; Seth and Sethi 1991). However, the price they pay is that they remain
small-scale due to the very restricted access to resources (Murthy and Rao 1997). The second
trend is the emergence of fundamentalist movements such as the Hindutva (Hindu nationalist
movement) that are fundamentally undemocratic, opposing rational discourse based on
freedom and equality (Chandhoke 1995). Neither of these two changes help in having NGOs
engage in civil society processes: the total disengagement from the state weakens the process
for holding the state accountable, and the move to an intolerance of diversity of discourse
narrows the parameters in which the state can be engaged. NGOs are affected either way, as
they feel any engagement with the state on policy issues will draw hostile attention from both
social action groups on the one hand and the fundamentalists on the other. Now that social
activists and fundamentalists both occupy the political stage, NGOs feel their role is now in
helping marginalized groups advance their own interests and assert their rights themselves.
There is also a growing vulnerability of NGOs particularly larger ones that are dependent
on foreign funding to state scrutiny and the states capacity to cut off NGO resources. An
example of this is that the dependent relationship between NGOs and the state has limited the
level of networking among NGOs, due to competition among them for resources from the
state and foreign sources, and a fall in foreign funding sources in the 2000s.

The less supportive environment for NGOs has brought some of their less favourable
characteristics more to the fore: inflexibility, a feudal management style being dominated
by powerful individuals with little devolution of power, and recruitment very much caste- or
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personally based (Reddy 1987). Whether these characteristics are unique to NGOs or are
more or less an inherent style of institutional management in India is another matter. The
other side of this coin is that the decline in foreign funding relative to local funding, together
with deregulated international financial flows, may make it more difficult for NGOs to gain
greater autonomy from the state, especially if they are social change agents with broader
empowerment objectives. The regulatory pressures on NGOs through amendments to the
FCRA have been tightening; for example, in 2001 the Law Commission of India was
commissioned by government to prepare a series of amendments to the FCRA): these were
finally tabled in the Lok Sabha (Parliament) in 2006. Earlier amendments had already
resulted in substantial tightening; for example, all applicants for FCRA approval must obtain
an affidavit from the district administrator explaining the nature of their past and current
activities. The 2006 draft amendment proposed a further a tightening of FCRA including: the
renewing of FCRA registration every five years; stronger restrictions on engaging in religious
conversion activities but with vague definitions of the key terms inducement, or indirectly
inducing a conversion; a forward looking clause in which the certifying officer had to make
a judgment on the likelihood of non-compliance and whether a meaningful project had been
prepared; a cap on administration expenses but with no supporting definitions; and finally the
provision for the state to dispose of assets purchased through foreign donations, something
that could put schools and hospitals at risk if they had changed hands in any way (Jalali 2008;
Parker 2007). On financial matters, an amendment in 2008 sought to remove the overall tax
exemption, if there are any business activities at all, and these could include any cost
recovery activities such as fees for running trainings and the like (AccountAble 2008). These
changes mirror a broader questioning globally of the purpose (and legitimacy) of NGOs, and
a tightening of NGOs administration, marking the relationship of the state to NGOs in the
opening years of the twenty-first century as one of mutual suspicion and a strongly
instrumentalist view of what NGOs are or should do (Jalali 2008; Kilby 2004).

Today, the NGOs in the country assume a conspicuous role in multifarious developmental
programmes and activities. The achievements and success of NGOs in various fields and the
excellent work done by them in specific areas is no doubt a tremendous task that has helped
to meet the changing needs of the social system.

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The limits placed by the Indian government on the number of bilateral donors it deals with
saw all but six bilateral aid relationships terminated in 2003 (Times of India 2 June), provided
new opportunities for both the Indian government and international NGOs, at least in the
short term, to pick up the slack. This leads to the question of what makes the NGO sector
such an important sector for donors and government funders alike.
List Of NGO In Ulhasnagar:
Name Registration No. Address
Manav Vikas
Samajik Seva
Sanstha
MH/325-03/Thane
(26-03-1994)
Block No. A 315 / 630, Kurla Camp, Ulhasnagar
421004
Siddhant Samaj
Vikas Sanstha
MH-555-03-Thane
(12-06-2003)
Near municipal marathi school no 14 milind
nagar OT section ulhasnagar 421 004
Shivtirth Shikshan
Sanskrutik Krida
Sanstha
F/13144/Thane (23-
08-2004)
B/66 Kurla Camp, Near Municipal Garden,
Kurla Camp Chowk, Kurla Camp, Ulhasnagar-
421005 Dist Thane: Maharshtra India


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Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha
Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha was established as a Public Charitable Trust in 1994 by
the Commissioner of the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation and several prominent citizens
of the country. Over the years, the network has been expanded to various other cities where
minded people wanted to replicate the Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha experience.
Central to this massive expansion of Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sansthas work has been a
whole new way of approaching the education problem in India and a new way of
implementing programs to create a national impact. We outline below the key milestones in
Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sansthas journey.
The Initial Years: Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha began its operations by providing
pre-school education to the children in the slums of Mumbai. Contrary to the general mindset
of space being limited, Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha felt that an ideal space should not
be a pre-condition to providing pre-school education. There was enough space within each
community in temples, local offices, peoples houses etc. Thus volunteers were recruited
from within the communities and trained in early childhood education and encouraged to take
classes in any space available in the communities. They were also provided with teaching
learning material. Soon, the Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha Balwadis (Pre-school
classes) multiplied and were replicated in various other locations.
Gradually we came into contact with out-of-school children and in-school children who were
lagging behind academically and also were at the risk of dropping out. Many of these were
first generation learners and therefore lacked the required learning support from their
families. We started providing remedial education to these children through the Balsakhi
program. The Bridge classes conducted in the communities targeted out-of-school children
and aimed at bringing them to a minimum learning level before mainstreaming them into
schools.
Between 1999 and 2001, we expanded our work to cover 19 cities with similar models. In
addition we began working with child labour through our outreach program. In 2000 Manav
Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha was awarded the Global Development Network Award,
sponsored by the World Bank / Government of Japan, where Manav Vikas Samajik Seva
Sanstha was named as one of the top three "most innovative development projects.
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The Birth of the Learn to Read Technique and the shift to the Area Approach
By 2002-03, Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha initiatives in most locations had worked out
strategies on scale for direct delivery of pre-school education, school readiness programs and
remedial education.

In 2002-03 two major changes occurred that had a significant impact on our programs:
The Area Approach: We adopted the area approach for the delivery of our programs in urban
areas. The area approach was designed to turn communities around so that the first step
for the universalization of elementary education could be firmly taken. In this approach an
entire community or basti is selected for the interventions. This is better than a scattered
approach where it is difficult to track children who drop out from the programs. In the area
approach the only way a child may drop out is if he or she leaves the community and
migrates elsewhere. Low income slum pockets or villages of approximately 250 to 300
households are demarcated. This cluster is called a basti. Often such pockets are contiguous
to each other so that targeted stretches of slums achieve goals of every child going to school
and every child acquiring basic literacy and numeracy skills within a time bound manner.
Today, we are working in 4000 such bastis in 43 cities. Learn to Read: through our
experience with the learning support programs, we learnt that the average period of contact
available with children requiring additional help was not more than 2-3 months. This
necessitated the development of an alternative model/technique where a short term contact
could significantly impact the learning levels of children. There was a thought that Isnt
there a magic wand that will help us change the learning status of a child almost overnight?
Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sansthas Learn to Read (L2R) technique was thus born. L2R
was an accelerated learning technique targeted at teaching both in-school and out-of-school
children how to read in 4- 8 weeks. It was conceptualized as a non-linear method where the
children were exposed to multiple stimuli to help improve their learning levels. The first
innovation resulting from these efforts to develop this technique was to abandon the
sequential method of learning. Instead, Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha came up with an
integrated activity as it found that if four types of class activities (say something; do
something; read something and write something) are integrated together, learning was rapid.
The technique was based on the principle that when children were engaged in a variety of
activities which have implicit interconnections, they make the interconnections and these
snowball into a larger skill. This was learning by doing in action.
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The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER):
As Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha progressed in its journey, it found it necessary to
quantify the problems of education in a manner that could lead to focused action. While
government surveys provided enrollment data, there were hardly any surveys providing
information on the quality of education. Also the government data on enrollment was not
independently verified and often not published. Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha felt that
citizens who were being levied a 2% (now 3%) cess on education since 2004 deserved to
know if their money was being used effectively and efficiently. Measuring the ASER (aser
means impact in Hindi) of their money was central to the ASER effort. But the primary
objective was to create awareness and inform citizens of the learning levels of their children.
A massive voluntary effort was thus set up across the country to conduct a household survey
which measured various basic and simple parameters of enrollment, facilities, and learning.
This survey, which covers over 16,000 households and over 700,000 children between
October and November each year in 95% of the rural districts of India, is reported in the
Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) in the following January .
Read India: ASER 2005 and 2006 findings revealed that in spite of having been in school
for over 2-5 years, a significant percentage of school children could not read, write or do
basic arithmetic. Findings of ASER 2005, revealed for example, that only 15% of children in
Std II and 25% in Std III could read a class 1 text. Likewise, only 17% children in Std II and
32% in Std III could solve subtraction problems. ASER 2006 continued to point to the gaps
in the learning levels of the children. To address this problem in January 2007, Manav Vikas
Samajik Seva Sanstha launched the Read India campaign to help all of Indias children aged
6-14 years learn to read, write, and do basic arithmetic. Instead of relying on governments to
ask for peoples participation, this movement talks of peoples initiative and governments
participation. The campaign is being implemented in 350 districts (600 in India) across 19
states in the country with the help of thousands of volunteers and the government school
system. It has already reached 21 million children. More than 350,000 volunteers have been
mobilized and 400,000 teachers and government officials have been trained. In most states
where the Read India campaign has been implemented, there has been a significant
improvement in the learning levels of the children.
Today the organization continues to expand both geographically and in terms of the scope of
work it undertakes. Several new programs have been introduced which include the computer
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aided literacy program, English program, Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha Council for
Vulnerable children and the Skilling Initiative.
Vision & Mission:
Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sansthas mission is to ensure Every Child in School and
Learning Well . The organization is founded on the firm belief that education is the
fundamental right of every child and no child should be deprived of this basic right simply
because he/she does not have access to it or does not have the resources to realize his/her
dreams.
The principal focus of our programs is to ensure quantum and visible improvement in the
enrolment and learning levels of the underprivileged children.
The key principles which have guided the evolution of our programs over the years are:
1. Generating a societal mission is a necessary means of achieving the broad goal
of universal pre-school and primary school education.
2. Creating an impact on a large scale is essential to bring about a perceptible
change.
3. Creating low cost models is critical to ensure sustainability and replicability of
interventions.
15 years after its formation, the Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha movement has become a
pan-Indian movement reaching millions of children across 19 states. Our programs are
designed to address a gamut of educational problems pre-school education, learning support
to both in-school and out of school children, mainstreaming of out-of-school children,
computer literacy, vocational training for youth and special programs for vulnerable and
working children.
Aims/Objectives:
Improving the reading, writing and arithmetic levels of the children: Read India
Improving enrollment and learning levels of children in urban areas: Direct programs
Assessment, Survey, Evaluation and Research: ASER Centre
Working with vulnerable children: PCVC
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Facilitating the use of IT: CAL
Working with underemployed and unemployed youth: PACE
Working in Early Childhood Care and Education: ECCE centre
Providing books to underprivileged children: Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha
Books

Activities Undertaken by the NGO:
Urban Learning Centres: Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha establishes Learning Centres
in communities where it is possible for us to find space to start one, as well as get children
who can pay a nominal fee. This fee is vital in creating a self-sustaining educational facility
within the given community wherein the program will have continuity in future even without
external funding. Given Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sansthas focus on sustainability in
educational development, it is vital that the teachers, students, parents and community
members have an active stake in the program. Therefore, while the fee collected from each
student is minimal, the collection goes towards giving the community ownership of the
program.
Read India: Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sansthas flagship program, Read India, helps to
improve the reading, writing and basic arithmetic skills of the children in the age group of 6-
14 years. Even though India has made significant strides in improving the enrollment levels
of the children, a lot still needs to be done as far as the learning levels are concerned.
Findings of ASER 2005 and 2006 revealed that a significant percentage of children could not
read, write and even do basic arithmetic. Read India was therefore launched on a national
scale in 2007 to help achieve the following objectives:

*All Std I children know at least alphabets & numbers.
*All Std II children can read atleast words & do simple sums.
*All Std III-V children can at least read simple texts fluently & confidently solve arithmetic
problems.

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ASER: Facilitated by Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha, ASER(meaning impact in Hindi)
is the largest household survey undertaken in India by people outside the government. It
annually measures the enrollment as well as the reading and arithmetic levels of children in
the age group of 6-14 years. ASER is carried out by a local organization or institution in each
rural district in the country, using a common set of tools and a common sampling frame. In
2008, ASER reached over 7,04,000 children in 16,198 villages in 564 rural districts in India.
More than 32,000 volunteers from NGOs, colleges and universities, youth and women groups
participated in this effort.
Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha Council for Vulnerable Children: The
Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha Council for Vulnerable Children (PCVC -
www.pcvc.org) started its outreach program in Mumbai in the year 2001. For almost three
years the focus was on working children in the city of Mumbai, who were mainly found to
have been trafficked from different parts of the country. Facilitation of the task force
formation under the Government of Maharashtra saw the rescue and rehabilitation of almost
25000 working children in the city. It was a felt need to trace the roots of these children and
work in the source sending states from where the children belonged. In this view the work
was expanded to the source states.
Computer Aided Literacy: This is a school based program which caters to school going
children from 6-18 age group with about 40% children in secondary school age.

The objective of this program is
1) To impact childrens basic learning levels using IT and
2) To give them relevant IT knowledge and skills.
Vocational Skills programme:
Pace the Skills Training Program: This program is targeted at the economically
disadvantaged youth in the 18-30 year age group. India has a large percentage of youth who
have not been able to complete their formal education and also do not have the required
vocational skills to begin fully employed. Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sansthas Skills
Training Program tries to.
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Early Childhood Care and Education Centre: The ECCE center was set up in 2007 to
leverage and institutionalize the experience Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha has in early
childhood care and education. Over the years, Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha has been
running a successful Balwadi program and in this process worked with and trained thousands
of volunteers and pre-school teachers. The center is an attempt to consolidate and share the
learning in this area through an institutional framework. Trainings in early childhood care and
education is the key activity of the resource centre. Trainings are conducted for government
and private pre-school teachers as well as for volunteers from within the community.
Through the collaboration with the government ICDS to train the Anganwadi workers, the
center seek to strengthen the government pre-school learning program. The center also
promotes entrepreneurial efforts in the field of ECCE. In addition, information on ECCE is
also provided to mothers and urban and rural poor so that they are empowered with
knowledge to improve the education and health of their children. Centers have been
established in Maharashtra, Hyderabad and Allahabad and efforts are underway to set up
additional centers.
Learnings Accumulated:
Clarity of goal:
Every child in school and learning well is the Manav Vikas Samajik Seva
Sansthas goal and it is toiling hard to achieve it. Every member of Manav Vikas
Samajik Seva Sanstha is properly aware of this goal and is working in line with it.
Clarity of goal is of utmost importance in any area as once you what your aim is then
and then only you can work for it.

Approach towards the achievement of the goal:
What to do is followed by how to do it. Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha is clear
in its goal and very well knows how to do it. Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha is
quiet correct in its approach for achieving its goal of education for all. It started a
concept of Education for Education where it provides free computer education to
the children who need it and these children in turn provide the basic education to the
younger ones.


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Practical learning of management in rural area.
Manav Vikas Samajik Seva Sanstha helped me learn the management of resources in
rural area. I learned about the condition of education and the thought process of the
people for education in rural India. It helped me adopt a practical approach for
learning and teaching in that segment.

Optimum utilization of resources:
It taught me to manage with the limited number of resources in the best possible
manner. Providing education in an area where there is no educational environment
and in the lack of major resources like electricity has been made possible only
through hard work and clear intention of attaining the common goal.
Good coordination among members.
Hiring of local people.
Building up good relation with local communities and people.
Experience with rural sector.