PAST
ACTIVITIES ( 1980-1995)
Between 1980 and 1995
VSK went through three distinct
phases of activities gradually
increasing its experience, coverage and influence in the field of rural transformation, brief points are described
as follows:
1980 – 1985:
Ø Taking up a clear stand of
working with and for landless and poor peasants,
Ø Preparing youth for village
leadership , upkeep of people’s
health and peasants’ organizational work,
Ø Studying land and
environmental issues: land-alienation,
landlessness & land-reforms
and effect of dams over people’s
lives, deforestation, people’s right over forests and common property resources
etc.
Ø Establishing ASHMOH- Training-cum-Production
Centre for training potential users of
this technology ( with support from NRDC (Govt. of India), NOVIB (Holland) and OXFAM (UK),
Ø Organic Agriculture and Energy
plantation etc.
Ø Initiating children’s school to
work on primary educational process appropriate to village life.
1986-1990:
Ø Work on people’s technology
Programme ( PTP); TM-village campus turned into Rural Technology
Resource-Centre with support from CAPART (Govt. of India),
Ø RTDT centre initiated at
Atarra with material support from NRDC (Govt. of India)
Ø Survey of traditional rural
technologies prevalent in seven northern states namely : Himachal Pradesh , Haryana, Rajasthan, M.P. ,U.P.,
Bihar, and West Bengal was conducted and a comprehensive report was brought
out.
Ø Helped to constitute Lok
Swasthya Parampara Samvardhan Samithy
(LSPSS), a national network to
revitalize the local health traditions in India, having its office at
Coimbatore (TN).
Ø Networked like minded
organizations and shared responsibilities of organizations like VHAI, UPVHA,
VANI, UPVAN and GAV (Gramadharit Vikas
Abhiyan) etc ,
Ø Worked as a nodal agency
for CAPART and CSWB; organizing
training programmes to help other voluntary organizations of U.P. and
nearby states,
Ø Introduced MAHILA SAMAKHYA sponsored by Ministry of
Education, Govt. of India in Banda
district and handed it over to Govt. of U.P. after running the programme for
six initial months,
Ø Organised traditional health practitioners
of Bundelkhand region (spread across
U.P. and M.P. states).
1990-1996:
Ø
Self-Reliance became the key-factor during these and following years; all efforts were
directed towards building up such
an atmosphere in villages through multiple ways,
Ø
Strengthening local health traditions through promoting
get-together and organizations of
Traditional Health Practitioners in several states like U.P., M.P.,
Bihar, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, and
Manipur etc.
Ø
Organizing
and training hundreds of rural women
belonging particularly to the scheduled caste community for various
fruit-preservation and food-processing techniques in order to enable them to
earn livelihood as well as due respect in the society,
Ø
Coordinating
relief to several thousand affected people of nearly 68 villages and few
towns during the unprecedented floods
of Banda district in the year 1992.
Ø
Served
as technical back-up unit (TBU) for
NEDA (UP) to promote energy saving devices and environment-friendly technologies
in villages,
Ø
Promoted
organic farming techniques including
vermi-composting, seed-improvement, and conservation of traditional
practices,