Jeevan Vidya Trust

Project Brief: Jeevan Vidya provides lodging and boarding facilities in Nandurbar for about 90 tribal girls. The girls come from villages located around 40-50 kms away. These girls attend schools close by to the boarding facility.
Project Type: Other (description)
Primary Focus: children of dalits/tribals (description)

Secondary Focus: girls

Area: Rural
Supporting Chapter Contact: Seattle
Status: current / ongoing
Project Steward: Deepali Bhagvat
Project Partner(s): Martina Fargose
Other Contacts: Shilpa Karve
Project Address: , Near Mhada Colony,Korit Road,Nandurbar,
MAHARASHTRA  425412
Tel: 9637871258
Stewarding Chapter: Seattle
Oct 2023SeattleUSD 8828
Nov 2022SeattleUSD 8995
Oct 2021SeattleUSD 19592
Nov 2018SeattleUSD 9383
Nov 2017SeattleUSD 12291
Jun 2017SeattleUSD 30816
Oct 2016SeattleUSD 8329
Jan 2016SeattleUSD 14200
Dec 2014SeattleUSD 6048
Mar 2014SeattleUSD 6273
Mar 2013SeattleUSD 6675
Nov 2011SeattleUSD 387
Nov 2011SeattleUSD 3380
Jul 2011SeattleUSD 3680
May 2010SeattleUSD 3530
Feb 2010SeattleUSD 3525
Feb 2009SeattleUSD 1620
Feb 2009SeattleUSD 1670

Total = $149222

Jeevan Vidya provides lodging and boarding facilities in Nandurbar for about 90 tribal girls. Nandurbar is near Maharashtra-Gujarat boarder. It takes approximately 10 hours by road from Mumbai and Pune and approximately 3 hours from Surat and Nashik. The premise is located a few kilometers from the center of Nandurbar town. The girls who avail the benefits of this facility come from villages located around 40-50 kms away. These girls attend schools close by to the boarding facility. Girls are from 5th to 12th grade and belong to poor families. Most of the parents in this area are farm workers.

Jeevan Vidya only provides boarding and lodging facilities for the girls. So there are no classes or teachers. The main building on the campus of Jeevan Vidya has two floors. First floor has a kitchen to cook food for the girls, a store room, a study hall, a living hall for the girls with lockers to keep their belongings and mats to sleep at the night and perform yoga in the morning, and an office for the staff. It also has a cupboard full of books for the girls and also showcases a few awards won by them. The second floor has a computer lab cum sewing room for the girls, two guest rooms, staff kitchen and dining hall, staff rooms and restrooms. Another small building next to the main building houses toilets and bathrooms for the girls. There is also a borewell used by the girls to wash their dishes. Jeevan Vidya uses solar power as an additional energy source. There is a fairly large yard around the buildings that is used to grow herbs, vegetables and flowers. A greenhouse is used to grow some of them while others are planted outside the greenhouse. The herbs and vegetables grown there are often used in the cooking. Rest of the yard is used by the girls as a playground. Two lady cooks are employed by Jeevan Vidya to cook girls meals. They are from the nearby tribal villages as well and commute 15-20 kms every day. They come in the morning, cook breakfast, lunch and dinner and go back to their homes in the evening.

Girls pay yearly fees of Rs. 3500 to stay at Jeevan Vidya. They are encouraged to be independent and disciplined. They wash their own utensils as well as their clothes. They have a set time-table that gives them enough time for both studies and play. They are offered tutions for difficult subjects such as Maths, Science and English at Jeevan Vidya. Jeevan Vidya and Jan Seva staff as well as some local volunteers tutor these subjects. They are also taught to speak, read and write the local language, Marathi as most of the kids speak in Ahirani at their home. They also get to learn cycling and using a computer. They can enroll in karate classes as well as personality development classes. They are encouraged to participate in various competitions outside such as drawing, essay writing and sports. This helps increase their confidence significantly. All girls are divided into groups of mixed ages at the beginning of the year. Every Sunday one of the groups cooks meals for all the girls in the hostel. Younger girls get the benefit of experience and guidance of the older girls in the group. They also help to grow vegetables and herbs which are used in their cooking while also learning the gardening and composting techniques. As girls get to learn so many things while at Jeevan Vidya, their younger siblings and friends still in village are keen on getting an admission here.

The goal of Jeevan Vidya is to provide lodging and boarding to help kids from the nearby tribal areas in their education. However, this hostel goes above and beyond the official mandate by not only tutoring the difficult courses in the school but also teaching them life-skills through extra-curricular activities. True to their name, they rightly teach Jeevan Vidya to these kids!
Jeevan Vidya provides lodging and boarding facilities in Nandurbar for about 90 tribal girls who come from villages 40-50 kms away from the schools.
Since its inception in 1969, Jan Seva Mandal has been working with the tribals of Nandurbar District – particularly the Bhils and Kokanas. Through various interventions particularly in the field of agriculture such as watershed management, seed banks, self-help groups, promotion of herbal medicines, legal awareness and education, the Mandal has strived to bring development and empowerment of the tribals. In order to empower the women of these vulnerable groups, Jan Seva Mandal approached the management of Nirmala Niketan, an institute for social and Women's development based in Churchgate, Mumbai. Thus Jeevan Vidya began as an adivasi women's development cell - promoting herbal health, education, credit groups and panchayati raj participation - under Jan Seva Mandal. However in due time, it was decided that Jeevan Vidya should be autonomously set up and managed. Accordingly Jeevan Vidya moved out of Jan Seva Mandal into its own premises with a building for tribal girls' lodging and boarding and as their training facility. Thus Jeevan Vidya became a focal center of girl child education and and women empowerment amidst other village and community involvements.