Jan Vikas Samiti

Jan Vikas Samiti (JVS) is the Social Welfare Wing of the Varanasi Province of the Indian Missionary society (IMS). Currently it has 36 centers situated in four States namely Bihar Uttar Pradesh Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh in North India. All these centres are situated in remote rural areas. Keeping the charism of our congregation (The Indian Missionary Society) JVS does not run any money making institutions. This helps us to dedicate our resources both human and material for empowerment of the marginalized especially women and children.JVS Development PerspectiveThe major thrust of TVS is to form community based organizations (CBOs) for structural change in the society in favour of the poor and the marginalized with focused attention to women children Dalits and the disabled. Thus all our centers work for community building among the poor and the marginalized so that they are empowered and can take steps to develop themselves. We realize from our experience that an individual alone cannot bring about needed change in the society and this is all the more difficult when the individual is poor and marginalized. Therefore we motivate people to form village organizations and enable them to net work at the Panchayat Block and District levels for collective strength and greater bargaining power. We believe that the strength of the poor is their number and if our country is to have an integrated development it can happen only through the collective efforts of the people.Our major activities areRehabilitating the differently able/Disabled in the local communities.Empowering the poor and the marginalized especially Dalits women and children.Rehabilitating the slum dwellers and rag pickers.Organizing domestic workers.Forming Self Help Groups (SHGs).Conducting Community health programmes with a thrust on preventive and herbal/traditional medicine and home remedies.Promoting traditional and low cost media for empowerment and awareness building.Strengthening local self-GovernancePromoting communal and caste harmony for better community interaction and development at the local state and national level.Our MethodologyPeople s awareness People s education. People s Organization People s Power and People s Action is the methodology we use in our work. That is to say that the participation of people at all levels is visualized in the activities of JVS. This is possible only through Training Programmes and Awareness Campaigns. We also use street plays puppet shows story-telling awareness songs dramas events and incidents to motivate educate and empower the poor. Over the years we have developed a process from our experiences and this process is followed in all the centers of JVS. VisionTo build a just and humane society based on the values of equality justice and freedom.MissionEmpowerment of the marginalized people of the society especially the Dalits Women and Children through a process of awareness organization collective actions and advocacy for raising their SocioPolitical Educational Economic Health Status and Promotion of Environment. StrategyA continuous process of animation and advocacy among men and women to become aware for and organize into groups and federations and to take actions for integrated participatory and Sustainable Development.