Poverty is the world’s harshest form of oppression. The poor are deprived of nutrition, security, opportunities, livelihood, education, human dignity and hope. To these oppressions we can add the caste system, religious discrimination and other social taboos that have been legitimized in our society. Any effort to reach out to the marginalized must address these core inequalities.
Empowerment is the ability to obtain one’s basic wants, needs, beliefs, feelings and an opportunity to grow, through self effort. These wants or needs can be of social, economic, political or cultural nature. Any attempt towards empowerment must have as its core objective to help the person or rather the group of persons to discover and understand with clarity their situation and find out possible ways to come out of it.
In the social sector they should be able to see that their living situation is not desirable for their survival, growth and their future and that of their children. They should also know their rights and the entitlements that those rights give them, and how to obtain the same. They should be particularly equipped with self-confidence to see and find their own space in the society.
In the economic area, they should learn what they can do as individuals and as a group, that will help them to create the amount of wealth (livelihood) to enable them to live decent lives with dignity and relative security and comfort. In the process they must be given the opportunity to be educated and skilled to the level that will provide them self-sustenance and dignity.
In the cultural or political space they should understand how they could organize themselves in groups to create a better representation, to secure their needs and for their voice to be heard. Our empowerment effort is aimed essentially to motivate those oppressed, especially women, to help them understand that the situation they are in, is not desirable, and that it denies them the dignity and the opportunity to live better lives which is their right, and persuade them to organize themselves so that they can in solidarity with one another, do what they cannot do alone.
Education that does not empower, does not enhance human dignity and reduce inequality, is only a symbolic and purposeless appendage. The ability to read, write and count, although considered fundamental to human nature, has little or no impact if it is not accompanied by the ability to live with dignity, and the capacity to improve one’s socio-economic status. Poverty accompanied by lack of education compounds and institutionalizes inequality, deprives from opportunity and renders individuals incapable of seeking a life lived with purpose. The ability to read, write and count, must be effectively reinforced with the ability to observe, think and understand one’s situation and provide the motivation and the means to alter one’s destiny. Education therefore needs to be purposeful, efficient and relevant to the social environment, one belongs to. Education that does not cause arousal of individual and collective urge to seek and find avenues of effective change will remain purposeless and innate.
Liv2Share’s facility provides mainstream education that is focused in providing learners with an experience of learning that is not insulated from the realities the students confront each day and leads into a gradual understanding of the need to address those inequalities and deprivation that they are victims of. Students under this program are also able to pursue Higher Education after their elementary Education of Grade 10 and 12, if they so desire.
India’s substantial backlog in the pursuit of Sustainable Development Goals in education (SDG), is visible in millions of ‘out of school children’ who are systemically deprived of education because they are children of migrants or daily wagers, who have no permanent residence in one place and in spite of national legislation to that purpose, are not able to make lateral entry into the mainstream education system for lack of documentation.
Agnel Jan Kalyan provides to every desiring student the opportunity to obtain certification for attaining Grade 3, 5 and 8, through the OBE (Open Basic Education) issued by the Government of ndia through its NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling) of MHRD. Students who migrate from one place to another, can thus join the school system wherever they are.
For others, and even any out of school kids, Agnel Jan Kalyan facility provides individual appropriate opportunity, at a flexible pace, to complete Elementary and Post Elementary Nationally accredited certification, through the National Open Schooling (NIOS). Our effort is to get out of the mainstream system and create a hybrid model that gives the learners (i) not only what he or she needs, to learn to read, write and count, but (ii) teaches him or her to analyse their real situations through proctored projects and draw critical solutions for change, albeit as a learner’s project. It gives every learner the opportunity to perceive critically their socio economic situation and enthuses him or her to look for a solution as an individual effort. Arriving at criticality about the understanding of one’s undesirable situation is the world’s most authentic learning. This is a combination of – advocate, adopt and immerse
Gainful employment assures livelihood and is a visible sign of empowerment. India has a huge mass of population that has no access to employment or no skills to be employed or self – employed.
Agnel Jan Kalyan offers a very robust skill training program for out of School children, by allowing them to finish their Elementary and post Elementary Education at their own pace while at the same time offering each learner a chance to secure a Government accredited and certified skill in Computer Skills, Garment Industry and Beauty Culture. Soon it will have Money and Finance Management and Accounting Skills as well. Out of School and unemployed youth are also offered training in similar skills in addition to co-Operative entrepreneurship. Home care and Security Services and Retail Marketting will also be added in the near future. The present training program has the following skills: Basic Computing, Data Entry, Desktop Publishing, Cutting and Tailoring and Dress Making, Sewing Machine Operators, Beauty Culture and Spoken English. Soon we will also offer Accounting Software Training (Tally) and Home Care Attendant
Training. Special Training is provided for unemployed women, with the purpose of enhancing their income, or providing avenues for self employment in Spice Making (Masala making), Food supplements (Papads, Namkeens) etc. as well as other Food ingredients, or Led bulb assembling and selling, etc.
Agnel Jan Kaalyan has been working with those who are living on the fringe of Capital City of India, as scavengers who eke out living, rummaging through the city garbage dump yards from they segregate waste and survive, selling it to agencies who down the line sell to recycling units.
Their whole life cycle from birth to death revolves around the garbage dumps of the Capital City of Delhi and the Satellite cities of Noida and Ghaziabad. Our attempts to organize recycling units, that would yield higher returns, in the place where they live did not success as the zoning norms do not allow it. A new strategy was instead designed that provides them health safety net, and care and education for their kids. Agnel Jan Kalyan volunteers socialize with them, help them sort out health or hygiene issues,, such as at child birth or minor ailments, or other issues they face, bring their kids to the Liv2Share center, bathe and wash their clothes, feed them
and spend time teaching them to read, write and count. Since their sorting out work does not allow adults to leave their space, our volunteers set up a learning and hygiene learning space in their midst , provide sewing machine that they are free to us, and hold discussions to persuade them to diversify, with little effect so far, other than helping their kids to live slightly better lives.
The ”RIJUVEN”, non invasive health diagnostic tool kit, is a combination of non-invasive electronic devices that allow the complete monitoring of the state of health of the heart, including any type of heart risks, lungs, ear, detect breast cancer disease and other vitals It also offers blood chemistry analysis including lipid profiling, etc. Through combined network and synergy of medical professionals and the diagnostic kits, this device could help reach out to a large of population and prevent serious diseases that often go unnoticed. The scaling of this project would need CSR funding or some source of large scale funding that would cover the cost of operations and invasive testing (blood, urine tests).
AGNEL JAN KALYAN KENDRA (AJKK) (an initiative to empower the marginalized by improving quality of life through education, skilling, and participatory enterprise)
