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Vidhayak Sansad has its roots in Dahisar, a small village
in Thane district approximately seventy kilometers north of
Mumbai. In 1980 Vivek and Vidyullata Pandit, social activists
from Mumbai, discovered there that dozens of families, many
of them tribals, lived as bonded laborers. These impoverished
families had borrowed small sums from the local landlords
and had since fallen into cycles of debt that they had to
repay with years of grueling labor. The practice was illegal,
but the poor lived in ignorance of the law. Vivek and Vidyullata
struggled to raise awareness and inspire the laborers to declare
themselves free. The couple faced violent opposition from
landlords, but soon succeeded in helping hundreds, and later
thousands, of laborers break away from bonded servitude.
Over the past twenty-nine years Vidhayak Sansad and Shramjeevi
Sanghatana have worked in the release and rehabilitation of
5,000 bonded laborers.
Once these laborers declared themselves free,
they discovered that they were outcastes in the community.
Without skills, land, or government support, they faced serious
challenges in making a living. Vidhayak Sansad assisted them
in organizing co-operative farms on hired or donated land.
The organization set up a revolving credit fund that allowed
farmers to purchase seeds, fertilizer and insecticides. Experts
provided technical advice. A grain bank allowed the poor to
take interest-free loans of grain during lean periods, when
they would have otherwise had to borrow from landlords at
extortionate rates. All of these measures helped freed bonded
laborers get on their feet. Eventually many of the programs
ended as the former bonded laborers learned to become successful
farmers or found work again in the landlords’ fields.
The Shramjeevi Sanghatana has campaigned to ensure they receive
minimum wages.
Vidhayak Sansad has evolved its programs
in recent years as the scourge of bonded labor has waned in
Thane District. The organization now focuses on creating new
models for elementary rural education, increasing the capacity
of the poor to combat human rights abuses, and developing
new livelihood opportunities in agriculture and related fields.
As part of its human rights program, the organization carries
out regular training camps for vulnerable groups and social
service organizations. These have had a strong impact on empowering
the rural poor of Maharashtra to prevent atrocities. Vidhayak
Sansad’s educational initiatives focus on bringing education
to those with the least access to it.
The organization has established a residential school for
girls of the Katkari tribe, which has a female literacy rate
close to zero. It has also set up a group of schools for the
children of migrant brick kiln workers in Thane District.
In agriculture VS is now engaged in a jatropha cultivation
program to support poor farmers.
The jatropha plant’s seeds produce an oil that when
refined can serve as a rich bio-fuel. All of these activities
are carried out from Vidhayak Sansad’s tree-covered,
seven-acre campus in the small village of Usgaon, sixty kilometers
north of Mumbai. The campus regularly receives visits from
students of social work at reputed institutions, Indian Administrative
Service probationers, and representatives from international
aid organizations.
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