Community Involvement

2014 : Bagalkot Weavers

As part of GBL’s commitment to improving the Quality of Life in rural areas through livelihood, we funded the founding of an innovative and exciting project Bhujodi to Bagalkot by Somaiya Kala Vidya, for the development of traditional weavers of Ilkal saris from the Bagalkot District of Karnataka.

Hand Weavers of Bagalkot

The hand weavers of Bagalkot are in a precarious situation. They make traditional saris with a strong and well-loved identity for local clients. But there is severe competition in power loom copies. Handloom is relegated to towels, handkerchiefs and polyester yardage for subsidized school uniforms, and wages are unsustainably low.Granite quarries nearby offer attractive wages, and many weavers have left their profession. Of 10,000 hand weavers, about 2,400 are members of two cooperative societies. Others do job work.

There is limited opportunity for creativity or entrepreneurship.The objectives of the Somaiya Kala Vidya initative was to provide an opportunity to the traditional hand weavers of Bagalkot to experience the potential of contemporary design and urban markets for their products by working with designers to develop new product ranges.

Design Innovation

Bhujodi weavers traveled to Bagalkot and identified participants for the project. In March 2014, five weavers from Bagalkot visited Bhujodi, where over two days, they experienced first hand the impact of appropriate design innovation. After extensive formal and informal information-sharing and brainstorming, the group planned products for an exhibition/sale at a prestigious gallery in Mumbai.

Exhibition in Mumbai

The exhibition held in Mumbai was highly successful. Customers appreciated the new cotton saris and felt the prices were reasonable. From the installation to the last sale of this first experience in Mumbai, the Bagalkot weavers demonstrated a genuine collective spirit. Each afternoon a team presented their new work, followed by an informal tea with customers. Those who attended were duly impressed to hear first-hand the physical and psychological challenges faced and met,and to share the joy and self esteem of creativity so irresistible in

these artisans. Following the exhibition, the weavers were attended various courses, to take the training forward.

2009 : Ankur project : (Prevention of blindness in young children)

Beneficiaries of the project were provided with all 3 doses of vitamin A capsule as suggested by the doctors of K. J. Somaiya Hospital, Mumbai during July 2009 as mentioned below. The target group was 3 to 16 years of age.

Further an eye examination camp was conducted for 318 students that had screened and provided with vitamin A dose to know the improvement among the beneficiaries in association with K. J. Somaiya Medical College and Research Centre, Mumbai on 4th, 5th and 6th March 2010. Out of 318 students, 230 (72.33 %) students have improved their sight with

vitamin A dose. Whereas 27.67 percent of the students (88) were found with vitamin A deficiency and they had again provided with Vitamin A dose as per the recommendations of doctors.

2009 : Animal adoption at Mysore Zoo

Two animals namely Gorilla and Leopard were adopted for one year from 9th November 2009 to 8th November 2010 at Shri Chamarajendra Zoological gardens, Mysore. An adoption charge included food, medical care, and general maintenance of the animals for the duration of one year. The same was renewed every year.

Anti-poaching kit to preserve tigers in Dandeli wildlife division

To preserve wildlife, ten anti-poaching camp kits were donated to Dandeli – Anshi Tiger Reserve worth Rs.2, 50, 000/-. These equipments helped the anti-poaching team which travel to deep forest to get indoor and portable light, walkie-talkie charging, and mobile charging with the help of paddle generated power. Apart from this they were also provided solar lights etc. By donating these equipments, the anti-poaching team no more needed to travel to cities / towns frequently to get batteries for power. These materials were handed over to forest department by Dr. Vijayakumar P. Kanavi,

Manager CSR in a function organized by Ansahi Tiger Reserve office Dandeli on 29th March 2010.

Health:

In the village only a few houses (about 10%) had separate toilet facilities and rest of the villagers did not even have a common toilet. But with our continuous efforts, Govt. authorities have constructed 24 common toilets at different locations separately for women and men.

Dental Check-up Camp:

Free dental check-up camp was organized with the help of KLE’s Dental College, Belgaum. More than 154 villagers were treated at this camp.

Medical Camp:

With the help of local doctors, a free medical camp was organized wherein more than 300 patients have taken the benefit.

HIV / AIDS Awareness Program:

These awareness programs were organized in the villages with the help of NGOs working for a project HIV / AIDS.

Tree Plantation:

As many as 500 trees were planted in the village all along the streets and roads with the help of social forest department.

Food and Nutrition Awareness:

One-day seminar was organized for the benefit of lactating mothers, pregnant women, kids, adults and old people etc. with the help of Dept. of Food and Nutrition, University of Agricultural Science, Dharwad.

Empowerment: Rehabilitation of Devadasis:

As many as 16 Devadasis have been rehabilitated through counselling. To create alternatives jobs for them, they were trained in tailoring, vermicompost etc. for the purpose of self-employment.

Now a few of them are earning income by stitching clothes, or making vermicompost, some work as farm labourers and a few of them rear sheep and buffalos. This has led to empowering the women who were earlier exploited.

Seminar for Panchayats members:

In 2005, a seminar Abhudayad Ariu – Acharaneya Samavesha was organized by SGVK to enhance knowledge level of Panchayat. There were 328 members of 15-gram panchayats covering 28 villages, which are within10-12 km radius of GSML-Sameerwadi. The following topics were covered during this seminar by holding group discussions and informal discussions even at the individual level.

1. Importance of education and role of youth in rural development
2. Health and HIV / AIDS,
3. Work ethics
4. De-centralization of power and development.
5. Importance of water conservation and rainwater harvesting
6. Ringana Samudaya (surrounding communities)
7. Role of press in Rural Development
8. The need for cooperation between organized and un-organized labors
9. Role of sugar industries in rural development
10. Biomass for rural electrification
11. Self-reliance in agriculture
12. Agriculture and allied matters

2003 : Education

During 2003, the student’s attendance in primary school was about 65 to 70 percent. In a span of 4-5 months this was 100 percent by re-enrolment of school dropouts after home visits and counselling the parents of the students. Earlier the school was up to 7th standard, it was upgraded up to class 10th. There was also a shortage of classrooms, but with our continuous efforts with Government officials, classrooms were increased from 6 rooms to 10 rooms.

Facilities like toilets for girls and boys and open-air theatre were provided for the students. Also, the teacher strength was raised from 4 to 9. Later we conducted general knowledge tests, essay competitions, science quiz etc., at least once in two months. Due to these test the students developed their knowledge and more students got admission in residential schools.

2003 : Employment

Lake: The village was facing severe shortage of drinking water during summer. Villagers had to travel long distances to fetch drinking water. Bore wells, open wells, and nalas / streams used to dry up. Looking to this SGVK motivated villagers to construct a water tank in readily available fallow land in the low lying area of the village. With the help of villagers, in a few months, a lake of about 15 acres was made ready. The water was let into the lake by diverting Ghataprabha left bank canal water. Since then (from December- 2004), there was no scarcity of water including for the field crop due increase in the ground water level.

Construction of this lake has led to the beautification of the village, village surroundings and improvement of the employment in the agriculture sector.