Community Development

Grow along with the community

The SKDRDP is operative in various parts of Karnataka State through its Community Development Project to provide support infrastructure development in the villages. The community focused projects are normally participatory in nature where the local people form a Project Implementation Committee, implement the project in a time bound manner with local participation in the form of finance and labour. The SKDRDP supports such initiatives by lending its goodwill, grants up to the 50% of the cost of the project, technical guidance, review and monitoring. The Community Projects are concentrated in the field of education, health, creation of community assets, rural infrastructure, community welfare etc.

Grama Kalyana

Better infrastructure facilities in the rural area creates a better living environment for rural community. To cater such needs of rural community SKDRDP introduced this programme by which rural people can fulfil their demands locally in less cost and make their living condition better. This contributes more for the job opportunity and economic growth in the rural area also. The programme is designed to create infrastructure facilities in villages such as road, bridges, community water facility, public toilets, co-operative milk dairy, primary health centres, well-pledged crematoriums, community halls etc. All the projects are implemented under grant support and guidance of SKDRDP along with the contribution of local administration, local organisations and implemented under the supervision of committee formed by local people.

Nammuru- Namma Kere

Tanks, lakes and rivers for generations have been life lines for communities. For ages we have depended on these water bodies for day today activities. Today, most of these tanks are either not fit for use or have lesser water storage capacity due to lack of maintenance, encroachment, disposal of wastes or silt deposition. Similarly the agricultural water tanks are also being encroached, their supply channels cut off and as a result the water bodies in rural areas are dying.

Dharmadhikari Dr. D Veerendra Heggade has a view that it is a responsibility of every human being to conserve water sources and handover them to the next generation. This made him to launch rural tank rejuvenation programme named ‘Nammuru- Namma Kere’, a programme. In this participatory programme, the works like lifting the silt, repairing the inlet and outlet, construction of the bundings, clearing the canals etc. have been implemented under the project. The village community is allowed to take the fertile silt for their farm lands. The rental cost of machines for silt excavation was given as grants.

Tank development committees have been formed in village-level and the responsibility of the tank rejuvenation work and post – rejuvenation maintenance is given to the committee. This committee is responsible for proper utilization of the funds and resources and ensuring timely completion of the project. It is evident that the rural people found benefit of tank water for longer period  and watertable in the surrounding area is increased in all the cases.

SKDRDP  successfully rejuvenated 79 tanks in 2023-24 and total of 689 tanks since inception

Kere Sanjeevini

The success achieved in implementing the ‘Nammuru Namma Kere’ project across Karnataka has influenced the Govt. of Karnataka to make SKDRDP as its partner in implementing its rural tank rejuvenation  project namely ‘Kere Sanjeevini’ where in Karnataka Tank Conservation  and Development Authority extends its grant support only to desilting the tanks. On the other hand the organisation has kept open the provision of grant support for other development works in the tank rejuvenation process such as construction of inflow canals and outlets, bunding, fencing etc. wherever it needs.

As government norms say, this project is implemented under the supervision of ‘Kere Balakedarara Sangha’(Tank Consumers Committee) which is registered under co-operative act and financial transactions are made through the bank account opened in the name of the committee. SKDRDP oversees the entire rejuvenation process. The local farmers are expected to take and transport the fertile excavated silt to their farms. The rejuvenated tank is handed over to the committee for post-rejuvenation maintenance.

Shuddhaganga

It is well known that water is one of the scarce resources across the nation. At the same time it is considered to be a major sources of minerals to the human body. Unfortunately in most of the rural areas in plains receiving low rains across Karnataka, people are depending on sub-surface water source to a major extent for their day today needs which is either in shortage or not fit for drinking because of contamination with unwanted hard molecules like Arsenic, Fluorine, Chlorine, Iron etc. Since regular consumption of this water may be the cause for health hazards, it is very much needed  to get the water to be purified before consumption to mitigate the ill-effects. Realising this acute problem, SKDRDP has identified such places where exactly intervention is needed for supply of pure,  healthy water and has set up water purifying plants namely as Shduddhaganga plants of varying capacity according to the local needs.

In participation with local Panchyath and other like minded organisations, SKDRDP is setting up Shuddhaganga plants. The basic requirements such as availability of raw water, land, building and electricity are provided by local administration. SKDRDP has entered into an agreement with M/s Aquasafi, Hubli and Aquashine, Bangalore for supply and maintenance of the machinery. One plant in-charge is appointed locally for maintenance of plant, production and distribution of pure water. The pure water produced by reverse osmosis method is distributed as 20 liter to each consumer at 10 paisa per liter. The system of pure water supply is simplified by introducing the facility of monthly subscription.

Sujnana Nidhi

Many a times poverty becomes a hurdle to students belongs to poor families for their studies. As Shri Kshethra is popular for Vidyadana, Dr. Heggade always gives support to students from poor family for their education.

‘Sujnananidhi’, designed by Dr. Heggade was launched by then Vice President of India, Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhavat in the memory of Silver Jubilee celebrations of the organisation in 2007.

Under the Sujnananidhi Programme, a monthly stipend ranging from Rs. 400 to Rs. 1000 is being paid for technical and professional courses of 2 to 5 years duration. So far more than 84,026 students across the state of Karnataka have been benefitted from this programme.

Eligible Courses :

BE, B.TECH, MBBS, BAMS, BDS, BHMS, BVA, BNYS, BVSC, MBA, D.Ed., B.Ed., NURSING(General), BSC(NURSING), ITI, LABTECHNICIAN, DIPLOMA, LLB, PARAMEDICAL SCIENCE, BSC (HORTI),BSC (AGRI), BSC (FORESTRY), BSC (FISHERIES,) PHARM.D, PHYSIOTHERAPY, DIPLOMA AGRI, B.PHARM, D.PHARM, B.ARCHITECTURE.

Requirements for scholarship :

  • Parents of applicant must be a member of SKDRDP sponsored SHG/PBG with S, A, and B Grade.
  • Eligible students must pass SSLC/PUC/Degree or must have passed prescribed course examination. only first semester students of first year of the selected course are eligible to get the scholarship.
  • The student must have savings account in Nationalized Bank.
  • All First semester students enrolled in college after 01.04.2022 can apply ( Date of enrolment must be mentioned in College Confirmation Letter)
  • Before applying for Sujnananidhi Scholarship, Student must read the information letter properly and collect necessary documents.
  • Registration can be done only through SKDRDP CSC center.

Hindu Rudrabhumi

Launched in the memory of Golden Jubilee of independence, the ‘Hindu Rudrabhumi’ programme is aimed at providing facility in crematorium to perform the final rites of a man with great honour. Since some crematoriums lack basic facilities, the organisation has designed a separate programme for construction of model crematoriums.

The local community is encouraged to organise themselves into a committee and to take up the crematorium development project consisting of burning chamber, stock room for firewood, room for security person, bathing chamber, puja room, construction of road, electricity and little bit greenery around. The committee is allocated the responsibility for supervision of construction work and post-construction maintenance of the crematorium. Grant support of either 40% of the cost or maximum of Rs.2 lakh whichever is less is contributed by SKDRDP for installation of Ferro Silicon chamber and for other expenses.

Ferro Silicon chamber lined with alloy cast iron plates from inside is 74 inches in length, 39 inches in breadth and 31 inches in height and 1200kg in weight. It needs 300-350kg of firewood to burn a body as against requirement of 800-1000kg in conventional method.

 

Jnanadeepa

Part time teachers are provided wherever schools have deficit of teachers. These teachers are required put effort for bringing the school dropouts of age group 6-14 years back to schools by visiting their homes and to convince the students as well as their parents to end child labor and complete his/her education at least up to 10th standard so that the school could achieve 100% attendance. This is done in coordination with the department of education, school development committee and village panchayath.

This project meets the infrastructure needs of the schools by providing basic amenities like construction of classrooms and toilets, drinking water facility. SKDRDP provides financial assistance for the activities like purchase of teaching aids, sports materials, benches and desks, electrification of schools, construction of playgrounds and compound wall, repair and renovation of buildings.

The schools betterment committees have to make the necessary plans and arrange at least 80% of funds through local initiatives.

School Furniture's

Even after the efforts of the governments for many years, even today some of the government schools are facing the problem of shortage of benches and desks for students. Being an organisation supporting extensively for infrastructure development in schools, SKDRDP brought out a programme to distribute light weight, long durable and nature- friendly desks and benches to such schools. To encourage the local participation, the school management requires to contribute 20% of the total cost while SKDRDP contributes 80% of it. 8-10 sets are provided to each school based on the student strength in the school.

It is known that each pair of furniture (desk and bench) requires around 3 Cu. Ft of wood. SKDRDP has saved thousands of Cu. Ft of wood so far.

Cleanliness drive

“Swachchatha Andolana” Empowerment on Cleanliness: “Swachchatha hi Paramo Dharma”. The health of the nation lies on the health of inhabitants, the health of inhabitants lies on hygienic condition of their living environment. Disposal and recycling of waste is a big challenge today. Added to this the tendency to throw the waste articles here and there by the people have created a greater challenge to the local administration to maintain the streets clean. Considering the importance of cleanliness SKDRDP has been creating awareness since two decades for keeping the households, surroundings clean. For the last eight years SKDRDP has been encouraging his members to volunteer for cleanliness drive during special occasions like Independence Day, Republic day, Gandhi Jayanthi Day, Sankranthi and other festivals days in and around temples, religious centres, worship places, public offices, schools and all other centres.

The activities during the cleanliness drive are as below :

  • Awareness campaign on disposal, segregation and managing the waste.
  • Create awareness on importance of maintaining hygienic conditions, ailments that can be spread in unhygienic conditions, spitting, how diseases can spread out of the spitting.
  • Cleaning the places selected, collect the wastes and dispose it in association with Panchayath authorities.
  • Evade stagnant water sources which results in production of mosquitos that spread different types of diseases.
  • Awareness as how to recycle the waste, plastic bags, old household articles, unusable utensils, cloths etc.
  • Motivate people to support panchayath authorities to manage the waste and undertake environmental friendly programmes.
(credits: Sandeep Dev, Dev's Photopgraphy)

Nirmala Shraddha Kendra

Any center of worship should be clean and should have an environment where devotees can reach the god with great happiness and satisfaction.  Motivated by the recognition of Dharmasthala as ‘Swaccha Dharmika Nagari’, Dharmadhikari Dr. D Veerendra Heggade has been giving more importance to the cleanliness drive in religious centres across the state. As he designed the programme, SHG federations, organisations, general public, administration of religious centers get engaged in cleaning of worship centers on special days in warfoot mode. Not only cleaning the center, they create awareness to maintain the place clean continuously. SKDRDP provided the waste collection bins to such centers.

Across the state, more than 2,44,703 volunteers participated in the cleanliness drive within one month. During the campaign, more than 9,201 religious centres were cleaned including 8824 temple, 20 basadis, 151 masjids and 68 churches. Gadag district stood first in the campaign, as over 20,136 devotees completed cleaning 824 temples. Davangere completed 552 religious centres, while Darwad completed 504 religious centres.

The campaign in many famous piligrimage centres including Udupi Sri Krishna temple, Ullal Dargah, Mysuru Chamundeshwari temple, Kukke Sri Subrahmanya temple and Hubli Siddaruda Math and many more.

Covid –  19 Relief work 

  • During the Covid-19 pandemic situation, SKDRDP could able to reach community and took up relief activities such as distribution of food kits, blankets of worth Rs. 70 lakh.
  • The members were offered repayment holiday/ loan moratorium facilities upto six months in the affected areas without charging additional interest.
  • support by giving destitute pensions intime.
  • Covid loans upto Rs.25000/- were provided during lockdown period to meet day today needs of members. Such efforts energized the SHGs to strengthen themselves and to take up more development activities.
  • SKDRDP reduced the interest on Pragathinidhi loan from 15% to 13.5% and 14%.
  • SKDRDP provided facility of more than 300 vehicles to infected people to go to hospital and to go home after discharge at free of cost.
  • SKDRDP donated ventilators and oxygen to hospitals and oxygen concentrators to the needy patients.
  • SKDRDP has maintained three Covid centers for treatment of covid-19 patients.

Response to natural Calamities

SKDRDP joins hand with the state government, local administrations and public in taking up the relief works in the areas hit by natural disasters.

It was common that many parts of Karnataka were badly hit by flood during rainy season. SKDRDP has responded to the situation and has taken relief activities in the flood hit areas by distributing food kits, clothings, blankets etc. directly to the victims. In addition, SKDRDP has contributed Rs. 25 crore donation to Chief Ministers Flood Relief Fund as well as Rs. 50 lakh to the MLA lead Belthangady taluk relief works.

During the droughts in summer months, SKDRDP used to give grant support towards the supply of drinking water in northern parts of Karnataka.

Apart from that, SKDRDP has extended grant support to compensate the losses such as collapse and burning of dwelling house and other buildings, crop loss etc. occurred due to natural calamities across Karnataka.

Promotion of Milk Co-operative societies

Proper and regular market and better price for milk produced in rural area can generate handsome income to the farmers, thereby improves the economic status of farmers as well as the rural area. Since SKDRDP is motivating and supporting the farmers to take up dairying as one of the major activities for their livelihood, it is resulted in production of huge quantity of milk across Karnataka. Parallelly, the organisation is also supporting the important marketing channel for milk, say, Milk Producers Co-operative societies(under KMF) to develop their infrastructure/building and purchase of equipments and machineries.

Sanitation

SKDRDP is committed to total health and sanitation in rural areas. For this purpose SKDRDP has actively supported construction of family toilets in villages and towns. For this purpose SKDRDP has popularized several models including the UNICEF model, the twin pit pour flush model.

On account of our experience, SKDRDP, in partnership with ‘The Karnataka Urban Infrastructure and Development Finance Corporation (KUIDFC)’, constructed 11,500 low cost sanitation (LCS) units in 6 coastal urban towns. As a first step, a unique participatory and transparent strategy was devised wherein the committees of those individuals without toilets would select the mason, choose the materials, purchase them in bulk and reduce the cost of construction of the unit. This practice has effectively speeded up the construction of LCS units in urban areas.

As the programme expanded, SKDRDP has been concentrating to create awareness, assist for construction of sanitation facility, supporting them in getting govt. grants for construction of toilets and providing its own motivational grants to the SHG members. In order to provide develop infrastructure facilities, SKDRDP has also been giving priority for construction of community toilets as well as toilets in schools.

Navachetana

It is observed that millions of children in the country are suffering from disabilities and have different abilities. In order to encourage their abilities, to enable them to lead a normal life, several schools for differently abled have been started which may be handicapped by lack of capital. To enable such unique institutions to get access for financial resources, it is proposed to establish a funding program to such schools. SKDRDP provides a grant support upto Rs 2 lakh to such schools to create specific assets as given below.

  • Infrastructure facilities like building, road, playground, bathrooms and toilets, drinking water unit, gobar gas plants etc.
  • Cots, Meals plates, sports materials used by students.
  • Aids used by students such as Braille computers, Braille type-writer, group hearing aids etc.

Destitute pension

The people in dire straits, ultra poors, aged people, victims of severe health problems normally face financial problems so that they cannot meet their day today needs, medicines etc. As an answer for the above, SKDRDP has been reaching them through monthly pension to the tune of Rs.750/- to Rs.3000/- which help them to meet their basic needs. SKDRDP field staff identify such people in need of help. SKDRDP spends around Rs. 11 – 12 crore annually for this purpose. Besides the pension, SKDRDP brings these people under the health insurance facility upto Rs. 10000/- annually. The  pension facility is continued after annual review till they desperately in need of it.

Jana Mangala Programme

In the memory of Bahubali Mahamasthakabishekam event held  in the month of February 2019, programme on distribution of medical peripherals and equipments to the people with disabilities, namely Janamangala was launched. Persons having disabilities in walking, problems of eye sight and spinal cord are identified and are provided with peripherals like crutches, wheel chairs, walkers, water beds at free of cost. Many of these beneficiaries are also getting monthly pension for meeting their medical expenses, if any.

Jnanathana -Support to Digital Education

A remarkable growth has been evidenced in use of technology in communication since last decade. Since last few years, rural community has also been utilising internet in their day today activities through smart phones. This is widely used in the field of education now a days. Many renowned institutions have been providing online education. Though these facilities are available in rural area, the weaker section of the society are still deprived from the facility. In fact, it created a gap between the students from rich and poor families. The covid-19 pandemic has affected the education field a lot. The students of all age groups have been somewhat forced to undergo online classes instead of regular classes. Looking at the situation, as an alternative for the online classes, tablets and laptops pre-loaded with annual syllabus of subjects like Mathematics and Science in kannada medium under Jnanathana programme were provided to 5th to 10th standard students belonging to SHG members families with financial assistance and subsidy facilities.

Advantages :

  • Since S.D card loaded with syllabus from 5th to 10th standard is provided with the tablet/laptop, any student from 5th to 10th standard of a family can study by using the same tablet/laptop.
  • Since the tablet/laptop contains pre-loaded syllabus, it never requires internet connection, Wi-fi or a Sim card.
  • The tablet can be used as a mobile phone by putting Sim in it.
  • Since tablet is accessible to internet through Wi-fi and connected with Bluetooth, it can be used for banking transactions under our financial inclusion programme.