About Us

  1. Home /
  2. About Us

The Genesis

A group of friends in Ambikapur, while they were in high school, decided to do something concretely for people in need. With no resources at their disposal, they began their endeavors by organizing general knowledge competitions in schools. They were delighted with the positive response they received and were motivated to do more for people. They collected old books from passed out students of various classes and shared these books with the poor and needy students in the following year. This little noble work facilitated studies of many poor students. In the process they received some old books of Mahatma Gandhi for general reading. Each member of the group read these books and drew inspiration for life. The friends seriously discussed in the group the poor state of people’s life and possible applicability of Gandhian ideology for people’s development. During the immersion programme in villages, they learned that many infants were malnourished and sick. They started an awareness programme on infant health and hygiene in a few villages. They started linking lactating mothers and small children with various government schemes so that they received nutrition food Supplement.

The boys received a lot of appreciation for their work in the villages. The villagers started inquiring who they were and how long would they work there. They did not have any concrete answer to their queries because they did not have any legal identity nor did they have any concrete plan. Some elders suggested that they visit Shree Gandhi Seva Ashram, Ambikapur to better organised themselves. The Ashram was working for the poor people to make them self reliant. The boys volunteered to work with Shree Gandhi Seva Ashram for poor people. After a few months, when the friends came together for a discussion and action plan, they reached a consensus that they established an organisation of their own to work for the people following Gandhian ideology. On the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2, 2004, Sarthak Jan Vikas Sansthan came into existence to further the Gandhian work and ideology and was legally registered on March 27, 2006 under the Chhattisgarh Society’s Registrikaran Act 1973.

Sarthak did not have financial resources to undertake any developmental work in the villages. Group members went to villages and listened to people’s problems and tried to resolve them through approaching concerned government officials at block and district levels. Looking at their selfless services, many more young people joined the band. Slowly people started coming to the organisation bringing their problems, and somebody from the organisation took the issue to the concerned officials and followed it up till work was done. Soon, it was realised that people were becoming dependent on them for their work. At this juncture, the organisation realised that it was time to empower people through quality education, good health and sustainable livelihood. Once people are educated and healthy, they can do their work for their own development. And with this, they as an organisation decided to work for children’s
education, health care and livelihood promotion.

The Organisation

Sarthak Jan Vikas Sansthan is a non-government, non-profit and grassroots voluntary organization established on October 2, 2004 adopting the Gandhian philosophy of village and rural development for its interventions. It was formally registered under Chhattisgarh Societies Registration Act 1973 on March 27, 2006 having registered No. 1329. Sarthak is working in the tribal majority districts of Chhattisgarh. Sarthak was established with a mission to work towards strengthening people’s capacities and institutions to get their due shares in every aspect of human existence. Hence, it is a long-term strategy for emancipating the whole community, through interventions at three levels i.e. – the child, the family and the community with an extra emphasis on child specially girl child, rural dropout child and the child with differently able.

The Organisation

Sarthak Jan Vikas Sansthan is a non-government, non-profit and grassroots voluntary organization established on October 2, 2004 adopting the Gandhian philosophy of village and rural development for its interventions. It was formally registered under Chhattisgarh Societies Registration Act 1973 on March 27, 2006 having registered No. 1329. Sarthak is working in the tribal majority districts of Chhattisgarh. Sarthak was established with a mission to work towards strengthening people’s capacities and institutions to get their due shares in every aspect of human existence. Hence, it is a long-term strategy for emancipating the whole community, through interventions at three levels i.e. – the child, the family and the community with an extra emphasis on child specially girl child, rural dropout child and the child with differently able.

The Journey towards People’s Development

2003

A group of students came together and involved themselves in some voluntary activities such as organizing events in schools, collecting old used textbooks of the passed out students to avail them for poor students, distribution of Gandhian Literature in the community, Awareness creation in villages on infant health and hygiene. They worked as volunteers at Shree Gandhi Seva Ashram, Ambikapur.

2004

Sarthak Jan Vikas Sansthan was established as a voluntary organization on October 2, 2004.

2006

‘Best Community Worker’ was awarded to Mr. Abhay Kumar Gupta at Shree Gandhi Seva Ashram, Ambikapur. Sarthak Jan Vikas Sansthan registered under Chhattisgarh Societies Registrikaran Act 1973 on March 27, 2006. Voluntary work was undertaken in Kusu, Pratappur, Chando, Turna, Jamgaonwa villages.

2009

Obtained 12A certificate from the Income Tax Department, Government of India. Subramaniam Fellowship for Community Leadership was awarded to Mr. Abhay Kumar Gupta for 2009-10 by the National Foundation of India. Implementation started with the project “Promotion of health and education rights of Tribal communities in Chhattisgarh” with the support of TDH.

2010

Implementation started the project “Ensure universal access to free, equitable quality education for children” with the support of CRY.

2011

Implementation started the project “Education for underprivileged rural tribal children” with the support of SMILE Foundation.

2012

Implementation of Nava Jatan project with the support of Women and Child Development, Government of Chhattisgarh. Obtained FCRA Certificate from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Operational Manual (policies on HR, Finance, child safety and Gender respect, sexual ethics) drafted for Sarthak and adopted for implementation on August 06, 2012.

2013

Food Security and Natural Resource Management by CASA.

2015

Implementation of the project “Improving learning outcomes for Children from the tribal community in Surguja, Balrampur, Koriya, Jashpur, Surajpur, and Raigarh districts of Chhattisgarh state” supported by UNICEF.

2018

Health support with Inga Health Foundation

2019

Started work on menstrual Health and Hygiene supported by BALCO, VEDANTA.

2020

Started Employee Volunteering Programme “Connect” supported by BALCO VEDANTA in the area of providing education to needy children at the school level. Unnati Programme for women empowerment through SHGs. Covid Relief with Jivo Daya Foundation. Setting up of Sarthak Sustainable Development Foundation to meet the request of expansion of our work into other states.