MVSTF to celebrate 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi

• Daan Utsav for social development of villages planned in across 25 districts of Maharashtra
• Special volunteer drive Parivartan Saathi – launched for maximum participation of people for a noble cause

 Mumbai: As a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th Birth anniversary, Maharashtra Village Social Transformation Foundation (MVSTF) will celebrate DaanUtsav the “festival of Giving” for a week commencing on Gandhi Jayanti from October 2nd to 8^th 2019^th. 

VSTF a mission to transform 1000 villages in Maharashtra will celebrate Daan Utsav in 25 districts of Maharashtra covering over 87 Talukas and 323 Grampanchyats of Maharashtra. The celebration campaign would commence from October 2^nd and will culminate on October 8^th. The campaign will cover various activities ranging from sanitation, education, women empowerment, health and governance. The main objective is to encourage and ensure participation and collaboration of various stakeholders such as corporates, organisations, philanthropies, business leaders, local authorities and institutions from various walk of life. From autorickshaw drivers to CEOs, schoolchildren to celebrities, over 6 million people give their time, money, resources, or skills back to society during the week of DaanUtsav as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.

While most of these activities in the past were conducted in cities and this year with MVSTF there is a unique opportunity for people to come out in large numbers and work shoulder-to-shoulder with villagers for a noble cause. Also announcing the launch of the volunteer program, MVSTF has appealed to organisations and people from urban and rural areas to become Parivartan Saathi and join the villagers to actively participate for social development of the villages. To become a Parivartan Saathi all one has to do is by mailing their details like name, contact number & district & preferred village for volunteering on ([email protected]). The last date for registration is midnight of October 1^st 2019.

Organisations and volunteers have already come forward and committed to painting Zhilla Parishad schools, conducting teacher’s training programs, conducting learning workshops for students, working on financial literacy of rural demographics, sanitation drives in villages etc.

More than 2,000 events have been organised so far in DaanUtsav across over 100 cities and towns and hundreds of villages. People raise several tens of crores in money and resources, and millions of volunteer hours. The week-long campaign will be headed and fronted by Chief Minister Rural Development Fellow (CMRDF) from the respective villages. The CMRDF will ensure participation of villagers, village authorities and district administration. The ‘festival of giving’ week aim is to initiate active community participation in conducting on various social development themes.  The campaign will cover the following social development themes.

Sanitation: Striving towards 100% clean villages

1. Single use plastic free village
2. Soak pits in every household
3. Availability of toilets in every household and assessment of usage
4. Toilet in every institutional building school, Anganwadis, health centres, buildings
5. Compost in every village
6. Segregation of waste and collection of segregated waste

Women empowerment

1. Ensure all willing women residing in the village have bank accounts
2. Ensure all willing women residing in the village are attached to self-help group
3. Document concerns & possible opportunities of income generation plans for SHGs in consultation with the SHG members.

Education

1. Identification of learning needs in children attending the village primary school (reading, writing, math, comprehension skills, etc.) in every school.
2. Remedial classes to be conducted based on the learning needs generated in this assessment. Post the remedial classes, an assessment test to be conducted monthly to track progress.
3. Building a village level learning exchange programme: Educated/ skilled youth from village to take up one subject each and conduct learning/ skilling sessions for children and youth at village level.

Other themes

Some other theme agnostic ideas of engagement/ participation apart from the above:

1. Plantation, seed balls
2. School painting
3. Movie/ Documentary screening and discussion
4. Cultural program – acting, dancing, songs,
5. Sanitation drives in village, government offices
6. Menstrual hygiene awareness campaign
7. Cleaning of water bodies
8. Sports training to local youth