Portfolio Grid Style 2

<img class="alignnone wp-image-5432 size-large" src="https://dhrutidesign.com/milletindia/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Lokshakti-1024x636.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="636" /> <img class="alignnone wp-image-5433" src="https://dhrutidesign.com/milletindia/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Lokshakti-1.jpg" alt="" width="169" height="151" /> <strong>Vision</strong> Ethical space, sharing capacity and teamwork are the core values of Lokshakti. Since the inception in 2009, Lokshakti has been a learning-sharing organization for the community members in the region. We strongly believe in people’s participation and therefore named the organisation Lokshakti. Our vision is to help people to help themselves by showing the right path for deprived and suppressed people in society. We aim to create a society free from discrimination of sex, caste, creed and religion. Our mission is to identify and develop the potential of the downtrodden mass and to bring a sustainable development for weak and vulnerable sections in society by improving their socio-eco-cultural aspect. <strong>Objectives</strong> Lokshakti largely works with marginal and small communities through pilot demonstrations in focal areas of education, economy and environment. In addition, we are engaging with various groups and networks at state and national level disseminating people’s voices on related issues like poverty, hunger, nutrition and health. Team building and leadership development have been core operational themes of the organisation. Towards this, we are supporting traditional knowledge and encouraging for new system approaches in knowledge management across its funded and/or non-funded projects. Women are central in Lokshakti’s participatory exercises. We are prioritizing women’s participation in each of our programs. Women’s role is not limited to attending the meetings, but also gaining prime role in farming and supplementing in the family economy. Women understand the vital and diverse role of millets and its benefits. Women’s rich knowledge and their leadership qualities have been key for inclusive decision making processes for societal growth. Here, the MINI Network has enabled us to put further emphasis on work for capacity building of women.

<img class="alignnone wp-image-5429 size-large" src="https://dhrutidesign.com/milletindia/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/lvk-1024x636.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="636" />   <strong>Vision</strong> The solutions to many social, economic, ecological and cultural problems that face the hill society today lie in understanding the factors and forces that contribute towards maintaining the status quo or further deterioration. Helping the society unravel these factors and find holistic solutions to them is a key role that is expected of socially oriented organisations like ours. <strong>Our Millet Journey</strong> The millets promotion programme has contributed to bringing focus on ’health of the farming household’ among the local farmers, something which had become a non-issue in the light of the onslaught of commercial cultivation and the aspiration to make a quick buck from farming. The change in local eating and farming practices has additionally been promoted by frequent discussions during village meetings about many common diseases like diabetes and blood-pressure now afflicting farmers. Roping in government health workers in these discussions has also proved fruitful in not only serving the cause of millet based bio-diverse agriculture, but also in reinforcing within the health workers the fact that ’prevention is better than cure’. The logic behind preserving agro-biodiversity given by the elder farmers - who previously had given in to the desire of the youth to intensify market based agriculture - has gained new strength in opposition to commercial farming. Discussions on these issues have been raised during village level discussions. These initiatives have helped to increase a vast number of millet farmers in the past 3 years in the Karsog area of Mandi District. About 484 farmers in 25 villages have now adopted or expanded bio-diverse farming in the area, 277 of them women and 207 men. Finger millet is the most prominent millet grown in the area but other types such as proso millet, little millet and pearl millets introduced in the area in 2015, have also shown promising results. The MINI initiative has also helped revive cultivation of other crops like red rice, traditional wheat, flax seed, sesame, mustard and maize.

  <img class="alignnone wp-image-5426 size-large" src="https://dhrutidesign.com/milletindia/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/krrs-1024x636.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="636" />   <img class="alignnone wp-image-5427" src="https://dhrutidesign.com/milletindia/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/krrs1.jpg" alt="" width="130" height="131" /> <strong>Vision</strong> KRRS was originally formed to address the problems faced by farmers. We strongly believe that the basic unit of an organisation is the village unit. We therefore emphasise that villagers should decide their own forms of organisation and finances, as well as their programs and actions. Today, KRRS is the largest farmers’ union in India. <strong>Objectives</strong> Broadly speaking, KRRS is a Gandhian movement. This means that the final objective of our work is the realisation of the ’Village Republic’, a form of social, political and economic organization based on direct democracy, on economic and political autonomy and self-reliance, on the participation of all members of the community in decision-making about the common affairs that affect them, and on the creation of mechanisms of representation that ensure that affairs affecting several communities are decided upon through processes of consultation involving all stakeholders. KRRS is also continuously mobilising for the formation of women’s constituencies. <strong>Bidar and Millets</strong> Bidar has long been the home of millets, offering nutritious food to the population of the district and improving soil health for farmers. Unfortunately, with the introduction of cheap rice in the Public Distribution System (PDS) and unfair advantages offered to rice farmers, millets have lost their place in farming and in the food system of the Bidar population. Millets were long ignored in India’s PDS system, despite the fact that until a couple of decades ago, millets formed more than 40% of the national food grain production of the country. Since 2011 the KRRS-Bidar and MINI support local jowar farmers, especially working on creating a good market price for their produce. In pursuance of this, the KRRS – Bidar did a farmer to farmer survey in the Thana Kusnoor Hobli of Aurad Taluk and contacted over 1300 farmers who together own 4100 acres of land, and who were ready to supply nearly 22000 quintals of jowar to the consumers of the Hobli. This completely matches the original objective of KRRS – Bidar; that the local food requirements of people can be met through local production. This action provides ready markets to local farmers, limits long distance transportation of grains and helping people reach nutritious and secure access to food. Since the acknowledgment of millets in the National Food Security Act passed by the Indian Parliament in 2013, the Karnataka Government has strongly pushed for implementation of the bill in Karnataka. The National Food Security Act was successfully implemented by the Government of Karnataka in the summer of 2015. The progressive involvement of KRRS, MINI and the NGO Pipal Tree in this crucial process towards food sovereignty, has been highly empowering for the farmers in the region

<img class="alignnone wp-image-5420 size-full" src="https://dhrutidesign.com/milletindia/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Ahinsa.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="795" /> <h4><img class="alignnone wp-image-5424" src="https://dhrutidesign.com/milletindia/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/AC-296x300.jpg" alt="" width="137" height="139" /></h4> <h4>01. Our Vision</h4> Ahinsa Club is actively working with the agenda of empowering people. We are also aiming for a sustainable management of natural resources. We believe that elimination of poverty must be tackled through appropriate education and initiatives concerning health and environmental issues. We believe in the concept ‘nurturing harmony’, and the purpose of our organization is to set value relationships which are built on equity and justice. In line with this concept, we have established our vision: ‘A self reliant and self sufficient community free from exploitation and discrimination’. Our mission is to inspire and empower small, marginal communities to end hunger and poverty and help people achieve better qualities of life.. <h4>02. Our Objectives</h4> Ahinsa Club has a firm association with community women, who are the drivers of our traditional knowledge system approach. Women in families are often more close to farming and forest practices than men. Women’s understanding of food and nutrition is key to establish an inclusive decision making process for societal growth. Ahinsa Club works to create a platform for women members to discuss issues on vulnerabilities and action plans towards equality. We are also lobbying with state- and non-state actors for a stronger inclusion of gender related issues. We are furthermore strongly acknowledging areas such as food security, nutrition and climate change resilience, and we are promoting our women members to take active role in these areas. <h4>03. Synergizing with the MINI Networks</h4> Ahinsa Club has since the beginning of its work been promoting traditional ways of farming, including cultivation of millets. The association with MINI has further enriched this journey. MINI has not only promoted millet crops, but also harmonized related concepts such as agro-biodiversity, millets diversity, family nutrition security, millet crops and fodder, millet meals, climate resilient cropping patterns and drought mitigation in to our work. MINI has enriched our organization with new ways of promotion as well as with funding support. This has been highly valuable for the Ahinsa Club

<img class="alignnone wp-image-5422 size-large" src="https://dhrutidesign.com/milletindia/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/dds1-1024x636.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="636" /> <img class="alignnone wp-image-5423" src="https://dhrutidesign.com/milletindia/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/dds.jpg" alt="" width="189" height="192" /> The Deccan Development Society (DDS), is a three and half decade old grassroots organisation working in about 75 villages with women's Sanghams (voluntary village level associations of the poor) in Sangareddy District of Telangana. The 5000 women members of the Society represent the poorest of the poor in their village communities. Most of them are dalits, the lowest group in the Indian social hierarchy. The Society has a vision of consolidating these village groups into vibrant organs of primary local governance and federate them into a strong pressure lobby for women, the poor and dalits. A host of continuing dialogues, debates, educational and other activities with the people, facilitated by the Society, try to translate this vision into a reality. The programmes initiated by the Society have evolved over the years into a strong political for rural women. What started off with the intention of ensuring the simple sustenance needs of the sangham members has become a tool of empowerment for them to address the larger issues of food security, natural resource enhancement, education, and health needs of the region. The conscious integration of various activities the Society has helped is intended to retrieve women's natural leadership positions in their communities, and to fight the lack of access and control over their own resources. These activities, alongside ensuring earthcare, are also resulting in human care by giving the women a new-found dignity and profile in their village communities. <strong>Activities</strong> The Deccan Development society is projecting a working model for the people oriented participative development in the areas of food security, ecological agriculture, and alternate education. It is also trying to reverse the historical process of degradation of the environment and people's livelihood system in this region through a string of land related activities such as Perma-culture, Community Grain Bank, Community Gene Fund, Community Green Fund and Collective Cultivation through land Lease etc. These activities, along side taking on the role of Earth care is also resulting in Human Care, by giving the Women a new found dignity and profile in their village communities. The Society is trying to relocate the people's knowledge in the area of Health and Agriculture.