Bajaj
in the community
Bajaj
Auto is committed to nation-building and contributing to the uplift
and development of the weaker sections of society. This is a legacy
of our founders, Jamnalal and Kamalnayan Bajaj. Because of their
close links with Mahatma Gandhi and the freedom struggle, they
sincerely believed that as businessmen they were trustees
of the community and the profits they earned must be ploughed
back for the development of the community.
Jankidevi Bajaj Gram Vikas Sanstha (JBGVS)
Bajaj Auto’s philanthropic activities among the rural poor
are carried out by a trust, the Jankidevi Bajaj Gram Vikas Sanstha
(JBGVS). This trust was formed 15 years ago by Ramkrishna Bajaj
in memory of his mother, Jankidevi Bajaj. JBGVS acts as a catalyst
to development at the grass root level in 32 villages around Bajaj
Auto’s Pune and Aurangabad plants.
Vision
Statement of JBGVS
JBGVS is a non-political and secular organisation, which strives
to improve the quality of life of the rural poor by creating self
employment opportunities at the grass-root level, through the
use of appropriate technologies, in harmony with nature.
Focus
The trust initiates sustainable, integrated development through
long term projects in rural health, hygiene and sanitation, education
and adult literacy, improving agricultural and livestock yield,
watershed development and women’s empowerment. Through its
poverty alleviation schemes, the trust provides micro credit and
income generation opportunities for the poor. These projects have
a positive impact on the quality of rural living standards.
Under the
auspices of the ‘model village scheme’ of the Maharashtra
Government, JBGVS has assisted the development of several villages
in the last five years. Under this scheme, NGOs, public institutions,
colleges, hospitals, local self-government bodies and state government
departments for agriculture and horticulture, work together to
bring about a holistic and sustainable improvement in rural living
conditions.
JBGVS is
now expanding its reach to a larger constituency of rural communities
to help them improve the quality of their life. The trust is stepping
up its projects encompassing agricultural extension services,
lift irrigation, environmental sanitation, veterinary services,
health and education. The scope of the women’s self help
groups is simultaneously being expanded to undertake a larger
variety of income generation projects which help in raising and
improving standards of living.
Implementation
strategy
(1) To ensure the involvement of our rural constituents, JBGVS
relies on a participatory approach in implementing all its projects.
(2) In addition,
the trust secures the participation of local elected bodies like
the gram panchayat (village council), co-operative societies,
women’s and youth bodies in decision making.
(3) JBGVS
will undertake large-scale manpower development projects in agriculture,
animal husbandry, dairy, horticulture, health, education and income
generation projects to accelerate the pace of development activities.
Highlights
- 2002-2003
Putting
a Smile on the Face of Rural India!
JBGVS
works at the grassroot level in 21 villages of Khed and Maval
Talukas of Pune District and 3 villages of Aurangabad district,
Maharashtra.
The philanthropic activities under implementation here, aim an
integrated development of these villages through women empowerment,
income generation, health programmes, agricultural extension,
animal husbandry, watershed development, drinking water schemes,
sanitation and education. The beneficiaries are 3200 families
- comprising a population of about 18,000 villages.
AGRICULTURE
Village
Pond - Inglun (Andra Maval)
This
pond has seen the light of day through the coordinated efforts
by JBGVS, the Government and the villagers themselves. The approximate
capacity of this pond is 16,000 cq.mt. and it will irrigate about
8 hectares of land by percolation, thus enabling the farmers to
boost their yield.
KT
Weir Kanhewadi Budruk (Khed)
This
Kolhapur type bund has been constructed under the 'Adarsh Gaon'
scheme. The bund was constructed within three months and will
help farmers irrigate 15 hectares land.
Farm
Bunding - Bokud Jalgaon (Aurangabad)
Twenty
four hectares of farm land was levelled and bunds raised to prevent
erosion of top soil and retain and percolate rain water in the
farms for better cultivation.
Integrated
Pest Control
Integrated
Pest Control was introduced in villages or Maval Taluka of Pune
to minimize the pest menace on paddy crop.
Watershed
Development - Karla (Maval)
CAPART,
New Delhi, has sanctioned a 4 years watershed development project
in seven villages in an around Karla.
Demonstration Plot
JBGVS
introduced a new technique for crop yield improvement at Bokud
Jalgaon in Aurangabad.
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND INCOME GENERATION
Catering
Equipment Service - (Kusur village, Andra Maval)
A Self
Help Group of Kusur village purchased a set of catering equipment
out of their savings which is being rented out to villagers during
weddings and other functions. This is now an example of entrerpreneurship
by women for other groups to emulate.
Mahila
Melava (Gahunje, Maval Taluka)
Such
Mahila Melavas are held once a year in our villages, which help
women to develop their personality.
SELF HELP GROUPS
• There
are 90 Self Help Groups formed with the guidance of JBGVS, who
have saved upto Rs. 15 lakhs.
• Training
programmes for personality development, social awareness, banking,
decision making and income generation are also conducted for women
by these groups.
COMMUNITY HEALTH
Health
Workers
Sixteen
health workers have been engaged from amongst the village women
to take care of minor illnesses, sanitation, nutrition, medical
emergencies, hygiene and family planning. They were put through
a training programme conducted by the C.R.H.P., Jamkhed.
Mobile
Clinics
Once
a fortnight, a mobile clinic visits 13 villages to diagnose minor
illnesses and dispense medicines. Serious cases are referred to
various hospitals. Health campus too are conducted regularly through
these mobile clinics.
ANIMAL
HUSBANDRY
JBGVS
provides veterinary services to villages to Khed and Maval Taluka.
Kapila
Dairy
This
project was successfully completed at Saindane Thakarwadi, Khed
Taluka, for fifty beneficiary families with help from CAPART.
Aiding
Dairy Start-ups
Villagers
from Kunewadi in Andra Maval were encouraged to procure buffaloes
with financial help extended by JBGVS, and start dairy business.
Expansion
plans
Drinking water
To overcome the shortage of drinking water in rural areas, JBGVS
has undertaken a new project to deepen and repair village wells,
install hand-pumps and simple water purification systems at water
supply points and initiate village level rain-water harvesting schemes.
Health
and medical services
The trust is accelerating its pace of medical intervention projects
to combat malnutrition, vitamin deficiency, leprosy, tuberculosis
and other diseases by increasing the frequency of its village
health camps and preventive health and maternity care, family
planning camps.
Rural
sanitation
JBGVS is expanding into sanitation awareness projects to motivate
villagers to take up construction of low cost toilets, soak-pits
and other facilities for hygienic disposal of human and animal
waste.
Veterinary
projects
The trust’s emphasis is on improving the health of livestock
resources, through vaccination and medical camps along with facilities
for artificial insemination to raise high yielding crossbreeds.
Lift
irrigation
The trust has helped to bring vast tracts of unproductive land
under cultivation by providing expertise to farmers to initiate
lift irrigation projects. It also assists them in raising finances
for these projects through banks and other agencies.
Agriculture
extension
JBGVS educates farmers on the use of improved, high yielding seeds
and modern methods of cultivation. It will soon provide expertise
in vermiculture, floriculture, and sericulture techniques and
growing nutritious varieties of fodder.
Water
conservation
The trust promotes various techniques of watershed development
depending on the local terrain and topography to maximise water
availability for irrigation by facilitating consultative interaction
between village representatives and various government agencies.
Tree
plantation
JBGVS has been assisting village level afforestation projects
on unused public land to combat soil degradation, scarcity of
fuel and fodder scarcity caused by the denudation of forests.
This project will be extended to a larger number of villages.
Model
village scheme
The state government of Maharashtra has recognised the efforts
of JBGVS in promoting integrated development in rural areas under
the government’s ‘model village scheme’. The
trust has adopted five villages, which have been developed as
model villages.
Village
infrastructure
Since village infrastructure development has long-term effect
on village communities the trust helps villages to take up need-based,
construction of nurseries and crèches and low-cost housing
projects.
Community
development
The trust will extend its reach to a larger number of villages
through regular village level meetings and video shows to spread
awareness and motivate villages to adopt women’s development
and leadership, modern agricultural practices and watershed development.
Cultural
initiatives
To strengthen communal amity in the villages, the trust encourages
community prayer meetings, bhajan (devotional hymns) competitions,
reinforcing messages through puppet shows and study tours. Local
youth clubs are encouraged to organise sports and cultural events.
Women’s
development
JBGVS’s women volunteers assist village women to organise
themselves into self-help groups to articulate issues of common
concern and address themselves in finding solutions to their problems
pertaining to education and health.
Training
& study tours
Training forms an integral part of all JBGVS activities. Training
programmes are conducted at three levels — village residents,
village animators and JBGVS staff. Before initiating new field
programmes, staff undergo appropriate capability development programmes.
Subsequently, training is cascaded to local village animators
and, through them, to individual village residents. This helps
ensure a consistently high rate of success of all JBGVS projects.
To convince
villages to adopt new techniques in agriculture, water resource
management, livestock development, etc, study tours for village
residents are organised to model villages where such projects
have been implemented successfully.
Project
monitoring
JBGVS has an elaborate follow-up and monitoring mechanism for
all its programmes, which functions at three levels. On the field,
project organisers conduct weekly monitoring sessions with the
field staff. The executive trustee and secretary of the trust
meet the staff at each project every fortnight to evaluate its
implementation. Finally, the chairman and the board of management
of JBGVS appraise themselves of the progress of the project every
quarter
Top
Samaj
Seva Kendra
Social activities in semi urban areas on the outskirts of Pune
are undertaken by the Samaj Seva Kendra (SSK), set up by Bajaj
Auto in 1975 . SSK provides local industrial workers with opportunities
for self development, education, healthcare, sports and recreation.
It involves local institutions and municipal bodies, local Rotary
Clubs and NGOs in its activities.
SSK has helped empower wives of factory workers by providing them
earning opportunities. Last year, its Laxmi Mahila Cooperative
Credit Society (started in 1990) earned Rs 1 lakh by supplying
chapattis, prepared by its members, to industrial canteens. SSK
also organises weekly medical consultation and health awareness
programmes, child and adult education, vocational training and
personality development programmes, leisure and recreational facilities
for women.
Top
Kamalnayan Bajaj Hospital
A
modern, 135-bed hospital at Aurangabad in Western Maharashtra,
the Kamalnayan Bajaj Hospital provides high-quality secondary
and tertiary healthcare and specialist facilities under one roof.
Its panel
of renowned full-time consultants provides comprehensive multi-specialty
care and advanced surgical procedures such as coronary artery
bypass, beating heart graft surgeries, joint replacements, complex
neurosurgical procedures, kidney transplants. The hospital's well-designed
suite of five operation theatres is equipped to cater to complex
surgical procedures.
The hospital
has state-of-the-art facilities like a cardiac catheterisation
lab, advanced spiral computer topography (CT) scanner, a colour
doppler — all from GE Medical Systems — a Mac 5000-series
stress test machine, a holter monitor from GE-Marquette, ultra-touch
dialysis equipment from Baxter and an advanced reverse osmosis
plant.
A well-equipped,
26-bed multi-specialty intensive care unit (ICU) provides emergency
and post-operative care that is on par with the best in the country.
The hospital
has a critical-care ambulance (a hospital on wheels) with a defibrillator,
portable ventilator, pulse oximeter, ECG machine and Glucometer.
The ambulance is attended round the clock by a physician, a nurse
and support team of qualified paramedics.
The hospital’s
facilities range from spacious and hygienically maintained general
wards with all essential amenities to large deluxe rooms furnished
with sofas, telephones, refrigerator, television and a small kitchenette.
For relatives of patients, the hospital provides guesthouse facilities
and a professionally managed cafeteria.
.
The large hospital campus with its wide open spaces, pleasing
landscape, ample parking are meticulously maintained.
The hospital
offers a specially designed health insurance and annual medical
check-up plan in association with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance,
which provides cash-less hospitalisation and treatment.
