Jana Sanghati Kendra
Activities
Training & Workshop
Legal Aid & Arbitration
Our interventions on gender-based violence and may include our efforts in sensitization of community members on gender issues through guided workshops. Workshops to develop para-legal volunteers may also be mentioned along with more data on the quantum of legal aid offered to survivors. The casework support provided to survivors of domestic violence for effective reintegration and rehabilitation may also be included. Some of our measures like creating safe spaces for survivors, effective liaison with law enforcement agencies, facilitating access to state-funded welfare schemes and access to education and employment, etc. may be highlighted.
Janasangahati Kendra focuses on rural development and poverty alleviation. We work to improve the lives of people in villages with access to better education, healthcare, and clean water. We also help farmers increase crop production through modern techniques. Skill development programs are provided to empower women and youth, offering them more job opportunities. Janasangahati Kendra aims to reduce poverty through helping families become self-reliant, creating a positive and lasting impact on rural communities.
Our initiatives on cultural aspects, including efforts to preserve the traditional song and dance performances of rural communities along with other local initiatives in Badu and activity based interactions with the children and youth residing adjacent to the centre.
Organic Farming
Our related initiatives from cooperatives to exploring small-scale dairy and poultry units, kitchen garden programme and supporting indigenous varieties of vegetables, supporting small farmers with drought-resistant and saline water-resistant paddy varieties in specific geographical locations, building community seed banks, ensuring food and nutritional security for a rural household, training rural youths in sustainable agricultural practices, etc.
Mobile Healthcare
We have developed self-sustaining programs of low-cost health care for the rural poor. One of these is through providing cheap allopathic treatment to villagers in remote areas through mobile health camps. This program is run without any external grant and caters to about 10000 patients every year.
We also have a mobile medical service using funds from the National Rural Health Mission to provide the services of a doctor and his medical team, along with free medicines, free pathological tests, and X-rays for a remote area in the Purulia district.
COVID – 19 Relief and Surveillance
JSK initiated a program to assist the local healthcare system in the block with awareness and sensitization campaigns on the use of masks, physical distancing, hand washing, and vaccine hesitancy. 40 volunteers in Dantan 1 block of Paschim Medinipur, received training, oximeters, thermal scanners, PPEs and other necessary materials. The volunteers visited 1400 families in 21 villages, covering around 7000 individuals. 35 covid positive patients were identified and referred to the BMOH, in the month of June.
We collaborated with organisations like the International Buddhist Confederation – New Delhi, who helped with donation of items like N-95 masks, PPE kits, oxygen concentrators and cylinders to increase Covid preparedness for Dantan Block Primary Health Centre.
Relief & Support
We have conducted immediate relief operations after every major flood and cyclone in West Bengal since the 1990s. We have also done some amount of rehabilitation work and organized people in post-disaster situations to better access and use Government relief. After Cyclone Amphan in 2020, we also conducted a research study on ‘alternatives in cyclone-affected housing’ which has led to the building of two demonstration units in two of the districts of West Bengal where we work in.