AVISHKAR is a non-governmental, non-profit, voluntary organization established in 2004 by a group of dedicated and social development professionals and committed to strengthening, reviving or restoring, where necessary and the conservation of land and water resources in the Karnataka State.
In its 10 years since inception, AVISHKAR has been involved in over 129 villages for watershed development, natural resource management and organic farming project (direct implementation in 56 villages and Capacity Building support in 73 villages), covering over 3628 hectares, thus, impacting over 5630 people. Its involvement in over 268 women’s Self Help Groups (SHGs), trainings and other initiatives has benefitted over2216 women members.
AVISHKAR assists rural communities to assess their vulnerabilities to climate and non-climatic risks. It organizes them in a socially and gender inclusive manner to help themselves out of poverty by regenerating their ecosystems in a holistic and integrated manner, conserving and optimizing resource use, especially soil water and vegetation and undertaking climate smart sustainable livelihoods.
Gender is a mainstay of AVISHKAR’s work. A cross-cutting priority, Gender concerns are embedded in each and every activity. We strongly believe that GENDER is often perceived as the favoring of women’s rights and responsibilities, it goes beyond women. We support women to acquire different capacities and knowledge while also recognizing that they have different needs and interests. The Gender equality can only be achieved when men and women are equally empowered; AVISHKAR gives emphasis to level the playing field. It does this by building up women’s social capital and management capabilities and facilitating their empowerment by organizing them into solidarity groups (SHGs & JLGs).
The intervention also extends to building women’s capacity to address their and their children’s concerns through health services and providing personal care advisories, and literacy, numeracy and personality development training. AVISHKAR help them acquire livelihood and life skills, by providing them with financial and business development support to start and successfully manage micro-enterprises, creating avenues of access to micro-insurance and provisioning drinking water and sanitation that more specifically address women’s concerns. Our organization initiates and implements various development activities that not only enhance their economic status but also reduces drudgery and burden.
AVISHKAR aimed to…
- Work towards the conservation of land and water resources, degraded and marginalized regions of the State and to set in place the processes of co-ordinated human effort and governance to this end;
- Undertake work either directly, or with and through a range of democratic village institutions, their federal bodies, and civil society organizations, set up through initiatives that are sustainable, socially and economically equitable and provide relief to the poor.
- Collaborates with Panchayat Raj and other democratic village institutions, as well as appropriate civil society organizations, in their efforts to contribute towards the objectives of the Society.