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Janambhumi Janakalyan
 
Janambhumi Group has been carrying out various social welfare activities since its inception as an essential part of its social responsibility and duty towards the people of Assam. Janambhumi Janakalyan, a trust registered under Registration of Society’s Act XXI of 1860 was created to cater to such increasing needs realized by the organization from time to time. It is devoted to various philanthropic activities in the fields within the State where attention is needed the most.

A brief note on philanthropic activities carried out by the Janambhumi Janakalyan:
1.
Education
 
i)
Scholarship for IAS aspirants: A special focus of the Trust has been to inspire the young generation of the state on look for new paradigm of progress and prosperity. It has been an unrelenting aspiration of the Trust to create a congenial atmosphere for the young people throughout the state to take up upcoming and new challenges. On that effort, it was felt that the number of students appearing for the UPSC IAS examination is very less compared to the other states. The reasons behind the disparity were mainly lack of awareness and an inherent apathy and fear about the UPSC IAS examination. Having realized a palpable role to work on the subject, the Trust introduced a separate section “Janambhumi Janakalyan Education Trust” in the year 2004 under the guidance of eminent educationist Prof. Dilip Kr. Barua and Mr. Bhaskar Barua IAS, former union secretary for Agriculture, Govt.of India. The Trust introduced a scholarship for IAS aspirants who need special support for preparation. The scholarship awardees are selected through a selection test. Selected students are awarded with a scholarship which covers the expenditure to get coaching at a reputed organization in New Delhi along with food, lodging and pocket expenses for the limited tenure. The Trust has also been working to create awareness amongst the students of the state. As a part of the awareness programme a special forum in the Dainik Janambhumi titled as Uttoron was introduced in the year 2004 with the guidance of Prof. Dilip Kr.Barua. In this forum, guidance for UPSC IAS examination is provided in Assamese language. The positive impact of the Trust's endeavours has been reflected in many ways. The number of students appearing for the UPSC IAS examination has been increasing every year and so has the level of awareness amongst the public as well as the students about the examination, its procedures and its outcome.
 
ii)
Scholarship for economically backward students: Scholarships and financial assistance is provided from time to time to meritorious students who are in need of finance to pursue higher education within the State. Some times books are also given to students who face economic hardship. Apart from these, special coaching is arranged for wards of in house employees as and when required.
  iii) Scholarship for economically backward students: Janambhumi Janakalyan has taken initiative to publish articles on English language learning supplied by the British Council. The articles are published fortnightly covering primary and secondary learners of the language. This has been conceptualized considering the growing interest and necessity of young generations of the state.
     
2.
Health, Public Health and Hygiene:
 
i)
The land to establish Tankeswar Sarma Memorial primary health centre at Kenduguri, Jorhat was donated by the owners of Janambhumi group and the homeopathy wing of the hospital is run by the trust,
 
ii)
Health check-up camps are held annually in Tinsukia where medicine is also distributed freely
 
iii)
A media workshop was done on MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT of Guwahati city to sensitize the media fraternity on the issue.
 
iv)
Articles and write-ups on health and public health issues are published from time to time through the coordination of the trust.
 
v)
The trust also provides resources on health, Public Health and Hygiene matters to various Non-profit and government organizations working in development sector as and when asked for
     
3.
Financial Assistance for in-house employees: Financial assistance is provided to in-house employees in the time of need through the trust
     
4.
Livelihood Opportunities:
 
i)
A project on skill and micro enterprise management training in handloom was taken up in collaboration with Panchayati Raj Institution, Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship, Guwahti and IORA (the hospitality wing of Janambhumi Group) and the local community. The aim of this project was to provide opportunities for sustainable livelihood and income generation options to local weavers by channelizing their productive capacities. Effort was to enable the local weavers to become micro entrepreneurs. The project ended very successfully and the trainee weavers are able to generate respectable earning by managing their micro enterprises. This unique project was designed as Rural Business Hub. Some of the trained weavers are engaged for the products of IORA-Weaves, the group’s own brand created for special handloom products. The products are sold through the IORA Hut, the outlet within the group’s own premises.
 
ii)
Many young and school dropouts and needy youths are trained and rehabilitated within Janambhumi Group.
     
5.
Skill Development
    Janambhumi Janakalyan has newly signed an MoU with Food Craft Institute, Samaguri, Nagaon, Assam with a view to meeting the need of skill development in Hospitality and House -keeping avenues in the State. Initially, Janambhumi Janakalyan is conducting two courses of three months duration on Food Production and Food and Beverages Services in partnership with Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship, Guwahati for 60 unemployed youths (30 in two batches) which is sponsored by Oil India Limited, Duliajan. Next planning is to conduct vocational courses based on industries (hospitality, printing and beauty care) owned by Janambhumi group.
     
6.
Relief and rehabilitation:
 
i)
The expenditure of food for one month in a year is provided to an orphanage situated at Dagaon in Jorhat.
 
ii)
Food, clothes and essential goods are supplied to flood victims in and around Kaziranga National Park
     
7.
Plantation Drive:
    A campaign to plant indigenous fruit plants was carried out by the trust. Indigenous fruit plants were planted in Chandrapur near Guwahati and at Bogorijuri i.e. in the vicinity of Kaziranga National Park.
     
8.
Awareness camps:
    Apart from awareness on competitive exams, the Trust organizes awareness camps in rural areas on various socio-economic issues and local problems through RAIJMEL. In such camps people are made aware of their local problems and they are sensitized to raise their voices through the platform of newspaper. Citizen journalism has been encouraged by the Trust for a long time.
     
9.
Silk n Dye annual Festival at Kaziranaga:
    Silk n Dye is planned as an annual festival of Art, culture, fashion show and campaign for promotion of traditional art of natural dyeing, production of textile from indigenous silk and related practices to be held at Kaziranaga, Assam. Assam has a rich tradition of silk farming, raring and production as the State is endowed by nature to have Wild Silks in its environment. The silks of Assam are Wild Silk as the Silk yielding larvae grow in natural condition. Among the three varieties of these Wild Silks, Eri silk can be obtained from the cocoon without killing the silk moth. That is why, the fine warm fabric has become popular as AHIMSA or PEACE SILK as it neither causes harm or damage to the environment nor does any insect get killed in the process of its extraction. The followers of Non-violence principles prefer to use it for this reason as it carries the essence of Peace.

The indigenous silks hand dyed with roots, leaves, seeds, flowers and elements abundant in nature are much more superior in quality, look and texture than the machine produced and chemically dyed silks.

A consumer today is more concerned about the impact on health and environment from synthetic dyes and hence there has been a growing demand for products with natural dyes.

The indigenous silk value added by natural dye becomes a coveted material for fashion enthusiasts. “It can be dried indoors and hidden within one’s fist”, such is the quality of silk produced here by the local farmers. With Muga (Antheraea assamensis), Paat (mulberry silk) and Eri (Philosamia ricine) silk, one can go on with various innovative fashion extravaganzas. The unique texture of each of these indigenous silk value added with natural dye becomes so exclusive that it bears enormous prospect and potential for garment fashioning and endorsing of natural fibre to the enormously voluminous cloth industry in the world.

Silk N Dye festival is designed to cater to the needs of the entire North Eastern Region of India and also for the stake holders at various stages in these sectors. From the experience and information gathered in the past few years it has become clear that there is also an immense potential and prospect for natural dye value chain in this region, which unfortunately has not been given proper emphasis. Hence, it calls for an urgent intervention in developing and organizing this sector which can address social as well as economic issues at large. As such, Janambhumi Janakalyan, with the initiative of Silk N Dye festival looks forward to working on the concept of natural dye value chain through a systematic and scientific approach.

The weavers of this region are mostly ladies with magical hands but presently they are reluctant to weave as they do not have access to the market. Janambhumi Jankalyan envisages in giving the marginal weavers and silk farmers a platform to showcase their products through this festival. This festival is also a humble effort to introduce the age old tradition of Silk farming, weaving and natural dyeing of this region to the world. Hence, there will be an attempt to promote the value added indigenous silks through model hunt and fashion shows(fashion wares). for more information kindly log on www.silkndye.com

Resourece Management
  All these activities are conducted through the internal resources of the organisation till date except the recent Skill Development and Rural Business Hub projects. There is no permanent employee for the trust. The Chairman cum Managing Trustee and the honorary secretary are in overall charge of Janambhumi Janakalyan. There is a coordinator for the Janambhumi Janakalyan to plan various activities and to maintain liaisons. The coordinator is also the resource person for Janambhumi Janakalyan who has a long experience of working in development sector with the State and central government as well as with national and international organizations. The network at the grassroots of the Dainik Janambhumi provides support for conducting grass root level programmes of Janambhumi Jankalyan.
New Strategy
  At present Janambhumi Janakalyan is looking for handholding opportunities with corporate houses, government and public sector companies/enterprises to carry on its own endeavours as well as to facilitate the partner organisation’s aspirations. Collaborative efforts and partnership endeavours will be focused where in Janambhumi Janakalyan will mainly offer soft skills and consultancy services to the partner organization. However, Janambhumi Janamkalyan will charge professionally where it renders services as independent or third party organization.
Vision
 

The vision of Janambhumi Janakalyan is to facilitate overall development. Apart from its own scheduled activities, the endeavour of the Janambhumi Janakalyan is to support all government and non-government (including public and private sector) development initiatives with available resources for the interest of the larger community. Skill development, Impact study of development programmes, highlighting of success stories and positive developments are new areas of interest for Janambhumi Jankalyan. It is also interested in documentation of positive efforts in development sector. Janambhumi Janakalyan arranges on the spot activities to address any current crises that may arise within the periphery of its working area.


1.3
Areas of Expertise
  Janambhumi Janakalyan has chosen some areas to work and has been trying to acquire expertise in those. They are:
 
a)
Media Advocacy
 
b)
Awareness Generation for student Community/Community Awareness Programme
 
c)
Survey
 
d)
Skill Development
 
e)
Impact assessment and analysis
 
f)
Social Audit
 
g)
Documentation/ process documentation
 
h)
Communication Material Development
 
i)
Community Health Mangement
 
j)
Art and craft development

Working Office:
Janambhumi Janakalyan
151, R.G.Baruah Road, Guwahati-781005, Assam
 
 
 
 
Copyright @ 2012-15, The Dainik Janambhumi