Jagori Rural Charitable Trust (“Jagori Grameen”), A Non-Governmental Organization is located in Rakkar, a village in the foothills of the Himalayas near Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh.
Following a path of non-violence and simplicity, Jagori Grameen is committed to the cause of building a just and equitable society. Our engagement with the community addresses all forms of discrimination based on gender, class, caste, religion, disability and all other forms of social exclusion and seeks to protect the individual and collective dignity of the most marginalized. Major involvement of JRCT is with communities that fall under marginalized category, within that there is a special focus on women and young girls.
Established in the year 2003 with just 12 girls and working in 25 villages JRCT has extended its work to 130 villages of Kangra district and 30 villages of Chamba District. Our outreach programs cover a population of 20000 people in these villages.
JRCT has a dedicated team with a strong presence in the community and has established a network with multiple local and national stakeholders over the last 17 years. Another strength is the diversity of the staff in terms of age, caste composition, educational levels, experience as well as ability levels, and the participatory approach to planning, implementation and evaluation of all programs. Since most of the team members have been selected from marginalized families within the working areas, they are forming a bridge and represent the voices and concerns of the community.
Democratic planning and decision making therefore enables the team to implement the program effectively at the grassroots level.
JRCT has extended its work from 25 villages to 160 villages of Kangra and Chamba District. The dedicated team of 84 members has a strong presence in the community.
“Let me take you back to the beginning of the organization,
because we believe we are part of the new wave of feminism.
That is a defining moment for us.
We also call ourselves an autonomous women’s group-autonomous of political
parties and government, and in terms of our decision making.
When we started we did not really have any motive to say how a feminist
organization should run, but we had some commitment to a very democratic
collective structure.
So we did not really have designations in the organization.
Everybody did everything together and a lot of work was really shared
collectively.”
VISION
A just and equal society
MISSION
Our mission is to create a just and equal society for all. In order to do this, we help address discrimination on gender, caste, religion, disability, and sexual identities. We want to strengthen the voices of women and girls and ensure people’s right to life and safety
Objectives
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To work among the most marginalized communities for equity, justice, dignity and peace.
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To spread consciousness, encourage and strengthen the voices of women and girls, and ensure their rights to life and safety.
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To ensure peoples’ rights to participation, entitlement and inclusion in social, political, economic and environmental processes.
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To increase peoples’ engagement on issues related to sustainable organic agriculture and environmental and spiritual regeneration.
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To ensure bureaucratic and political accountability in medical, educational, legal and political institutions.
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To increase peoples’ access to information.
Our work
The prime focus of JRCT is
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to engage directly with local communities in order to enhance participation and ownership by building understanding and leadership abilities, and link them with state programs and policies for the benefit of the entitled communities and the most vulnerable groups;
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build knowledge and skills through civic education, gender, health, reproductive, menstrual, sexual health awareness and vocational trainings, as well as scholarships for talented young girls;
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advocate and campaign for gender just policies and measures to eliminate gender-based violence, as well as serve women and girls who are the survivors of violence.
JRCT employs a Rights-based approach to strengthen Dalit and Scheduled Tribe communities, with emphasis on developing the leadership of young women and men who are aware and committed to building gender just and socially equitable communities and society. We promote sustainable agriculture by local farmers, and mobilize youth and women to engage in community development by building leadership and technical skills.
Jagori works closely with all sorts of community members, from government administrators to “barefoot lawyers” who travel to villages offering their services. Jagori seeks to encourage and strengthen the voice of women and girls, fight domestic violence, and ensure their rights to life and public safety, education and adequate standards of living. Our areas of work include: –
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gender justice and gender-based violence
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education, skills training and capacity building
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health and reproductive rights
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Sustainable environment and inclusive development.
JRCT outreach activities are built around five key programmatic areas:
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Aware Women’s Action for Justice (AWAJ);
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Aware Adolescent Girls Action for Justice (AAGAJ)
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Sustainable Agriculture, Forest and Land (SAFAL)
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Women’s Health Education, Awareness and Claiming of Health Entitlements
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One Billion Rising (OBR)
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Himalayan Daughters Rise for Education (HDR) – a Fellowship for young marginalized girls. The programmes are implemented in partnership with the local community groups
Our Programs
AAGAJ – Aware Adolescents Girl’s Action for Justice
AWAJ – Aware Woman’s Action for Justice
SAFAL – Sustainable Agriculture, Forest and Land
AAGAJ, or Aware Adolescent Girls Action for Justice Program, as the name suggests, is a holistic initiative working with adolescent girls to empower them with gender awareness, and mold them into confident, self-aware individuals, and responsible citizens.
One Billion Rising (OBR)
One Billion Rising is the biggest mass action to end violence against women (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender-based violence) in human history. The campaign, which was launched on Valentine’s Day 2012, began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Jagori Rural is the India Headquarters for the campaign.
Our program, AWAJ, works through the formation of women’s collectives on a range of issues such as stopping violence against women, addressing issues of sex selective abortion and neglect of girl children. We help women understand their right to bodily safety and sexuality and promote their participation in governance. The three different sections of AWAJ are violence, health, leadership.
Himalayan Daughters Rise for Education (HDR)
Himalayan Daughters Rise for Education is a new initiative started by JRCT in 2014. It is an education and empowerment programme which aims to support young girls with their educational goals. The selected girls belong to socially and economically deprived backgrounds and belong to marginalized communities in remote rural areas of Himachal Pradesh. In addition, these young girls are provided with an opportunity to become self-confident, self-assertive and aware of gender equality issues. Presently JRCT is awarding fellowship to 42 girls in three districts of Chamba, Kangra and Sirmour.
The SAFAL programs aims to revitalize organic agricultural production and traditional knowledge that promotes environmental health, long-term economic sustainability, and gender equality in the Kangra Valley, Himachal Pradesh.
Our Impact
Steady Change
These past years we’ve made massive progress. We’ve held campaigns, workshops, and field visits in order to make a difference in the way people think in Himachal Pradesh.
“I have always had the dream to educate my daughters and make them capable enough to stand on their own feet.”
– RAJNI, 37 YEARS OLD
“I want to thank you, for all your work, and for the 12th event that I truly cherished.
Up on that stage, including you, were people I have always admired,some right since school days. As expected, even though we know all what’s happening in the nation, I had goosebumps, I cried, laughed and found inspiration.
There are legacies left behind for us that sets the bar high for the work that’s ahead of us. Also for the care and concern, the warmth at Jagori.”
– KOKILA BHATTACHARYA
ASSISTANT OBR COORDINATOR, 2019
Through our programs, we have impacted 20,000 people directly but the scope of our impact is far larger than that. We encourage members of our program to teach their learnings and a majority of them spread their newfound knowledge through communication with their friends and family, engaging in clubs and starting their own change in their own villages. This causes the scope of our work to extend throughout Himachal Pradesh, a state in India. This doesn’t even count our campaigns. In just one of our campaigns, 204,684 people were engaged and our marches and campaigns were covered by many news outlets. Our campaigns also occurred in multiple states.
We’ve also solved 600 domestic violence cases and created groups to help 1000 people deal with the after affects of violence. By doing this, we can make sure that the people who have dealed with these problems have the chance to recover and return to normal society.
We hope to keep on increasing our impact and to keep on causing more change. In an charity in which education is needed to make long term change, progress is slow and exponential. In order to change the entire community, only about five percent of the community needs to be educated. They in turn will educate their friends and cause change without any help from us. In order to get to that five percent, we will keep on educating people until our ideas begin to be taught in schools and become basic truths.
We’ve held in school classes and had our interns and workers teach lessons which are not taught in schools. We have an average of 60 classes taught a year. Combining that with our workshops, field visits, and meetings, we reach a massive audience of children and adults alike.
For 13 years, we’ve been doing our best and we have made a huge impact by doing that much. Although it may take another decade to fully educate five percent of the people here, we will not rest until it is done. We’ve already made large progress and many of our members have started clubs and helped educate their families.
60
IN SCHOOL CLASSES TAUGHT PER YEAR
20,000
PEOPLE ENGAGED IN THE PROGRAM
204, 684
PEOPLE ENGAGED DURING OUR CAMPAIGNS
600
CASES OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SOLVED
141 Workshops in the Last Two Years*
In the last two years alone, we’ve had 141 workshops in which students have stayed at our program and learned gender equality, leadership and many other skills.
*Does not include in school classes, meetings or field meetings
“In the past 1 year, after being connected to Jagori I feel brave and bold I don’t depend on others”
– REENA, 24 YEARS OLD
We strive for equality
We have striven to make women and men equal and we have accomplished that through our events. Through every one of our events and workshops we normalize the idea that women and men are equal and deserve equality. Our workshops also teach self defense for young women, leadership and many other valuable teachings that are not taught in school. To see all of our events, click on Past Events on the right. Our campaigns help spread awareness about our causes and spur people to learn about our lessons and participate in them.
To educate and encourage people to understand and accept the LGBTQ+ community here in India, we’ve started campaigns to explain to people that the social stigmas surrounding people are not true and that they are still people, even if they are different.
Some of our specific campaigns and our specific workshops are located in the Past Events section and some stories of what we have done are located in Success Stories. In order to make a different, we have walked one step at a time and contine to walk one step at a time towards a better future.