- Deepalaya
-
Deepalaya's logo
Deepalaya is the largest operating non-governmental organisation (NGO) in India’s national capital state Delhi, working on issues affecting the development of the urban and rural poor in India, with a special focus on children.[1] Deepalaya’s official motive for its existence and work is the slogan ‘Every child deserves a chance’.
The organisation was founded in 1979. Since then it has seen a continuous growth in staff, beneficiaries and fields of activities. Deepalaya’s main areas of influence are the urban slums of Delhi, but inroads into rural development in the states of Haryana and Uttarakhand have been made as well. The essence of Deepalaya’s approaches is concisely inherent in the Chinese maxim ‘Give someone a fish and you feed him for a day; teach the person to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’, for Deepalaya similarly aims at triggering off sustainable development from within.
Contents
History
From 1977 to 1979, three of the seven founding members met regularly, discussing how to launch a programme of education and reaching out to the poor. The thought process was derived from these three individuals, by name of Mr. T. K. Mathew, Mr. Y. Chackochan and Mr. P. J. Thomas. However, as the Society’s Registration Act in India requires seven individuals in order to found a society, there was a lack of founding members. This problem was quickly resolved by the agreement of Mrs. Grace Thomas, Mr. C. M. Mathai, Mr. Punnoose Thomas and Mr. T. M. Abraham to join hands with the initial three pioneering individuals. Regardless of bureaucratic obstacles and resistance, the “Deepalaya Education Society” was founded and the first school was started on 16 July 1979. There were only five children attending school, two teachers and an investment of Rupees 17,500 from the founding members. In these initial days the school focused on pre-school education.
In the course of time to the year 1985, the number of students increased to 133 with seven staff members. As the annual budget grew, the focus of Deepalaya moved to primary education. Parallel to this development, the contact to various national as well as international funding agencies was established. Since Deepalaya’s resource base grew due to these contacts, its programme could extend correspondingly. Deepalaya started reaching out to a larger number of slum dwellers through education, health, income generation as well as community development, thus stepping beyond mere education to ‘integrated development’. By 1992, there were 13,000 students being taught as well as 400 staff members involved.
According to Deepalaya’s publication “Yatra – The Institutional Memory”, the core belief of the organisation in the success of community empowerment and building of self-reliance became crystallised into fundamental developmental paradigms in the organisation’s phase of consolidation in the 1990s. in 2000, Deepalaya’s scope had further extended to over 35,000 children, their families and communities.
Since 2002, the organisation has undergone major changes, for a new vision and mission had been formulated, which is now being pursued, its programme sectors have been restructured and it has become an international organisation with its offices in the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Germany. In 2003, Deepalaya was appointed one of the NGOs for capacity building of smaller NGOs by REACH India. During the year 2005, Deepalaya became the largest operational NGO in the national capital state of Delhi, as it achieved the level of reaching out to 50,000 children, 76 slums, 84 villages in Mewat as well as 7 villages in Uttarakhand.
Vision
Deepalaya’s vision is very concisely uttered by its publications: “A society based on legitimate rights, equity, justice, honesty, social sensitivity and a culture of service, in which all are self-reliant.”[2]
Mission
Deepalaya has clearly formulated its mission, consisting of three major parts. In “Yatra – The Institutional Memory” the mission is formulated as follows:
“We in Deepalaya commit ourselves to:
Continue to identify with and work along the economically and socially deprived, the physically and mentally challenged, starting with children so that they become educated, skilled and aware
Enable them to be self-reliant and enjoy a healthy, dignified and sustainable quality of life
And to that end, act as a resource to and collaborate with other agencies Governmental or Non-Governmental, as well as suitably intervene in policy formulation.”
See also
References
- ^ "Deepalaya Education Society, Delhi" (.jpg). Education World – The Human Development Magazine. http://www.deepalaya.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/094_xx1106eduwd.jpg. Retrieved November 2006.
- ^ Deepalaya. "Yatra - Institutional Memory" (.pdf). Page 50. Deepalaya. http://www.deepalaya.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/institutional_memory-yatra.pdf. Retrieved November 20, 2007.
External links
Categories:- Non-governmental organisations based in India
- Child education non-governmental organizations
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
