Nirman

[Dhananjay Muli]

Hi everybody,

            I am writing this mail to tell you about Nirman. As some of you might be knowing, I attended a camp called Nirman (during Jun 08) organized by Dr Abhay and Dr Rani Bang. What is this about?

 

Nirmaan

 

There are lot of social problems around - poverty, education, corruption, pollution.... this list could be un-ending. Solutions to these problems?? We all are searching solutions by our own ways. Finding these solutions are huge challenges. Nirman is a process of identifying and nourishing youth who are concerned about these problems, want to actively contribute to the problem solutions and are committed to their contribution.

Process

 

As it is clear from the above statement, the process cannot happen over-night. Since it requires some changes to be done in oneself, understand diversity around, understanding the problems and thinking about them, Nirman is designed to be of two years. It involves 4 residential camps at SEARCH, Gadchiroli, each of duration one week happening once every sixth months. The process is based on self-learning rather than preeching.

 

Approach

 

The approach taken by Dr Abhay and Rani Bang is an extremely well-designed approach. First understand the problem, identify where and how can you contribute, "think global and act local". In social activities, the role of scientific approach is crucial and hence such an approach is one of important distinctions of Nirman.

 

About myself and Nirman

 

I attended first camp in June/July 2008, and it made my thinking process initiated. We were a group of around 75 people from different areas of Maharashtra who attended the Nirman camp.

 

Nirman Fellowship

 

Before us, there is a batch of Nirman (~ 40 people) who completed the Nirman process from June 2006 - January 2008. Ours is second batch started from June 2008. From the first batch, 9 boys and girls have opted to work full-time for one year with some social organization to get hands-on on some social activity. It involves 3 engineers ( one of them, our very own Priyadarshan from IITB), 2 doctors, 1 lawyer and 3 graduates from different streams.

Frankly speaking, I find it courageous to get one year out of our schedules to experiment with your own life. They all are working with genuine organization like SEARCH, BIAF, MKCL and Gram Mangal. This fellowship has started from August 2008. During their period of one year of fellowship, their expenses will be beared by Nirman.

 

As any social activity needs, Nirman also needs funds. The primary purpose of my mail is not to ask for funds. I wanted all of you to know about Nirman. If anybody of you is interested in some activity that the fellows (or other Nirmanites) are doing, I can provide you with more information. I am not posting details of financial contributions because if somebody of you is interested in it, get in touch with me, I will forward it to individuals.

Regards,

Dhananjay
Contact : 9011040449

Website of SEARCH http://www.searchgadchiroli.org/
Website of Nirman http://www.searchgadchiroli.org/Nirman2008-1.htm

 

PS : As a quick update, I am planning to visit a genuine NGO - Gram Mangal, working on education and rural welfare. Gram Mangal is based at Aina (in Thane district). One of our Nirman fellows is working there. My visit is not yet sure, yet, if anybody wants to come-along, you can reply to me or call me latest by tomorrow afternoon. I will confirm my plan by tomorrow morning/afternoon.

Website of GramMangal - http://www.grammangal.org/

[Mitesh Khapra]

Thanks Dhananjay.
Do let us know about the future camps of Nirman. Some of us would be
interested in attending them.

~Mitesh

[Dhananjay Muli]

Hi Mitesh,
        As I said, each Nirman batch is of 4 camps. Applications were invited once for the 4 camps. I don't think people can do just camp starting from second. I will confirm this though. The next Nirman batch (batch 3) would be starting in June 2010.

Dhananjay