Sanskriti Samvardhan Mandal

Maharashtra

Sanskriti Samvardhan Mandal (SSM) works for integrated rural development. Established in 1959, the organisation started with a small school which over the years has grown into a 200 acre campus providing multiple interventions across different causes. The focus of the interventions activities has been on the deprived rural communities, especially women and girls.

SSM works in 10 blocks of Nanded and Beed districts of Maharashtra and over the years, they have impacted the lives of over 30000 families through its activities. One of their key interventions is in the field of education where they run formal schools with classes from pre-school to pre-university. The campus of SSM serves around 4000 students. The school also provides hostel facilities for students who are coming from far away locations. At present, 2000 students stay in the hostels.

The teachers coordinate and monitor the activities undertaken for the students' over all development. Besides formal education, value education is also imparted to the students. Good habits such as early rising, doing regular exercises, evening prayer, etc are inculcated in the children. Various cultural activities are also organized to provide an outlet to their aesthetic potential. education and training in drawing, painting and music is also facilitated.

In addition to this school, SSM runs a children's home - Anand Balgram. The Balgram to comprises of 12 homes, each of which houses 8-10 children and a mother. The village thus accommodates 108 children, 12 mothers and a counsellor with the village director. In-house academic education till the 12th grade is facilitated for every child. After that the children are encouraged and supported to pursue higher education and career.

Other interventions are in the area of environment for the farming communities in the region. Under this, they build watersheds for farmers to allow them to have contiguous supply of water for all their farming needs. The watershed project is undertaken as a collaborative effort between farmers and the government. The longer term impact is to also increase the underground water table levels for sustained farming. So far SSM has built watersheds in a total of 12751 hectares cumulatively.

SSM has built a comprehensive program which is spread across the different stakeholders of the community from education for children to livelihoods for men and women and conservation of environment.