In addition to our conventional developmental activities with our various partners, we also produce eco-friendly and organic tribal products consisting of honey and vinegar. We do this through Maikal Hills Natural Products Company(MHNPC). The company, set up and registered in 2005, is a non-profit organization that empowers the Bhil and Gond community by giving them access to livelihood options and establishing both forward and backward linkages, linking them with the companies and FPOs at the apex level.
OUR WORK
CARD has its presence in 5 states and has a strong grassroots presence in all agro-climatic zones in Central India, namely, Gond predominant eastern tribal region (MP& CG), agriculturally rich Feudal Malwa, backward Bundelkhand, and Bhil predominant degraded western tribal region. Though our initial primary concern was livelihood promotion, other development initiatives like water & sanitation, health & nutrition, child development, woman empowerment, and alternate energy promotion are the focus of our efforts as well.
Our major concern is that most marginalized farming communities can earn enough to live a life of dignity and enjoy at least the minimum living standards. Our thematic areas of work have broadened over the journey of fifteen years.
The development themes include :
Nation building by empowering people
With a total working population of around 500 million & with greater than 100 million fresh entrants expected to enter the Indian workforce over the next decade, the need of the hour is to equip the youth with market-ready skills. Recognizing the enormity of this challenge & understanding the need to create an ecosystem of empowerment, CARD contributes to the process of nation-building by acting as a facilitator, supporting the Government of India in its ambitious schemes such as PMKK - Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra Yogna, NULM - National Urban Livelihood Mission, ACABC – Agri clinics and Agribusiness centers and DDUGKY - Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana. Learn more about our initiatives and get involved yourself.
Sowing the seeds of growth
Even though CARD, since its inception, had been a significant player for rural livelihoods promotion through natural resource management, agriculture was never a prime focus of its activities. We realized the importance of agricultural innovation in the integrated development early on. This realization was soon brought into action by combining national and international agriculture development initiatives with our activities in 2010. CARD has worked with over 50000 farmers on agriculture transformation in more than 500 villages across Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and our motto is “Aap Cheti aap Kheti” – “Sensible Farmer Responsible Farming”. Now, agricultural innovation and sustainable agricultural practices with active management of natural resources are our key focus areas at CARD. Have a look!
Reducing Gender Disparity
Dedicated to holistic development, CARD, since its inception, has been consciously promoting the rights of women. If we look into role of women in the agricultural operations across the central Indian rural belt, we find that a significant number of the operations are decided exclusively by women. But these operations are often low-skilled & require extensive manual labor, resulting in the non-inclusion of women in the higher-level decision-making processes. On further probing, CARD found out that social customs, illiteracy, poverty, low financial literacy & lack of opportunity to understand the market were the reasons behind the non-inclusion. Additionally, the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have gender equality and women’s empowerment at their core, including a target to “double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women.” We at CARD acknowledge the significant role of women in the developmental process & have implemented various initiatives for empowering women.
Catering to the needs of our
corporate clients
The Banyan is great, not only because of its trunk but also because of its offshoots. We take pride in our corporate partners, because it is they who enable us to reach out to rural India by providing us the support we need. We are collaborating with our corporate partners like John Deere, HDFC bank, E&Y and Cipla, to name a few, to contribute towards the holistic development of selected communities. These programs, such as Samriddhi and Parivartan, have taken our outreach to 6 states across India and empower the rural community and deliver the support they need when they need it as envisaged by our contributing partners.
Having partnered with various government organizations and corporate clients such as GAIL, UNICEF, National health mission, and NACO, we are running various health care and sanitation projects in numerous states and districts to improve health and sanitation facilities of the rural population. From working on water quality and sewage systems to working on health issues of female sex workers and organizing health camps, our health, nutritional, and sanitation management programs have enabled us to provide relief to the needy. We evaluate our success in these projects by gathering qualitative and quantitative data and measuring changes from our baseline measurements and are proud to use our extensive outreach to provide capacity building, support services, and welfare at the grassroots level.
Safeguarding health and promoting
sanitation in rural India
We, at CARD, act as a key facilitator of community development work in the rural areas across several states, acting as an intermediary between residents and the government as well as major private corporations. Through our initiatives and presence at the grassroots level, we have strong relationships with the local community and know the rural population’s priorities and needs. With our community development initiatives, we aim to bring about the social, economic and environmental well-being of marginalized and rural communities. Most of our efforts on this involve studying new approaches and developing innovative ways to implement them. Through our diligent efforts, we have been able to make a real and positive change in the community, generating employment and promoting sustainable livelihoods for all.
Facilitating Govt. and CSR schemes
to usher in rural progress
