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 region, backward Bundelkhand and Bhil predominant degraded western tribal region. The primary concern of CARD has always been livelihood promotion but at the same time we do support other development initiatives like water & sanitation, health & nutrition, child development woman empowerment and alternate energy promotion in the existing action areas. Our major concern is that the majority of the marginalized farming community can earn enough to live a life of dignity and enjoys 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 the total workforce of around 500 million in India and 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 work-force with the relevant and pertinent skills. Recognizing the enormity of this challenge and understanding the need to create an ecosystem of empowerment and to promote livelihood protection, CARD contributes to the process of nation building by acting as 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. By creating a culture of innovation-based entrepreneurship, CARD is dedicated to make a lasting impact through its campaigns and programs and to generate sustainable livelihoods for all. Learn more about our initiatives and get involved yourself.
Despite the fact that CARD, since inception, has been a major player for rural livelihoods promotion through natural resource management, agriculture was never a prime focus of its activities. The importance of agricultural innovation in the integrated development was realized and this realization was soon brought into action by integrating national and international agriculture development initiatives with our activities in 2010. As of today, 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 diligent management of natural resources is one of our key areas of focus here at CARD. We presently have based on the developmental theme ranging from water preservation and formation and promotion of community-based self-help organizations such as Farmer producer organizations (FPOs) to livelihood protection of tribals through developing orchards and promoting the adoption of the best farming practices. Have a look!
Doing What’s Needed
Our Main CSR projects with corporate clients
The Banyan is great, not only because of its trunk, but also because of its offshoots. We take pride in our 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 holistic development of selected communities . These programs, such as Samriddhi and Parivartan, have taken our outreach to 5 states across India and enables us to empower the rural community and deliver the support they need, when they need it as envisaged by our contributing partners.
Making a Difference
As CARD is dedicated to the 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 India rural belt, a significant number of the operations are decided exclusively or determined by women. But these operations are often low skilled and require extensive manual labor and very little skill application, resulting in the non-inclusion of women in the higher-level decision-making processes. On further probing, CARD found out that convention and social customs, illiteracy and poverty, low financial literacy and lack of opportunity to understand market and practices were the reasons behind the non-inclusion. Additionally, the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have gender equality and women’s empowerment at their core, and include a target to “double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women.” We, at CARD acknowledge the significant role that women play in progress of rural households and the economy as a whole and accordingly the theme of woman empowerment is one of the core areas that is the focus of our diligent efforts. We are happy to share some our current initiatives with you.
Doing What’s Needed
Having partnered with various government organizations and corporate clients such as GAIL, UNICEF, National health mission and NACO, we are running numerous 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 by using it to measure 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, improving the health and wellbeing of the rural community.
Sustainable Development for all
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, the government and major private corporations. Through our support and welfare initiatives, working with other partners, we have been a trusted grassroots organization with strong relationships that knows the rural population’s priorities and needs. With our community development initiatives we aim to bring about the social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being of marginalized and rural communities. Most of our efforts pertaining to this involve studying new approaches and developing innovative ways to implement them and monitoring the progress of the communities. We evaluate the success of the programs by gathering qualitative and quantitative data, and by using the data to measure changes from the baseline measurements. We have been able to make a real and positive change in the community, generating employment and promoting sustainable livelihoods for all.