Vayam

About Us

We are a people’s movement. Every activity of ours is conceived by people’s needs and has full participation of people throughout implementation. It would be apt to write the names of about five thousand village volunteers here. But the limits of this medium do not allow that. We salute our village volunteers here!

Mission

Beginning with the vulnerable, empowering with law-based advocacy, and driving through village community institutions to create better waters, forests, and land.

Vision

Building a people’s movement for inclusion, democracy, and sustainable life on land

Gram-Sabha: A Village Democracy

People in a democracy need a structure that can absorb and realise their needs and their dreams. A place and an institution where people can sit, deliberate, and decide. For rural Bharat, that very structure is Gram Sabha. Gram Sabha is a general body comprising of all voters. Gram Sabha has government funds and well-defined powers. Despite enabling provisions in the constitution and the legislations, Gram Sabhas are far from being in the driving seat. Vayam fills this crucial gap.

Vayam empowers the foundation of democracy, i.e. Gram Sabha by nurturing local leadership. Vayam nurtures leaders at roots by making them aware of resources and democratic processes.

Vayam aims at making leaders who would rather cooperate than compete. Leaders who would rather share than usurp.

A question must be lingering in your mind.

Is this even possible? Yes. It is. Yes - not once, not twice, but dozens of times.

Vayam has experimented ceaselessly to be able to stand by its own standards. That's why :

We have constantly indulged in defining empowerment and delivering it
We don’t teach leadership in training sessions confined by four walls. We carve leaders from the common people who have no money, no power but an indomitable will power to make a difference in their lives
We accompany them on every step: Be it advocating for employment promised under employment guarantee act. Be it getting 5% PESA funds entitled for Gram Sabhas. Be it managing water resources. Conserving forests. Be it maintaining transparency and then expecting it from the government

Vayam, along with many Gram Sabhas has been walking this path of meaningful democracy and sustainable growth – where everyone gets equal opportunity to decide, develop and dream.

Families freed from distress migration

Trees planted

Water Bodies restored

Nutrition Mini Farms created

Documented indigenous plant/tree species

Forest Food Festivals organised

Honey-Bee Keepers trained

Science Labs Dhadpad Prayogshalas without walls

Village Biodiversity Registers created

GramSabha Jagran - Voices of People

We the people

Vayam in Action

People in tribal villages have been living in harmony with forests for generations. Two centuries ago, they were protectors of the Jungle. British denounced them as encroachers. It took a long time to remove this historical injustice.

Securing Rights in FRA

Vayam has helped tribal farmers and forest dwellers acquire their land rights as per the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006. We have put our efforts into capacity building of villagers and frontline government staff, and in lobbying for rights from district to state level. We have been successful in securing land rights (IFR) of 4,500 farmers. We have also helped 15 villages secure Community Forest Resource Rights (CFRR) over an average of 100 hectares each.

Padopadi Swaraj

Pada means a small hamlet and our constitution says that each village shall have a Gram-Sabha; a self-governing assembly. ‘Padopadi Swaraj’ is our endeavour to take the constitutional provisions to every small village i.e. padopadi. Vayam has helped many villages across four tribal blocks to build strong community institutions; i.e. Gram-Sabha. These Gram-Sabhas are legally recognized local governing bodies with direct participation of citizens. The empowered Gram Sabhas have brought openness in government schemes, transparency in funds, and have framed rules for judicious extraction from forest and water sources.

PESA Jagran Abhiyan

Through this initiative we aim to bring new villages in the realm of effective and just self-governance as envisaged in PESA (Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas) law. The law requires that a majority of voters in a small hamlet or Pada sit together and pass a resolution for notifying a separate Gramsabha. Vayam volunteers fan out to far-off villages, to alert and motivate people to become self-reliant through their own Gram Sabhas. Many villages have responded positively and received separate Gram-Sabha status as well as funds to run it efficiently.

Zero Distress Migration

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) assures all villagers unskilled wage employment in their own village, only if they demand so. From fighting the bureaucracy about non-availability of demand forms, to getting wages on time, and to exposing corruption - Vayam team has taken on every battle. And has won - for 18,000 families from 200+ villages - decent work and wages. Many villages are self-reliant and Vayam is proud that these villages don’t need Vayam’s help anymore. This has reduced the distress migration of people and has brought stability in families and security for children.

‘Su’poshan

People grow vegetables in their backyards in monsoon. Once the monsoon is over, fresh vegetables vanish from their daily diet. This contributes to the infamous malnutrition problem of tribals. Vayam introduced a mini-veggie-farm (Bhaji wadi) along with a mini-farm-pond (5000 liters with geo-membrane mulching) to water the mini-farm for at least five to six months. This has assured fresh vegetables in the daily diet of 300 tribal families. There is no better guarantee of ‘Zero Hunger’ than people being able to grow and eat their own food.

Dhadpad Prayogshala

This is a small make-n-break laboratory set up by Vayam in all local government (ZP) high schools. Children can make many models (as well as break them) in this laboratory that covers the entire science curriculum of high schools. The models use all low-cost trash material easily accessible to children. The principle and practice of ‘Learning by Doing’ has made science easy.

Impact

Some field examples of Vayam and ironwill of the villagers.

All
Gramsabha Mahasammelan
Community Works
Gramsabha
Reverse Migration
Nutrition
Education

Our Team

Each and every Vayam karyakarta is our strength. However mentioning everyone is not prudent given the limits of the medium. We thank all our karyakartas on this platform.

Milind Thatte

Secretary & Managing Trustee

Vinayak Thalkar

President

Prakash Baraf

Operations

Deepali Gogate

Executive Head

Board Members

अनिल लोहार, बाबल्या तुंबडा, अनंत बरफ, जयराम टोकरे, भारत पाटारा, मोहन भोरे,

देवेंद्र थोटगा (विक्रमगड तालुका प्रमुख),

भास्कर चिभडे (मोखाडा तालुका प्रमुख),

नामदेव टोकरे (त्र्यंबकेश्वर तालुका प्रमुख)

Board of Trustees

Milind Thatte (Secretary and managing trustee)

Prakash Bhide (Trustee)

Amit Tillu (Trustee)

Recent Blog Posts

To read more about what we are and what we do ... Join the bandwagon!!!

Annual Report

वयम् वार्षिकी 2020

Vayam India

Jan 14, 2021

Annual Report

14th Annual 2021

Vayam India

Jan 25, 2022

Contact

For donations, feedback do contact us ...

Location:

Lokshahi Jagar Kendra, At Jambulvihir,

Po. Tq. Jawhar Dist. Palghar 401603

Email:

vayammovement@gmail.com

Call:

+91-02520-295110, +91-9421564330

Open Hours:

Mon-Sat: 10AM - 6PM

Welcome to Vayam!