Sahabhgya Vikas Abhiyan (SVA)
SVA is a network of twenty-nine Community Based Organizations (CBOs). The member CBOs of SVA have been functional since the early 1970s on issues related to ecology and the environment, bonded labor, and community rights over natural resources. As a collective it formally came into being in 1993-94.
Initial focus of SVA was on anti-mining and displacement related problems in western Orissa. The vision of the organization now is to remove hunger and poverty from the four districts of western Orissa.
Its major objectives are to empower communities and CBOs who are able to take charge of their own development and bring policy changes to issues affecting people’s lives and livelihoods.
The operational strategies of SVA are
- To build capacities and skills of people,
- Strengthen their institutions, and
- Provide better access to market, information and decision-making so that returns from agriculture and other income generating activities improve.
At a macro-level, SVA aims to advocate for policies that assist the poor in the areas of agriculture, land rights and agricultural insurance. SVA achieves this through research, advocacy and public education.
SVA is currently working in 541 villages in four districts. It covers approximately 69,000 households with a target population of 2,093,000 persons. The target populations of SVA are Scheduled (or aboriginal) Tribes, Scheduled Castes and socio-economically disadvantaged communities.
SVA has many achievements to its credit to date, including:
- Supporting target families in improving the productivity and income due to diversification into onion, sunflower and fisheries,
- Changes in government policy and implementation strategy in onion and pisciculture,
- Providing legal aid support to 2490 dam displaced families, and
- Helping 6000 landless families in acquisition of land deeds.
SVA has been playing a critical role at the grassroots as well as the policy level for improving the livelihood choices of millions of small producers in Western Orissa. The continuous empowerment process of the marginalized communities help in sustaining the development process initiated by SVA.
Empowerment of the Marginalized and Poor in South West Orissa (EMPSW)
In the past few years, SVA has been organizing the community and attempting to raise their awareness and taking steps to find some solutions to the problems of starvation deaths, selling of children, trafficking of women, and bonded labor systems, etc. The current proposal aims to mobilize the local civil society organizations and strengthen them to deal with the issues concerning human rights and to safeguard the interests of the local people.
Last updated on Thursday, October 9, 2008.
