Gram Vikas is an NGO working in rural areas of Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Andhra Pradesh, impacting over 3,89,333 people across 1,196 habitations. It began working with tribal communities in Ganjam district in 1976 and has since expanded its work to include total habitat development with a focus on water and sanitation, housing, education, health, livelihoods, and community institutions. Key achievements include constructing toilets and water supply for over 60,000 households, establishing corpus funds of over Rs. 7.5 crores, and significantly reducing water-borne diseases and improving education and livelihood outcomes for tribal communities.

1. Gram Vikas- An Overview

2. Location of Work
• 28 Districts
72571 Families
17 project offices
(25-Odisha, 1-Madhya Pradesh, 1-Jharkhand, 1-Andhra Pradesh)
• 1196 Habitations
3,89,333 People 295 staff

3. The Beginning
•A group from the Young Students Movement for
Development, Chennai came to Orissa at the time of the cyclone in
1971
•Invited to Ganjam district by the administration and the milk
union in 1976 to work with adivasi communities

4. Initial Years (1979-81)
Organized a tribal
people’s movement
across 60 villages in
Kerandimals, Ganjam, agai
nst moneylenders and
liquor merchants.
It included interventions in
health, education, small
savings and income
generation.

5. Alternative Fuels
Biogas promotion in collaboration with the National
programme for Biogas Development
54,000+ biogas plants constructed between ’83-’93, over
6000 masons trained

6. MANTRA
An integrated approach towards total habitat
development and dignity

7. Core values
Inclusion
Cost sharing
100% of families take part
Community contribution of labour and materials
•Mobilize social costs from government and
non-government agencies
Social equity
Poorer pay less, better off pay more
Gender equity
Women and men have equal say
Sustainability
Built in mechanisms for financial and institutional
sustainability

8. People’s Institution
Registered institutions
Representation of all sections
Rights and responsibilities
Livelihood and
food security
Land and water mgmt.
Skill enhancement
Focal areas
Enabling
infrastructure
Housing
Community halls
Water and sanitation
Alternate energy
Health
Education
Access to basic education
High schools for tribal children
Promotive and preventive
healthcare
Project dispensaries
Facilitate govt. health care

9. Context
80%
morbidity in
rural India
Due to lack of
protected
and safe drinking
water and sanitation.
55% coverage of rural households in Sanitation
85% people practice open defecation as per Census 2011 (Odisha)
25% villages have piped water facility

10. Unprotected water bodies are the breeding grounds for various
waterborne ailments.

11. The daily drudgery doesn't spare anyone
Not even children…

12. Exclusion is a bane in society

13. Water and Sanitation
A vehicle for social
inclusion

14. 100% Coverage of all households

15. • Water and sanitation anchored within local
institutional arrangements
•Equal representation of men and women
•Each household contributes an average of
Rs. 1000 ($22) towards corpus fund

16. People can and will pay for quality
but there are social costs

17. Not just toilet but a bathing room also

18. The Third Tap

19. • People contribute their
labour and local
materials and Gram
Vikas pays the cost of
external materials

20. Ensuring Sustainability
• Institutional mechanisms to enforce and maintain hygienic
practices- group monitoring by children, women ..
• Ensuring all time 100% coverage
•Identification of maintenance mechanisms, e.g. contribution
from harvests; community pisciculture; monthly payments

21. Physical Capital
• Toilets and
bathing rooms
• Piped water supply
with three taps
• Development of
. community assets

22. Overcoming
Roadblocks
Lack of Electricity
•Solar Powered Pumps-23 villages
•Use of Gravitational Flow principles
- 449 villages
•Biodiesel- 3 villages

23. GRAVITY FLOW WATER
SUPPLY SYSTEM

24. Rural Energy Production
•Biogas Production
• Micro Hydro Plant
•Solar Photovoltaic LED
•Smokeless Chullas

25. Our toilets are better than houses!!

26. Disaster Resistant Houses

27. Community Capital
•Inclusive village institutions adopt
democratic ways of functioning
•Women gain public space and voice in
village decision making process;
•Capacities to negotiate and bargain
with state and other agencies
improved- role of contractor eliminated
•Improvement in health status of
women and children
•Improved functioning of schools and
increase in enrollment of children.

28. Creating Livelihoods
•Skill training in
masonry, plumbing to 4000
rural youth
•Agriculture and horticulture
support to 5000 families
•Vertical shaft brick kilns as
enterprise development

29. Building Dignity , not just
toilets!

30. Tell Tale Figures
 85% reduction in incidence of water-borne diseases
 Corpus fund of over Rs. 7.5 crores
Toilet and bathing rooms constructed for 60739 households
in 1043 villages
 Toilets to new households: 420 units
 Piped water supply completed in 940 villages
 Government development funds of about Rs. 56 million
accessed annually directly by villages
 Over 950 SHGs with over 12,000 members
 Over 90% immunisation of children
 Over 90% enrolment of children in school; attendance over
80% for girl children

31. 100,000 families by 2017
120000
100000
80000
50000
60000 Se…
40000
22347
1990
336
1995
3073
2000
20000
5121
2005
2010
0
2015

32. G
R
A
M
V
I
K
A
S
An equitable and sustainable society where
people live in peace with dignity