Vigyan Foundation emerged as a creative and collective response to the needs of the people so as to passionately advocate for the rights of the deprived and the most vulnerable sections of the society, be it children, women, slum dwellers or the homeless community.
Vigyan Foundation was formed in 1988, and registered as a society under the Society Registration Act, 1860. Initially, Vigyan’s focus area was Child Rights as the people at Vigyan strongly believed in advocacy and networking for ameliorating the condition of children and were themselves involved individually in child-focused activities.
The first major initiative was a UNICEF funded project to provide a creative platform to school-going children through a child magazine called Hamjoli which was later transformed to Bal Bagiya. Simultaneously, a NGO network on Child Rights (NNCR) was also formed to promote child rights and form a common forum to discuss and report on issues pertinent to child rights.
Our vision is to create such an oppression-less, non-discriminatory society where all the citizen have access to equal rights, freedom and opportunities in ways that enable them to live safe and dignified lives and thereby get opportunities to express their creativity.
The mode to achieve this is through raising collective voices in sustainable manner.
Our mission is to strengthen the dignity of people and enhance their capacity to raise their voice to access their basic rights through formation of community based organizations/issue based alliances to advocate for the pro-poor policies
Approach /Strategy
Vigyan’s approach is a mix of rights based (RBA) along with a bit of service delivery to meet the immediate needs of the community.
A rights-based approach to development is a framework that integrates the norms, principles, standards and goals of the international human rights system into the plans and processes of development. It is characterized by methods and activities that link the human rights system and its inherent notion of power and struggle with development. RBA is able to recognize poverty as injustice and include marginalization, discrimination, and exploitation as central causes of poverty. In RBA poverty is never simply the fault of the individual, nor can its solution be purely personal. However, RBA also refuses simply to place the burden of poverty and injustice on abstract notions such as society or globalization. Human rights claims always have a corresponding duty-bearer. A central dynamic of RBA is thus about identifying root causes of poverty, empowering rights-holders to claim their rights and enabling duty-bearers to meet their obligations. In this way RBA calls attention to a number of central features of poverty and development: Like all development, RBA implies an effort to improve the situation of people, focusing on their needs, problems and potentials.
In this sense, RBA relates to the same issues as most development initiatives such as food, water, shelter, healthcare, education, security, freedom to pursue life goals etc. However, it is central to the premise of RBA that human beings have inalienable rights and a deprivation of needs can often be addressed as a denial of rights. In other words, clean drinking water is not only something you need, it is also something you have a right to have as a human being. RBA is based on the concept that impoverished people must be protected from illegal and unjust discrimination, dispossession, denial and disenfranchisement.
Right-based approaches seek to hold governments and other duty-bearers accountable and encourage rights holder to claim their rights. Demanding accountability does not simply imply confrontation with the state. RBA also aims to enable duty-bearers to meet their obligations.
Networking and lobbying with the potential partners:
Our main strategy has been to bring maximum NGOs and peoples organizations working on the same issue on a common platform and initiate collective action.
Networking with the potential stakeholders:
Vigyan has been proactively engaged in networking with the different stakeholders so that a holistic approach is developed and interventions are designed in a participatory way, keeping in view the various aspects of the issue so that integrated solution is worked out.
Media Advocacy:
The media, both print and electronic have been sensitized on the issues pertaining to the rights of the vulnerable and marginalized communities and involved through sammelans, press-conferences and grass-root testimonies and interviews.
Promotion of alliances of the most deprived vulnerable communities:
We always promote the inception of poor alliances. Till now we have facilitated formation of CBOs like Dihari Mazdoor Sangathan (Daily Wage earners Association), Patri Dukandar Sangathan (Street Vendors Association), Mahila Mandal, Shehri Gareeb Sangharsh Morcha etc
Capacity building of the deprived community:
Once the organizations/ alliances are formed, we continuously strive to enhance the capacity of the leaders so that the alliance takes the decisions itself and the policy level issues as well as issues springing up at grass root level are handled by the alliances/ communities themselves. This not only ensures peoples participation but also contributes in the sustainability of these alliances.
Extensive use of Right to Information Act:
The community leaders are oriented regarding the importance of the RTI act and well-trained to use it for procuring reliable information and making the administrative and political system accountable to them and thus ensure transparent governance pattern.
Liasioning with the government officials to ensure access to basic amenities/rights:
The community is encouraged to understand the procedures of different government departments and then apply for the various welfare schemes and facilities like the ration card, voter-card etc by themselves.
History:
Vigyan Foundation emerged as a creative and collective response to the needs of the people so as to passionately advocate for the rights of the deprived and the most vulnerable sections of the society, be it children, women, slum dwellers or the homeless community.
Vigyan Foundation was formed in 1988, and registered as a society under the Society Registration Act, 1860.
Philosophy:
Vigyan Foundation team believes in people empowerment through raising collective voices and sustaining the efforts through development of community based organizations in order to impart real power in the hands of people.
Around the state:
We work in urban areas of Lucknow, Allahabad and Kanpur. We also work in rural areas of Barabanki.
Legal Status:
Vigyan Foundation was formed in 1988, and registered as a society under the Society Registration Act, 1860. FCRA,12 A
Our team consists of board members who are act as mentors. This is followed by the Secretary & Treasurer who are the chief functionaries on the behalf of the board. Then there are project teams with coordinators, field level workers and volunteers.
As a group of committed professionals coming from different backgrounds, we work together with an aim to bring about quality change in the lives of the people we work with. We engage in different projects in rural as well as urban areas to advocate for the rights of people and work together to bring about favorable policy changes.