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Rajesh Verma
Akhil Bhartiya Gramin Uthan Samiti’s inception is an inspiring story in itself. Having educated from India's top institutions (Delhi University & XLR), Mr. Rajesh Verma Founder and Chief Functionary, ABGUS has an experience of more than 3 decades. After working directly with rural and urban communities as well as in designing and implementing large-scale partnerships with national & international organizations, he decided to work towards larger social missions. Their missions are to make sure sustainable participation & access to legislated rights to marginalized & vulnerable communities and provide them equitable opportunities to progress with the rest of the countryman.
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In 1987, the team of ABGUS began to actively support and transform the lives of underprivileged and vulnerable communities. To set itself apart as a compassionate and driven social impact organization, it has worked as catalyst change agent for integrated rural & holistic development. ABGUS has so far rejuvenated 17 village water bodies and provided safe drinking water with Community-RO Plants in 12 villages of Haryana & Rajasthan partnering with United Breweries Limited & other stakeholders. ABGUS has set up a Waste Water Treatment Plant in cooperation with HUL at Patiala and aimed to recycle around 40 KL of wastewater per day and reuse it for irrigation & groundwater recharge along with rainwater harvesting.
Over the years, ABGUS's work & team has expanded and so it has scaled up its impact operations, projects which include natural resource management, skill development, and vocational training, child protection, participation & development, quality education, improved learning outcome, reproductive health & rights, menstrual hygiene management, community health, women empowerment, Self-Help groups, along-side building capacities of community-based organizations & leaders for sustainable community development, partnering with various CSR entities, national & international organizations from 1997-2021.
Today ABGUS has impacted the lives of around 6 Lakh vulnerable people, through its programs & services and helped 63,000 students to get education under the Right to Education Act. Since 24years, the team has been actively supporting & transforming the lives of vulnerable communities. Today ABGUS has impacted the lives of underprivileged students in the rural district of Tijara, Rajasthan consisting of 204 villages, by helping them in getting education through its various programs & initiatives including quality infrastructure development, appointing teachers in school, providing teaching training, introducing reading improvement methods & reducing drop-out rates.
It was 2001, when Sandeep Kumar Prajapat was introduced to the concept of SHG by his mother Koyal Devi. His father was a daily wage labor back in 1990 and his mother was a house wife. Prior to joining any SHG Koyal Devi (Sandeep’s mother) was a housewife and she was depended on her husband’s income to meet financial needs of her own and that of the family. But since her husband was a daily wage laborer, his income was very low and the financial condition of the family remained poor.
ABGUS’s team formed a new SHG named Prajapat Mahila Bachat Samhu having 14 members in 2001. While a member of group his mother got financial support as small loans to buy a horse for loading business to support her traditional business of pot making. Under income generation program, ABGUS supported with a small amount loan of 20 thousand rupees to start a pity shop having toys, plastic containers, cups, plates etc. They have also been supported with a second loan of 25 thousand rupees to get new buffalo to increase the milk production after the exposure visit to NDRI (National Dairy Research Institute) Karnal in 2008.
Today, Koyal being an illiterate and her husband who is 7th pass gave her son the platform to fulfill his dreams of studying from one of the most reputed institutes in India (IIT-Mumbai). Sandeep got all the support and opportunity from his parents to fulfill his dream of doing engineering from IIT. Now the living standard of the family has increased manifolds and they live a respectable life with modern ways of making pots and scaling up their business. Sandeep after his engineering from civil is currently working in Bangalore and paying off his educational loan taken at the time of admission. The major changes in the life of Koyal after joining SHG were raise in standard of living, good quality of food, converted her kuccha house into pukka, the family income has increased from 1lakh rupees per year to 25 lakh per year.
ABGUS's efforts have empowered hundreds of thousands of deprived, excluded & vulnerable fellow Indians to develop entrepreneurial mindsets and independent thinking and decision-making towards sustainable development that aims at the equal participation of people from all walks of life.
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