Jeevika Training Centre in Heggada Devana Kote [HD Kote], Mysore district, Karnataka
Jeevika has been involved in HD Kote taluk since 1993. HD Kote taluk unit of Jeevika is the most active and flourishing unit of the organization. It is one among the 17 taluks that have full teams of activists. It has nine members, including two who are in the Jeevika Core Group also. The Union of Bonded Labourers and Landless Agricultural workers is also functioning very well. It has a wide network in the taluk and many active leaders taking up the cause against bonded labour, implementing minimum and equal wages, and procuring various government schemes. They have linkages with almost all the progressive and dalit movements in the taluk. They have established a good name among the government officials and the general public, for their steadfast, steady and honest work on the cause of bonded labour and many other related issues.
There is a great need to build a multipurpose centre at HD Kote to cater to needs not only of HD Kote taluk but the entire district of Mysore and the neighbouring southern districts. HD Kote taluk is like a ‘pilgrimage centre’ for Jeevika. Whatever is planned and desired at the movement level is implemented to the greatest extent unlike any other unit of Jeevika. Almost all the activists have made trips to the taluk many times over for exposure on different issues and to take part in the many state level programmes organised there: like exposure to the functioning of the Union, to natural farming methods, to learn from an innovative programme of Jeevika called ‘JaHoSa’ [a programme for ascertaining the dire needs of the people in a village through exercises and the ‘independent’ functioning status of the Union and the SHGs in that village, and getting the various government officials to that village as also make people associate with the government officials fearlessly and continuously]; state programmes such as the Minchu – the state level dalit cultural festival in 2005, the state level once in three years’ gathering of the Union in 2007.
Most of the new initiatives and experiments are piloted in the taluk. The multi needs are that of ongoing trainings on different issues to grass root activists, Union and SHG leaders and members, youth in the families of the Union and SHG members; other movement leaders and members of dalit, moolnivasi and other marginalised communities; a specific bridging centre for children and youth who get dropped out from the very first to the eighth standard and get them mainstreamed in formal educational institutions, a vocational centre for youth and children as also former bonded labourers, members of the Union and SHGs to get them equipped with some specific skills for livelihood.
Most of the new initiatives and experiments are piloted in the taluk. The multi needs are that of ongoing trainings on different issues to grass root activists, Union and SHG leaders and members, youth in the families of the Union and SHG members; other movement leaders and members of dalit, moolnivasi and other marginalised communities; a specific bridging centre for children and youth who get dropped out from the very first to the eighth standard and get them mainstreamed in formal educational institutions, a vocational centre for youth and children as also former bonded labourers, members of the Union and SHGs to get them equipped with some specific skills for livelihood.
Most of the new initiatives and experiments are piloted in the taluk. The multi needs are that of ongoing trainings on different issues to grass root activists, Union and SHG leaders and members, youth in the families of the Union and SHG members; other movement leaders and members of dalit, moolnivasi and other marginalised communities; a specific bridging centre for children and youth who get dropped out from the very first to the eighth standard and get them mainstreamed in formal educational institutions, a vocational centre for youth and children as also former bonded labourers, members of the Union and SHGs to get them equipped with some specific skills for livelihood.