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Samajik Shaikshanik Vikas (SSVK ) Kendra has been awarded the prestigious Green Globe Foundation Award for the year 2010 (Category Extraordinary Work by an NGO) in recognition of its seminal role as a civil society organisation contributing to the causes of sustainable development which, while subscribing to the principles of social equity and justice, has also upheld the cause of a cleaner greener, and more secure world. The award was conferred on February 5, 2010 in New Delhi by Actress Ms. Dimple Kapadia and Nobel laureate TERI Director General and and The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change ( IPCC ) chairman Dr R.K. Pachauri in an event, attended by a large number of world dignitaries including, First African woman and environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Ms. Wangrai Muta Maathai, his Excellency Jigme Yoer Thinley, the Prime Minister of Bhutan and first female Prime Minister of Norway, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtlands.
In past, two women activists from SSVK and its mass organisation Lok Shakti Sangathan Tilia Devi and America Devi (Musahar Community Leader of ssvk/lss) was nominated for nobel peace prize 2005 among 91 womens including Ms Aruna Ray and ms Megha Patekar from india. Tilia Deve from SSVK was awarded by Out Look Speak Out award among 4 awarde of india by UPA Chairperson Ms Sonia Gandhi in Delhi. SSVK has receuved other awards as well.
A joint initiative of Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. and the International Indian Film Academy, The Green Globe is a campaign platform to highlight the Climate Crisis besieging our world. The Green Globe Foundation is partnered by distinguished knowledge partners: the United Nations Environment Program and The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) led by Dr. RK Pachauri. The award is adjudicated by a distinguished panel of juryomprising, Mr. M.C. Mehta, Mr. Darryl D’ Monte and Mr. Kartikeya V. Sarabhai.
With a special focus on the Indian climate and fight against Global Warming with the help of celebrities and other media icons, the Green Globe Foundation conceptualized the Green Globe Foundation Awards. The Awards recognize the endeavors of individuals and organizations who have contributed immensely to the environment and the sustainable development movement, therefore impacting India.
Samajik Shaikshanik Vikas Kendra (SSVK), under the leadership of its founder Secretary, Mr. Deepak Bharti is a NGO, registered under the Societies Registration Act. Since its inception, SSVK has been working with the most depressed sections of the rural society for their all round development and mainstreaming. SSVK's development work aims to build assets, reduce poverty, increase capacity for new livelihoods, strengthen local democracy and reduce injustice.
Spread out over much of North Bihar, SSVK,s operational area comprises one of the most flood endemic and consequently environmentally challenged pockets of the country. The situation is further complicated by the the land and water resources being unevenly distributed and concentrated in the hands of few.
The Green Globe Foundation Award is a recognition of SSVK’s response to this defining context over the years of its existence. SSVK’s initiatives have ranged from organising a series of public awareness activities on the ecological issues of the region; to ensuring the rights of poor and marginal, mainly Mushars, over the land and water resources through their mobilization and organization; to developing programmes and activities promoting sustainable agriculture; to economically empowering the poor through creating opportunities for environment friendly sustainable livelihoods. More concretely speaking these initiatives have unfolded in the following terms:
- Mapping the land and water resources of its intervention area in order to gauge their availability for being accessed by the poor.
- Implementing land and water reforms in favour of the poor and marginalised In coordination with the relevant government agencies (Access enabled to 947 acres of land and 52 acres ponds).
- Regeneration of degraded land and water resources through shramdan (voluntary contribution of labour).
- Forming committees and organization of the poor for sustainable management of productive assets thus brought under their control (Land and pond user committees set up who helped in regeneration – conservation, construction and innovation- of the assets that were mostly acquired in a highly degraded state).
- Promotion of sustainable agriculture (Promotion of traditional seeds and crops with emphasis on rational usage of fertilizers and irrigation ).
- Instituting a community savings funds called gram kosh to ensure the economic autonomy of its client groups in their struggle for asserting their rights to productive resources.
- Taking lead in setting up the Nadi Mukti Andolan in coordination with other civil organizations to educate and advocate on the debilitating impacts of embankments and the need to live in synchronization with the natural riverine regime of the intervention area.
- Policy advocacy work for desirable changes in land reforms act, panchayati raj act, and the relief code.
- Leveraging the provisions of Right to Information Act for its pro environment initiatives.
- Gradually making a shift in its approach to disasters from relief and rehabilitation to preparedness and mitigation.
- Anchoring all its ecological regeneration initiatives in its network of people’s organization operational under the banner of Lok Shakti Sangathan and spread over 1709 villages of 18 district of Bihar.
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