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Annual report, 2007–08

The year the first SEG shops opened, the insurance framework was submitted and became NIRAMAYA, the Museum School found a long-term funder, and SWANS was born.

Social security system model

A model giving complete social security cover to deprived families without taxes or savings, providing sustainable livelihood security through financially assisted group and individual livelihoods; financial protection against life’s uncertainties through social insurance; old age security through pension; work-based education for young people aimed at self-employment, business management and responsible citizenship; and social security that increases across generations.

Endorsed by the senior economist Dr Bibek Debroy, permitted for implementation in Madhya Pradesh by the state government, and recipient of the Global Innovation Award from Changemakers and Ashoka.

Madhya Pradesh

Pilot running since January 2006 in Gurgunda, Chirmatekri and Polapathar, Shahpur block, Betul district, targeting 3,000 people in 500 families.
Supported by NABARD, ITDP and Friends of Women World Banking.
Consumption surveys completed for all three villages and shared with the SHGs; Self Employed Groups formed in all three, with activities divided and written consent obtained.
Retail shop infrastructure for the SEGs was constructed in all three villages by ITDP Betul.
Friends of Women World Banking provided working capital for the SEG shops in Polapathar, which opened on 7 November 2007 and were formally inaugurated on 19 December 2007.
Social security collections began in the Social Security Fund account at Punjab National Bank, Bhoura.
Consultations with insurers on cover began, and OPD and preventive services through ayurvedic doctors under a micro-insurance model were being explored.

Maharashtra

Jai-Jui, Solapur began replicating the model in two villages, Sadepur in South Solapur and Pathri in North Solapur.
Consumption surveys completed in both; SEGs formed and activities divided.
The SEG shops in Sadepur opened on 6 December 2007, formally inaugurated on 2 February 2008.
Social security collections began in the Social Security Fund account at Bank of India, Sadepur.
The Pathri project was under consideration for funding by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.

Social security for disabled people

The campaign of the previous years reached its conclusion.

The sub-committee headed by OASiS, with ALEgION Insurance Services (Chennai) and Action for Ability Development and Inclusion (New Delhi), submitted its recommendations and an insurance framework for disabled people to the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities at the end of December 2007.
The National Trust for the Mentally Challenged, an autonomous body under the Government of India, launched NIRAMAYA (a pilot based on that framework) in ten states on 26 March 2008.

Global health project

Six of the twelve finalists of the Changemakers and Ashoka Global Innovation Competition joined the collaboration. A framework was drafted and discussed with all collaborators and presented at the Skoll World Forum in Oxford at the end of March 2007, with OASiS selected as the implementing organisation for the first pilot in India.

Parvarish, the Museum School

Enrolled 120 ragpicker and street children from five slums, with an average strength of 80 to 90, taught by six teachers, all educated girls from the slums themselves, trained by OASiS and the three museums.
The curriculum covered behavioural change, basic literacy, exposure to crafts, academics (science, environment, culture, habitat and evolution), physical education, sport, adolescence education, social work, vocational training and business enterprise management.
The project collaborated with two reputed Bhopal B.Ed. colleges, making the Museum School the location for their practice teaching.
Quarterly assessments showed marked improvement in behaviour, discipline, cleanliness, orderliness, civic sense and literacy.
Taken as a case study in Regional NCERT research and presented at a state level NCERT workshop on Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan; visited by UNICEF and other organisations.
30 children had been sponsored by 15 concerned citizens.
The basic components of the Bhopal project were supported by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust from January 2008.
A Delhi foundation offered to start and fund a Museum School for children of a relocated slum, expected to begin in April 2008. Enquiries also came in from Chennai and Bangalore.

Rural education project

50 village school dropouts taught livelihood skills over a year; 10 motivated to sit MP State Open School examinations.
50 MCA and MBA students of IPER taught them for Class 10 and Class 12 as part of their college social activity, with a daily period set aside.
One student sat Class 10 in December 2005 and nine sat Class 10 and Class 12 in July and December 2006. Seven passed.
The model created enough encouragement to plan its spread across institutions on the outskirts of Bhopal.

Livelihood project

Eco carry bags designed from newspaper to replace non-degradable polythene; 100 women trained and a supply chain organised.
A model designed to provide livelihoods to 6,000 women in Bhopal’s slums, appreciated by government functionaries but awaiting a district ban on non-recyclable polythene.

A model forest village

Supported by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited under its corporate social responsibility programme, OASiS undertook the integrated development of Neelgarh, a forest village in the Ratapani Sanctuary, Raisen district. The plan comprised group livelihoods, reorganised farming, cattle management, fisheries, orchard management, health management and education. The project started on 1 February 2008 with a formal launch on 26 February. In the first phase an ayurvedic health centre was established and non-conventional irrigation methods were introduced.

SWANS, the volunteer association

To meet the long-term volunteer needs of NGOs and to build a sense of responsibility among young people, OASiS formed a volunteer association called the Social Welfare Association of Neo Socialites. To give socially contributing youth a respectable status and draw more students into social work, OASiS also conceived a social credit system to act as a bridge between the corporate and social sectors.

SWANS was initiated in May 2007 and established as an NGO in March 2008.
A summer social camp was organised in June 2007.
The first city chapter was formed in Bhopal, associated with five NGOs and their projects.
The social credit system pilot began.
Mass registration of volunteers and multiple city chapters were planned for 2008–09, and liaison with corporates for recognition of social credits had begun.