Nirman

Vision and Philosophy

NIRMAN aims to help youngsters find meaning to their lives, to bridge the gap between various social, scientific and technological challenges around and to unleash the tremendous potential of the youth. NIRMAN believes that self-actualisation of its participants cannot take place in isolation or in the narrow confinements of a secure lifestyle. It attempts to bring the youth face to face with the reality of life, enabling them to identify, analyse and solve societal problems. It is a continuously evolving process of problem-based experiential learning and identification of self through it. The long-term goal is to cultivate and sustain a large community of youth leaders who will work for social change.

Selection Process

The participants aspiring to join NIRMAN have to fill up an introspective questionnaire, which includes questions regarding their values, goals in life, personality characteristics, decisions, interaction with social realities, etc. Based on the applications, the participants are screened for personal interviews. The NIRMAN team carries out the selection process once every year and conducts interviews across Maharashtra, by visiting selected participants at their local places.

NIRMAN Educational Process

NIRMAN brings together a group of youth aged between 18-28 years who are looking to give meaning to their lives, and systematically cultivates their social leadership. Each batch of around 75 selected youth goes through a series of three residential camps that are organized once every six months. Each camp is for about 8-10 days, conducted at Shodhgram, Gadchiroli, and the series continues for a year. Participants belong to different regional, economic and academic backgrounds including medical, engineering, law, arts, commerce, science, teaching, journalism etc. Along with the camps, study visits, educative sessions, reading assignments, internships, fellowships, individual mentoring, group actions, campaigns and other activities are carried out. They help sensitise the youth towards societal challenges through exposure and experience. The participants are nurtured to think rationally on social issues and the program offers a continuous and personalized process of self-learning. One of the unique aspects of NIRMAN is that participants are at various stages of self realization. It builds a cohort of youngsters who grow together, share similar ideals and educate themselves for the betterment of society.

NIRMAN Participants and their work

After having gone through the NIRMAN process, the participants who are interested in working towards social change, generally take up one of the following work options:

1. Working with different non-profit organizations
2. Social entrepreneurship, starting one's own venture
3. Joining the government system
4. Fellowships

They use various approaches like research, service, activism, training and advocacy. As of June 2016, 800 participants have attended the NIRMAN educational process and around 130 NIRMAN youth are working full time on specific social challenges in different parts of Maharashtra in areas like health, education, energy and environment, development and governance. Some of them include the following:

Research Papers by NIRMAN Participants

1. Stroke Is the Leading Cause of Death in Rural Gadchiroli, India: A Prospective Community-Based Study. - Stroke
2. High Prevalence of Stroke in Rural Gadchiroli, India: A Community-Based Study - Neuroepidemiology
3. Barriers to Malaria Control among Marginalized Tribal Communities: A Qualitative Study - PLOS ONE
4. Use of Ethno-Veterinary Medicines from Vidarbha Region India - Bioscience Discovery
5. Foodgrain vs Liquor: Maharashtra Under Crisis - Economic and Political Weekly
6. Prevalence in the utilization of text message services under the mother and child tracking system of India: a cross sectional study from Pune district, Maharashtra, India - International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health

Rural Development

Environment and Waste Management

Education

Health, Malnutrition, De-addiction

Activism by NIRMAN Participants

The state of Maharashtra has been suffering from drought since last few years. NIRMAN has taken up an yearly campaign involving young people to grapple with this challenge. Carried out in the months of April and May, the campaign exposes young people to the reality of drought and helps contribute through awareness and implementation of watershed management, employment guarantee scheme, check dams, village mapping of resources, etc.

NIRMAN protested against food grain based alcohol production policy of government of Maharashtra. As part of the protest, NIRMAN participants uncovered the information using RTI, conducted campaigns and voluntarily fasted for 24 hours. With a chain of similar protests across Maharashtra, Government of Maharashtra had to revisit its decision of permitting food grain based alcohol production. NIRMAN has consistently taken a position to prevent young people from falling prey to liquor addiction and has done awareness through media.

It is mandatory for MBBS doctors graduating from the Government Medical Colleges in Maharashtra to work for one year in the public health system or pay a fine for breaking the bond. Many of them neither do the service nor pay the fine. This results in shortage of doctors in the public health system, especially more so in the rural and tribal areas. The state is also deprived of the money of breaking the bond. This information was uncovered by activists Amrut Bang and Dr. Vitthal.

Documentary Films

There are 4 documentary films made on NIRMAN. One of the films has been made by Jaiprad Desai, grandson of Vasant Desai.

1. NIRMAN - Towards a Meaningful Life - Jayprad Desai
2. NIRMAN - Youth for Purposeful Life - Adithya Narayanan
3. NIRMAN - Youth in Search of Meaningful Life beyond just earning money - Sumit Sute
4. NIRMAN - An Initiative to Create Social Changemakers - Digvijay Thorat

Media Coverage

The NIRMAN initiative and the work done by various NIRMAN participants has been featured in different newspapers and TV channels including the following:

1. NIRMAN - ABP Majha
2. NIRMAN - IBN Lokmat
3. NIRMAN - SBN Satara
4. Dr. Abhay Bang about NIRMAN in Great Bhet - IBN Lokmat
5. Sajal Kulkarni in Ekla Chalo Re - IBN Lokmat

and Times of India, Education Times, Indian Express, Lokmat, Loksatta, Sakal, Sakal Times, Divya Marathi, Tarun Bharat, Azim Premji University, and Network - a quarterly publication of IRMA. In 2017, Lokmat Oxygen started a series "Prashna NIRMANinna" wherein young people across Maharashtra posed questions to which NIRMAN participants answered through Lokmat Oxygen supplement.

Associations

Around 30 leading social organisations, thinkers, activists, professionals are supporting NIRMAN. Together, this group constitutes the wider NIRMAN Samudaay. Amrut Bang is the project coordinator of NIRMAN. He was invited by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of the Government of India to New Delhi in March 2015 to take part in a workshop for designing a national youth leadership development program. Since December 2014, NIRMAN has also developed a focused collaboration with the Tata Center for Technology and Design at IIT, Bombay to sensitize and nurture their students' perspective for social problem solving.

People associated with NIRMAN

1. Abhay and Rani Bang
2. Vivek Sawant
3. Anil Awachat
4. Arun Deshpande
5. Kumar Ketkar
6. Ramesh Panse
7. Vijay Javndhiya