Over 216.6 million people live Below the Poverty Line (BPL) in Rural India (according to 2012 Govt. Of India figures), 14.11 million of whom reside in West Bengal alone. We at Nirdhan work with the poorest of the poor people in Rural West Bengal, providing livelihood promotion interventions through backyard poultry farming, agricultural management systems and goat rearing. We train families in liv
elihood models that augment earning capacity. Nirdhan is a Section 8 Not for Profit Company was founded in 2011 and our mission is to create livelihoods, boost income and inspire permanent change. It is a well-documented fact that rural poor tend to migrate to cities in search of opportunities. This causes a tremendous strain on urban infrastructure and more importantly inflicts terrible cruelties upon the migrant population wherein women and children are driven in desperation to resort to participation in the flesh trade or are even being trafficked, the menfolk often find themselves engaging in very poorly paying jobs living under appalling conditions as well as being exploited. Our rural intervention methodology boosts the earnings of BPL families so that leaving their village homes does not become an option which they will consider over a long term. Being engaged in livelihood programs in their own home area enhances their well-being financially as well as otherwise. We ensure that financial literacy is made part of their day to day lives so that they can create savings and micro capital pools which can be further used for their general upliftment. This “knock on” effect over a few cycles of intervention changes tremendously the way rural poor live. Nirdhan was co-founded by Vasant Subramanyan and Shourya Mandal. Vasant is a serial entrepreneur in the IT sector. He served as President of TiE Kolkata, a Not for Profit organization, which advocates, promotes and evangelizes entrepreneurship as an alternative to employment. He has served as the Regional President of the Indo American Chamber of Commerce Eastern Region, India’s only Bilateral Indo US Chamber of Commerce. He is currently the 1st National Vice President of the National Executive Committee body of the Chamber. Shourya is a partner at the Indian law firm, Fox Mandal Little, based in Kolkata. He focuses on real estate law and has been named as one of the International Who’s Who of Real Estate Lawyers. He has Former National President of Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and chair of the Banking, Finance & Securities committee of the Inter Pacific Bar Association (IPBA). You would help Nirdhan tremendously if you could support our cause to assist poor people in rural areas move on a path whereby they become more and more self-sufficient over time. For example, a small donation of Rupees 950 will provide a toolkit of 10 one day old chicks/ducks, bird feed for 15 days, medicine/vaccinations and training for a period of six months to a family in rural Bengal which will create a Micro Enterprise of a top line turnover of Rupees 2400 and generate a surplus of Rupees 1600 over a four-month period. A donation of Rupees 2200 for our agri-management programme shall help a family to generate an additional income of 30% every year. Our goat farming programme is in the pilot phase which started at the beginning of 2016 and shall continue for a period of 27 months.
