Jharkhand NGOs

Jharkhand is an eastern state of India which was constituted by the division of Bihar into two. The new state consists of 18 districts separated from the erstwhile Bihar. It is the proud land of various pre-independence revolutionary movements and the heroes like Birsa Munda, Sidho and Kanho. Birsa Munda lead the armed tribal movement during his small life span of 25 years starting from 1875- 1900. It was an uprising against the exploitations and oppressions of the non-tribal landlords and jamidaars.
The land of Jharkhand is rich of minerals such as iron ore, coal, copper ore, mica, bauxite, graphite, limestone, uranium and the land of forests.
Since last one decade many projects for urbanisation of Jharkhand have cast severe effects on the life in the tribal belts. A large population of tribal communities had been displaced from their native places and dispossessed of their traditional sources of livelihood. Benefits of urbanization have not reached upto mass population and it is still surviving under even larger underprivileged and backward conditions. Large segment of the tribal and rural population is working as unskilled labourer and very few are semi-skilled or skilled labourers. The social evils like bonded labour is still practiced while the labour laws, hopelessly, stand unimplemented. A major segment of the labourers is working in the mines on very low wages.
Socio-economic status of the state is very pathetic and a considerable chunk of the population is from the Scheduled Tribes and Adivasi communities. There is almost no provision of electricity and transportation in the tribal areas of Jharkhand, only few of the villages are electrified. People of the tribes are still struggling for their basic rights i.e. shelter, food, clean drinking water, sanitation, electricity, education for their children. The tribal homes are constructed out of wood, dry leaves and unbaked bricks.
Mortality rate of the children under the age of five is very high as the cases of severe malnutrition and fatal diseases are rampant. Weaker immune system and the lack of awareness, about- immunisation, exclusive breast feeding up to first 6 months, care of the newborn and handling of the baby at birth, are some of the other factors that directly and indirectly effect the health of the babies and the children under 5 years of the age. Apart from Nutritional deficiencies, the children below 5 years of age are suffering from physical and mental retardations, congenital diseases due to the poor diet during antenatal period and number of other diseases that have poor prognosis. The cases of high risk pregnancies and threatened abortions are very high. The tribal people are not aware about government schemes and programmes started for health promotion and prevention from diseases. There is hardly any provision like primary health care centres or other emergency care for the common people. People often die because of the unavailability of primary health care facilities.
The number of literates is near to negligible in most of the tribes and presence of students in the schools is unreasonably low. Overall surroundings and socio- economic conditions play a major role in lack of interest of the students in studies. The other factors include vacant posts of the teaching faculty and damaged infrastructure of schools. Sometimes the school buildings are used for non academic purposes like security posts or other government or local government offices.

Jharkhand, a state with major stratum of adivasi and tribal population is an underdeveloped state and is popularly categorised among developing states. Groups of non- governmental and non-profit organisations are working for the overall development of the tribes and the downtrodden adivasi communities. The non-profit organisations are working for eradication of various social issues such as dowry system, child marriage, child labour, domestic violence, adolescent age health related issues, women and child trafficking, exploitation of women, bonded labour, in various ways.

Non – Profit organisations are working with the target of the health promotion in the tribal areas. NGOs in Jharkhand organize health check-up camps, health awareness campaigns, conducts workshops to aware the people about health, cleanliness and hygiene. Theses NGOs organize schools to teach them on various health related issues i.e. on communicable diseases like tuberculosis, HIV, leprosy , STDs, RTDs and other diseases Diabetes mellitus, hypertension, malnutrition, diarrhoeal diseases and common health related problems. During their awareness and teaching campaign they use different methods of effective teaching including street plays, puppet shows, charts, games, dramas and leaflets written in local languages which make it easy for the people to understand, learn and at the same time encourage them to participate actively in group activities performed during such workshops.
The special schools and training centres have been started by the NGOs for the overall development of the women. NGOs organize special medical check up camps for the women and also educate them regarding sexually transmitted diseases, contraceptives, reproductive tract infections, medical termination of pregnancy, care during antenatal period, communicable diseases, exclusive breast feeding, care of the newborn baby and also encourages them for family planning. These non-profit organisations provide basic education to the women and encourage them to send their girl child to school. NGOs organize legal awareness camps, while many NGOs also provide legal aid free of cost. To empower the women a few NGOs also arrange occupational trainings for them.
Child development is another focal area of the non-profit organisations in Jharkhand. Medical check-up camps for the students, providing them education free of cost, various group activities to build self- confidence and leadership qualities.
NGOs in Jharkhand have been worked for the development of the underprivileged section of the society and are being working for the further development of the deprived section.