Sangtin Kisan Mazdoor Samathan - Uttar Pradesh

What’s the problem?

Across India, though there exist several social stratifications, there is also a lack of social mobility across the country’s society. This lack of social mobility has contributed to inequity that often shows itself strongly in the rural villages of the country.  

Women in India often lack the means, respect and education to afford them self-sufficiency. Dalits, the bottom of India's "long-abolished" caste system, too face continued discrimination preventing their social advancement. With a lack of information and educational resources, many workers remain unaware of their rights under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), allowing for significant exploitation.

What are we doing about it?

What had started as a project spanning 2 blocks of Sitapur, now has quadrupled in size to cover 8 blocks. Each block contains 10 to 40 villages, with 1000 to 3000 people in each village. The growing SKMS currently holds a membership of 4500 villagers. This membership now includes an equal number of adult men and women and has grown to include youth members as well.

SKMS is proud to identify as the first group in Uttar Pradesh to realize unemployment benefits under MGNREGA. Not only that, but the project’s other achievements include:

• Empowerment of rural women, enabling them to be stakeholders in the group’s development process at all levels.

• Revival and repairal of district canals

• Obtainment of pensions and natural disaster compensation

• COVID-19 relief

• Education regarding prevention and medical treatment of Filariasis, a neglected tropical parasitic disease that is common in these areas of India.