Returning to India after 16 years was quite an eye opener for Arvind Khanna. The country had progressed a great deal, but at the same time the divide between the rich and the poor seemed to have widened. This became more evident to Arvind when he toured the hinterland of Punjab. The road trip proved to be the turning point in his life.

Arvind identified Sangrur in the Malwa region as the most deprived and backward district in the state. In 1997, Arvind formed Umeed to translate the hopes and aspirations of the underprivileged to reality. He decided to realise his vision of a better Sangrur by working on three fronts - social empowerment, healthcare and employment opportunities.

In 2001, Umeed set up its first self-help group for women called Umeed Mahila Manch with the aim to develop skills and make villagers, especially women, financially and socially self-dependent. Today, there are over 351 SHGs with over four thousand women members, apart from four male members. Members are given training in vocational activities like dairy farming, stitching, knitting, candle/soap making and crochet/embroidery work. After completion of training, Umeed facilates bank loans for various income generation activities.

Social empowerment

To empower women, Umeed has opened six Social and Economic Development Centres, which specialise in crochet work. Members learn to make wine bottle cases, book covers, feeding bottle covers, baby blankets, dining runners, mats, napkins, bed/sofa throws, coasters, doilies, toast/sandwich covers etc, which are sold in major metros and also exported. Umeed has participated in several sale-cum-exhibitions in various parts of the country and abroad.

Umeed has also opened 46 stitching centres in 46 villages of Sangrur, wherein women are trained by professionals to enable them to become self-employed. The more talented among them are given an opportunity to work in the Umeed Social & Economic Development Centres.

Women are also encouraged to work on a contractual basic with hosiery firms, knitting cardigans and other woolen garments. They are paid well for this work.

Healthcare

Umeed has pioneered the unique Health-at-the-Doorstep programme under which teams of doctors and nurses from renowned hospitals visit villages at regular intervals to treat patients without any charge. Umeed has till date covered over 500 villages and treated over 4.6 million people.

Umeed also holds multi-specialty camps, health camps for schoolchildren and pensioners, gynecological, ophthalmology, endocrinology and orthopaedic camps, two heart camps each year and reproductive and child health programmes for 25,000 beneficiaries each year. The NGO also holds HIV/AIDS awareness and intervention camps, which has till date covered 10,000 truck drivers and 5,000 migrant labourers.

Employment generation

In February 2011, Umeed has opened a rural BPO, where educated youth in the district are employed and trained to scan and process requirements of various MNCs, be it perspective planning, records, archives, functional data and financial updating.

In June 2011, Umeed in a joint venture with AR Job Placement Service opened Umeed/AR Job Placement to provide employment to youth in Sangrur and its adjoining districts. Under this venture, any individual can register his/her name with the placement cell without any fee. Umeed helps them get jobs based on their qualifications/skills. Till date, 2,698 youth have registered with the agency and 235 have got jobs.

Umeed also holds awareness generation programme for women with funding from the Central Social Welfare Advisory Board. Women are educated about their civil and legal rights by experts at camps held at regular intervals.

Public grievances and interaction

The public grievances department of Umeed comprises youth, both women and men, from the district. They act as a vital link between the rural and urban communities and the Umeed Foundation. They also assess the efficacy and impact of each project. This unique method of self-assessment also provides employment to enterprising youth. The department takes note of people’s problems and grievances and informs the Umeed Foundation. The department also gets the district administration to intervene wherever required.

The road ahead

Arvind believes that his full-time dedication to Sangrur is important for achieving all the goals that he has in mind. Arvind’s untiring efforts have made a difference to the lives of many villagers in Sangrur, but personally he believes that he hasn’t even touched the tip of the iceberg.

Umeed has prepared a road map for the future to continuously upgrade the quality of its services and programmes. The objective of Umeed is to create maximum employment as close to where the person lives.