Students Relief Society (SRS), initially set up as a library, has widened its scope to include projects on education, health, women empowerment, microfinance, poverty eradication, and natural resource management.
Some of their programs are:
Natural Resource Management: SRS works in 778 villages through Integrated Water Resource Management program and provides training on water sanitation and conservation. It focusses on areas of water budgeting, watershed development and soil conversation, rain water harvesting, and water waste management. The aim is to improve rural communities’ living standards by means of regeneration and development of sustainable agriculture, livestock management, pasture land development and animal health camps.
Women Empowerment: The successful facilitation of Mahila Samitis and Women Self-Help Groups (SHGs) is one of the NGO’s greatest accomplishments to date. 167 SHGs with more than 2,500 women were mobilized. As part of this program, SRS works with Sir Dorabji Tata Trust to enhance livelihood opportunities for women, organized training in leadership and goat rearing, and supported women nominations in the local governance framework. SRS is also working on Mitigating Poverty in Western Rajasthan Project (MPOWER) through 420 women SHGs comprising of 4,260 women.
Health and Sanitation: SRS conducts trainings in villages and schools as part of the Integrated Water Resource Management project which is supported by the state government and European Union. It conducts health checkups and HIV awareness programs for school students, training women on health and training engineers on water and sanitation.
Education: Under its education initiative, SRS operates a primary school and the fees charged is nominal. It also operates an Industrial Training Centre where over 1,000 students have been trained so far and 80% of these have been placed successfully. SRS operates a residential school for around 100 destitute children under Government’s Sarva Shikshan Abhiyan scheme. It also runs Information Technology literacy courses.
Microfinance: Women from families living below the poverty line are assembled in groups and encouraged to conduct income generation activities. These women go through monthly meetings, trainings and exposure visits for enhancing their skills and capacity building. Around 4,000 women have benefitted through the Mitigating Poverty project.
