India Pesticides Limited (IPL), one of the globally operating agrochemical manufacturers in India, has adopted two villages Som and Murar Nagar in Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative.

The project called 'Samagra Sudhar' has been initiated under the leadership of IPL’s Chairperson Anand Swarup Agarwal in collaboration with MelJol, a registered NGO with national presence.

The inauguration event was graced by the presence of Adhiraj Agarwal; Anmol Agarwal; Rajendra Singh Sharma, Whole Time Director, IPL; Ajeet Pandey, Company Secretary, IPL; Ramakrishnan Subramoniam, Sustainable QMS Head, IPL; Devdutta Deshpande, CEO, MelJol; and Pankaja Kshirsagar, Director - Programs, MelJol.    

A sustainable, community based, participatory, and integrated education and life skills development program in partnership with India Pesticides Limited, government, and other stakeholders will help to address the developmental issue in the Som and Murar Nagar villages.

As part of the Samagra Sudhar project there will be activities that will be conducted with children, youth, and women from the two villages. Around 500 children, 50 youths, two gram panchayats, and 400 households will benefit from the project. 

Adolescent youth from these two villages will undergo training on life skills and financial education, with emphasis on participation of girl children. These youths will be called Aflatoun Young Leaders (AYLs). The AYLs will be trained to become mentors for younger children.

The AYLs will function as agents of change and bring on the sustainable development in partnership with MelJol and IPL. The AYL along with MelJol facilitators will carry out assessments using the Participatory Resource Analysis (PRA) method to diagnose the issues and make recommendations on health, education, environment, and life skills.    

During the project implementation, MelJol will use sports for development as a tool/method to engage with children and youth. Girls hardly get opportunities to play in Indian villages, this activity will also complement life skill education among children. The sessions will encourage peer learning through methods such as group discussion, presentations, sharing of experiences, brainstorming, etc.

MelJol will try to make children become aware of ChildLine helpline number 1098 and women helpline number 181 or 1091 (special number for women and children). MelJol wants to give a larger message of “Nurture, Conserve and Grow” through the interactions with children and encourage children to save (financial or non-financial resources) at individual level. To save money they will make their own GULLAK (piggy bank) and maintain records of their savings in passbooks.

The parents are key agents of socialization for a child and youth. Workshops for parents will be organized with inputs on understanding developmental needs of children, tips to parents on how they can engage with children during pandemic and provide support to deal with stress and strain of growing up, conversation/communication skills to be used with children, a dialogue between children and parents and child rights.

As a part of financial behavior change MelJol will encourage the stakeholders to avail life insurance and accident insurance cover offered by the government at a low cost. 

Aflatoun Resource Center, a learning center for children and youth was also inaugurated in Murar Nagar village. A first of its kind facility will also offer digital education to the underprivileged.