Anugraha

Anugraha is a national voluntary organisation working with marginalised communities across India, with its primary focus on age care. It describes itself as philanthropic, secular, apolitical, non-profit and non-governmental, dedicated to the social and economic empowerment of the under-privileged. It was registered as a Society in October 2000 under the Societies Registration Act of 1860, and is also registered under FCRA and under sections 80G and 12A of the Income Tax Act. Alongside direct service delivery, it provides consultancy, training and implementation inputs on rural and community development projects, and is represented on government committees including the State Council for Older Persons, Govt. of Delhi NCT and the Core Group on protection of elderly at the National Human Rights Commission. Its work spans action research in Assam and Gujarat, health services in Uttarakhand, women's empowerment in Uttar Pradesh and child care in Madhya Pradesh. The organisation is headed by a social gerontologist and staffed by social workers, psychologists, educationists and counsellors, with retired professionals engaged as counsellors, caregivers and trainers.

Headquarters: Shahdara, Delhi, India

Major Areas of Work

• Ageing and elderly care: Day care, recreation, counselling, destitute support and active ageing programmes for senior citizens, backed by a government-designated resource centre.

• Training and capacity building: Courses and orientation programmes for caregivers, NGOs, government officials, police, corporate groups and students on geriatric care, dementia, legal aid and retirement planning.

• Research studies and evaluation: Surveys and evaluation studies for central ministries and UN agencies on old age pensions, maintenance tribunals, migration and the care of the elderly.

• Holistic health care: Health check-up camps, specialty and multi-specialty camps, a mobile medical unit, cataract surgery and follow-up referral in rural, tribal and urban slum areas.

• Community development: Child health and education, adolescent counselling and career guidance, women's skill training and employment, and awareness work on gender issues.

Major Initiatives and Programmes

• Regional Resource and Training Centre on Ageing (RRTC), Delhi: Set up through Anugraha in 2010 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, covering Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

• Skill Development for Bedside Assistants and Geriatric Caregivers: A three-month certificate course run with the Indian Red Cross Society and the National Institute of Social Defence, aimed at increasing the employability of less educated girls in old age homes, day care centres, hospitals and home care institutions.

• Swabhiman Parisar and Day Care and Recreation Centres: Centres in Delhi and Dehradun offering e-learning and computer training, a library, counselling, and spiritual and social support for senior citizens.

• Women Employment Resource Centre: Sponsored by Irish Aid and running since April 2011, combining counselling, non-formal skills such as tailoring and handicrafts, and formal skills such as spoken business English, basic computing and front desk management, with placement support in nearby industries.

• Bal Arogya and Bal Shiksha: Child health and education work in Dehradun, Uttarakhand and Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, reaching around 1,200 children a month aged 5 to 14, with preventive healthcare, supplementary nutrition, educational aids and scholarships, focused on orphan and disabled children.

The RRTC is the centre of gravity for the rest of the work. Because it is a government-designated regional resource body rather than a single project, it gives Anugraha a standing mandate across seven states and union territories for research, caregiver training and advocacy on ageing, and it is what connects the skill development courses, the day care centres and the evaluation studies into one programme rather than separate efforts. Anugraha also chairs a consortium of 45 NGOs across Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, supplying them with research, documentation, survey and caregiver training inputs.

Impact

Anugraha states it conducted 215 training programmes and trained 10,876 personnel between 2010 and 2017; its site cites 38 mega health camps across roughly six states reaching approximately 26,000 beneficiaries, and reports distributing spectacles to approximately 13,580 patients and supporting approximately 10,000 cataract surgeries over an eleven-year period through its eye care campaign.

Partners State Social Welfare Departments, Police Departments, educational institutions, corporate bodies, UN agencies, and the Senior Citizens Council, Republic of Mauritius

Leadership

• Dr. Aabha Chaudhary, Founder Secretary and Chairperson
• Mr. R.N. Rawal, President
• Mrs. Rajkumari, Vice President
• Mr. Arun Mehra, Treasurer

Anugraha offers the chance to work with a nationally respected organization built on more than 25 years of grassroots and policy level experience in elder care, community health, and social development. Led by an internationally recognised gerontologist and gender expert, the organization gives staff exposure to both direct community programmes and high level national and international policy forums on ageing and social welfare.