Balwadis (Pre-School Centres)

Environmental Education in Schools

Gram Pustakalaya (Village Libraries)

Sandhya Kendra (Evening Centres)

Computer Literacy

Kishori Shikshan (Adolescent Education)

Women’s literacy and education

Preventive Health Care and Education

Gram Shikshan Kendra (Community Learning Centres)

Environmental Education in Schools

Our environmental education course, Our Land Our Life, focusing on village land rehabilitation and sustainable management, is now part of the regular school curriculum in classes 6, 7, and 8 in the state of Uttarakhand. The course began in 1988 and gradually expanded to cover some 500 schools and Intermediate colleges; approximately 65,000 students and 1000 teachers were involved in the programme by the year 2000. In 2002, the state's Department of Education introduced the course into the regular school curriculum. The course is taught as a separate subject in all schools. About half a million students study environment education in schools currently.

The course reflects the real life environmental and livelihood issues that have been raised by women's groups and CBOs. Local community participation in developing the course is a major feature; villagers are requested to narrate village history and share with students their traditional knowledge of land, forest, water, and animal management. Practical work is emphasised. Students also learn about community organisations and their functioning.

We have trained master trainers and government teachers for the course, supplied workbooks and tools to the students, and undertaken school visits to give on-the-spot guidance and to evaluate progress. Orientation programmes too were conducted for principals, education department officials and supervisory staff.

To the best of our knowledge this is the only instance in India, or anywhere else, when a complete environmental education course developed by an ngo has been introduced in its entirety, as a part of a state’s school curriculum.