From its very initial days one of the issues that BJS has constantly focused as one of the core area of its activities is empowerment of women in the Jain Community, and also the larger society. One of the primary issue that came to the fore was the declining ratio of girl child within the community. In a sample survey of young men & women of marriageable age in the Jain community in Maharashtra in the year 1993, it was observed with concern that the ratio of women was alarmingly low within the community, i.e 780:1000. The one immediate consequence of this serious imbalance in the ratio was that 22% of the boys will not be able to find a partner from within the community.

In-depth root-cause analysis was carried out and following were the findings:

1. Dowry system prevalent in marriage
2. Financial burden on the family
3. Male dominated culture – girl means liability & son means asset
4. Social status -Gender equality
5. Facility available for sex determination in the hospital

BJS embarked upon many unique initiatives focused on creating social awareness & women empowerment, especially concerning marriage practices & successfully initiated novel concepts like Mass Marriage, Parichay Sammelan, Empowerment of Couples, Counseling etc. All these were conceived and implemented to address a no of issues that contributed to the low girl child ratio. The objectives were to encourage the community and facilitate the following:

1. Abolition of dowry system
2. Facilitate finding the right match
3. Make marriage easy – social support by organizing Mass Marriage
4. Awareness programs about adverse sex ratio
5. Creating awareness to enhance women’s status in the society

Quantifiable positive impacts of these initiatives were visible within a reasonable period of time. In a sample survey conducted in the year 2006 covering 50000 families from the community in Maharashtra, it was observed that the girl child ratio was already on the upswing, rising to 912:1000. This not only vindicated the novel initiatives by BJS but also strengthened its resolve to continue to work in this chosen area of women empowerment through various initiatives

It’s a pioneering initiative of Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana (BJS) geared towards the need of the Jain community

Jains have been known for being an entrepreneurial community, rich in culture 7 traditions with a philanthropic bend of mind and action. The community has built up establishments like Bhavans/Sthanaks/ Upashrays for spiritual & social purposes& Jain Sadhus / Sadhvis work tirelessly to propagate Jain culture, values & morals on different platforms in these establishments. However a paradigm shift in terms of lesser no & frequency of participation in such activities from amongst the community members, especially from the younger segment was noticed. This attracted the attention of BJS and made it to deliberate over the development necessitating suitable intervention.

BJS conducted a needs analysis to find out and develop suitable mechanism based on the specific needs. It transpired that Jains today, in addition to the regular activities are looking at these religious establishments as platform for-

1. Networking
2. Skill Development
3. General Knowledge
4. Knowledge up-gradation
5. Need based age group wise programs

BJS, after this detailed need analysis, developed and launched the ‘Holistic Development of Family’ project which includes programs for all members in a family.

Objective

The program is well researched, technology backed, documented & scalable, with the objective to optimally utilize the establishments, to deliver need based programs of educational, social, spiritual & cultural necessity, for development of the community attracting all & especially the younger generation.

Benefits

1. Improve connectivity with the religious establishments& nurturing attachment by broad basing activities
2. Improved networking
3. Enhancement of knowledge & skills
4. Formation of social circles, more sharing & caring for each other
5. Addressing & bridging gaps within family & society etc

Educational Quality Improvement Program

One of unique pioneering initiatives of BJs has been EDUQIP, an integrated umbrella program developed & launched to assist schools in establishing quality standards in the education they impart. It consisted of different modules designed and developed by BJS after thorough research & validation.

The nation building process demands that we look beyond the universalization of education and accord due importance to the quality of education in general. This aspect of ensuring educational equity through quality in the entire spectrum of schools and in education from pre-primary to higher education are being acknowledged and efforts are being channelized in this direction. However, considering the magnitude of the problem in terms of the sheer number of schools in India, these efforts still need to go a long way if they are to create a visible impact in the context of education reform in India especially at the school level.

BJS has always had a strong focus on Education having realized its importance as a tool for Social Transformation. Around 80% of the primary education in the country is provided by government run schools. The focus of the government run programs is to cover maximum number of children under the purview of its schemes. While these efforts are extremely important, the component of quality in education is sometimes inadvertently overlooked. To compound the problem, the other private providers of education are either driven by charity or some times by the profit making motive and do not necessarily concentrate on the quality aspects of the education provided.

This situational analysis laid the foundation of creating a basket of programs aimed at the holistic development of students through improved educational delivery and increased contributions from all stakeholders. This set of programs included various Assessment and Empowerment and Training modules, making it a comprehensive and holistic basket.

In the Assessment section of EDUQIP, BJS offered a comprehensive Teachers' Effectiveness Measurement and Students' Assessment Programs IV and VIII. In the Training/Empowerment section of the EDUQIP, BJS provided Trustee Empowerment program and Principals' Empowerment Program and VEC/SMC empowerment program. The training section brought out two Teacher Training Programs. All the individual modules of EDUQIP are currently supported with English, Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati versions of all documents and instruments.

As with the design of the EDUQIP program, careful thought has also been given to the implementation of the various modules forming the basket. The first phase of implementation has been successful in around 350 schools managed by the Federation of Jain Education Institutes (FJEI). In the next phase around 400 schools of Andaman and Nicobar islands have been covered. 563 schools under the NavodayaVidyalayaSamiti (NVS), an autonomous body under the under the Ministry of Human Resource Development have benefited from the implementation of EDUQIP. In Goa, 1790 schools under Goa Government have been covered and after three years of rigorous implementation and close involvement with all stakeholders, the results of the SSCE board examinations show a sharp increase in the pass percentage over the previous years. In Gujarat, EDUQIP has been implemented in around 2005 schools of the districts of Narmada and Bharuch in Gujarat. In all, BJS has implemented the EDUQIP basket - free of cost - in more than 4000 schools across all Indian states.

Individual programs forming the basket are conceived, designed, implemented and evolved over time and reinforced through implementation feedback till they are fully mature and can be offered as stand-alone programs at a the national level. Mulyavardhan and School Assessment &Accreditation (BJS-SAA) are examples of such programs that were earlier a part of the EDUQIP basket.

Stakeholders across the spectrum have benefited from the programs offered under EDUQIP. It is an excellent example of private-public partnership model and holds the potential of being replicated across the country. Through its continuous and comprehensive involvement with the Government at various levels and across different regions, BJS has gathered an excellent understanding of the mindset and is confident of heralding this change in the Indian Education scenario.

3600 children of the area suffered from grade-iv malnutrition.

Child mortality rate per year was 1000- 1500.

800 volunteers reached the disaster site within a few hours of the tragedy.

Other social ills were extreme poverty, illiteracy, dismal hygiene, child marriage, superstition etc.

Meetings held with parents to share the idea of education rehabilitation of selected students.

Focused on children in classes 5th to 8th standards.

351 students from malnutrition affected tribal villages selected and taken to Pune.

Complete responsibility of food, clothing, medical attendance and learning aids taken by BJS up to Graduation.

2008 onwards, every year, children for malnutrition tribal areas of class 5th are identified for their education and complete care from 5th till 12th to facilitate their further higher education