The city of Jodhpur is the administrative headquarters of Jodhpur district. A city replete with palaces and royal monuments from a more prosperous era of India, Jodhpur used to be the capital of the Marwar Kingdom.
Standing on the edge of the Thar desert, this marvellous city is the second-largest one in the state of Rajasthan. It’s also known as the Blue City, because most houses in the old city are shades of blue, making the aerial view a sight to behold.
The Indian Air Force, Indian Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and Border Security Force maintain training centres in the district.
Jodhpur is known for its solid wooden furniture market. After handicraft, tourism is another source of income for the local population. As for agriculture, farmers in Jodhpur district grow wheat and the famous Mathania red chillies.
Satya Bharti Schools
With a strong belief that education is critical to empower children, particularly in rural India, Bharti Foundation (the CSR arm of Bharti Enterprises) launched its flagship Satya Bharti School programme in 2006. The CSR programme imparts free, quality education to less privileged children of India. Currently, 28 schools are functioning in Jodhpur district, directly impacting the lives of over 170 teachers and 6,300 students with a 50-50 ratio of girls and boys and more than 75% being from disadvantaged communities.
All the schools provide free quality education to underprivileged children, with a special focus on the girl child. Specially designed girl-child policy, separate toilet for girls, one female teacher in each shift and special sensitization campaigns have been put in place to encourage parents to send their daughters to school. The curriculum followed in the schools are replete with the best practices from curricular structures followed in schools across the country and is in essence a child-centric, holistic, pragmatic, value-based academic program. It is also integrated with community campaigns, which helps children in developing life-skills as well as critical and creative thinking skills through hands-on experiences.
Vermi-composting by Nabcons
Nabcons is a wholly-owned subsidiary promoted by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and is engaged in providing consultancy in all spheres of agriculture, rural development and allied areas. Nabcons have setup 6 vermi composting units in Bhandu Kallan village of Jodhpur District of Rajasthan which would help in Capacity Building and demonstration to small and marginal farmers on vermi compost production. The use of vermi-compost fertilizers would increase the income of farmers.
The CSR project also aimed to provide alternative livelihood for members of the proponent. Other goals of NABCONS CSR in Jodhpur are to promote, propagate, develop further and implement the practice of organic agriculture that will cumulatively condition and enrich the fertility of the soil, increase farm productivity, reduce pollution and destruction of the environment, prevent the depletion of natural resources, further protect the health of farmers, consumers, and the general public.
Vedanta Nand Ghar
Vedanta Nand Ghar has won the award for the Best CSR Initiative under the ‘Indira Mahila Shakti Protsahan Evam Samman Yojana’ by the Women and Child Development Department in Jodhpur.
Nand Ghar has 200 centres across the Jodhpur district. The ICDS & WCD Department Jodhpur appreciated Nand Ghar for its contribution towards the development of the community and recognized its work towards the development and upliftment of children, women, and the community at the district level in Jodhpur as well as in the state of Rajasthan.
Nand Ghars are set up in a collaboration with the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development. A network of a model Anganwadi, Nand Ghar provides pre-school education through e-learning, BaLa designs, and smart kits. Nand Ghars are equipped with solar panels to ensure 24X7 electricity, water purifiers, clean toilets, and smart television sets and have become a model resource centre for the local communities. Pre-school education is provided to children in the age group of 3-6 years. Nutritious meals and take-home rations are being provided for children, pregnant and lactating women. Primary healthcare services are rendered through mobile health vans & telemedicine facilities and women are empowered through skilling, credit linkage, and enterprise development.
‘No Bag Day’ initiative for government school students
Rajasthan Education Department in association with Bharti Foundation has implemented a ‘No Bag Day’ initiative in the government schools of Jodhpur and five other districts in the state. The vision is to ensure joyful and meaningful learning, to bring out the creativity of every child in the school and decreasing the burden of school bags on them. In Jodhpur district, as a part of review and recognition, top performing blocks (Chamu, Lohawat, Dechu, Bapini and Aau) along with 131 best performing schools of Jodhpur were felicitated for their remarkable contribution towards the success of No Bag Day initiative.
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 lays emphasis on the implementation of various activities in the schools for holistic development of the children. It also recommends reducing the weight of school bags on children and having bagless days in schools. Bharti Foundation has been involved in curation of variety of resources under different themes for No Bag Day in line with the guidelines of Rajasthan Education Department. Apart from Jodhpur, the initiative has been implemented in Barmer, Pali, Jaisalmer, Jalore and Sirohi.
World Braille Day celebration for the visually impaired
On World Braille Day on 4th January 2023, Cultivator Natural Products Pvt. Ltd. along with Association for Welfare of the Handicapped, Jodhpur organized a cultural event followed by dinner and gifts distribution for the visually impaired and blind. Visually impaired and blind people residing in remote areas of the Thar Region – Western Rajasthan actively participated in the event.
