20 Years of Disha
Prologue

Twenty years ago Disha took first step to bring positive change in the lives of rural populace in an area which was even then considered to be ‘developed’. It might have been ‘developed’ in comparison to other parts of Uttar Pradesh. But we found that a class of people was struggling day in and day out to eke out a living, gender discrimination was at its peak and exploitation of working class was rampant.
The area was then remote because of lack of all weather roads.

We took holistic view of the picture. We would not say that we began in a systematic manner. In fact probably no voluntary organisation can make such a claim. But we definitely had this holistic picture in our sub-conscious.

Four issues immediately attracted our attention. The first was the plight of weavers in Pather village. The second was the exploitation of rope makers, who were victim of market, middlemen and the system. The third was plight of girls and women. And the last was the condition of labour class. We made small interventions in all these four issues.

Down the 20 years we addressed many more issues – many with success and some with failures. In the meantime, lives of the area’s residents have indeed positively changed. And we have grown into a professionally managed organisation.

In the following pages we present these interesting stories.

KN Tiwari
Director

Home