Published on July 19, 2021
An Integrated Village Development Programme (IVDP) implemented by Tata Motors (TML) in village Pathardi, Jawhar block of Palghar district, Maharashtra, has become an exemplary model of facilitating development through an integrated approach. Vinod Kulkarni, Head - CSR, TML, elaborated on the programme's critical aspects and its success in an EDGE Webinar titled Scripting development into action through ‘Integrated Approach’ held on July 14, 2021.
Jawhar block in Maharashtra's Palghar district is perhaps one of the state's most backward regions. Situated merely 120 km from Mumbai's bustling suburb of Thane, the block is home to many tribal, disadvantaged communities. Pathardi Gram Panchayat, with 99 percent tribal population and more than 72 percent of people falling under the poverty line, exemplifies the region's backwardness. Tata Motors implemented an IVDP project with the following objectives:
- Enhance food and income security
- Increase the asset-base of the tribal population
- Make the tribal population less vulnerable to economic shocks
- Improve the quality of life of the tribal communities
The programme began formally with Tata Motors inking a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Maharashtra in 2018, laying out the programme's scope.
In three years, the programme, now in its final stages of handing over the mantle to the concerned authorities, has immensely benefitted people in the area.
The programme has improved people's lives here largely by mobilising locally available resources through the community and NGOs working in the area.
The programme, through its implementation, has breathed life into the Gandhian engineering concept of 'Getting More from Less for More People', pioneered by Padma Vibhushan awardee Dr Raghunath Mashelkar.