Astha Sansthan

About Company

Development (General) Aim/Objective/Mission: The Mission of Astha is to help People to organize, expand their capacities and equip themselves for the struggles they must wage to overcome the various deprivations under which they live. Astha does not parallel the Government, does not do what the government should be doing. Astha’s role is to help the poor, marginalized, deprived and exploited to access government schemes and resources, to make use of government laws intended to help the poor. This is part of the work of helping the poor to become organized and aware, and to work effectively on the problems they face. Astha works for Structural Change: Bringing into being new structures of the poor (organized and aware), which changes the “structure of society” – before, there was no organization of the poor that society had to deal with, now there is. Bringing changes in some of the laws and policies, rules and regulations, that form part of the root causes of injustice, deprivation, exploitation and marginalization. And so Astha’s work includes research, documentation and networking to prepare for the advocacy work it does, along with others, to bring changes in those laws and policies in need of change. Issues on which Astha Works: Livelihood – Land, Water, Forest. Migrant Labour, Right to Work, Employment Guarantee Scheme, Water and Drought, Food Security, Globalized Economic Policies, Displacement from Land and Livelihood, Local Self-Governance – Panchayati Raj Institutions, PESA -- Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas Act), Budget Analysis – Analysis of the Rajasthan Budget, micro-studies to check what is on the ground, training programmes for civil society organizations on the use of Budget in advocacy, some publications; Women’s Organization and Empowerment – particularly amongst tribal women, low-income widows and separated women, women working on atrocities on women. Non-Timber Forest Produce – a Support Society for forest produce Cooperatives and other groups and Associations working with the poor on forest rights and forest produce issues.Credit including problems with Banks, Cooperatives and Money-Lenders. A small amount of work with Self-Help Groups; Tribal Policy and Tribal Issues, Urban Environmental Sanitation, Vermiculture, Communal Harmony, Soil and Water Conservation – Watershed Development Work.