About Laxmi
Laxmi was founded in the year 1991 in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh with the commitment to work for welfare and prosperity of poor. During its three decades of journey, the organization has partnered with Unicef, Oxfam, ActionAid, PATH, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Department of Urban Development and implemented several projects covering Health, Education, Livelihood, Community Governance and Housing and Basic services.
The organization has been working in Lucknow, Hardoi, Shahjahanpur, Ghaziabad districts of Uttar Pradesh as well as Delhi.
We have long been working on adequate housing and shelter rights for urban slum-dwellers and homeless people living on streets of Delhi, Ghaziabad and Lucknow. However, the organization realises that unless we sincerely work towards plugging distress migration from rural areas to urban, the struggle of “Housing for All” will never come to any satisfactory conclusion. The highly skilled agrarian work force becomes unskilled labour class leading a life much below dignity, struggling to meet both ends in the sea of urban conundrum. Only if we made sincere efforts to change the agriculture scenario, could we find some solution to the ever-increasing problem of rural to urban migration.
Addressing this need of working on rural urban continuum, Laxmi is now working in Etawah and Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh which have become a big source of sending migrants to Delhi-NCR. The agri-based livelihood work will be closely linked with a social enterprise called ‘Satat Sampada’ that will provide forward linkage for marketing of the agriculture produce.
What we do?
Workers’ Rights
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Building and Other Construction Workers– Awareness, community organization, policy advocacy for better implementation of welfare programmes and advocacy for more relevant programmes for these workers.
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Domestic Workers – Organizing women workers to raise demand for being recognized as a Worker and a separate bill/ policy to access various welfare programmes and pensions.
Laxmi is member of some national level platforms and campaigns fighting for the rights of these unorganized sector workers.
Education for First Generation Learners
‘Vidyalay’ in Ghaziabad caters to education and all-round development of first-generation learners. So far about 80 children in the age group of 4 to 12 years have attended Vidyalay and about half of them have been mainstreamed with formal schooling.
Vidyalay also runs a separate section for drop out girls and young women who left the school mid-way and want to take basic education once again. About 20 such girls and young women are undertaking education and personality development programme with us.
Safe Food and Sustainable Conumption
Laxmi is proud to associate with a German government (BMZ) supported campaign on Safe Food – BhoomiKa that talks about Clean Green and Fair Food in Delhi NCR.
This is a multifaceted campaign that promotes organic farming in rural areas, market linkage in urban areas and consumer awareness for Safe and Healthy Food.
We also trainingAnganbadi Workers and women in rural areas on Nutrition and Health issues. Health low cost recipes are promoted by the organization that help families make good food for their children.
Livelihood
Women and girls at Vidyalay are being trained in some specific trades that promote the concept of Safe Food and Sustainable lifestyle. Few of these are –
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Traditional sweets that are high in nutrition and fibre
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Healthy recipes that are low in cost
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Organic Tiffin/ Catering service (in pipeline)
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Cloth Bags
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Paper Bags