What we do?
Disability awareness and community sensitisation:
Ensuring equitable and inclusive development. We provide information, advice, training and support to raise awareness on:
- Disability issues,
- Independent living and barriers to participation;
- Rights and entitlements of persons with disability;
- Equal opportunity and mainstreaming disability across development.
Some of our key achievements over the financial year 2022 include:
5000 persons trained on disability issues; 106 Networking links developed with Panchayat Raj Institutions; Instituting and launch of Swavlambhan Change Makers Award to recognise, celebrate and promote persons with disability as community role models.
Disability inclusion:
Disability inclusion has continued to evolve in India. India signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disability (UN CRPD) in 2006. It replaced the old legislation on disability titled People with Disabilities ACT of 2005 with a new rights-based legislation titled ‘Rights of persons with disabilities ACT 2016’. This ACT covers 21 disability categories as compared to 7 categories covered by the earlier legislation.
Over 10% of the World’s population of persons with disability around 7 Crore (70 million people) live in India. (World Bank figures).
We seek to foster research from a disability perspective in the areas of:
- Rural livelihoods and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
- Environmental health, occupational standards and decent work in agriculture and agri business.
- Food provenance, safety, security, local markets and blockchain technology.
Some of our key achievements over the financial year 2022 include:
- 2000 plus persons with disability and women members surveyed;
- Sustainable Livelihoods Longitudinal Study framework developed;
- Research priorities identified and in-place.
Identifying persons with disability and women members in crises living below poverty line.
People are at the heart of everything we do. We assess individual needs for livelihood support based on their individual needs and circumstances.
We use the findings from our Sustainable Livelihoods Survey to build a complete understanding of the socio-economic and disability context. Using this information, we work with individuals and their family members to co-produce a personalised vision and livelihood plan. And undertake periodic monitoring and review.
Sustainable livelihoods
Providing skills, leadership, and entrepreneurship development training and support.
At DEAL Foundation, we work to build individual and community resilience and help create and maintain work for persons with disability and women members.
Through our partner network, we provide training and support on income generation activities. This includes agriculture, dairy, vermicomposting, horticulture, kitchen gardening, floriculture, apiculture, poultry, goat and sheep rearing, and allied activities viz., tailoring food processing, and start-up of micro small, and medium enterprise businesses.
We work with households of persons with disability and women members from farming backgrounds to:
- Reduce reliance on agriculture income.
- Diversify farm-based income generation opportunities.
- Improve natural recycling, soil fertility, and conservation.
- Improve biodiversity and environmental sustainability.
- Improve yield and productivity.
- Improve nutrition and diet.
- Improve income levels and standard of living.
- Improve net profit growth and fixed income.
Some of our key achievements over the financial year 2022 include:
- 147 persons with disability and 160 women members trained and engaged in income generation activities; MSME businesses start-ups;
- Establishment of two community-based Arambha Svaudyog Kendra (ASK) Centres across Mevundi and Gadag.
Societies the world over are deprived of an estimated US$1.37 to 1.94 trillion in an annual loss in GDP due to the lack of access to gainful employment for people with disabilities. (ILO)
Local enterprise development
Supporting the development of individual and community-based start-up enterprise models including disabled and women cooperatives and producer organizations.
At DEAL Foundation, our focus is on building capacity and replacing traditional beneficiary models of service delivery based on meeting individual/community needs with creating transformational services where communities work together to create measurable outcomes and social impact.
Towards this end, we act as a conduit to raise and use community resources and build partnerships with grassroots bodies and institutions to carry forward these aims, to structure itself in a way that enables their delivery, and to create a culture that supports them.
We believe that a bottom-up development process is essential to:
Harness the potential of local community innovations and solutions to address present-day development challenges;
Support the development of a funding mechanism that is community-centric and is not top-down.
Support the process of building sustainable communities post the Covid19 Pandemic.
Some of our key achievements over the financial year 2022 include:
Creation of Surakshita Disabled Persons Savings & Credit Cooperative;
Work was undertaken to establish a district-wide women’s Producers Company for the production and processing of millets;
Work was undertaken to develop and extend a community-based model apiary in rainfed areas.
Community organisation
How do we do it?
Involving persons with disability and women members to promote public accountability and social justice.
We promote participatory approaches to the design, development and delivery of livelihood support interventions. Our aim is to bridge the gap between consultation, collaboration and empowerment as it results in:
- Better alignment of need and opportunity;
- Increased efficiency of programme delivery;
- Inclusive and equitable outcomes;
- Community ownership and sustainability
Some of our key achievements over the financial year 2022 include
- 112 self-help-groups established;
- 532 persons with disability and 630 women members supported;
- Two-thirds local representation on the Sustainable Livelihoods Programme Board.
Become a Volunteer Today
Join NowFinancial inclusion
Providing access to finance for livelihoods.
As per the Global Findex Database 2021, India is among seven countries home to half the world’s 1.4 billion adults without access to formal banking.
At DEAL Foundation we believe that financial inclusion is a prerequisite for poverty alleviation, inclusive and sustainable development.
We work with persons with disability and women members considering take-up of or already engaged in income generation activities and offer:
Financial literacy and skills development training;
Bank and market linkage support;
Monitoring and course correction advice and support.
