Historical Background of the Organisation

Disha Kendra began its work in 1978, in a remote tribal belt of Karjat Tehsil, Raigad District, Maharashtra. It’s first lessons in People’s Organisation building, got structured with the name of Jagrut Bhaubandhi Sangatana (JBS) in 1979. It began functioning as the “People’s voice” against money lending system, exploitative and manipulative government officials, revitalizing effective traditional systems and combating inherent local weaknesses.

In the 1st phase, the naïve activists that we were, targeted the private money lender .No matter what the negative consequences were, the P.O. won an edge over an upper caste/fair skinned moneylender and this affected the entire money lending system in the Karjat tribal belt.

In the 2nd phase the Government was made the target for all our demands – Civil rights was our focus. Education, health, preschool centers, drinking water, housing and implementation of the Employment Guarantee Act.

The 3rd phase was the stabilization phase. Hence controversial issues of land rights, village titles, women’s rights/co-ownership were taken up. Different pressure tactics were adopted .People’s leadership continued to be a force to reckon with when ever any kind of anti people stance was taken.

Alongside the education, mobilization and movement related work, development projects like running preschool centers, informal education centers for school dropouts, adult education, drinking water projects, soil conservation program, co-operative grocery store, rationing shops, afforestation, horticulture and such other income generation projects were also undertaken. Local people’s committees to monitor the drinking water project was a success. Drinking water issue was resolved by bringing State level MLA’s and District elected functionaries/bureaucrats on a common platform.

In 1989 Jagrut Bhaubandhi Sanghatna was bifurcated into two independent entities Jagrut Kashtakari Sangatan- the people’s organization to operate in Raigad district and Disha Kendra the training and development support organization to operate in Maharashtra.