Who we are
BGVS (Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti) - is a mass movement based voluntary organisation of community based volunteers, who are a bridge between community and the state and national committees. These volunteers are school teachers, rural youth, women from self-help groups, farmers and workers in the rural areas and scientists, academics, and journalists from urban and semi-urban areas. Taken together, the total number of volunteers and members of BGVS in around 350 districts of 23 states where it is active today is about 2.78 lakhs.

Evolution
During the three decades of its existence, BGVS has covered a substantial terrain, both geographically and work wise.

BGVS emerged from a joint collaboration of the National Literacy Mission, Government of India and the People’s Science Movement in 1989 to extend the campaign mode of literacy to the entire country. It was originally formed for the sole purpose of creating a nation-wide environment conducive to and demanding literacy. However, BGVS ended up playing a significant role in the implementation of the literacy programs too, in addition to its primary task of mobilizing to create a demand for literacy.

Government of India entrusted with the management of State Resource Centres for literacy in as many as 5 states which were apex bodies for supervising and conducting the training of literacy instructors as well as preparing modules for teaching-learning materials to be used throughout the state. These centres continue to provide academic and technical support to different campaigns and programmes in collaboration with departments and CSR organisations.

Gradually, BGVS enlarged the meaning of literacy and education by diversifying to take up activities related to Basic Education, Continuing Education, Science Popularisation, Self Help Groups, Participatory Watershed Management, Rural enterprise and Local Area Planning etc. From a People’s Literacy Movement it developed into a People’s Education and Science movement.

At the initiative of BGVS, there was an attempt to bring together a large number of women’s movements, under the nationwide campaign. The aim was to consciously develop and transform the literacy campaigns into cultural and economic movement for women.

Huge volunteer base of BGVS ensures that a lot of grass root activity of BGVS - like mobilization, training and meetings - is community supported and independent of institutional funding. During the period 2015 to 2018 when BGVS did not have a single institutionally funded work project, the organization was virtually sustained by such community support. Many of the programs, like the community learning centres and pandemic awareness campaigns – have also emerged due to a community demand and support.

Linking Practice with Policy
While recognizing the importance of micro-level grass roots work at the community level - like opening schools, running literacy classes, working for the improvement of environment and livelihoods and so on, BGVS believes that the challenge is to use such work to bring in policy changes so that the micro efforts are mainstreamed to benefit a larger number of people.

It is this work philosophy that helped BGVS translating the Ernakulam literacy experiment into a national policy of mass literacy; the campaign for Right to Education that BGVS spearheaded into a legislation in 2009 and the expansion of capacities of the local governance (panchayati raj system) for local area planning after the enactment of the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitution.

Organisation structure
BGVS is a national organisation with associating units in 23 states, 350 districts and more than 25,000 Panchayats with 300,000 volunteers. Each state BGVS unit, being separately registered and autonomous, is free to make its own programs based on its specific needs. The elected State Executive Committees oversee the state organization and work. In some states, there are district units, block and even Panchayat units, with elected committees.

Whereas each unit undertakes its own state level work and tasks, the national perspective is promoted by undertaking a few nationally coordinated programs, in an integrated manner by all the state units, under the overall direction of the National Executive Committee.

Projects implemented so far
BGVS has worked with several union ministries and departments like the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Panchayati Raj, Rural Development, Science and Technology, Social Justice and Empowerment, Health and Family Welfare, Women and Child Development and Environment & Climate Change.

BGVS also got the opportunity to work with several reputed social and resource organizations like Tata Trusts and Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives (APPI). In 2004 Sir Dorabji Tata Trusts (SDTT) supported BGVS with a three year long project on Empowerment, Rights and Security which got extended for one more year. Till date BGVS has successfully implemented 32 major and minor projects in collaboration with different ministries and CSR organisations. State units of BGVS are also engaged independently in different projects and programmes related to different sectors including education, gender, environment, sustainable development, agriculture and panchayati raj.

Pandemic phase
The Corona virus has shaken the world so severely for the first time since the flu epidemic of 1918 and World War II. There was never such a great threat to human life. A small virus has brought the whole world to its knees. Coming few years are going to be the toughest years of our lives. Viruses will remain and we need to adjust, change and modify our lives to reduce their impact.
Immediately after the announcement of lockdown BGVS in close coordination with other organizations started working to facilitate and support state units in their relief, rehabilitative and communication efforts.

Interventions during pandemic and post pandemic included establishment of community kitchens and support to workers; livelihood support initiatives in states like Jharkhand and MP with the help of local groups including SHGs; advocacy efforts; mass awareness campaign to make people aware about the preventive steps along with other aspects like virus, immunity and vaccine etc.; facilitating quarantine facilities and medical support system;  development of communication package; face book lives by involving experts from diverse disciplines like education, health, epidemiology, social science, law, economics and social activists; formation of counselling groups to link distressed people with experts through regular interaction for mental health care; conducting dialogues youth, daily wagers, health workers and people to understand their issues; to create, support and facilitate neighborhood groups and to create, feed and coordinate social media network.

Way forward
BGVS is striving to consolidate its extensive national coverage and its diverse programmes by taking forward the approach it has adopted over past few years and concentrate on cluster of villages around nodal gram panchayats, converge programmes according to local needs and create human resource capacities to carry forward these activities of education linked to development.