Impact on Society

Sr.no	Name	Year of starting	No. of Beneficiaries till March 2019
1	Healthcare	1982	32407
2	Support to struggle against injustice	1990	5340
3	Skill development trainings	1992	3776
4	Financial independence	1995	4340
5	Environmental awareness	1997	More than 45000/-

In 1974-75 the Sangola taluka in Solapur district was arduously recovering from the severe drought of 1972. All the village population was tattering under the loans, the loan sharks, arguments, court cases, the really troublesome taboos and the equally troublesome social traditions. Alcoholism and other addictions with the Blind faiths were adding to the already severe problems. In these dark and depressing times the rural woman was searching vainly for a ray of light with her children by her side.

We, the founder members of MBUP, had a lot of sympathy and empathy for the rural women. To bring a light to their dark path of life, we started our work in 1978 hoping to bring some light of happiness and little prosperity to the rural women of Sangola and transformational movement was rooted.

After more than 40 years of endless efforts, the fruits of this hard work are now being seen in the form of enlightened villagers all over the area. The picture of course is heartening with a lot of hope as the changes seem to be permanent rather than temporary.

Here are some of the changes that have come about in the lives of the villagers. There is no scale by which they can be measured accurately but one can see the welcome changes in the lives of the rural women in all concerned fields.

It’s a pleasure to observe transformational changes in various fields.

Social
Social Injustice
Health
Skill Development
Entrepreneurship
Culture and Art
Financial independence
water management
Education
Developmental progress and transformation in the organization

Social

In social atmosphere of rural Sangola, we find many examples of changes for betterment.

The working woman stepping out of the house and living a confident social life is seen differently today. The view that used to be “working woman means a woman with bad character” has changed and she is no longer stamped as such.
Because of the trust in the strict moral discipline in the institution, more and more rural women are allowed to participate in various activities because their families trust MBUP
Due to our caring for the psychological needs of the participating women a lot of changes can be observed –
a) The birth of a girl child is actually welcomed instead of being shunned.
b) Education status of girls is improving because of financial assistance (on repayment basis ) by Prof. Yamato Kawakami Foundation, Pune.
c) Hobby & Guidance groups of teenage girls have helped them to understand and talk freely about the difficulties and the dangers of the adolescent period.
d) The age of marriage for the girls is on the rise.
e) The society which was fiercely opposing and resistant to the re-marriages of the widows and divorcees is experiencing a change. Such marriages are now taking place due to the support of the organization.
f) Age-old customs based on blind faith are declining. There is more peace in the households and less addictions due to the economic progress and betterment.

Health

Social awareness and treatment of anemia has helped more than 7000 women. Family planning is being practiced more and more because of our training about spacing methods. A lot of healthy practices are being used more and more. They include proper washing of hands, use of soap, habits including healthy diet, not too much fasting, Clean and safe drinking water, avoiding wastage of water and the need to build private toilets and their regular use.

‘Aarogyadoot’(A Mobile clinic van & support staff) plan is helping some villages that were previously barren of health services. Here the medium is First aid box.
Awareness about importance of Antenatal care and of newborns in 8 villages where no medical facilities were available and we are successful in bringing down their death rate.

Entrepreneurship

With the encouragement from the institution, a group of entrepreneurs named Sakhi Saheli Manch is producing large number of eating items both sweet and spicy. These items have attracted a lot of customers from Pune and Solapur area under the brand ‘Gram Sakhi’. This group is running a snacks centre in Sangola under guidance of MBUP.

Culture and Art

Our Utkarsha Public Library – Number of lady members is in majority . The library arranges competitions like –
a) Presentation of self written poem, b) essay writing ,c) Award for a student every month who reads the highest no. of pages of extracurricular books( वाचकवीर) (some years ago children did not know about extracurricular reading.) d) Illocution competitions on various subjects.
Utkarsha Kala manch – This is an initiative to entertain Sangola people who have good appreciation for arts . We stage 1 drama, 1 music concert, one man show & stage show for children, every year.People in Sangola are happy because there was no other entertainment in Sangola except ‘Sangeet bari’ ( Tamasha – Folk art of Dancing)

Revival of traditional art of weaving woolen blankets (घोंगडी)

Sangola taluka has a tradition of making Ghongadi from the wool of the local Deccan sheep for generations together. To conserve this traditional art, we obtained financial aid from NABARD. For 3 years we conducted a lot of programs for upgrading this art ( from 2008 to 2010)

The weavers found new horizons for marketing wool products. But all these programs had limited success because the next generation is not so interested in this art.

Improvement of women’s place in family due to Financial independence

The organization has provided support for development of vocational skills as well as finance. This has led to more than 3000 women becoming self-sufficient financially through our Self Help Groups since 1995 till today. Their courage as well as their position in family has improved like anything. As a result, they are being invited to get involved to take decisions at family level & then gradually at society and the village level.

Personality and life skills development training programmes , study tours and participation in various women related workshops and seminars – because of all this the rural women have become knowledgeable and more mature. They have started thinking about their life on their own. They’re all helping each other towards further progress. They know each other’s problems and conditions which goes a long way in this process. The whole family is getting benefited because the woman is earning more.

Water management

Sangewadi is a village which required tankers for water supply all the time. MBUP constructed a bund in this village through financial assistance of a donor and labour assistance by a villagers. After realizing benefits of the bund all the villagers came together and constructed five more bunds on their own. This helped in raising underground water table .The village no more requires any tanker for their water supply.

Gardi village did not have any health services. Institution workers got the people together and the biggest well in the village was cleaned up thoroughly. The well is now completely filled up with water and in the summer of 2020 the whole village drank water from this well. With the help of the village residents more than 1000 trees were planted recently. We could manage to provide water tank for drinking water supply that has helped to reduce struggle of women.

We have contributed to water conservation of this taluka to large extent. That has reduced laborious journey of rural women to fetch water.

Due to our water conservation work at watambare 4-5 villages around have become water rich.

Education

Making use of modern teaching technologies as well as principles , ( Equity, Contexual Relevance , Child friendly atmosphere, Sustainability and Balanced thinking) , so also modern educational aids , E-learning , BaLa technique, Activity based teaching are all making the children more capable and stronger.

Regular parent meetings and home visits are going to make the parents aware of the progress of their children.

They efforts that we are taking in Sangola taluka for the intellectual, physical and psychological development of the students will definitely start showing spectacular results in the next five years.

Development progress and transformation of the institution

Today in about 35 years the small school that started in a single room in Kelkar Hospital has expanded into 30 classrooms in an area of about 2 and a half acres.- With the help of Dr Mrs Nishigandha Mogul, the MLA, we have built a hall for the women. But we could not own it due to the government rules and regulations. So the institution independently has built a hall called skill development centre in a place donated to us. Here all the women learn about various kinds of business as well as life skills with training programs. More than 3000 women have been the beneficiaries.- In the old school building now we have Family counseling centre, Utkarsha public library and the Saving scheme administration office along with the MBUP office – all these underlining the women power.