SoochnaPreneur

Chunni Devi lives with her husband in Alwar’s Belaka village. The only financial support she received was the pension but to withdraw the amount she had to travel afar.

Her frail body and weak eyesight made it difficult for her to commute, leaving her helpless. Half of the pension amount used to be spent just on travel alone. During this time, she came across SoochnaPreneur Gurudev and conveyed her problems.

Gurudev, without delay, managed to link her pension and bank account. He also enrolled her under Ujjwala Yojna and within few days, she received her LPG connection.

Isn't it heartwarming?

Sundari lives in Untvaal village, Alwar district in Rajasthan with her family. Belonging to a Below Poverty Line (BPL) family, she’s eligible to receive ration however, in the past two years, she went to ration dealers to receive her due ration but all in vain.

In a despicable situation when hope seemed a faraway dream, Sundari came across Poonam. Upon hearing her story, Poonam found out that Sundari’s name was still present in the central list of Public Distribution System. Poonam submitted her documents and soon Sundari started receiving her due ration and needless to say, it restored her hope.

Chautalya Devi lives with her sons in a small village in Alwar district, Rajasthan. Her sons and their families never had time for her and it made her feel helpless. With age catching-up with her, only hope remained is the widow pension.

Every month she spent a huge sum on transporting to her bank for the pension but in vain. When dependency on her sons completely overshadowed her, she broke down.

Then, she met Sushila and was astounded to come across an empowered woman. Sushila applied for the pension on behalf and a month later, she started receiving it. This is a story of how a woman equipped with a mobile app (MeraApp) is empowering other women in the villages.

Here in the picture, Sushila filling up the necessary documents on behalf of Chautalya Devi

Shalu’s life came to a pause when she lost her husband. Poverty and lack of relevant information only made it harder for her to understand the system to receive her husband’s death certificate and, thus, couldn’t apply for a widow pension.

She tried to reach out to the panchayat but in vain. Looking at all the other closed doors, Shalu met Sangita who started from the scratch.

She got Shalu to arrange all necessary paperwork, reprimanded the panchayat secretary for ignoring Shalu’s plea, submitted the application for a death certificate, as well as an application for the widow pension; extending her support till service delivery.

This photo was taken by one of the field staff when Sangita helped Shalu receive the widow pension, of course through (the entitlement mobile app).

We can't keep calm!

We have been nominated for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prize 2019! But we need your help to win it and continue our work towards providing information to entitlement.

Deadline: February 10

To vote for us, click here: https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/stocktaking/Account/Login?ReturnUrl=%2Fnet4%2Fwsis%2Fstocktaking%2FPrizes%2F2019%2FVote

WSIS Process

Antro Devi got married half-a-century ago but lost her husband within 2 months into the marriage. All her hope of starting a new family was also gone with him and she moved back to her maternal family.

She started living with her brother and his family but the thought of being a burden on them kept her wide awake at nights. Unfortunately her brother also passed away within a few months and it was her nephew who then started taking care of her. She never thought, she could repay his love and caring, but wanted to contribute to the household.

Few years later, Antro came to know about the Widow Pension Scheme and crossed every hurdle to get the form filled in the Gram Panchayat office but all in vain. She tried a few times but nothing worked in her favour. In her desperation, she even tried to submit application for the pension scheme with the help of a mediator but the situation remained pretty much the same.

Her miseries came to an end when a Soochna Seva team visited her village and Antro narrated her story to them. After listening to her woes, the team registered and submitted her form. Her wait was finally over and she started receiving Rs. 750 monthly pension. Her face was glowing with happiness as she thanked the team for helping her out. A “thank you” is all she could manage.

From Osama Manzar's journey, here is another story of empowerment.

Champe Khan has spent his life in poverty. A dwarf and having zero literacy, things haven't been good. But he is a gifted folk singer and performed in several countries.

But, having nil literacy, Champe didn't know about the government schemes and his disability entitlements. But Narpat, the SoochnaPreneur, helped him to apply for pension, house and all other entitlements.

Amidst the poverty and information darkness, these stories are refreshing to listen to!

In the last couple of months, Osama Manzar travelled to some of the remotest areas of the country. He penned down the stark reality people live in. One such story is of Shankar Lal's from Barmer district, Rajasthan.

Shankar Lal belongs to schedule caste and works as SoochnaPreneur. He has worked hard for 4 years to be digitally empowered to serve hundreds of citizens in the villages to avail government schemes and entitlements and know their rights, without paying any bribe.

Sharkar says, "all kinds of people come to the Soochna Seva to avail government benefits. But the upper class people still live under the shadow of casteism. It may take another 50 years for our villagers to become completely empowered to exercise their rights and entitlements. But I am trying my bit to make these people aware and empowered".

In rural India where people still live in information poverty, and where casteism is prevalent, Shankar's story is a breath of fresh air.

Despite extreme poverty, Rajaram was taking care of his family of five however, two years ago; an unfortunate accident left a big scar on his life. Rajaram lost his one leg and along with that all hope. The accident not just crippled him but left his whole family shattered as he was the sole breadwinner for them. In the event of finding no employment, the family's financial situation went so grim that soon affording medical expenses of Rajaram became impossible.

The Soochna Seva team informed Rajaram’s family about various government schemes for disabled people but Rajaram didn’t even have a disability certificate due to which he was devoid of any relief from the government. The team’s first priority was to get his disability certificate done as soon as possible. After obtaining the certificate, the team on behalf of Rajaram applied for the State Scheme for Disabled.

After many hassle, Rajaram started receiving monthly Rs 500 grant to support his household expenses. The pension amount is still very meagre so the team is preparing to apply for Paalanhaar Yojna to provide more support to the family. Under this scheme, the family will receive Rs 1000 per child to help in their education.

The whole family looks forward to the day they start receiving the relief. Their hope bound hearts aim for a better tomorrow.

Information poverty is still very much prevalent in rural India. And, over 30 crore people live in below poverty line.These people are deprived of information about govt. schemes and benefits, leading to being deprived of their rights and entitlements.

Now , an android-based mobile application is facilitating accessing of govt. schemes much easier for the rural population.

A one-day workshop was organised by Digital Empowerment Foundation and Qualcomm in Ranchi on how SoochnaPreneur equipped with MeraApp is working on bridging the gap between govt. entitlements and citizens and helping the rural population come out of information darkness.

After losing her husband a few years ago, Itiyo Devi in her early 30s, has been raising her child alone. It’s not been easy for her as the little embroidery work that she does is barely enough to earn the mother and the child full-square meal a day. Further, her problems aggravate during the monsoon when her straw hut begins to leak and they again start everything from the scratch.

Not long ago, she got to know about Rajasthan Govt’s Karyashala Yojana, under which BPL (Below Poverty Line) families belonging to the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribes receive Rs. 10,000 to sustain their business. With much hope, Itiyo submitted her application form to the authorities who, however, rejected it without any reasoning or justification. A few days later, she happened to meet a Soochna Seva fellow and conveyed about the rejection, the Sevak decided to take up the matter and find the reason for her ineligibility.

When they found none, a team of two from Soochna Seva reached out to the Block Development Officer and the Village Secretary for clarification. The result of these meetings was swift and joyful.

Within days, Itiyo received the first instalment of Rs. 4,000. This motivated more women in the block, whose applications had been rejected without a clarification, to get together and submit their applications again. The end result-well many of them have already received some money while others wait in line for their turn.