Deccan Development Society is an Indian agri-based

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...

Medak district Medak district is a district located in the Indian state of Telangana. Medak is the district headquarters. The district shares boundaries with Sangareddy, Kamareddy, Siddipet and Medchal districts. History Traces of Neolithic and Megali ...

in the state of Telangana,

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. It works on various crop improvement programs and activities helping the local farmers. The Women Sangams (groups) of Deccan Development Society (DDS) were honoured with

Equator Prize The Equator Prize, organized by the Equator Initiative within the United Nations Development Programme,

2019 by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for their contribution to ecology and innovations in rainfed millet cultivation.

History

It is a two-decade-old grassroots organization working in about 75 villages with women's societies. The organization envisions consolidating these village groups into vibrant organs of primary local governance and federate them into a strong pressure lobby for women, the poor and

dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming a ...

The organisation

The Deccan Development society is projecting a working model for the people-oriented participative development in the areas of food security, ecological agriculture, and alternate education. It is also trying to reverse the historical process of degradation of the environment and people's livelihood system in this region through a string of land-related activities such as

Permaculture Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using whole-systems thinking. It applies these principle ...

, Community Grain Bank, Community Gene Fund, Community Green Fund and Collective Cultivation through land Lease etc. These activities, alongside taking on the role of Earth care, are also resulting in human care, by giving the women a new found dignity and profile in their village communities. The society is trying to relocate the people's knowledge in the area of health and agriculture. Its present director is P. V. Sateesh.

Awards

Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation Award - June 2020

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Rural community development Medak district Agricultural organisations based in India