Nirman

NIRMAN

NIRMAN Logo
Formation	2006
Type	Not for profit
Purpose	Nurturing Youth for Social Change
Headquarters	SEARCH, Gadchiroli, Maharashtra.
Location	India
Region served	India
Official language	Marathi, English
Parent organization	SEARCH, MKCL
Website	www.nirman.mkcl.org

NIRMAN is a youth initiative started in 2006 by Dr. Abhay and Rani Bang to identify, nurture and organize young change makers to solve various societal challenges. It is an educational process to train the youth to take up crucial issues and problems in society. NIRMAN provides guidance, expertise and environment to inculcate self learning and encourages youth for social action.

Dr Abhay and Dr Rani Bang, through their NGO SEARCH, are striving since over two decades for improving the public health in rural areas of the country are also involved in social crusades like anti-addiction, fight against evil practices. To prepare youth in these endeavours they launched NIRMAN as a training program for youth. Young boys and girls across Maharashtra, including Pune, Mumbai, Nanded, Nashik, Kolhapur, Ahmednagar, Parbhani, Solapur, Jalgaon, Akola, Amravati, Nagpur and Gadchiroli take part in this program. Inspired by the 'Nai Talim' system of education started by Mahatma Gandhi, NIRMAN was set up to provide training in leadership to youth from all over the state. NIRMAN is providing a common platform for youth to engage, self-educate and decide on how they can make a difference to the society.

NIRMAN aims to help youngsters find meaning to their lives, to bridge the gap between various social, scientific and technological challenges around and to unleash the tremendous potential of the youth. NIRMAN believes that self-actualisation of its participants cannot take place in isolation or in the narrow confinements of a secure lifestyle. It attempts to bring the youth face to face with the reality of life, enabling them to identify, analyse and solve societal problems. It is a continuously evolving process of problem-based experiential learning and identification of self through it. The long-term goal is to cultivate and sustain a large community of youth leaders who will work for social change.

The participants aspiring to join NIRMAN have to fill up an introspective questionnaire, which includes questions regarding their values, goals in life, personality characteristics, decisions, interaction with social realities, etc. Based on the applications, the participants are screened for personal interviews. The NIRMAN team carries out the selection process once every year and conducts interviews across Maharashtra, by visiting selected participants at their local places.

NIRMAN brings together a group of youth aged between 18-28 years who are looking to give meaning to their lives, and systematically cultivates their social leadership. Each batch of around 75 selected youth goes through a series of three residential camps that are organized once every six months. Each camp is for about 8-10 days, conducted at Shodhgram, Gadchiroli, and the series continues for a year. Participants belong to different regional, economic and academic backgrounds including medical, engineering, law, arts, commerce, science, teaching, journalism etc. Along with the camps, study visits, educative sessions, reading assignments, internships, fellowships, individual mentoring, group actions, campaigns and other activities are carried out. They help sensitise the youth towards societal challenges through exposure and experience. The participants are nurtured to think rationally on social issues and the program offers a continuous and personalized process of self-learning. One of the unique aspects of NIRMAN is that participants are at various stages of self realization. It builds a cohort of youngsters who grow together, share similar ideals and educate themselves for the betterment of society.