Urmul Rural Health Research and Development Trust Key Issues and
Operational Areas, Major Activiities & Achivements
Operational Districts: Barmer , Bikaner, Churu , Ganganagar , Hanumangarh , Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Nagaur
Operational States: RAJASTHAN
AchieveMents: The URMUL Trust is a family of organizations working towards the social and economic betterment of people in the harsh, inhospitable and underdeveloped region of western Rajasthan. Activities vary according to the needs and situation of the specific area, and include group organization, health, education, income generation, research and advocacy.
In 1988, the URMUL Trust expanded its activities to the command area of the Indira Gandhi Canal. A branch of the Trust was set up at Bajju in Kolayat tehsil so as to provide community based developmental services to the highly scattered desert population of the area. Initial activities included provision of community based health services to 17 villages, enabling local cattle herders make an occupational shift from animal husbandry to irrigated agriculture forced on them by the advent of the canal, and building up of training infrastructure., it was decided to take on the role of the nodal implementing agency for the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in Kolayat tehsil of the district, which expanded the Trustââ¬â¢s work in the Kolayat Block to 113 villages.
Work in the canal command area led to the raising of canal related issues such as water logging, salinity, settlement and allotment problems of settlers, deteriorating nutritional status of children, especially girls, in irrigated areas, inter alia. A workshop on the socio-economic impact of the canal in February 1991 was followed by a padayatra (a march) along the entire length of the canal in September, which made these issues into topics of national debate.
Today, the Trust is active in 300 villages of Bikaner, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Churu and Nagour and in a variety of functional areas. An integrated rural development programme is run in 225 villages in this region.
A chance meeting with a group of weavers from Jodhpur and Jaisalmer districts in 1988 led to the establishment of the URMUL Bunkar Vikas Samiti, Phalodi, and thereby the extension of the Trustââ¬â¢s activities to this region. The organization was started in 1991 as a self-managed income generation programme for a group of 5 weavers. It has since expanded into an integrated rural development project operative in 10 villages with activities which include health and primary education, support to livelihoods as well as the initial thrust area of income generation with 170 weavers. The most recent intervention of the organisation has been to help the weavers settle in the canal area lands that have been allotted to them.
Urmul Trust has played an active and leading role in networking with other organisations in the Thar for disaster mitigation work notably during the droughts of 1986-87, malaria epidemics in 1992, 1995 and flood relief in 1995. In the domain of health, Urmul has helped to establish support organisations like the Rajasthan Voluntary Health Association. Urmul was closely associated with the program design of the Swasthya Karmi programme of the Government of Rajasthan. Presently Urmul a Mother NGOs of RCH project supported by the ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi.
