Developmental Association for Human Advancement-DEHAT

The Developmental Association for Human Advancement (DEHAT) was first established at the behest of some young people from Bahraich district in Uttar Pradesh. Bahraich and Shrawasti have been identified among the 100 most backward districts of India by the Niti Aayog (Government body) DEHAT first started out as a school for ‘Tharu’ tribals and forest children. Ten years later, on the 21st of Aug 2000, it was registered under the Society Registration Act 1860. We firmly believe that no society can hope for sustainable development unless its children are assured of their survival, development, protection and participation in the development process. In 1990, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) came into effect establishing a comprehensive set of rights for all children. We realize that this cannot be translated into reality in the absence of focused intervention on capacity development linking child rights policy and practice. Thus, Children remain the nucleus of all our work through which we aim at human advancement. A child is affected first and foremost by his immediate family and neighbourhood situation. With this view, today DEHAT India is involved in a multitude of community organization and development activities besides advocacy, awareness and rights struggle. Our intervention at policy making and/or influencing government is driven in the interests of the children particularly those coming from underserved and oppressed sections of the society. DEHAT India has four programs; Natural Resource Management, Human Protection, Rights and Entitlement, and Social Movement and all of our initiatives contribute to the SDGs. Vision: A child-centred society in which all children enjoy the fullest scope of their rights and lead fulfilling lives. Mission: To educate, enable & empower the deprived and underprivileged sections of society, in order to ensure the basic rights of children. Theory of Change: If children are assured of their survival, protection and participation in the development process, only then can a society achieve sustainable development. Our implementation strategy lies in four concepts- Behaviour Change, Demand Generation, System Strengthening, and Service Delivery. Rights-based Approach: DEHAT adopts a rights-based approach to implement an issue-based intervention because of its intersectional nature. Identifying that no issue is isolated, and thus cannot be addressed from a singular lens, is one of the most important implementation strategies. Being aware of their rights and entitlements enables the community leaders to identify and acknowledge the existing issues; utilize existing legal and governance apparatuses to address them and lead to real change in their community. CBO-led Approach: We engage with different forms of CBOs (Community-Based Organizations) i.e., Child Parliaments, Youth Groups, Girls Groups, Adolescents Groups Self Help Groups, Farmer Producer Organizations, (govt. Stipulated CBOs like VLCPC (Village Level Child Protection Committee), SMC (School Management Committee) etc., providing them with the necessary capacity building & hand-holding. The rationale behind adopting a CBO-based model is to create leaders from the communities, advocating their ground issues with the necessary stakeholders and engaging with the authorities.