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Social Leadership
Young people rooted in parmarth, who choose to think for their village before themselves.
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Gram Samriddhi Navkumbh · 28 Feb – 3 Mar 2025
Bringing the Ganga back to Jhabua
Nine hundred villages, four thousand volunteers, and not a rupee paid for the labour. Shivganga works with tribal Jhabua on its own terms — self-respect first, charity never.
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Programs
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Villages
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Volunteers
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Families
Every year
This year’s gathering
Gram Samriddhi Navkumbh
28 February – 3 March 2025The largest gathering of tribals for the enrichment of Mother Earth
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What we do
Six programs, one village at a time
Each one begins the same way — with people from the village deciding it matters.
02
Water Conservation
Ponds, trenches and check dams, dug by the villages that depend on them.
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03
Livelihood Generation
Enterprise built on local produce and local skill, so income stays in Jhabua.
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04
Afforestation
Restoring the forest cover the hills have lost, one plantation season at a time.
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05
Women Leadership
Women leading village institutions, nutrition drives and savings groups.
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06
Connecting Communities
Binding scattered hamlets into one working community with a shared purpose.
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How it works
Holistic rural development
Not a scheme delivered to a village, but a capability grown inside it.
We make social leaders
Values are embedded in young people so they are naturally inclined towards parmarth. They begin thinking for others and for their village, which builds their standing at home.
We train and empower them
Those leaders are given the skills, the methods and the confidence to organise work at scale — water, forest, nutrition, livelihood — without waiting to be told how.
They make changes on ground
The village does the digging, the planting and the deciding. What Shivganga adds is momentum, not instruction — which is why the work outlasts us.
By the numbers
Counted in structures, not slogans
What thirty years of village-led work adds up to on the ground.
Jan
People
12,000
Empowered men
900
Empowered women
Jungle
Forest
110
Matavan
51,000
Trees planted
Jameen
Land
11
Organic farming trainings
350
Farmers reached
Janvar
Animals
30
Training camps
1,200
Farmers trained
Jal
Water structures
65
Ponds 4,000 million litre capacity
141,000
Contour trenches
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Come and see for yourself
Most people who visit Jhabua stay longer than they planned to.
Visit Jhabua
Spend a few days in the villages, walk the hills, and watch a Halma being organised from the inside.
Get involved
Internships and fellowships for students who want to work on the ground, not observe from a distance.
Help & donate
The village supplies the labour. Your contribution buys the pickaxe, the sapling and the diesel.
Standing with us
Our partners
Where our fellows come from
Interns & fellows
Students from across the country spend a season in Jhabua each year.
In their words
What others say about the work
Unlike others, Shivganga is neither pushing Aadivasi backwards as they are illiterate, nor showing them upfront because they’re illiterate. They are simply making them realise their energy… so that they themselves can move forward.
The Shivganga… makes use of the tribals’ own cultural resources to motivate them to develop. It is one of the more successful among tribal development schemes.
Young Volunteer Organization is proud to be associated with Shivganga. It has been a pleasure helping these enthusiastic entrepreneurs who have put their hearts and soul into developing 1300 tribal villages in Jhabua. Our donations have been utilised effectively to impact over 480 lives.
I feel happy that I am contributing to social capital generation through Akshay Daan of Shivganga, the impact of which will grow manifold with time. I’m honoured to be a contributor to this social movement.
Recognition
Achievements
Enterprise
Ipreneur ’18
Jhabua Naturals, represented by Nitin Dhakad and Vijen Amlaiyar, took first position in the Enterprise category at Ipreneur ’18, organised by TISS Mumbai.
National
Padma Shri
Shri Mahesh Sharma, founder member and President of Shivganga, was awarded the Padma Shri for his contribution to the empowerment of tribal rural areas in Madhya Pradesh.
Major NGO
Chiranji Lal Dhanuka Memorial Service Award
Lions Club New Delhi Alaknanda awarded Shivganga this recognition under the Major NGO category for 2020, for remarkable contribution to rural development and tribal upliftment.
Jal Shakti
National Water Mission Award
Awarded in 2019 by the Ministry of Jal Shakti for focused attention to vulnerable and over-exploited areas, presented to Shri Mahesh Sharma and Shri Rajaram Katara.
Publication
The Vision of Antyodaya
Shivganga’s approach to holistic village development was featured in “The Vision of Antyodaya”, a book on 408 best practices of India, released by the Vice-President of India.
Built in Jhabua
Our social ventures
Enterprises that keep the value of local work in local hands.
Akshay Daan
The village will do the digging. Fund the pickaxe.
A monthly contribution compounds the way the work does — quietly, and for years after it is given.