Odisha’s Gram Vikas Conferred Earth Care Award 2022

Bhubaneswar: Gram Vikas has received the 10th Earth Care Award 2022 for excellence in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaption. The Award recognises Gram Vikas which has been working towards empowering village communities to address the rapidly deteriorating ecological balance.

Gram Vikas was conferred the award in ‘Community Based Climate Action’ category at a function at NCPA Mumbai on June 3. Tourism and Environment, Minister, Maharashtra, Aaditya Uddhav Thackeray presented the award.

Gram Vikas has been addressing challenges to livelihood insecurity of Adivasi communities due to massive deforestation, by regenerating private and community wasteland through plantations of fruit, fuel and timber yielding species since 1985.

Gram Vikas is a community development organisation working in Odisha and Jharkhand since 1979. It works with rural and tribal communities to help them lead a dignified life by building capacities, strengthening community institutions, and mobilizing resources. So far, it has empowered the lives of
5,50,980 people across 2451 villages in Odisha and Jharkhand. It works with a mission to “promote processes which are sustainable, socially inclusive and gender equitable, to enable critical masses of poor and marginalised rural people and their communities to live a dignified quality of life”.

The Earth Care Awards (ECAs) is a joint initiative of JSW and The Times of India group. It is a national awards programme instituted in 2008, that recognises locally evolved transformative models and solutions that address the need for building or enhancing the climate resilience capacities of the vulnerable groups, infrastructure, system and process those that drive climate actions.