BGVS has a network of district committees in eight districts. In others it operates through the Zilla Saksharata Samiti. The organisation consists of writers, journalists, college and school teachers, students, unemployed youth, women and elected representatives. At the state level, BGVs has a state committee of 45 persons and an executive of 16 persons. The state committee is the body deciding all matters of the state unit. The executive meets every two months. At the state level, district level committees and an executive committee have been formed. The selection of functionaries for these units is carried out through elections. The organisation was, by the end of 2000, still in the process of forming block level and village level units. The entire structure is voluntary. Full time paid employees have been at the minimum and are kept on a project basis. As a mass based organisation, the main strengthof BGVS is its large volunteer cadre. The were more than 3000 volunteers all over the state.
BGVS has mainly worked in the fields of literacy, science popularisation, women’s and children’s education and child rights in Rajasthan. Some of the programmes of BGVS, Rajasthan were as follows:
Literacy:
Environment building programmes consisted of organising kalajatha, padyataras, volunteer melas and orientation camps.
Training - developing training modules and organising training at the state and district levels for resource persons, master trainers and volunteers.
Material development - It has helped the Zilla Shaksharta Samitis to prepare primers, other reading materials and training module.
Concurrent evaluation of the literacy programme was carried out in 2 districts, Banswara and Bilwara.
Running Classes - BGVS was involved in runnung classes in Alwar, Baran and Pali districts. In Dholpur district, 10 panchayats in Rajakhera block were taken up to develop a model. In these villages, women’s groups as well as youth groups have been created.
Jan Vachan Alndolan (JVA)- to create a people’s culture for reading specially for those learners whose literacy skills were fragile. 100 books have been published so far, of which 25 were for children. Jan vachan shivirs were organised in four districts to creat awareness and sale of books. 10 Zilla Saksharta Samitis had bought these books as part of the post-literacy and continuing education programme. 11 community level libraries were being run by Bal Manch (children’s groups) in Baran, Kota, Jaipur and Dholpur districts.
Continuing Education - BGVS Rajasthan has been running continuing education pilot projects sanctioned by the National Literacy Movement. Two nodal and 18 CECs have been running in Dholpur and Baran districts. The main activities have been running libraries, equivalency programmes, women empowerment programmes, literacy groups and the Bal Manch.
Child Rights and Joy of Learning Campaigns for Children
This was carried out in 100 villages between 1994 and 1994. Child rights programmes were taken up to consolidate the efforts of the Joy of Learning campaign and to increase the participation of children in the panchayats and schools. This was carried out with the support of UNICEF and the Education Department in 100 villages of eight districts. About 30,000 children were covered in this programme. Bal Manch were constituted by open election of children in the villages and by the end of 2000, 60 such flora had been formed. Each Manch has 11 to 16 members and care has been taken to ensure grils’ participation. The has been about 40% representation of girls in the Manch. The Manch exist in Baran, Kota, Dholpur, Alwar, Pali, Jaipur, Sikar and Karuli districts. Through these the children have started intervening in the development process. They have started libraries, taken an active part in pulse polio campaigns, have organised cleanliness drives in the village and even taken up issues of child marriage.
Science Popularization:
Jathas have been regularly organised for exposing superstitions and spreading science in the villages. A large number of low cost scientific aids which are used in schools have been acquired. The Cosmic Voyage Programme was organised during the total solar eclipse in 1995. BGVS took up a massive awareness programme and a Kalajatha was launched along the line of totality. At 11 points, stations wereset up for safe watching and approximately 10,000 people watched the solar eclipse.
Primary Education:
BGVS has made two kinds of efforts in primary education, the Janshala programme and the Gyan Vigyan Vidyalayas. The Janshala programme was being run in collaboration with the Government of Rajasthan in the slums of Jaipur. BGVS has taken the responsibility of the Vidya Dhar zone. 13 Janshalas were running in these slums. BGVS has started the Gyan Vigyan Vidyalaya in Kota district. At present, 200 children have been enrolled in this school.
Women’s Development:
BGVS has aimed to work closely with women who have participated in literacy activities. Samata Vigyan Utsav (SVU) was one such initiative. The programme is organised in a mela style in which various issues relating to women are discussed; for example, health, education, women, science and technology, kitchen science, home based production, women and violence and small savings. These issues were reported to be transacted in a participatory manner, the idiom of the women being used like role plays, stories, games, posters and demonstrations. This was a part of the national coordinated programme and was taken up in five districts.
Self Help Groups - 38 groups have been formed in three districts: Baran, Dhopur and Karuli. There are 550 members and more than Rs. 75,000 have been deposited by these groups. Internal loans have started and one group has taken a loan from the bank. One Credit Cooperative Society has been registered in Natai village, Baran district, with 125 members.
Pathak Manch - As part of the CE, women Pathak Manch (Reading Clubs) were formed. Issues discussed in these Pthak Manch are health, the girl child, primary education and violence on women. There are 500 members in these groups.
In addition to the above programmes, BGVS has also undertaken Participatory Resource Mapping to creat awareness and optimise the use of natural resources. This was carried out in Baran and Sawai Madhopur districts. BGVS was, however, not able to actually implement this watershed development programme because funding from the government was delayed. The organisation has also worked closely with panchayats and has undertaken training of women representatives in Baran and Alwar. Among BGVS’ main strengths is its cultural wing consisting mainly of village youth volunteers. The youth are reported to be good at developing plays and cultural programmes aimed to educate. BGVS has taken out several kalajathas at state and district levels since its inception. It has also been continuously involved in networking with various other groups in the state. Apart from the literacy netwrok, the organisation is part of the right to information movement, the campaign against atrocities on women and human rights networks.