Urivi Vikram Charitable Trust

Urivi Vikram Charitable Trust (UVCT), a non-governmental and non-profit organisation was established in 1991. UVCT is registered in Delhi under the Societies Registration Act of 1860. In addition to its six centers in Delhi, UVCT has widened its sphere of activity to five other States i.e., Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Karnataka and Maharashtra as well as opened a chapter in USA also.

During the last 21 years, UVCT has evolved specific programs catering to the needs of our core group e.g., adolescents and young adults in the age group of 12-24 years. These programs comprise of psychological counselling and career guidance (Project Prerna); harnessing the hidden energies of dropouts and under achievers (Project Shakti); vocational training and extending support to find meaningful careers (Project Sahara); reforming and rehabilitation of children in conflict with the law through life skills education and specialized training (Project Parivartan) and financial assistance to those children who are academically bright but financially weak (Project Umeed). Program ‘Sahara’ has also been integrated with the program ‘Shakti’ to ensure linkages to livelihoods.

The Trust has developed a unique ‘Life Skills Education Program’ for school or college dropouts since October 1995 in collaboration with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. This program was evaluated by the UN Inter Agency Working Group on Population and Development (UN IAWG-P&D), under the auspices of the UNFPA. The World Health Organization (WHO) also provided technical support to improve upon the then existing UVCT curriculum and train the volunteers. By end of August 2011, 3400 wards in 111 batches (with an average of 30 participants in each batch) in Delhi alone were trained. The UN IAWG-P&D also undertook an in-depth study of the UVCT program in 1999 with a goal to evaluate it for international adoption. It was finalized and circulated under the title ‘Life Skills for Health Promotion of Out-of-School Adolescents’ where it was also graciously acknowledged that the UVCT Shakti Programme was the basis for the same.

UVCT undertook a strong advocacy campaign with 15 other NGO’s as partners-in-action and held a ‘National Meet for Young Adults’ program in July 1999, which was supported by the Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India. Based on the recommendations of the program, an advocacy document on ‘Towards a National Policy for Young Adults’ was prepared. The Urivi Vikram National Centre for Adolescents (UVNAC) in Dwarka is actively involved in conducting and promoting in-depth studies and runs a number of projects and training/orientation programs for the development and empowerment of adolescents.

With reference to the UNFPA, it may be mentioned that UVCT remained in close contact with UNFPA from 1999 to 2005 and was supported by the UNFPA for conducting the Shakti Program in 2001; for analyzing the data on about 60,000 adolescents and bringing it into a monogram, and for subsequently releasing it as a book titled ‘Adolescent Concerns Through Own Eyes’. The RCH program in Thane, Maharashtra, continues with its interactions with in-school adolescents (more than 50,000 from 2011-12) through a wide range of projects and initiative.