Talk:Sir Dorabji Tata and Allied Trusts

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Institutional grants

Endowment grants

The Trust is known for promoting pioneering institutions of national importance. These include the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai; the Tata Memorial Centre for Cancer Research and Treatment, Mumbai; the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai; the Tata Agricultural and Rural Training Centre for the Blind, Phansa; and the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai.

Over the last 15 years, it has helped in establishing the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust Centre for Research in Tropical Diseases at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, the JRD Tata Ecotechnology Centre, Chennai, and the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.

The Trust also backed the creation of the rural campus by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences at Tuljapur, some 500 km from Mumbai. The rural campus was conceptualised to revive the rural economy and society through local resource mobilisation. Developed over 100 acres in the drought-prone district of Osmanabad, the location was chosen to evolve programmes to meet the needs of such regions.

NGO grants

The Trust makes grants to NGOs in five major sectors of social development:

Management of natural resources: The Trust has made a significant contribution in this sector by supporting projects related to water and water resources, land degradation and better methods of cultivating and harvesting crops. The significant grantees here are the N. M. Sadguru Water and Development Foundation, Gujarat; the Samaj Pragati Sahayog, Madhya Pradesh; the Himalayan Consortium for Himalayan Conservation, Uttaranchal; and Prerana, Karnataka.

Livelihood: The Trust has backed several projects in the livelihood sector. These cover, among other initiatives, the plight of unorganised labourers, capacity building of grassroots groups and business development of a variety of people-based organisations. Significant livelihood grantees include SHARE, Andhra Pradesh; the Pan-Himalayan Grassroots Development Foundation, Uttaranchal; Nidan, Bihar; Dastakar Andhra, Andhra Pradesh; and the DHAN Foundation, Tamil Nadu.

Education: The Trust has supported several innovative initiatives in the field of education, focusing on both children and adults - within and outside the formal education system. Significant grantees here include the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti, New Delhi; Sandhaan, Rajasthan; Nirantar, New Delhi; the MV Foundation, Andhra Pradesh; and Nalanda, Uttar Pradesh.

Health: The Trust has made significant contributions in creating and upgrading medical infrastructure and healthcare facilities across the country. It has focused on the area of training community health workers in ways of preventing diseases and promoting positive health practices, mental health and reproductive health. The Trust also supports research studies in alternative systems of medicine such as ayurveda. Significant health-sector grantees include the Arya Vaidya Sala, Kerala; the Jan Swasthya Sahyog, Chhattisgarh; the Foundation for Research in Community Health, Maharashtra; and Anjali, Kolkata.

Social development initiatives: The Trust's social development initiatives cover a range of areas, including community development, human rights, family welfare, the physically and mentally challenged, civil society, art and culture, and relief.

Community Development Initiatives and Civil Society: In the field of community development and civil society organizations, the Trust has been partnering integrated development initiatives in rural communities. In an effort to re-look at the area of focus, an approach paper was commissioned in 2004. While this sector covers a gamut of projects, its core activities aim at building the capacities of communities through awareness programs, advocacy and fellowship support and holistic grassroots interventions.

The Trust also supports initiatives, which promote institutions of local self-governance in tribal, rural and urban areas, with a particular focus on building the capacities of Panchayats, CBOs and people’s organizations.

Human Rights: The Trust has been supporting programs working on human rights policy-advocacy, the review of existing legislation, as well as on sensitization of lawmakers and administrators. Grants cover projects in diversified fields, ranging from rights of prisoners and prison reform to access of justice to the right to information.

The Trust has also focused on the issue of food security. An important development in this regard has been the Supreme Court Order of 2001 directing the central government and all state governments to take urgent and effective measures to ensure implementation of the eight centrally sponsored food-related schemes. The Trust has supported a pilot project in Madhya Pradesh and similar efforts in Maharashtra to address the issues of access and availability of food.

Family Welfare Initiatives: Programs in this sector support those initiatives that focus on the rights of women and children.

Unequal gender relations and power structures are manifested in various pervasive forms in society, mostly socially sanctioned, through gender violence and discrimination. In addressing the issue of violence against women and other relevant issues, the Trust supports organizations that work through a range of interventions and community initiatives. This may be in form of direct action, education, advocacy, legal aid counselling and gender sensitive training.

Every child has the right to equal opportunity without discrimination as enshrined in the Constitution of India and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), ratified by India in 1992. The Convention on the Rights of the Child spells out the basic human rights that children are entitled to and the Trust’s work is guided by those principles. The focus areas are projects working with street children, disabled children and child trafficking.

Initiatives for the Physically and Mentally Challenged: In India, 70 million people are affected by physical or mental disabilities, presenting many challenges to the work of this sector including the lack of mobility for the disabled and understanding of care within the community. The Trust supports a variety of projects that address the issues of accessibility and mobility for the disabled and use innovative methods of rehabilitation. It also supports community-based rehabilitation and outreach programs as well as early intervention and vocational training for children with special needs.

Art and Culture: In the Art and Culture sector, the Trust engages in a variety of projects that foster artistic expression while also addressing issues of art conservation and the revival of dying art forms. One of the primary thrust areas is to support programs that create a second line of scholarship in the arts, either by promoting and developing performers who will be tomorrow’s leaders or by supporting institutional initiatives that directly engage in arts scholarship.

Relief: Grants in this sector provide much-needed and timely relief measures in times of natural and man-made disasters and calamities. The Trust works on relief and rehabilitation efforts, which look at short-term and long-term projects.

Small grants

The Trust also gives small grants to organisations for starting new activities. The Trust believes that a grant, however small, given at a crucial time can make a great difference in impacting the lives of people and also enable the organisation to have more leverage with other donor organisations.

Individual grants

The Trust gives merit and need-based educational and medical grants to individuals. A total of Rs 404.89 lakh was disbursed as individual grants during 2003-2004.

Medical: Financial help is extended to individuals for the treatment of cancer, heart ailments, kidney failure, neurological ailments, gynaecological problems, respiratory ailments, etc. Over the past four years, the total disbursals made by the Trust rose to Rs 266.59 lakh from Rs 100 lakh. There was an increase of 67 per cent in the number of cases supported by the Trust.

Education: The Trust also offers scholarships for higher education and travel grants for studying abroad as well as for attending conferences, presentation of papers for research, and sports related activities. During 2003-04, the Trust disbursed Rs 138.30 lakh by way of education grants to 534 applicants.

Besides the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, allied trusts such as the J. R. D. Tata Trust supported around 2,200 scholarships, aggregating Rs 291.13 lakh, for graduate-level studies in various fields during the year of 2003-2004.

The Allied Trusts

The Allied Trusts are, primarily, smaller trusts; while some have a specific mandate, the rest are broad-based in their approach to grant making. The Sir Dorabji Tata Trust administers the Allied Trusts. A total of Rs 2,239.1 lakh was disbursed through the Allied Trusts in the year 2003-2004.

The Tata Social Welfare Trust, the R. D. Tata Trust, the Tata Education Trust, the J. R. D. Tata Trust, the J. R. D. Tata and Thelma Tata Trust [with a specific focus on women and children] and the Jamsetji Tata Trust focus on overall developmental issues.

J. N. Tata Endowment: The first Trust established by Jamsetji Tata, in 1892, it provides scholarship loans to a large number of deserving individuals for the pursuit of higher studies abroad. Over 120 students are selected every year as J. N. Tata scholars from all over India.

Lady Tata Memorial Trust: Established by Sir Dorabji Tata in 1932 in memory of his wife, Lady Meherbai, who died of leukaemia in 1930, the Trust spends four-fifths of its income on international research, with the help of an International Advisory Committee, based in London, which invites applications for awards for support for research in leukaemia worldwide. The Trust also supports institutional research carried out by recognised Indian institutions, research laboratories and leading scientific / medical centres doing research work in diseases of the blood, with special emphasis on leukaemia research.

Lady Meherbai Tata Education Trust: Set up in 1932, the Trust grants scholarships to young Indian women graduates of recognised Indian universities for pursuing higher studies abroad in the field of social work and public health.