The document summarizes the work of Urmul Trust, an organization working to improve living conditions in the Thar Desert region of India. It faces numerous challenges including extreme temperatures, scarce resources, and poverty. Urmul Trust aims to help local communities become self-reliant by providing health, education, economic opportunity, and advocacy services based on community needs. It takes a participatory approach and works to strengthen local leadership and initiatives. Since 1986 it has focused on issues like health, women's empowerment, water access, and crafts to support social and economic change in the region.

1. Welcome to
Thar Desert
URMUL Trust
& FAMILY

2. URMUL
in Thar

3. Issues of the Thar
• Extreme temperatures
• Harsh physical terrain
• Scanty and unreliable rainfall (average rainfall 318.7mm)
• Frequent occurrence of droughts & Migration
• No food, fodder, water, livelihood security
• Distant & scattered settlements
• Lack of infrastructure
• Sex ratio (807 females per 1000 males)
• Absence of basic Health Facilities
• Abysmal literacy rates
• Poor socio-economic condition of women, girl children & backward castes
• Environmental Imbalance

4. URMUL Trust
To lead the poor towards self reliance
by making available to them
a package of development services
that they themselves decide on,
design, implement and eventually finance.

5. URMUL Trust
• Beginning :1986
• Health :1986
• Economic :1988
• Education :1990
• Advocacy :1992
• Decentralisation:1993
• Strengthening
community

6. URMUL Trust represents
a family of organisations
working towards social and economic
change in the lives of the people
in the harsh, inhospitable difficult
terrain and interior region of Thar
What keeps these different
organisations and the TRUST
together are . . .

7. Commitments
Transparency Ethics
Participatory
Equity
Approaches
URMUL
Shared Belief in
Feelings Democracy
Gender
Secularism
Sensitivity

8. Urmul Setu
Urmul Seemant Lunkaransar
Bajju Urmul Samiti
Phalodi
Urmul Jyoti
Nokha
URMUL Trust Urmul Gavaniyaar
Bikaner
Marushakti Bikaner
Sujangarh Vasundhara
Lunkaransar
Urmul Khejdi Aawam
Jayal Vikas Sansthan
Sri Dungargarh

9. The core of the development premise of
URMUL Trust is
an intrinsic faith
in the capacity of
the rural people to
devise and manage and
sustain development programs

10. Since inception there has
been an unflinching
commitment towards
strengthening the
processes of local initiative
and leadership both within
the organization and at the
village level & Panchayats
Most of the members are the natives from the Thar
and only a handful of development professionals
as middle level managers come from reputed
institutions of higher education.

11. The drought
of 1986-88
taught us
a basic lesson
that development
interventions
in the Thar
would have to be
informed by the
fragile context
of the crisis of
food, water &
fodder security

12. Health & Education
Environment
Self Help Groups
Capacity Building
Women Empowerment
Panchayat Raj ,
Female Feticide ,Adolescents
Income Generation Programme
Animal Husbandry & Agriculture
Water Harvesting
Advocacy & Research
Village Resource Centers
Rural Developmental Tourism
MSSK & Child Line

13. Desert Craft
&
Desert Art
for
Social Transformation
Western Rajasthan & the Thar desert brings to mind images of
sand dunes, starry nights & lilting folk music. For the discerning
buyer, Rajasthan has also being synonyms with a rich and
colorful craft tradition. Potters, weavers carpenters, jewelers and
leather workers are but some of the artisans that abide in the
region.
The stark landscape & seemingly barren stretches are in
remarkable contrast to the vibrant colors that the inhabitants
clothe themselves in.

14. The symbol of woman
with a spinning wheel
or CHARAKHA,
signifies an attempt to
ensure that rural
artisans can bear the
fruits of their labour
with dignity and
security

18. Empowering PRI & Self Governance
Partnership with IGPRS
Training of trainers for PRI
Need assessments for trainings
Training responsibility for
Bikaner, Churu, Ganganagar, Hanumangarh
Jaisalmer

19. Trustees of UT
MD, RCDF
District Collector
Principal, Medical College, Bikaner
CMHO, Bikaner
MD URMUL Dairy
Sh. MK Khanna
Sumita Ghose
Rita Sareen

20. Funding Agencies Government Institutions
Action Aid CAPART NID
Save the Children
CARE RCDF Urmul DairyThe
Hunger Project NDDB Gangmul
RUDA TISS
Oxfam DCH IDS, Jaipur
Aga Khan Foundation DRADA NIFT
Ford Foundation BADP
PANOS
NORAD CADA
CBCS CIDA DWCD
PLAN International Shiksha Karmi
IGSSS Lok Jumbish
Amar Foundation Min. of Health & Family Welfare
N(O)VIB
KKS-CEVA
CRY
Sir Ratan Tata Trust
IFES Partners in Development
The Hunger Project

21. Fund Raising Techniques
Govt. Projects
Funding Agencies
Self Sustaining Income Generation Programmes incl.
Handicrafts, Vermicompost, Folk Artistes etc.
Public Contribution
Govt. Contribution
Individual Donors

22. URMUL TRUST
P.O. Box 55
URMUL BHAWAN
Sri Ganganagar Road
BIKANER – 334 001
urmultrust@rediffmail.com
Phone : 0 151 2523093
Fax : 0 151 2522041