With increasing awareness towards a sustainable live and being environmentally friendly,

many organizations are adopting practices towards contributing to this phenomenon.

However due to resource constraints, governments can't always take the initiative. In these
situations, societies and individuals come forward and take initiatives with limited resources
to make an impact. Niravu Vengeri is a prime example.

Niravu is a non-profit residents' association that has been popularizing

pesticide free food through the adoption of organic farming. Niravu was formed by 101
households in Vengeri, Kozhikode district in Kerala spreading their mission - " NIRAVU
ORGANIC VILLAGE, KOZHIKODE", which they claim is sustainable and can spark interest in
organic agriculture. Niravu projects are funded by the National Bank for Agriculture and
Rural Development (NABARD). They are getting technical support from the Kerala
Agriculture University and the agriculture department. Niravu zero-budget plastic waste
management programme conceived and successfully launched by the Niravu Residents
Association at Vengeri is now being extended to many residential associations and also to
Calicut Airport and Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIMK).

The mission of Niravu is to extend their model to entire Kerala in the

next five years with the help of school students, youngsters and farmers. They want to
highlight that adopting organic farming and waste management doesn't cost much, instead
they can also give better returns and a healthy lifestyle.

The project which we are undertaking is divided into 4 parts:

1. Study on the impact of NABARD support

NABARD has provided funding to Niravu in their initiatives which include training members
of other wards in community participation of waste segregation, collection and disposal. the
organic waste is created into compost which is used as a fertilizer in the gardens of the
residents while the inorganic waste is sent to recycling plants in nearby Tamil Nadu and
Karnataka. The produce from these gardens being free of any chemicals are sold in
cooperative stores and the proceeds are distributed to the residents themselves.

2. Study on the impact of students support

A major reason for the success of Niravu project was the active contribution of the students
living in these wards. Our group would like to study how the mobilization of these youth in
community programs can bring about effective and efficient implementation.

3. Study the impact vice-versa (impact in the lives of student society and Niravu society)
Developing a sustainable lifestyle and inculcating them into our future generations will be
beneficial to the society in the long run. Niravu's programs can grow from strength to
strength withe involvement of the youth who are more tech savvy and who can help
implementing the model throughout the state.

4. Creating a model for different support system networks for waste management
programs
 One of the major challenges that the organization is facing is to employ
their successful model to other village Panchayats. Building a model that will be easy to
adopt and can be implemented by all necessary stakeholders will be an important aspect of
our project. Convincing residents of other wards to change their lifestyle and contribute to
the cleanliness of their surrounding is also a challenge.

The following points describe the various points we will be addressing in this project:
1. Create a presentation of the Niravu Vengeri model to be shown to other wards
2. Prepare a detailed plan for waste management
3. Prepare the blueprints for materials management in the waste collection program
4. Prepare a plan for manure management
5. Create awareness among people about organic farming and segregation of waste
6. Identify sources of funding for various programs taken up by Niravu and how to manage it
efficiently
7. Future roadmap of the organization

The main deliverable that we are targeting is implementation of the green practices in a
ward at Kunnamangalam.
The deliverables will include:
1. Selection of a ward to start the project
2. Creating awareness among the people in that ward to employ these green practices
3. Highlighting the tangible and intangible aspects of organic farming and waste
management practices
4. Inculcating the practices in the people so that they become part of their culture instead of
being just protocols
5. Study the impact of NABARD and students' support. The ward we are targeting should
fulfil the following criteria as decided by our third party mentor and team:
a). Around 100 families should be living in that ward
b). Availability of space to start the disposal practices and sorting of organic and sorting of
organic and inorganic waste
c). An overall general willingness among the residents to switch over to green practices