A process oriented and integrated socio-economic development of selected tribal villages through peoples' participation in Jhabua district has been financed by CASA (Church's Auxiliary Society for Action). The project focuses on:
A number of night classes are organized in nine project villages of Jhabua district. The basic objective of the project is to educate people informally. Presently out of a total of 817 persons, 304 female and 337 male and 176 children are attending these night classes. Prior to the project there were 303 boys and 148 girls enrolled in the local schools. Presently 637 boys and 371 girls are attending school.
A unique feature of this project has been to bring the people/community together through organising cultural activities. To enable them to think and try to solve their social problems by themselves, this cultural activity is perhaps the best source. Street plays and various competitions designed to build up a positive attitude on issues of importance are successful instruments of social engineering. There have been visible results of such cultural activities viz. reduction in the number of child marriages, controlling the number of children, avoiding the curse of dowry etc.
From the point of view of sustainability an apex body has been constituted. The committee members are nominated by the villagers of the nine villages under the project. These members elect the President and the Secretary of this body. This apex body functions with the object of solving the local problems with the support of the community and the government agencies.