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Recognition from the Govt
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Brief Profile about IRCDS

IRCDS Brochure
IRCDS 35th year Souvenir
Recognition from the Govt
Empanelled NGO


Back ground


Integrated Rural Community Development Society - popularly known as IRCDS is a non-governmental organization (NGO) founded by Late Thiru. P. Titus in 1986.

Vision: To uphold Love, Peace, Justice and Equality in Society

Mission: Build knowledge, skills and noble values.

It is a value-based organization building the capacity of the people to be responsible for their own development. IRCDS works with and for children, women and persons with disabilities particularly from socially excluded and marginalized communities who have been organized into community-based organizations to actively participate in their development and well-being.

Our program promotes gender and social inclusion. In our working area, poverty and discrimination based on a deep-rooted caste system and gender inequalities cause social exclusion. We address this systemic barrier with the support of different partners and stakeholders by specializing in gender and social inclusion, protecting children, women and persons with disabilities and by ensuring their participation in taking informed decisions.

IRCDS firmly believes in working in collaboration with Government at different levels to ensure quality delivery of services related to Education, Health, Nutrition and Livelihood to marginalized communities.

Activities of IRCDS are consolidated in nine thematic areas:

Education:

IRCDS focuses on addressing the root causes of barriers to education by promoting Inclusive quality education for enhancing learning outcomes of children in a child friendly environment / safe schools in collaboration with Education Department in government schools, and other stakeholders.

Our approach is to enable children in government schools to attain age/grade appropriate skills and create pathways to productive careers through the following initiatives:

Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD):

To address the root causes of nutritional deficiencies and inadequate parenting practices, IRCDS is working with Govt. Anganwadi centres (Early childhood care centres), different Govt. Institutions, Academic Institutions, NGOs and communities for creating awareness for behavioral changes, building their capacities and create space for ANC/ Lactating mothers, young fathers, communities and Govt. Institutions to share their concerns and find solutions through the following:

  • Capacity building of ANC/PNC mothers and young fathers
  • Capacity building of Anganwadi workers & Helpers on ECCD / Learning through Play
  • Awareness on Nutritional outcome
  • Nutri-garden in Anganwadi centres
  • Ensuring the services for ANC/PNC mothers and children from migrant brick kiln labourers

Child Rights Protection and Participation:

IRCDS’s program is designed to build an safe and enabling environment that promotes Child friendly spaces in families, communities and institutions. Our program envisages children as right holders and can claim their rights.Duty bearers are accountable to ensure that the children have non-discriminatory access to quality services and their concerns are redressed through their active participation in empowered Communities and active and functional child protectionsystems. We are following Child Friendly Accountability Mechanism( CFAM) as a methodology to realise our goals. https://childfundalliance.org/our-work/strategic-priorities/child-friendly-accountability

We are working with the Communities and Govt. Institutions for by plugging the gaps through mobilization, capacitation, strengthening accountability mechanisms through evidences. Following are some of the activities that we engage in to ensure protection and participation of children:

  • Child/ youth clubs in the villages
  • Capacity building of Children and Youth
  • Interface meeting between children, parents, community members and child protection actors
  • End child marriage Campaign
  • Utilizing existing space and creating space for children for their effective participation

Women Empowerment:

Deep rooted social structures around caste and gender and perceived low values of girls, practices and culture around them make women and girls particularly as victims of violence. Most of them lack skills to safeguard themselves when they are put to distress in vulernable situations. We are organizing women to amplify their voices to safeguard their rights, building their capacities for enhancing their participation in family and community decision making and in local governance. We are also taking initiatives for breaking negative social and gender norms. Some of our interventions towards this goal are:

  • Organize women into Self Help Groups (SHGs)
  • Capacity building on women rights, Leadership and group management, financial management and Government entitlements and schemes.
  • Programs for breaking barriers to Gender Equality
  • Family Counselling Centre: Psychological counselling to needy Youth, women and men, broken families. It also cooperates very closely with local authorities such as the centre does not only focus on counselling and mediation sessions with family members.
  • We are also working with Women Police Stations and District Administration.

Sustainable Livelihood:

Theobjectiveof the SustainableLivelihood Programis to reduce poverty and inequality by generating employment among poor households and by moving highly vulnerable households into sustainablelivelihoodsand toward economic stability. In order to ensure this, we are closely working with Women SHGs, Panchayat level federations, Village Development Committees, Government Banking Institutions, Government Institutions, NGOs and academic Institutions. Our interventions towards this direction are:

  • Financial Literacy among women
  • Facilitate women SHGs to access financial support from Govt. Banking Institutions in order to address their life cycle needs/ relief from debt-bondage and start income generating activities
  • Marketable skill trainings
  • Facilitate needy families to access resources from Govt. Institutions and Civil Society Organizations.

Empowering Persons with Disabilities ( PwDs)

IRCDS has been working for the cause of promoting the inclusion of the People with Disability(s)in alignment with theConvention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, whichis an international human rights treaty of the United Nations intended to protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. Parties to the Convention are required to promote, protect, and ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities and ensure that persons with disabilities enjoy full equality under the law.

Our primary focus area is spread between Education, Health, Livelihood, Social and Empowerment. We are working to enable, equip and empower children and adults with a range of disabilities as follows:

  • Capacity building of PwDs/ family members and community members on “Inclusiveness”
  • Rehabilitation of PwDs by adopting CBR Matrix Health, Education, Livelihood, Social and Empowerment
  • Organize PwDs as “village level groups”, Block level federations and District level federation and extending mentoring support to District level federation called “Vasantham Federation of differently abled persons”

Support to Brick kiln workers

IRCDS has been working to ensure decent work for all people particularly from poor marginalized sections of the society in both the formal and informal sector in line with ILO’s standards as follows: decent work involves opportunities for work that are productive and deliver a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men. IRCDS engage in the following interventions towards this:

  • Create awareness and facilitate migrant and local brick kiln workers to access social security programme from the Government
  • Data collection bout migrant children and share with the Govt Department enable them to mainstream in Govt Anganwadi centres, Health systems and schools
  • Labour Rights Education
  • Facilitate social dialogue to discuss the workers’ needs and productivity issues and find solutions

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) & COVID Response:

IRCDS provides emergency assistance to communities at risk in times of natural disasters and during pandemic including COVID. We ensure that they realise their right to clean water, food, sanitation and other fundamental needs. In particular, we reach out to women, adolescent girls, children, persons with disabilities and elderly people among these communities.

An equally important aspect of our work is disaster risk reduction, or building resilience among communities to natural disasters. We do this by enhancing the preparedness of our program communities on the ground, networks of humanitarian support providers, and of the communities themselves, to cope with sudden natural disasters.Some of our interventions towards this are:

  • Awareness on community based DRR and Response
  • Public Awareness Campaign on COVID and Vaccination
  • Covid Relief activities among most affected communities

Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience:

IRCDS is building youth leadership for climate change,climate resilience and carbon reduction in our communities. These initiatives contribute to achieve the Sustainable Developmental Goal 13 :“Climate Action”.

We helps young people to play an active and contributory role in awareness-building, climate literacy, encouraging sustainable lifestyles, developing and conserving biodiversity, supporting eco-friendly practices and facilitating mitigation interventions aimed at controlling and tackling the challenges of climate change and improving their quality of life. As part of this, we have established Oxy parks (micro forests). These trees produce more oxygen compared to other trees and can withstand drought. The maintenance of these micro-forests is being carried out by the Government Panchayat administration and respective local youth groups.

Our Reach:

  • Impacting over 23,813 Children, 31734 Women and 11500 Persons with Disabilities
  • Transforming 344 communities
  • Engaged with 43 Govt. Anganwadi centres ( Early Childhood Care Centers )
  • Engaged with 140 Govt. Schools

Internship and Field work:

Students from different educational Institutions are used to come IRCDS for field work, internship, research and rural camps.

Awards / Recognitions Received:

  • Best NGO award received from State Bank of India in the year 2005
  • IRCDS has received “BEST NGO AWARD” from the renowned Institution "Madras School of Social Work” in 2015.
  • Recognized by the District Administration in the year 2018
  • Honored by the Minister of Education for working with Government Schools inthe year 2019
  • Best CSR NGO Award in the year 2021
  • 15th August 2023 : Recognition from the District Collector, Tiruvallur District : Certificate of Appreciation received for the outstanding work done by Integrated Rural Community Development Society which had helped the District Administration to earn good name from public and the Government. Awarded this certificate of appreciation for sincere and efficient work.
  • IRCDS has been recognized as one of the Empanelled NGOs by the Department of Tribal Welfare , Govt.of Tamil Nadu for the Livelihood Promotion of Tribal people.

Studies Conducted by IRCDS :

Year Topic Conducted by Conducted for
2022 -23

 Siragugal Bricks Initiative of Tiruvallur District Administration - Social Audit

 Jointly by the IRCDS and Department of Social Work, Stella Maris College, Chennai

 Tiruvallur District Administration
2022 - 23 Qualitative study on " the issues of malnourishment in the first 1000 days of children in Tamil Nadu with reference to convergence"

 IRCDS

 State Planning Commission, Govt.of Tamil Nadu

Engagement with Government Departments:

IRCDS has been serving as a member in various committees formed by government at district level in Tiruvallur.

  • District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA)
  • District Three Tier Committee for re-enrolment of out of school children
  • District Child Welfare and Protection Committee
  • District Bonded Labour Vigilance Committee
  • District Health Assembly
  • District Noon Meal Programme Monitoring Committee
  • District Watershed Management Committee
  • District Sponsorship and Foster care Approval Committee

About the Founder

Thiru P. Titus has completed Bachelor’s in science, Masters in Sociology and Education and served as a school teacher for 24 years. He was a social worker par excellence, a devoted leader, grass-root worker, able manager and above all a nice human being who showered love, affection and compassion with everyone he met. He led IRCDS for the past 35 years and now the organization stands tall as one of the reputed institutions in the state. Thiru.Titus passed away on 2nd May 2021.

Present Leadership

The board of IRCDS has entrusted the leadership of IRCDS with Mr. P. Stephen as Executive Secretary. Mr. Stephen has completed Master of Philosophy in Sociology, Masters in Public Administration and PG in Guidance and Counselling. He has 32 years of experience in IRCDS and managing different development projects.

Engagement with Government Departments:

IRCDS has been serving as a member in various committees formed by Government at district level in Tiruvallur.

  • District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA)
  • District Three Tier Committee for re-enrolment of out of school children
  • District Child Welfare and Protection Committee
  • District Bonded Labour Vigilance Committee
  • District Health Assembly
  • District Noon Meal Programme Monitoring Committee
  • District Watershed Management Committee
  • District Sponsorship and Foster care Approval Committee

District Collectors / Additional Collectors participated in our Programmes :

Year Name Designation
2000 Thiru. S.K.Prabakar, I.A.S. District Collector
2000 Dr.Santhosh Babu, I.A.S Addl. Collector (Dev.)
2001 Tmt.Jaya, I.A.S Addl. Collector (Dev.)
2001 Thiru. P.Sivasankaran, I.A.S District Collector
2005 Thiru. Pankaj Kumar Bansal, I.A.S. District Collector
2007 Dr. Rajendra Kumar, I.A.S. District Collector
2012 – 2014 Thiru. K.Veera Raghava Rao, I.A.S. District Collector
2016 – 2018 Tmt. E.Sundaravalli, I.A.S District Collector
2018 – 2019 Tmt. Mageswari Ravikumar, I.A.S. District Collector
2021- 2023 Dr. Alby John Varghese, I.A.S District Collector
2023 Selvi. A. Catherine Saranya, I.A.S, Asst.Collector ( Trg)
2023 Thiru. N.O. Sukhaputra, I.A.S Additional Collector ( Dev)
2023 Dr.T.Prabhu Sankar, I.A.S District Collector

District Superintendent of Police (SP) Participated in our programme ( Year 2020 and 2021)

  • P.Aravindhan, I.P.S, Superintendent of Police, Tiruvallur

State level Officials visited IRCDS :

  • Rajaraman,I.A.S Executive Director, Tamil Nadu Women Development Corporation limited
  • Anuradha Rajivan, I.A.S, Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Women Development Corporation limited
  • Palaniappan, I.A.S, Director of Social Welfare
  • Gariyali, I.A.S, Social Welfare Secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu

Key Government Officials visited I RCDS for Learning exposure Visit:

2000 Tmt.P.Amudha, I.A.S Addl. Collector (Dev), Erode
2000 Thiru .R.Thiagarajan, I.A.S Addl. Collector (Dev), Nilgris
2000 Thiru.Manivasan, I.A.S Addl. Collector (Dev), Coimbatore

Contact details information:

Integrated Rural Community Development Society (IRCDS)

#13, Dr. Abdul Kalam Street, MDM Nagar, Tiruvallur – 602001

Tiruvallur District, Tamil Nadu

Phone: 044 27660084

Contact Persons: P. Stephen, Executive Secretary / Director, Mobile: 9443417433 /9566047433

Antony Damian Titus, Advisory Committee Member, Mobile: 9940503779

D.Vijayan, Program Manager Mobile: 9159711841 / 9908346956

Email: ircds1986@gmail.com Website:https://ircds.in/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ircds1986

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/i_r_c_d_s/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ircdsindia

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYklt1G8ex_lq45dSCwz_fA

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/integrated-rural-community-development-society-ircds-99472534

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