Chacko Paruvanany

Founder

Founder of People's Rural Education Movement (PREM)

Chacko Paruvanany is the founder of People's Rural Education Movement (PREM) (1982)[1], an Indian non-profit working on tribal welfare, healthcare and education from Berhampur.

Chacko Paruvanany is an Indian development worker and a co-founder of the People's Rural Education Movement (PREM), a voluntary organisation founded in 1982 that works with Adivasi, Dalit and fishing communities in Odisha and other Indian states. He is PREM's secretary-cum-treasurer and a member of its governing board.

Career

Paruvanany founded PREM together with Jacob Thundyil, who serves as its president. He holds a doctorate and has professional training in mass communication and community health, and has worked in Germany.

PREM describes itself as a secular, non-political organisation whose purpose is to support and empower people's organisations for sustainable development, working on education, health, livelihoods, governance and the rights of women and children. It reports reaching more than five million people across sixteen states through a network of over 150 independent voluntary organisations, having begun in the districts of Odisha.[2][3][4]

People's Rural Education Movement (PREM)

PREM is a secular voluntary society founded in 1982 and headquartered at Mandiapalli near Berhampur in Ganjam district, Odisha. It works on education, healthcare, livelihoods, governance and the rights of women and children among Adivasi, Dalit, fisherfolk and other marginalised communities. Its health work includes mobile health units and community awareness programmes aimed at reducing maternal and infant mortality in remote villages, alongside literacy campaigns and agro-forestry programmes in Ganjam, Gajapati and Kandhamal.

People's Rural Education Movement (PREM) reports the following, on its own site:

Through a network partnership of over 150 independent voluntary and people’s organizations, PREM reaches more than 5,000,000 people in 16 states of India through various development programmes, networks and campaigns.
Under a major DFID-funded project, 223 communities planted 4.5 lakh fruit-bearing seedlings across 30,000 acres of shifting cultivation area and barren lands
A historic 100-day mass movement across 1,000 villages in Ganjam, Gajapati, and Kandhamal to achieve functional literacy among marginalized communities