Project Swarajya came into existence in mid-1988 in the midst of a countrywide movement for making Right to work a fundamental right in the Constitution of India. Beside the campaign for Right to work, it took up the particular demand of legislating and implementing Employment Guarantee Act for rural unskilled labour in Orissa along Maharastra lines. Orissa being a predominantly rural-tribal society, the women in villages who among others were marginalized due to one-sided development programmes needed most of all guarantee of job round the year by the State a thing which has been experimented since mid-70s in Maharastra.
In October 1988, a State level Seminar was organized at Cuttack on Right to work and Employment Guarantee, attended by 100 NGOs from all over the State. In January 1989, a Training camp was organized at Choudwar, Cuttack on Employment Guarantee for rural unskilled labourers of Orissa. In March 1989 Project Swarajya co-sponsored National Seminar on Right to work held at Calcutta and in Sept-Nov 1989 it co-organised an All India Cycle Rally from Cuttack to Delhi on the demand for legislation of Right to work. It also served as a center for get-together of likeminded NGOs and individuals committed to the cause of unionization and employment guarantee of rural unskilled labourers. To disseminate the message of this movement, a fortnightly Oriya bulletin named "Lokaniti" was also brought out.
As a result of Project Swarajya's sustained campaign, the movement for Right to work and Employment Guarantee spread to NGOs and individuals across the State, and is now being actively taken up by a number of NGOs at grass root level in different parts of the State.
The National perspective Plan for women (1988-2000 AD) brought out by Govt. of India did contain quite some progressive features which needed debate and discussion at grass root level with this need in view, a State level Seminar was organized at Cuttack under auspices of Project Swarajya in December 1988 which was partaken by 80 women activists. As a result of this Seminar, the women NGOs could be motivated to take up the debut on women-related policies of general importance beside their involvement in micro level concrete programmes.
The Report called "Shram Shakti" which was prepared by National Commission for self-Employed women and women in Informal Sector also contained quite many suggestions, which had significant bearing on rural & tribal women. A State level Seminar was organized under joint auspices of CARD and Project Swarajya at Angul in February 1989. This Seminar went a long way in influencing the participant NGOs for taking up the issues of unorganized women labour of rural areas.
In order to develop the skill of rural women, Project Swarajya organized a 6 month long training in weaving for selected number of young women at Tarpur in Raghunathpur Block of Cuttack District. The State Govt. extended financial assistance for carrying out the training under the scheme of TRYSEM. After the training was over, the trainees could be self-employed and thereby honorably rehabilitated.
The increasing spread of salinity in some parts of coastal Orissa created acute shortage of fresh water for drinking domestic and irrigation purposes, causing thereby great hardships for people, especially women in affected villages. Project Swarajya conducted an in depth study entitled "Meeting the challenge of Drinking water shortage in salinity affected Mahakalpada Block of Cuttack District" in early 1990 in collaboration with Centre for Science & Environment, New Delhi. The recommendations of the study were placed to the Centre & State Govt. for implementation. In July 1991, a State level Seminar was held at Cuttack under auspices of Project Swarajya in collaboration with Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India, attended by the concerned expert agencies of Govt. and NGOs. One of the important recommendations of this Seminar was for initiating a long-term campaign for protection and regeneration of Orissa's coastal ecosystem. Project Swarajya has accordingly dracon up a programme of the movement involving the Govt. NGOs, media, and the local people.
As a participant of the National Environment Awareness Campaign, Project Swarajya mobilized a large number of local NGOs including Mahila Samitis in different Blocks of Cuttack District such as Mahakalpada, Garadpur, Marshaghai, Kendrapara and Raghunathpur for identifying crucial environmental problems, which affect the people, particularly women. The NGOs so mobilized in local Block level workshops got together in a State level Seminar on Orissa's environment held in March 1990 at Cuttack and listed out important environmental problems that deserved to be addressed to through sustained state wide collective eco-campaign.
Orissa being a State where women including educated women fall easy victim to atrocities like dowry torture, bride burning, sexual abuse etc, Project Swarajya went for organizing a State level Seminar on Women & Low at S.B. Women's College Cuttack in September 1990 which was attended by officials of Govt. agencies like Harijan Atrocities & Dowry Death and prominent women activists of the State. The officials were directly interrogated by the NGOs as regards tardy implementation of legislations on women. The Seminar made the participant feel that the women themselves could change their fate sustantially rather than depend upon the Govt. machinery for bringing good to them.
Legal Literacy Camp for Women was organized at Tulsi Women's College, Kendrapara in June 1990 in which doctors lawyers and social workers (themselves women) explained to the participating rural women the various schemes, programmes and laws which the women in distress could take advantage of the camp succeeded in generating self-confidence among some women participants to brave the ordeals they were faced with.
Balika Shibir was organized in SAARC year of Girl Child in Nov. 1990 at Marshaghai to focuss on the peculiar disadvantages that the girl child is faced with from cradle to grave in the existing social system. It was attended by parents, Govt officials, media personnel and local dignitaries beside the young girls numbering nearly 500. The occasion which was first of its kind in a rural area like Marshaghai helped the parents realize the iniquitous plight that their daughters suffer from in the existing family setup.
In Cuttack Town where the system of manual scavenging of dry latrines still exists to this day, Project Swarajya has already conducted a preliminary survey and also drawn up a long-term programme of scavenger liberation. The programme aims at pressure into water borne ones on the one hand, and initiating by itself rehabilitation measures such as training and employment of women scavengers in alternative avocations.
In Cuttack Town, where street children (rag pickers, street vendors, rickshaw pullers, hotel workers, domestic servants etc.) number about 10,000 (25% being girls) Project Swarajya has conducted a preliminary survey and also drawn up a long-term programme for rehabilitation of street children through education, health care vocational training, housing and alternative employment. A workshop was held on 10 August 1991 at Cuttack under joint auspices of Project Swarajya and Shramik Vidyapeeth to focus on the problem of street children among the officials, NGOs, media and intelligence of the city. The workshop was attended by some street children and their elderly relations too.
Beside the above, Project Swarajya has been involved in organizing following important activities:-
Statelevel Seminar on National forest Policy in June 1989 at Cuttack.
Workshop on Youth &Rural Development at Kanpur, Marshaghai Cuttack in April 1989.
Blocklevel Seminar on Social Plantations & NGOs at Patkura in Oct. 1989.
Awareness generation on Drug Abuse prevention through Statelevel Seminar, Inter College Debate Competition, Media campaign, Street plays, observation of International Day against Drug Abuse.
Setting up Drug Counselling Centre at Chandini Chowk Cuttack since March 1991.
Statelevel Seminar on Review of National Policy on Education (Acharya Rammurty Committee Report) in Nov. 1990.
Representation against exploitation of tribals to the Commissioner for Scheduled castes & Scheduled Tribes, Govt. of India.
Collaboration in socio-economic study of displaced tribals in upper Indravati Project, Koraput.