The Village of Life is a concept promoted by Nava Jeevan Rehabilitation Centre, in collaboration with CNI Shishu Sangopan Griha, in India, working in the field of child welfare. The main objective of setting up of this ‘village’ is to provide a unique form of residential life care by the formation of a micro-level ‘village’ created for the life long care of orphaned or destitute physically challenged individuals both children and adults currently living in other institutions or orphanages.

The situation in India has changed in the last 25 years dramatically due to economic development and social changes, which have had both a dual sided impact of the lives of people who have been made destitute. While the country has seen a great development in a well managed process of adoption of orphans within and outside the country, it has also had to deal with complexities and challenges of children who have remained non adoptable due to health and other factors which restrict their possibility of being re-integrated into a family atmosphere.

We have chosen to concentrate with those children who are not in a position to be placed in adoption primarily due to disabilities ranging from spasticity to physical disabilities or deformities, which require specialized care.An approximate number of about 2000 children are living in such organizations throughout the country, in numbers ranging from 2 to 3 children in a single institute, to the maximum of about 40 in the largest centre.

As I progressed in my discussions and assessments I realized the urgent need to develop a centre where a larger number of such children could be provided life-long care. At the same time, I also realized that besides simple life care, it was important to give them the opportunity to ‘live’ and not just ‘survive’. Therefore the concept of the village came forth.

The village has been designed to cater to approximately 100 residents for the duration of their individual lives, in an atmosphere of dignity, goal and meaning.

 Keeping these broad views in mind I have come up with a detailed plan of how the village will not only be a unique model for life care for these people, but will also be one of the best, keeping in mind the current social systems prevalent in the country.