The Banjara Journey
Journey of Banjara
The Banjaras, also known as Vanjaras, Lambadas, and Lambanis, originated as the gypsies of Germany and Austria. Being nomads, they kept travelling all over Europe in search of the exotic orient, and made contact with the Moguls and other martial dynasties. They started following these invading armies, providing them with their services, livestock, food, and getting intelligence reports of enemies. When the Mogul armies completed their conquests in the Deccan plateau and went back to their base, the Banjara tribes stayed back and scattered around the areas now covering Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka. They chose nomadic life, camping for a few days on the outskirts of villages, providing implements, livestock, traditional medicines etc. to the villagers before moving on to a different location. They have a different culture of their own, different worshipping practices, language, dressing style, and a very rigid values and moral upbringing, answerable in all ways to the elders of their ‘thandas,” the shifting villages. They remained isolated from other communities for centuries, perfectly contented in their simple living, not seeking any benefits or luxuries.
Our association in the early fifties, before Ali was born, was through his father, who was an anthropologist, and was awarded a United Nations Fellowship to study the movement of these tribes from Europe to India, to understand their needs and to support them in getting rehabilitated. As an IAS officer, he set up the first Tribal Welfare Department in the government, and also was instrumental in settling them down (including building his own house to be with them), in the area which is now known as Banjara Hills in Hyderabad. After finishing his studies at IIT Bombay, Ali went back to Hyderabad and spent considerable time helping them become a recognized Scheduled Tribe, brought out their first publication ‘Banjara News’ and was a counselor and Mentor to this community of simple, dedicated and honest nomads.
The Birth of Banjara Academy
The name ‘Banjara’ was, therefore, the most appropriate when an institution was to be formed to reach out and connect to people. What began over forty years ago as an ‘extra-curricular’ activity, slowly evolved into a full-fledged institution, which is not just appreciated, recognized and praised all over the country, but is one of the few organizations from India to be granted full membership of World Federation of Mental Health, with voting rights. The first step was to open our doors for free counselling. It has been a joy to see that since 1983 anyone can feel comfortable to walk in, phone up or write to our ‘Helping Hand’, and for the sake of confidentiality, we do not maintain records, so we do not know the number of people who have benefited. Many other activities evolved over the next 30 years making Banjara a true oasis in today’s world of emotional turmoil and loneliness.
Our Courses
We started offering short-term courses in 1990 and the demand kept increasing, leading to the thought that we should have a full-fledged year-long program where the participants experience the issues being dealt with every week, come back and clear doubts, and put their learning into practice as the course goes on. When starting long-term counselling courses two decades ago, we were even offered an opportunity to affiliate with a top university, which would have given us credibility and an official stamp. But we resisted that temptation since it would have involved having a curriculum, textbooks, formal exams and lots of theory to memorize. We were very particular to keep this as a fully experiential course, enabling students of all ages and backgrounds to sharpen their practical skills of reaching out, understanding emotions, giving support and empowering counselees – while enriching their own life. Improving, innovating and bringing inappropriate changes every year, we now have the DCS course enriched with the experiences and feedback of twenty one batches, and this is the journey on which you can embark to become a Banjara with us.
IPCG
The first correspondence course in counseling was started in 1994, and it kept evolving over the years to its present avatar i.e. International Program in Counseling and Guidance (IPCG), a boon to those who cannot travel to Bangalore and attend classes. Every participant is allotted an exclusive Mentor to do handholding throughout the program.
Aptitude Assessments
After many years of depending on consultants, we started doing our own Assessments for Career Guidance in 1994. We have constantly improved upon and upgraded the process, and have made it very holistic, taking into account all aspects of the individual and then matching to the most suitable careers – and we continue free handholding as long as the candidate has any queries or doubts in future.
DCS was started
Counseling courses were started in Banjara in 1989, and slowly increased in duration from one week to 3-months. The one-year DCS (Diploma in Counseling Skills) course was started in 1999, and it was made into a purely practical and skills building program with no theory or text books or exams.
CLS
Life Skills was enunciated by World Health Organization (WHO) in the year 1993. We understood its importance and started training students and others on building life skills, we held many workshops, brought out workbooks, and gave a formal shape to the training program “Certificate in Life Skills” in the year 2003
Life Skills practical Program for adolescents- Youngz
Teenagers need to understand themselves and others around them as they go through the transition towards adulthood. Every year since 2003 we conduct a summer camp for adolescents to introspect, evaluate and understand basic life skills through fun activities.
Psychological Social Educational (PSE) Assessment
Often there is a need to understand an individual holistically, his aspirations and frustrations, his skills and limitations, his emotions and motivation. We have devised a system of scientifically assessing all parameters of the person and accordingly recommending the steps to be taken for overcoming barriers and making progress. We tailor-make this assessment based on individual requirements. These assessments are done at three different levels: adults, teenagers and smaller children (Child Development Assessment CDA).
Gurukul
Since there are many children who do not fit into mainstream education or have school-refusal or have special needs, we established a child-centric unit “Gurukul” in 2012, where we do assessments, family counseling, career guidance, and coaching for different levels of NIOS exam – including behavior and psycho-social issues or catering for special needs of each child.
CCAD
(Certificate in Child and Adolescent Development) Children needs systematic and scientific inputs for all-round growth and development. We have evolved an online program for parents, teachers and interested adults on understanding and dealing with all needs and wants of a child from birth to adulthood, and we provide Mentoring to ensure that each participant’s learning is complete at the practical level.
Free Counseling
Banjara Academy offers free counselling ( face-to-face, telephonic and email ) for individuals, children, adolescents, family for inter-personal, emotional and any other psychological issues.
Counseling on Call
Call us anytime you need help. Counsellors trained by Banjara as well as specialists such as psychologists, pediatricians, special educators, etc. are available to help and support you.
Face to Face Counseling
For the convenience of our visitors, counselees and students, we are open on many public holidays, you are welcome to visit on those days also to avail any of our services.