Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
The Shahpura family contributes a portion of its turnover (currently 2%) towards the Rajadhiraj Sudarshan Deo Charitable Trust. On 26 Jan 2008, republic day, we contributed over £2,000 worth of computers, educational scholarships and teaching support to governmental schools in an effort to improve facilities and quality of education.
The Sudarshan Deo Charitable Trust in close coordination with the local municipality and Government Schools aims at supporting rural children at Dhikhola Village and Shahpura by:
- Providing monetary support to educate children living below the poverty line
- Educational scholarships to gifted children
- Providing clothes, books and other educational material to encourage a child’s learning
- Donations of computers and other educational aids to the schools to improve their facilities and quality of education imparted
The former maharajah of Shahpura along with his extended family and trained guides interact with the guests on many platforms be it excursions, breakfast, lunch or dinner and educate with anecdotes related to history, local culture, means of livelihood, in fact the entire rural ethos is explained to guests depending on their area of interest and questions.
Each guest is personally requested to practise responsible tourism and not give away money, pens etc to the locals as it promotes rampant begging and will change the nature of the people. We have a central tip box and a charitable box where people are free to contribute whatever they feel like.
We have implemented several environmental and economic initiatives in an effort to “Go Green” & are clearly focused on using tourism as a means to boost the subsistence based agrarian economy. During restoration work, the focus was towards using waste material for construction. For example, crazy paving to utilize broken stone tiles, and Arras (lime) for flooring mixed with marble powder - again, a waste product.
All gray water is recycled by creating soak pits and diverting the processed water to landscaping area’s and gardens. We regularly construct and clean all our water harvesting channels and dredge the man made lakes to harvest precious rain water. All our water is heated via solar heating, in an effort to utilize an alternative energy source. Implementation of energy savings bulbs, keys and design of rooms are part of our initiative to enhance energy saving measure. We grow our own organic vegetables and grains to ensure our guests health and well being. All organic waste products are composted.
All other plastic and glass waste products are separated and resold to the local kabadiwala ie waste recycler. There is in house communication and website printout in each room. The Sudarshan Deo charitable trust board with photographs and message are put up in both the residencies.
70 to 80% of our marketing is via the internet and email and we are on our way to achieving our goal towards a paperless office.
The use of age old building techniques through local artisans has preserved these unique skills as well as created local employment. We are an equal opportunity employer and ensure that all our staff are hired locally and across several tribal communities therefore maintaining diversity.
All staff are trained in their area of specialization and we ensure multi-skilling as well as job rotation schemes, to make the job interesting and rewarding. We buy most of our raw material from the district so as to support the locality All our food is sourced locally to minimize transportation and support local farmers.
We promote the sale of locally made handicrafts and provide design ideas and business concepts in an effort to support and re-energize the Artisans of the area.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
