We were informed by the youth team of Madhonar and Kachora that they were ready and will arrange a gram sabha meet where our team, Saathi Ngo would take a 2 day training/awarness. They touched upon numerous themes like management and planning of the community forest resources for the community forest resources management committee, collection […]...

A pitch-dark room. A single candle flickers weakly, its flame trembling. It might last another thirty minutes at most. After that, even the last hint of light will disappear from my room. My phone is dead, no torch either. I still have eight to nine long hours to survive before dawn arrives. The incident of […]...

A Story of Determination, Women Power, and Belief Some milestones are not just achievements – they are emotions, struggles, teamwork, and belief coming together. Delivering our first order of 1 ton traditional rice varieties to BigBasket was one such unforgettable milestone in my journey. I am working at a Common Facility Centre (CFC) involved in […]...

Fellowships are beautiful in a sense that they unlock our potential, expose us to the needs of the communities and provide directions for our future endeavours. Tangibly, fellowships help us to establish appropriate networks in the sector, help us to engage with various stakeholders – govt, administration, communities, and other organisations, and cultivate skills of […]...

Sexual violence disproportionately affects women. That is not debatable. Structural inequality, patriarchy, and power imbalance make women more vulnerable in measurable ways. Any legal reform must start by acknowledging that reality. But here is the question that has been quietly growing in policy discussions: Should sexual offence laws be fully gender-neutral? Under current Indian law, […]...

Its disheartening, almost shattering to not be able to make it to things, especially those that we have worked the hardest for. Failure in 2 UPSC prelims attempts broke me and made me doubt my efforts. I was confident, I worked hard, completed the syllabus, revised, solve more than 3000 PYQs, gave more than 50 […]...

Working in the hills of Uttarakhand has consistently reinforced one lesson: no intervention here is complete without negotiating with geography. The installation of millet processing machines in Parwari village was one such experience. A process that highlighted not only the labor-intensiveness of traditional millet processing but also the physical effort required simply to introduce change. […]...

Sometimes, the most meaningful conversations happen with people we have never met before. There is something unexpectedly beautiful about speaking to someone who knows nothing about your background, your achievements, or your struggles. In that brief moment, you are simply two human beings sharing space and words. I remember a random conversation while returning home […]...

I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Every time a brutal rape case shakes the country, the public response is immediate and intense- “Hang them.” It feels like the only proportionate response to something so deeply violent and violating. And I understand that reaction. Sexual violence is not an abstract crime. It is a […]...

In development practice, analysis often begins with numbers-coverage rates, compliance percentages, savings generated, and beneficiaries reached. During my fieldwork in rural Uttarakhand, I too worked within such frameworks, documenting kitchen gardens that had begun producing vegetables, recording the savings households generated through home-grown produce, and tracking postnatal mothers’ consumption of iron and calcium supplements. However, […]...

Everyone has experienced FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), which comes when you see that others are moving ahead and you are missing out on opportunities at some point in your life. But have you ever felt bad about being in a good situation? It happened when I was conducting outreach to expand the Hamari Bakhli […]...

We have all heard of notorious capitalism, infact we have lived it. While buying groceries from Dmart or BigBazaar, you get a huge discount on the MRP – from cosmetics to clothing, from groceries to cutleries, toys and etables, everything we see on the four floored building in an acre of land, attracts us more. […]...