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Sign up for our free weekly newsletter, IDR Edit, featuring the best reads on development in India.

by Anshu Gupta | 4 min read

Advocacy & Government

“Prepare to be surprised”

Iqbal Dhaliwal, Global Executive Director of J-PAL shares important lessons he has learned over years of working with governments.

by Saahil Kejriwal, Smarinita Shetty | 8 min read

Health

Are we missing a lifesaving opportunity?

Evidence shows that effective pesticide regulation can dramatically reduce the number of non-farm suicides taking place in India, while simultaneously improving public health, farmer incomes, and the environment.

by Aastha Sethi | 6 min read

Workers manually decontaminating cotton before it goes for spinning_Wikimedia Commons_migration textile

Rights

Stitched together: Migrants in India’s textile sector

What does the top-down, informal, and buyer-driven approach of the textile industry mean for the female migrant workers subcontracted at the lowest end of the spectrum?

by Aarohi Damle, Priyansha Singh | 5 min read

Ground Up

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Bite-sized stories from the people closest to the action.

Diversity & Inclusion

Photo

The king in the Northeast

by Nishant Sinha

Mon district, Nagaland

Diversity & Inclusion

Sisterhood above society

by Regia Kom

Bongaigaon district, Assam

Livelihoods

Video

One loan too many

by Kamlesh Sharma, Nana Lal Meena

Dungarpur district, Rajasthan

Monitoring & Evaluation

Knock knock? Who's there? No one!

by Outline India

Dausa district, Rajasthan

Perspectives

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Op-eds and commentary that hold a mirror up to civil society, reflect upon its evolution, and unpack key trends.

Perspectives

Seven things we learned from Dr Vandana Shiva

From understanding the true meaning of development to finding inspiration in Gandhi—here are important lessons for anyone fighting for a cause, and standing up to power.

by Saahil Kejriwal | 2 min read

Perspectives

Building inclusive communities is the task of civil society

Until communities stop excluding people based on gender, caste, class, and religion, efforts to achieve the SDGs will always fall short.

by Shamik Trehan | 5 min read

person addressing rally-political individual

Advocacy & Government

Is sustainable development possible without an accountable government?

The forced depoliticisation of civil society has compromised our ability to build a democratic society.

by Arun Kumar | 4 min read

IDR Interviews

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Conversations with visionaries on their life's work, and their efforts to challenge the status quo in our country.

“Development today is often understood as making other people become like you. When we enter villages as development agencies, we want to change people. But we have no right to do that.”

Dr John Oommen
10 min read

“The liberation started when the manual scavengers themselves broke their own silence on the issue and started speaking out.”

Bezwada Wilson
7 min read

“Development evolves from within; when you do it to others, it needs a different name. I would just call it colonisation.”

Vandana Shiva
10 min read

Sectors

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Insights and analysis of specific sectors in the development arena—what works, what doesn't, and what needs to change.

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Health

Menstrual health: Awareness is not enough

When we take it upon ourselves to tackle menstrual hygiene issues, we need to ensure that our ‘solutions’ don’t come at the cost of women's self-respect.

by Anshu Gupta | 4 min read

Health

Are we missing a lifesaving opportunity?

by Aastha Sethi | 6 min read

Rights

Stitched together: Migrants in India’s textile sector

What does the top-down, informal, and buyer-driven approach of the textile industry mean for the female migrant workers subcontracted at the lowest end of the spectrum?

by Aarohi Damle, Priyansha Singh | 5 min read

Themes

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Approaches and ideas that cut across sectors and counter the dominant narratives around us.

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Collaboration

The 3Cs of collaboration

Social sector players recognise the power of collective action, but few are able to practice it. Here's what they need to do.

by Kashyap Shah, Pritha Venkatachalam | 4 min read

Advocacy & Government

“Prepare to be surprised”

Iqbal Dhaliwal, Global Executive Director of J-PAL shares important lessons he has learned over years of working with governments.

by Saahil Kejriwal, Smarinita Shetty | 8 min read

Inequality

Questioning the informal-formal binary

The growth of precarious, informal employment in the formal sector is adversely affecting the most marginalised.

by Tanaya Jagtiani | 6 min read

Expertise

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Skills and functions that are core to growing programmes and organisations.

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Board & Governance

Budget 2020 has bad news for the social sector

The Union Budget of 2020 has made it even more difficult to set up and run a charitable institution in India.

by Noshir Dadrawala | 2 min read

Board & Governance

The laws that govern India's nonprofits

As a nonprofit working in India, here are 10 things you should know about the current legal framework.

by Tanaya Jagtiani | 6 min read

leaves changing colour-change management

Leadership & Talent

How to successfully navigate organisational change

Periods of organisational change are never easy. Here are some things nonprofit leaders can expect and steps they can take to make the process more effective.

by Jayant Rastogi | 6 min read

P Sainath on India's agrarian crisis

Kamla Bhasin on listening to the communities you work with

History of social action in India: From 1947 onwards

Photo of the month

Shades of red

February 2020 | In Sehore District, Madhya Pradesh, women’s haemoglobin levels are tested by taking a blood sample from their fingertips and matching it to a colour card. The World Health Organisation (WHO) colour scale method is an inexpensive way to estimate haemoglobin concentration, before deciding whether to test for anaemia. Photo: ©Gates Archive/Mansi Midha

Bangalore is burning

January 2020 | Avijit Michael, director of Jhatkaa (jhatkaa.org), on a fact-finding mission around Bangalore on the practice of garbage burning, and how it causes catastrophic changes to the air quality. Photo: Hari Adivarekar

What's in a name?

December 2019 | Even though neighbouring villages also comprise of Adivasi communities, this village in Ganjam district, Odisha, is called 'Adivasi Colony', named after the community that migrated down from the hills to settle here. Photo: Anushka Dalal

Rural cartography

November 2019 | Women from the Village Organisation (VO) in Koimari (Rangjuli block, Assam) carried out a 'resource mapping' of their village, a two-day exercise facilitated by professionals from the development organisation SeSTA. The houses in this map are colour-coded to reflect which ones have piped water, sanitation, and so on. Having this information makes them better placed to demand improvements from their local government. Photo: Saahil Kejriwal

Teesta and Rangeet

October 2019 | The rivers Teesta and Rangeet are named after two river-spirits who challenged each other to a race down the hills. The Lepcha people of Sikkim consider the race's finish line, the confluence of the two rivers, to be a sacred site. Newlyweds are taken here, and people wish them a life as happy and prosperous as the two river-spirits. Photo: Zarir De Vitre

Classroom learning

September 2019 | In a school in Dharwad district, Karnataka. Photo: Deepta Sunil

Fast fashion

August 2019 | Worn for ceremonies and by elders of the Toda tribe, a shawl like this takes more than three months to complete. ‘Slow fashion’—where the experience and effort that goes into making a garment is recognised and respected, is quickly losing out to fast fashion. Photo: Native Picture

Against the grain

July 2019 | Nagaland is the largest producer of maize among all the north eastern states in India—it is grown in every district of the state, and is its second most important food crop after rice. Recently, however, the crop has come under attack by the Fall Armyworm, a pest that has devastated maize fields in neighbouring states, and preliminary calculations estimate that it has affected nearly 1,70,000 hectares of maize crop across the country. Photo: Dhruvank Vaidya

The peripheries

June 2019 | The Fakhruddin Gutta hills, on the outskirts of Hyderabad are one of the few sites with rich biodiversity left in the city, but environmentalists are concerned about the quarrying taking place here. The destruction of nature to further urban development is a major concern in the midst of our climate crisis. Photo: Goutham Raj KJ

Nomadic life

April 2019 | Shivam, a blacksmith from Madhya Pradesh working in Magadi, Karnataka: “There are many blacksmiths in MP. Everyone travels to different parts of the country. We got here about a year ago and we’ll leave after Shivarathri. We plan from the time Ragi (finger millet) is ready for harvest till the end of Shivarathri.” “That’d be October to March?” “We don’t know the English calendar, we travel according to the seasons and to the festivals and that’s how we know what tools are used when.” Photo: Native Picture

Faith in water

March 2019 | Kamala, a tribal woman (Bangalpadi, Nilgiris): “Why is there a temple next to the spring?” “God is important and so is water. There is no point having a temple without water or water without a temple, both are as important. We survive because of the spring water. I’m happy that the younger generations are taking good care of the springs. People from nearby hamlets come here for water during summer months. There is no God without water and there is no water without God.” Photo: Native Picture

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The 3Cs of collaboration

Our solutions for education aren't working. Here's why.

How to work with boys to reduce violence against women

Research, for whom?

India's population explosion narrative is misleading

10 things you didn’t know about India’s air quality

Debate Series | Why ZBNF is not good for India

Latest

Email lingo, and what it actually means

Menstrual health: Awareness is not enough

“Prepare to be surprised”

Are we missing a lifesaving opportunity?

Stitched together: Migrants in India’s textile sector

Ground Up

The king in the Northeast

Sisterhood above society

One loan too many

Knock knock? Who's there? No one!

Perspectives

Seven things we learned from Dr Vandana Shiva

Building inclusive communities is the task of civil society

Is sustainable development possible without an accountable government?

IDR Interviews

Sectors

Menstrual health: Awareness is not enough

Are we missing a lifesaving opportunity?

Stitched together: Migrants in India’s textile sector

Themes

The 3Cs of collaboration

“Prepare to be surprised”

Questioning the informal-formal binary

Expertise

Budget 2020 has bad news for the social sector

The laws that govern India's nonprofits

How to successfully navigate organisational change

Videos

P Sainath on India's agrarian crisis

Why do you read IDR?

Kamla Bhasin on listening to the communities you work with

History of social action in India: From 1947 onwards

Dr Fernandez on urban health

Kamla Bhasin on feminism

Photo of the month

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Write for us

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