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by IndiaSpend, Nisha Dhawan | 9 min read

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Amendments to the FCRA 2020: Latest news and updates

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by Shantha Sinha | 3 min read

Rights

Supported by: HUF

Leave no household behind

Access to basic entitlements is a critical safety net for vulnerable communities.

by Anantika Singh, Reshma Anand | 4 min read

Man with laptop graphic_Rawpixel (edited by IDR)

Humour

Workshops we wish existed

In this time of webinars, masterclasses, and more, here are 10 workshops we wish we could sign up for.

by India Development Review | 1 min read

Diversity & Inclusion

The roots of organisational well-being

To build healthy, resilient organisations, nonprofits need to do more than adopt standard diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. They need to acknowledge systemic racism then commit to and implement processes to upend it.

by Stanford Social Innovation Review | 1 min read

Ground Up

See all

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

Water & Sanitation

Photo

When solutions create problems

by Dhaval Joshi

Pune district, Maharashtra

Health

Photo

Capsicums and quail eggs

by Harsha Trust

Rayagada district, Odisha

Education

Photo

Are schools irrelevant?

by Arpita Sarkar

East Singhbhum district, Jharkhand

COVID-19

Photo

Unsettled again

by Rituja Mitra

Bikaner district, Rajasthan

#FarmActs2020: Perspectives | Abhimanyu Kohad on the apprehension of farmers

Abhimanyu Kohad, a farmer and the National President of Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh (Youth Wing) speaks about why the new #FarmActs2020 are unlikely to improve farmers' incomes, the flawed procurement process, and lessons we can learn from Bihar and Tamil Nadu.

#FarmActs2020: Perspectives | Puneet Singh Thind on the impact on FPOs

#FarmActs2020: Perspectives | Ritu Verma on the impact on agriculture

#NEP2020 | Raj Gilda on the scope of vocational education

#NEP2020 | Biswanath Sinha on inclusion of linguistic minorities

#NEP2020 | Anjela Taneja on equity and inclusion

#NEP2020 | Natasha Joshi on the concept of school complexes

#NEP2020 | Anurag Behar on the principles that underscore the NEP

#NEP2020 | Rukmini Banerji on primary education

Social stock exchange 101

P Sainath talks about the agrarian crisis

P Sainath on India's agrarian crisis

Kamla Bhasin on listening to the communities you work with

Why do you read IDR?

History of social action in India: From 1947 onwards

Dr Fernandez on urban health

Kamla Bhasin on feminism

A day in the life of

Frontline workers and first responders share their insights from working at the grassroots.

Rights

Delivering citizens' rights to their doorsteps

A day in the life of a Haqdarshika who has helped 600 citizens access government schemes and entitlements—often ones they weren't even aware of.

by Kiran Mandle | 6 min read

Kamakhya Kumar attending a panchayat meeting

Advocacy & Government

Revitalising local self-governance

A day in the life of a mukhiya, or panchayat head, who works closely with his team of elected representatives to ensure sustainable development for their community.

by Kamakhya Kumar Singh | 6 min read

Khataben in the field at a registration drive

Gender

Meet the sisters of Bhuj

A day in the life of a paralegal, who has been changing patriarchal gender norms across 200 villages in Kutch for the last two decades.

by Khataben Sameja | 6 min read

Failure Files

See all

Social change leaders chronicle their failures and lessons learnt.

Leadership & Talent

When failure is part of the feminist process

In the midst of difficult changes, the head of a media house struggles to make new meaning of the values her organisation stands for.

by Disha Mullick | 7 min read

two railway lines intersecting with grass at the side-corruption

Social Business

To bribe or not to bribe?

A social entrepreneur takes a decision and finds his life turned upside down.

by Ghazanfar Iqbal | 6 min read

black and white picture of people in a tug of war_rawpixel

Programme

No right time for hard decisions

A nonprofit co-founder gets caught in an unhealthy power dynamic with a funding partner.

by Dilip Pattubala | 5 min read

IDR Interviews

See all

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

“Only when villages become self-reliant and self-governing units, will India become a true republic.”

Rajendra Singh
8 min read

“Civil society institutions are the seismographs of society. They give early warnings for major catastrophes that can happen.”

Vijay Mahajan
8 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

See all

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

See all coverage by topic:

Health

The problem with resilience as we know it

Because resilience today has become an expected and standard response to distress, failure to achieve it implies that something is wrong with us.

by Ruchita Chandrashekar | 4 min read

Rights

A clarion call for child protection

The pandemic has left the most vulnerable children invisible.

by Shantha Sinha | 3 min read

Rights

Leave no household behind

Access to basic entitlements is a critical safety net for vulnerable communities.

by Anantika Singh, Reshma Anand | 4 min read

Themes

See all

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

See all coverage by topic:

Inequality

Who goes to jail?

Social inequities in Indian society are replicated inside its prisons.

by IndiaSpend, Nisha Dhawan | 9 min read

Diversity & Inclusion

The roots of organisational well-being

by Stanford Social Innovation Review | 1 min read

illustration of man handing over power to a woman_sumer vaidya

Gender

Who holds power in organisations?

Coming out of the pandemic, we need to rethink the relationship between gender and power.

by Nisha Dhawan | 5 min read

Expertise

See all

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

See all coverage by topic:

Leadership & Talent

Mixing the personal and professional

Why it is not enough to build a business relationship on trust alone.

by Bernadette Muyomi | 5 min read

Fundraising & Communications

Junk the jargon

Replace jargon with clear, simple words to bring more meaning to your communication.

by Stanford Social Innovation Review | 8 min read

Technology

Open-source tech for nonprofits

All you need to know to get started with open-source technologies.

by Rahul Kanvinde | 6 min read

Photo of the month

An act of protest

October 2020 | Farmers protest the recent farm bills that seek to deregulate the agricultural sector without putting in place adequate safeguards for them. Photo: Aditya Srinivasan Singh, Flickr, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Unemployed

August 2020 | As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt the nation's economy, the unemployment rate in India has seen a spike with unexpected terminations and fewer job opportunities available. Photo: Anand Sinha

PRIDE

July 2020 | The month of June is celebrated as Global Pride Month, however, physical distancing norms have put many pride parades on hold this year. We're looking back to last year where an LGBTQ community member posed with a rainbow flag during a pride march to celebrate the decriminalisation of homosexuality in India. Photo: Avijit Ghosh, Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA 4.0)

Monsoon harvest

June 2020 | Paddy seeds are sown in June, in time for the kharif harvest. This year, with the national lockdown, many farmers—like the one featured in this image from Kerala—face severe livelihood insecurities as the kharif season approaches. Photo: Navaneeth Kishor, Flickr (CC-BY 2.0)

Where do we go from here?

May 2020 | Many construction workers are stuck because of the national lockdown. Neither do they have a way to contact the state, nor can the state contact them. And their contractors and principal employers take little responsibility. Photo: Jan Sahas

On lockdown

April 2020 | Bangalore, notorious for its heavily congested streets, lies unusually empty amidst the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. Photo: Kinshuk, Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Standing tall and proud

March 2020 | Rajkala Devi, the first ever Sarpanch of Hingwahera gram panchayat in Alwar district, Rajasthan, motivates other women to stand tall and voice their opinion. Photo: UN Women/Ashutosh Negi

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

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Latest

The problem with resilience as we know it

A clarion call for child protection

Leave no household behind

Workshops we wish existed

The roots of organisational well-being

Ground Up

When solutions create problems

Capsicums and quail eggs

Are schools irrelevant?

Unsettled again

Videos

#FarmActs2020: Perspectives | Abhimanyu Kohad on the apprehension of farmers

#FarmActs2020: Perspectives | Puneet Singh Thind on the impact on FPOs

#FarmActs2020: Perspectives | Ritu Verma on the impact on agriculture

#NEP2020 | Raj Gilda on the scope of vocational education

#NEP2020 | Biswanath Sinha on inclusion of linguistic minorities

#NEP2020 | Anjela Taneja on equity and inclusion

#NEP2020 | Natasha Joshi on the concept of school complexes

#NEP2020 | Anurag Behar on the principles that underscore the NEP

#NEP2020 | Rukmini Banerji on primary education

Social stock exchange 101

P Sainath on India's agrarian crisis

Kamla Bhasin on listening to the communities you work with

Why do you read IDR?

History of social action in India: From 1947 onwards

Dr Fernandez on urban health

Kamla Bhasin on feminism

A day in the life of

Delivering citizens' rights to their doorsteps

Revitalising local self-governance

Meet the sisters of Bhuj

Failure Files

When failure is part of the feminist process

To bribe or not to bribe?

No right time for hard decisions

IDR Interviews

Sectors

The problem with resilience as we know it

A clarion call for child protection

Leave no household behind

Themes

Who goes to jail?

The roots of organisational well-being

Who holds power in organisations?

Expertise

Mixing the personal and professional

Junk the jargon

Open-source tech for nonprofits

Photo of the month

Get involved

Write for us

Give us your feedback

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