community participation

Once known as cosmos town, Pfutsero in Nagaland saw the flower disappear as the town grew. A community-led reseeding effort brought it back, now hosting a festival to celebrate it.

রাজনৈতিকভাবে সংবেদনশীল এলাকাগুলোতে স্থানীয় জনগোষ্ঠীর সঙ্গে সম্পর্ক গড়ে তোলার ক্ষেত্রে উন্নয়ন কর্মীদের অবশ্যই নম্রতা, সহানুভূতি এবং সক্রিয়ভাবে শোনার ওপর ভিত্তি করে কাজ করতে হবে।

A non-local nonprofit shares insights from their solar electrification programme, on why trust and local partnership matter more to work in Northeast India.

Growing pressures on land and ecological changes have made jhum cultivation difficult for Manipur’s farmers. Alternative practices offer a way to improve soil fertility and build sustainable livelihoods.

In June 2025, government officials reached Delhi’s Naraina Village for an ‘unprecedented’ public hearing. What unfolded revealed decades of neglect, but also new forms of resistance. 

Communities already carry deep knowledge of the commons through oral traditions, customary practices, and lived experience. The question is whether data systems are designed to recognise it.

From identifying patients to mobilising donors, health-related fundraising demands sustained effort from nonprofits.

From sanitation to livelihoods, five nonprofits discuss how their work reflects Amartya Sen's ideas of development as freedom, as the realisation of people's aspirations, as access to basic goods and services, and as meaningful, democratic participation in decision-making.

Courts, communities, and the state are turning to geospatial tools to monitor encroachments, restore commons, and land governance but challenges remain.

The decades-long fight for water rights in Mumbai's informal settlements shows what it takes to sustain a social movement, and why the work doesn’t end with policy wins.