Purpose and Approach
We are a not-for-profit organisation with a vision to contribute towards a just, equitable, humane and sustainable society. Our work is focused on India.
Our vision guides us to work through a range of initiatives that seek to make a difference to the lives of people in our country and contribute to developing a society that we have pledged to ourselves in the Constitution.
Image credit - Dileep Prakash
Our work is built on two dimensions:
The first dimension is ‘needs’, which drives our work in getting people the basic necessities of life such as health, food, education, shelter, livelihood, dignity and safety.
The second dimension is ‘values’, which inspires our work in ensuring that people are not subjected to injustice, discrimination or exploitation, and they live in peace and harmony and act with humaneness and empathy.
One way of looking at our work is to map it to these two dimensions. When needs are addressed, it empowers the marginalised and gives them a voice, and when values are acted upon, it leads to a more dignified life for all.
We build institutions through our own operations, collaborate with governments on projects fundamental to our vision and work with partner organisations across the country, including some deeply remote and historically disadvantaged areas.
We operate in an integrated manner with the Field Institutes, Grants and University complementing each other. Our deep, on-the-ground work in Education has laid the foundation for expanding our work into Health and Livelihoods.
While change is central to our operations on the ground, we also value the importance of trust as well as humility and respect towards the people we work for and amongst. Specific needs of the most vulnerable are worth serving in themselves. Making a difference to the needs of people, even if small groups, is worthwhile.
We understand that real and sustainable change needs intense, deep and continuing effort at the grassroots.
Meaningful change and improvement are powered by strong organisations on the ground. We recognise the importance and value of high-quality public systems in key areas, such as education, health, food and social security, and infrastructure. We also respect and acknowledge the role that vibrant civil society institutions play in a democratic society.
Our work, in brief, ranges from deep on-the-ground work; both our own and that of partners, to setting up and running institutions with social objectives, including universities. We also support governments to formulate and implement policies and to support and help improve public systems.
Our learnings that drive our approach
- Expertise, as close to the ground as possible, matters to our work. We require technical, social-human and operational expertise in different degrees. Passion and commitment provide the energy for expertise to contribute.
- Simple and direct approaches have the best chance of making a difference amid the flux and change all around.
- Rigour and quality of work must lead to effects that are useful and valuable to individuals, communities and society.
- Purposefulness and values are the core of our work. The means are as important as the ends.
- There are distinct limits to what we can do and what our work can contribute to. This must not limit the efforts to contribute maximally.
- What matters most in life for individuals and societies often cannot be measured. Dignity, empathy, care, courage and resilience cannot be measured with any degree of validity or fidelity. There are, however, things that can be measured, such as children learning basic language and math; but we must remember that it is almost impossible to measure how the same children are learning to care for each other or be truly inclusive in their lives.
