What if CSR stopped working in silos?

If we were to map the flow of CSR funding in India, its geography would tell a story of its own. The case of Maharashtra is a stark example. While speaking to nonprofits in the state, we found that several well-established organisations were working to improve government schools through interventions ranging from foundational literacy and WASH infrastructure to menstrual health and nutritional awareness. Yet most preferred to implement projects in the same four to five districts—primarily Mumbai

Joining a nonprofit? Here’s what you get

Prison reform begins where apathy ends

“If you get these f***ers to do some boxing, all their issues will get solved.” This is what a CSR leader told us (Mohit and Saanchi)1 during a meeting to pitch Project Second Chance, a nonprofit that we run to advocate for prison reform and to support formerly incarcerated people in India. Neither is this statement unusual nor the underlying assumption: that people in prison are broken in a way that a punching bag can fix; that their problems are theirs alone. Across conferences and meetings wi

Funding AI for lasting impact

Funders are growing increasingly interested in artificial intelligence (AI). Across the social sector, AI-powered solutions are being explored to improve learning outcomes, strengthen healthcare systems, support frontline workers, identify vulnerable populations, and make nonprofit operations more efficient. But as more money moves towards AI, it raises an important question arises: Are funders paying only for technology, or are they funding everything it takes for that technology to create impa

Dear Protest…

Dear Protest, Are you okay? There was a time when this question was asked only to people. These days, it seems to be asked of the country. I picked up the morning paper, and there you were. From the front page to the gossip columns, everyone had an opinion on you. A little later, I sipped my tea as I scrolled on Instagram. Same story. Every other post, every other reel, there you were again. That’s when I began to worry. I tried the television next. Surely you’d be there somewhere too, buried be

If your nonprofit was a bird

Can we nonprofits display the courage we ask of others?

Last week, amid the roar of young voices asking for accountability, amid the courage of their songs and the humour of their memes, there was the usual absence of support from government officials and business leaders. But this time there was also an eerie silence from an extremely important segment of the country: the nonprofits. Some of us in the team spent the week on social media scouring the handles of nonprofits, especially those who work with the youth, to find out what they were doing for

What frontline social workers need to stay safe at work

On August 5, 2019, Kritika*, a counsellor at Shakti Shalini, was withdrawing cash from an ATM near our office in Jangpura, New Delhi, when she was attacked by a group of eight people attempting to abduct her. The attack was led by the former partner of a survivor of sexual and gender-based violence living at Shakti Shalini's shelter home. Kritika was handling the case, protecting the survivor’s well-being and identity. Despite the presence of several bystanders, she did not get any help when she

Can lived experiences shape scholarship programmes?

Vishesh* is studying for his Master of Arts in social work. This is his first time away from his home in Buldhana district, Maharashtra. His parents are farmers, with an annual income of INR 2,00,000. He is the first person from his family to ever pursue a postgraduate degree. Twice a week, Vishesh wakes up before sunrise to take the local train to Karjat, 70 km east of Mumbai, for his fieldwork with a livelihoods- and disability-focused nonprofit. The journey costs him INR 50 weekly. The fieldw

Education Perspective and Preparedness for Student Teachers

India has heat action plans. But where is the budget?

For millions of Indians, heat is experienced not through meteorological bulletins but inside a tin-roofed room that does not cool after sunset, at a work site where stopping work means losing wages, or in fields under a scorching sun. Yet extreme heat remains difficult to locate as a distinct priority in India’s public finances. Published in June 2026, Standing the Heat is a joint report by Greenpeace India, the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), and the Budget Analysis and

Democratising outcomes-based financing

India set out on its outcomes-based finance (OBF) journey in 2015 with the Educate Girls Development Impact Bond. Since then, at least USD 59 million[1] has been mobilised through various OBF initiatives across sectors such as health, education, employment, and livelihoods.[2] OBF is broadly defined as a flexible set of financing mechanisms and organisational strategies that link payments to the achievement of pre-defined and verified outcomes. All OBF mechanisms are defined around three princip

A glossary of World Cup terms for the social sector

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India’s carbon credit market needs evidence before it scales

India’s carbon market conversation is widening beyond energy and industry. Forests, farms, grasslands, wetlands, mangroves and rice fields are increasingly being viewed as spaces where climate action, ecological restoration and rural livelihoods can converge. Carbon credits are expected to help bring private finance into these landscapes. But the global experience of the voluntary carbon market shows that a project can be registered, verified and even generate credits without necessarily deliver

Is Meghalaya learning to read its own health data?

For decades, any serious conversation about public health in India's Northeast has begun with an apology for the gaps in research, evidence, and data. Policy briefs hedge with caveats. Academic papers note the absence of region-specific studies. Programme reviews flag poor reporting. And somewhere in that recurring acknowledgement of what is missing, the Northeast has become an afterthought in national health discussions—visible on the map, but often invisible in the evidence. Meghalaya exemplif

Who belongs on your board

A good board can add tremendous value to an organisation. The law requires every registered nonprofit to have one, but in the early stages, boards are often made up of friends and family. It rarely evolves to include other kinds of individuals who can add value to the role and to the organisation's mission.  Founders of nonprofits in India continue to rely heavily on inviting board members they already have some relationship with, usually directly or through other board members or stakehold

A social business model for Lucknow’s chikankari artisans

Having lived in Lucknow all my life, I have been surrounded by the sight of the hand-embroidery tradition of chikankari. However, about six years ago, when I was asked to set up a skilling programme and social enterprise for chikankari artisans, I realised how little I knew about the process behind these intricate designs I had grown up wearing.  The task before me was twofold: First, to train women in Lucknow and surrounding rural areas in stitching and provide them with a stable livelihoo

The community spaces that shape social mobility

Every Sunday, Surekha* joins a study group at a vihar (a Buddhist community space) in Nagpur in Maharashtra to prepare for applying to master's programmes in Bengaluru and London. Along with more than 20 other students, she works on her group discussion, public speaking, English language, and debating skills. This self-driven group operates without a teacher. These students have fought hard to secure three hours of access to the vihar each Sunday, overcoming considerable opposition from resident

For women in Rajasthan, the end of MGNREGA means losing more than work

According to a 2014 state-level study, at least one or two members in 56.6 percent of households in southern Rajasthan were migrating in search of work. As the level of male outmigration, in particular, has remained high in the region, a significant share of the livelihoods of such households is dependent on women's labour. In this context, MGNREGA has been more than an employment scheme and a source of income. It has been an important medium for women to access the panchayat, voice their views

The frustrations (and aspirations) of an annual report

Across thousands of grassroots organisations in India, a familiar ritual unfolds every year—the making of an annual report. It usually begins with the best intentions of the founder, moves through the chaos of middle management, is fed with inputs from team members on the ground, is compiled by someone who focuses on the aesthetics of the document more than its content, and somehow ends in a glossy document that looks far more calm and organised than the process that produced it. This article is

What does it take to embed AI in government systems?

India’s courts faced a backlog of more than 50 million pending cases in 2025. In government schools across the nation, teachers spend months collecting foundational literacy and numeracy data. And for millions of citizens, the laws that govern their daily lives remain inaccessible, written in language they cannot parse, and delivered through channels they cannot reach. These gaps are endemic to systems that are under-resourced and understaffed. Within this landscape, a few nonprofits are working

Why women dream of making chili powder in Meghalaya

https://youtu.be/viKmcXQXlbQ?si=TTTBRkkqNajyxa82 In 2020, SeSTA started working with people in the villages of North Garo Hills district in Meghalaya with the aim of creating sustainable livelihoods. The mandate was to help poultry farmers, crop farmers, and micro-entrepreneurs in boosting production, setting up market linkages, and adopting scientific practices that allow them to increase their income in the long run.   It soon became a process of collaboration where people brought in fres

Cybercrime and women: What gets counted?

During the Budget Session 2026–27, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Empowerment of Women tabled the Fourth Report on Cyber Crimes and Cyber Safety of Women. The report identifies several facets of cybercrime ecosystem afflicting women in India, probes gaps in policy, and makes corresponding recommendations.  A primary concern with the report is the absence of cohesive and reliable public datasets. To begin with, the report systematically underrepresents tech-facilitated gender-based

03 Jul 2026

The racialisation of British Sikhs, UN report on Palestinian children, Arms markets across the world, and more.

Delimitation after 2026

The delimitation debate should not be viewed as a contest between democracy and federalism. Rather, it concerns the appropriate balance between electoral equality and territorial accommodation within a federal polity. Among the alternatives considered, the allocation of only incremental seats, according to contemporary population, emerges as a possible middle path that merits consideration in future political deliberations.

Bangladesh after the 2026 Elections

Should the US Sell Advanced GPUs to China? An Indian Perspective

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Commentary

To the Point

Money, Banking and Finance

After being relatively stable till the 1980s, India witnessed a significant structural shift during the post-reform period. Using annual time series data from 1991 to 2022, structural transformation in India is examined with a focus on gender disparities in employment transitions from the agriculture sector. The findings reveal that India witnessed a workforce movement—from agriculture to industry and services—a symbol of the country’s economic progress. However, the process of change was not eq

Editorials

Interventions

Engage-Articles

Feminism in the Last Decade: An Interactive

Informal Sector, Financial Inclusion, and Role of Digitalisation

The informal sector is central to developing economies but remains constrained by limited financial inclusion. This paper examines the determinants of digitalisation and its effects on financial inclusion among informal enterprises in Bangladesh, Ghana, and India. The findings show that digitalisation significantly improves access to credit, formal banking, and digital savings across all three countries. By expanding access to essential financial services, digitalisation strengthens the sustaina

Special Articles

Review of Women's Studies

Poverty of Concepts and Policies

EPW Engage

In view of the recent attacks on writer Kancha Ilaiah, we are republishing his 1996 article which was published as a Commentary in on 15 Jun, 1996 in Vol. 31, Issue No. 24 of the EPW. On one hand the BJP defines SC, OBC castes as Hindus, and on the other by banning beef denies them their age-old food habits. If beef is banned it will he the beginning of the end of the country's multiculturalism.

Limits of Mingling

New Collectives, Old Hierarchies?

Caste, Water, and the Political Ecology of Drought

Disposing Land in Patna

Unified Urban Development Control

(Un)Fixing the Social

Articulating the Maternal

Political Construction of Naga Mothers’ Organisations and Problems of Feminist Framings

Nurturers of Souls

Domesticating Climate Change

Pathway to a Renewable Energy-centric Energy Transition

A Road to Coastal Deregulation

Treasury of Enduring Insight

Economic Theory after Garegnani

The Emperor’s New Clichés

Bearing Witness to a Rupture in Time

Goan Modernity

The Politics of Belonging in the Hindi Heartland

The Indian Journey of Personnel Management in a Global Frame

Politics at the Heart of Development

Everything and Nothing

Development and Its Discontent

Unsealing Judicial Power

Fragments against Amnesia

Change in Social Movements

Capitalism Re-examined

Sabarimala: Verdict and Protest

A Treatise on and Challenge to the Epistemological Conquest of India

Broadening and Visibilising the Scope of Subalternity

Labour, Rights and Constitutional Imagination

Many Punjabi Voices

The Politics of Memorialisation

Errata and Corrections

Leadership for women arrives politely but with conditions and scrutiny that men are not subjected to.

Urdu in Tonk

Tonk in Rajasthan problematises dominant narratives about Urdu literary culture, sustaining literary life across generations.

Cultural Labour and the Afterlife of Folk Performance

Taking a labour-centred perspective of folk performances like Chhau can reveal what heritage-based frameworks tend to obscure.

Stories Cartoons Tell: A Dialogic Analysis of Israel–Palestine Conflict