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Fellowships for Social Change

 

 

We see an India of the 21st century, with over a one billion population, where human rights are violated with impunity, bonded labour is still a reality. Public health systems do not prevent disease and public hospitals do not cure it; illiteracy is widespread and millions of children are 'educated' in government schools where absentee teachers are the norm. Natural livelihood resources are destructed in the name of modernisation and genetically modified seeds are replacing traditional harvesting practices. We recognise that the government cannot shoulder the entire responsibility of development. This effort must be supplemented by the energies and actions of socially committed individuals and groups. Our fellowship aims at fulfilling this need.

The SRUTI Fellowships are aimed at supporting committed women and men, individuals and groups who have pledged their lives to the world of social activism and development. The Fellowships support work on a range of issues and activities that these individuals or fellows (as they are called ) and the groups they establish, focus on, at the grassroots level and often, in the remotest of locations. From food security to education; forest conservation to livelihood generation; land alienation to threats posed by hatred campaigns; police atrocities to corruption, SRUTI fellows engage in a wide gamut of activities including awareness raising, organising communities, training and capacity building, documentation and advocacy across rural and urban India.

The Fellowship support is meant to cover living costs, local travel and other contingencies. On an average, the groups consist of 4-10 community workers, each of whom work in villages to organise and help local people tackle and find solutions to their problems. The fellowship is given until such time that fellows and their teams are able to mobilise resources from the community or elsewhere to continue their work. Though the sums involved are not large, it is expected that they have a profound multiplier effect in creating conditions for a more just and equitable society in the years to come.

Apart from the financial aspects, Sruti's role vis-a-vis its fellows is in the realm of guidance and mentoring, hand-holding, moral support, information sharing, advocacy, capacity building support and creating possibilities for networking and linkages with peer fellows and others in civil society