Tamil Nadu Domestic Workers Trust 

Founded: 2005 

Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu  

Organization Overview:

Sr. Valamarthi, a former domestic worker has led the organization since 2006 and is a proximate leader. The organization involves the target population at every stage, from design to decision making. The community actively shapes the organization’s interventions through feedback mechanisms and comprehensive data collection, including community surveys and primary data. A notable example is the journey of elderly domestic workers post-COVID. Initially facing job terminations, these individuals became trainers within the organization. Similarly, the organization’s community-centric approach has been contributing to building leadership in the community and providing a platform for the voices of the target group to empower and educate themselves and others around them. 

NGO List

  • ACCORD

    accordweb.in

    Founded: 1986

    Headquarters: Gudalur, Tamil Nadu

    Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu

    Lives Impacted: 12,000+

    Organization Overview:

    Action for Community Organisation, Rehabilitation and Development (ACCORD) aims to empower the Paniyas, Bettakurumbas, Mullakurumbas and Kattunayakans tribal communities in the Gudalur valley of the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu through diverse initiatives including promoting savings among the community, facilitating access to government schemes, promoting Just Change an Adivasi led Producer Company selling tea, spices and a range of products. ACCORD’s mission since the 1980s has been to enable the community living in the area to regain their fast-losing identity, to make them self reliant, and to enable them to participate in the mainstream society as equal partners with dignity and pride and not as a disadvantaged community.

  • Agragamee

    agragamee.org

    Founded: 1981

    Headquarters: Kashipur, Odisha

    Geographical Focus: Odisha

    Lives Impacted: 16,000+

    Organization Overview:

    Based in drought-prone tribal regions of Odisha, Agragamee aims to bring self-reliance through livelihoods and income generation, education, women & youth leadership and institution building. It works with Scheduled Tribe communities including the Khond, Paraja, and Jhodia tribes in Odisha across 6 aspirational districts. These are some of India’s most chronically poor and remote districts with historic gaps in development.

    , ,

  • Aim for Awareness of Society (AAS) 

    https://aasindore.org/

    Founded: 2005 

    Geographical Focus: Madhya Pradesh 

    Organization Overview:

    The main aim of Aim for Awareness of Society (AAS) is to build community leadership that can help create child-friendly panchayats where every child has access to education and government support. AAS’s interventions are based on 4 pillars – protection (tackling issues like child abuse, child marriage and child labour), prevention (working with parents and supporting individuals in the child’s immediate ecosystem), people’s participation, partnerships (knowledge and resource based partnerships) and propagation (awareness building). Through this pathway of 4 pillars, the organization has been able to impart life skills training, capacity building, and access to education and basic amenities to children. They also aim to build community volunteers who can mobilize youth groups towards volunteering work. 

    ,

  • Ajagar Social Circle (ASC)

    www.ajagarsocialcircle.org

    Founded: 2001

    Headquarters: Goalpara, Assam

    Geographical Focus: Assam and Meghalaya

    Lives Impacted: 30,000+

    Organization Overview:

    Ajagar Social Circle was started to bring about a change in socio-economic status, support low-income communities and increase the livelihood opportunities of the people in north-eastern region. The organization at present is engaged in a range of activities that collectively aim to provide social and economic security to the farming, allied and non-farming  community living in the Assam-Meghalaya belt.

  • Anubhuti Trust

    anubhutitrust.org

    Founded: 2016

    Headquarters: Thane, Maharashtra

    Geographical Focus: Maharashtra

    Lives Impacted: 232,500+

    Organization Overview:

    Anubhuti Trust empowers youth through leadership development and sensitization on issues of gender, caste, class, ethnicity and language. It primarily works with NT-DNT (Nomadic and De-Notified Tribes), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Scheduled Caste (SC) communities in Maharashtra.

    , ,

  • Arpan

    arpanuk.in

    Founded: 1996

    Headquarters: Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand

    Geographical Focus: Uttarakhand

    Lives Impacted: 2,500+

    Organization Overview:

    ARPAN works in Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand at the trijunction of Nepal, Tibet and China Border. This is an earthquake prone, hilly region with most tribal communities displaced from their forest lands. Arpan focuses on women from tribal communities who are at the intersection of ethnicity and gender based oppression. Their key interventions are: land rights for women, livelihoods, education and women and child protection.

    , ,

  • Ashadeepa Angavikalara Sarva Abhiwruddhi Seva Samsthe

    ashadeepa.org

    Founded: 2014

    Headquarters: Bagalkote, Karnataka

    Geographical Focus: Karnataka

    Lives Impacted: 48,887

    Organization Overview:

    Ashadeepa was founded and is run by Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in the remote district of Bagalkote in Bangalore. It works to address challenges and empower PWDs and their families; underserved women and children through community-based rehabilitation programs. It aims to provide support to PWDs through all stages of their lives with effective delivery of interventions across education, health and livelihood. 

    , ,

  • Bhittibhumi Seva Sangathan (BSS)

    www.bhittibhumi.org

    Founded: 2001

    Headquarters: Sambalpur, Odisha

    Geographical Focus: Odisha

    Lives Impacted: 24,500+

    Organization Overview:

    Bhittibhumi works with Dalit, Other Backward Class (OBC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities, especially Gond, Kisan and Sabar tribes, in the Sambalpur and Bargarh districts of Odisha. They support smallholder farmers and children with accessing entitlements, diversifying agricultural practices, and reconnecting with their social-cultural heritage.

  • Brave Souls Foundation 

    https://bravesoulsfoundation.org/

    Founded: 2021 

    Geographical Focus: Delhi, West Bengal, Chandigarh 

    Organization Overview:

    Brave Souls Foundation’s works with acid attack survivors and their aim is to ultimately ensure that survivors are able to reintegrate within society, are financially independent and capable of leading a self-sufficient life. Brave Souls Foundation engages with the target community in a holistic manner, working with survivors of acid attacks through a 360 degree intervention model supporting them as a first point of contact post-incident, to providing legal aid, health support, rehabilitation and reintegration support. They also work on strengthening systems through advocacy efforts with government stakeholders for a ban on access to acid and the introduction of safeguarding policies. Through their interventions, Brave Souls Foundation has been able to build a strong network of survivors of acid attacks, who have a strong sense of camaraderie amongst themselves and have been reclaiming public spaces for themselves through social campaigns. 

    ,

  • Centre for Community Initiative

    https://communityinitiative.in/

    Founded: 2002 

    Geographical Focus: Manipur 

    Organization Overview:

    Centre for Community Initiative’s (CCI) leader Pauzagin Tonsing’s personal experience with his son, who was born with a disability, prompted him to work with Children with Disabilities(CwD), specifically in Manipur, where there is a huge gap in infrastructure, community support and resources for disability. CCI focuses on building community ownership and agency in several ways. While working with CwDs, they take an individualized approach to building a customized plan for each child. To ensure the child can receive the support required, they engage and capacitate different stakeholders in a community. With parents, they heavily engage in identifying needs, monitoring progress, forming parents’ groups, training them to advocate with different authorities for the rights of CwDs, facilitating access to special educator learning courses and providing counselling. They also train the staff of government and private schools in the area to enable the inclusion of CwDs in mainstream education facilities. In addition, CCI also runs a school for children with disabilities to ensure that access to education is not hampered.  

    ,

  • Centre for Regional Education, Forest & Tourism Development Agency (CREFTDA) 

    http://www.creftda.org/

    Founded: 1991 

    Geographical Focus: Odisha  

    Organization Overview:

    Bijaylal, the founder and leader of the organization, belongs to the OBC community, which is one of the target communities for the organization’s initiatives. Having grown up in a family dedicated to community-based education, Bijaylal returned to his village post-graduation to engage in social service. The organization’s commitment to community empowerment is evident in its early work, where after building capacities in watershed management, the community took charge of its development initiatives, raising funds and overseeing programs independently. The overarching goal is to foster self-reliant communities capable of sustaining their development initiatives even after the organization exits the community. 

  • Centre for Women and Girls (CWG)

    http://cwgmanipur.org/

    Founded: 2006

    Headquarters: Chandel, Manipur

    Geographical Focus: Manipur

    Lives Impacted: 35,000+

    Organization Overview:

    Centre for Women and Girls (CWG) was founded in 2006 by Hechin Haokip in Chandel district of Manipur and works with 2 districts along the Indo-Myanmar Border. The organization endeavors to empower women and youth by providing need-based capacity building on sustainable livelihood, human rights, and governance. They strive to promote justice through quality education with the involvement of the community.

    , ,