Redefining Sustainability and Civil Society

  Covid-19 Pandemic-Community Resilience is the Key   The Covid-19 pandemic has not only dealt a massive blow to the rural communities, but also laid bare the systemic failures in political, economic and social spheres. It also put a question mark on the contingency plans to contain the damages that might be caused in future by an emergency of the scale of the current pandemic. The pandemic pushed marginalized and vulnerable communities to the edge, especially migrant laborers who endured unprecedented reverse migration, perhaps the most horrible and devastating since partition. It generated fear and stigma among communities, exposed the services in public health sector and caused humongous loss of human lives and livelihoods. The impact of the pandemic can seen in rural communities as broken agriculture supply chain and reverse migration put huge burden on limited resources in the villages. Rebuilding the rural economy and restore the confidence of rural masses requir...

  The civil society in India is at crossroads today with overseas funds shrinking gradually for the last couple of decades and the new FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) rules breathing down its neck. The dilemma is much deeper if viewed in the light of issues like human rights, climate change and environmental justice which along with other UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which serve as a common thread for the entire global community. And at the receiving end are the NGOs, especially those at the grassroots, without the wherewithal to access international donors directly, and have depended on intermediary organisations to bridge the gap. Apart from this, Indian non-profits will have restricted or no access to resources to invest in technology, capacity building, and research. So, the bigger question is- how will International donors re-configure their India strategies to find alternate ways to identify and align with existing or potential NGO partners and how e...