Samagam 2018

“If India had mainstreamed what PRADAN had thought of 30 years ago, we would have achieved a lot more as a nation.”

A pril 18, 2018, marked the 35th year of inception of PRADAN. We chose to commemorate the achievements of the organization as well as the civil society sector by hosting an event called ‘Samagam 2018’ at Siri Fort Auditorium in Delhi. Samagam was conceived as a platform to discuss issues and challenges faced by the sector. It was part of a larger initiative to create greater visibility and support for the work being done by the development sector. Given the multidimensional nature of poverty and complexity of the development issues in India, creating ‘a just and equitable society’ demands persistent work, and is a long haul, touching more than one facet of the lives of marginalized communities. It also requires all relevant stakeholders, including the community, to come together and forge a systemic collaboration and add to each other’s efforts.

Through decades of dedicated effort, in addressing the pressing issues of inequality, deprivation and injustice, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have endeavoured to bring about change and usher in innovations in their domains of expertise. Be it bringing in technological solutions for growing problems in the rural areas or setting up community institutions and health-care systems that later were adopted by the government for its flagship programmes, development sector organizations have accomplished the most challenging tasks in some of the toughest geographies. However, very little is known and/or acknowledged about these contributions. And, above all, it is becoming increasingly difficult for these organizations, especially when it comes to the question of sustaining themselves with stricter financial regulation norms in terms of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) being inflicted by the government that are drying up several of the existing foreign funds due to the mammoth (false?) projection of economic growth in the subcontinent.

Whereas there has been appreciation of PRADAN’s work on the ground, there has seldom been any effort to take it to the mainstream. PRADAN introduced and took up the revolutionary idea of the role of gender in development.