Poverty is multidimensional. The urban poor not only struggle for a living, they also find it difficult to access housing and basic services (such as water, electricity, etc.) even compared to their rural counterparts, and often end up paying much more to access this due to corruption and lack of identification documents. We work with the urban poor to help them access their rights, so that they can participate in decision-making for themselves and realise their ‘Right to the City’.
In rural areas, we focus on promoting natural resource management with sustainable agricultural practices, community empowerment and social protection facilitation.
YUVA’s work currently spans across locations within Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and New Delhi.
Our Approach
At the community-level, through an integrated 360-degree approach, YUVA works on issues of housing, livelihood, environment and governance.
Through policy research, YUVA creates evidence-based knowledge to drive inclusive and equitable policymaking.
Partnerships in campaigns help us demonstrate solidarity and strengthen alliances to drive change.
How We Intervene
YUVA’s eleven levels of intervention ensure a composite, multi-pronged approach, and provide direction and focus to our work:
- Action organisation by facilitating the growth of people’s organisations
- Popular education to drive awareness
- Training and conscientisation via intensive processes
- Access for the fulfillment of basic rights and needs
- Experiments towards alternatives for sustainable and people-centred initiatives
- Research and policy to help formulate and influence decision making
- Documentation and information dissemination to promote the right to information
- Advocacy and lobbying aimed at participatory governance
- Initiation and strengthening of networks and alliances for social transformation
- Support and consultancy work to build the capacities of people’s and grassroots groups
- Solidarity action nationally and internationally to highlight people’s causes
Vision
We believe that development is a continuous struggle to create a humane society, which sustains all human beings, as well as nature, where all people enjoy universal human rights.
A humane society based on the values of equality, distributive justice and secularism is liberated from oppression on the basis of caste, class, creed, race, gender, age, ethnicity, language; is free from all forms of exploitation and violence; and demonstrates integrity and respect for democratic polity and processes.
Mission
We will empower the oppressed and the marginalised, to help them access their human right to live in security, dignity and peace.
We will facilitate people’s organisations and institutions towards equitable participation in the development process. We will engage in constructive dialogue and critical partnerships with the government alongside civil society, including movements, trade unions, women’s groups, academic institutions and the private sector, to enable and strengthen people’s empowerment processes.
