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PUKAR Youth Fellowship Graduation Event Invitation |
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Deadline Extended to 20th April, 2010. |
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Youth Participation in Electoral Democracy |
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Atul Kulkarni at Chetna College
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Date: October 3, 2009
Venue: Chetna College, Bandra
Participants: College students and PUKAR’s Youth Fellows
PUKAR had invited well-known actor Atul Kulkarni to talk about ‘Youth Participation in Electoral Democracy’ at the Chetna College, Bandra on October 3, 2009. The talk was scheduled prior to the Assembly
Elections in Maharashtra, with a clear goal to motivate youth to avail of their most fundamental right as citizens. |
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Atul Kulkarni opined that democracy is a good system and the citizens have to make it work. People generally feel cynical about politics, and youngsters often feel that all politicians are bad or corrupt. Atul urged the young audience to reflect upon their own behavior to see if they pursued the values that they would like their politicians to follow! He said that it is only through people’s active participation that democracy can be really effective, and the simplest form of participation is voting.
The audience responded positively to this hour-long talk and in the open dialogue that followed, the youth openly shared their ambivalence about their role in the larger democratic system. |
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PUKAR Youth Fellows Present to a Global Audience |
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The PUKAR Youth Fellows (advanced level) made a presentation of their research at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences on 13th November 2009 to the TISS faculty, Doctoral and
Postdoctoral scholars as well as international guests. The three groups shared their research on 'Caste on Web', 'Mumbai Haunting' and 'Documenting New Spiritual Sites in Mumbai'. Their presentations were well received and generated considerable discussion on themes such as, methodology of engaged research, ethics of sharing data, the complexities of acknowledgment and confidentiality. The presentation was introduced by Rahul Srivastava and Matias Echanove, the Advisors to PUKAR and mentors and guides for the Advance Research Youth fellow for this project. |
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The Ford Foundation Representatives visit PUKAR
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Ravina Aggarwal and Orlando Bagwell on a field visit to Girangaon
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Ravina Aggarwal and Orlando Bagwell at the PUKAR office
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Ravina Aggarwal, the Program Officer for the Ford Foundation, India (Mythologies of Mumbai Project) and Orlando Bagwell, the director for Freedom Of expression Division of the Ford Foundation, USA, visited PUKAR on December 6, 2009. They spent the entire morning in PUKAR with the Mythologies of Mumbai Team. The Team presented them a PPT that illustrated every part of their work and shared with them samples of few photographs from the exhibition that was mounted at IIC, Delhi. Post lunch, both the guests took a long walk in the erstwhile textile mill area (Girangaon) with the Team. It was a very positive and enriching experience for the team members and both the guests congratulated the Team for their excellent work. |
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PUKAR
inducted in the committee for Maharashtra State Policy for Youth |
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MA students at HPT collage in Nasik filling out PUKAR's survey sheets
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PUKAR was recently invited to contribute to the draft of the Maharashtra State Policy for Youth. PUKAR in keeping with its belief in the fundamental principles of democracy and participation conducted a survey to put in perspective youth understanding of participation in the democratic process. The survey covered 300 youth in Mumbai and 175 youth from Nashik, Nanded and Aurangabad.
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PUKAR Team debated the youth policy draft point by point leading to comprehensive report of recommendations in the area of education, health, technology, media. The comparative study was presented by PUKAR at a State level workshop for dissemination, reflection and recommendation on the Draft Maharashtra State Youth Policy on 30th November 2009 at the Tata Institute of Social sciences. The findings of the report and recommendations were well received and PUKAR is pleased to share its induction into the committee for Maharashtra State Policy for Youth.
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PUKAR Youth Fellows Present at Center for Policy Research, Delhi |
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(Extreme Right) PUKAR Advanced Level Youth Fellows Sunil and Urvi on the dias in Delhi
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Urvi Shah and Sunil Gangavane, PUKAR Advanced Research Fellows were invited to “The Undisciplined City” on 30th November and 1st December, 2009 at New Delhi by Center for Policy Research (CPR). They are exploring the ways in which youth in Mumbai renegotiate caste on web communities such as ORKUT.
Urvi penned her experience as follows:
‘It was an open workshop to speak about urban experiences through multidisciplinary perspectives. It was organized under four broad thematic sessions focused on the Indian urban experience- Urban Politics, Urban Society, Urban economy and Urban Interventions’.
They staged a presentation on “Caste on web” in Urban Society theme. The opening presentation stimulated a rich opening discussion that covered important areas of inquiry, existing and ongoing work, issues of data, etc. The feedback that they received gave them thoughtful insights and different perspectives of their study.
This feedback was a testimony to the high quality research inputs from Sunil and Urvi to their research project. This workshop gave them a platform to present as well as introspect on their research.
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PUKAR receives the 2009 Youth Icon Award |
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At the recent Youth Icon Awards ceremony, held in New Delhi on
September 25, 2009, PUKAR (Mumbai) and Commutiny (Delhi) were
jointly awarded for “Outstanding Contribution - Community Service”. |
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| On behalf of PUKAR, Youth Fellows Chandrakant
Uttekar and Shahnaz Malik received the award at the hands of Shabana
Azmi. The PUKAR team is honored to receive this international
recognition! The trust of the people who have voted for us further
strengthens our conviction to continue to strive for excellence in
whatever we undertake. The ceremony provided an opportunity for the four young change-makers representing the marginalized youth of India, to share the stage with other well known awardees such as Omar Abdullah, Aishwarya Rai, Rahul Bose and Priyanka Chopra.
To catch a glimpse of the awards ceremony on youtube.
Click Here
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| LEFT: Chandrakant Uttekar sharing his thoughts. |
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Renewal of Sir Ratan Tata Trust Grant
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| PUKAR is pleased to share that Sir Ratan Tata Trust has renewed their support towards the Youth Fellowship
Programme for a period of three years, extending up to 2011. After a close review of the programme, it was felt that the YFP continued to successfully achieve its stated goals, which was truly creditable. It was also recognized that the programme significantly impacted the lives and skills of the youth fellows.
The renewed support and trust extended to us will encourage us to explore newer avenues for further developing and cultivating the programme.
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| In the new phase, the structure of the programme has undergone some modification, 40 Youth Fellow groups will be divided into 30 Primary Youth Fellowship groups and 10 Advanced Level Research Groups. |
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PUKAR Youth Fellowship; Advanced Level Research Programme
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The PUKAR Advanced Level Research Fellowship aims at producing urban research outside of academia, by youth fellows on themes directly relevant to their personal interests.
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| The selection criteria for this
programme mandates that applicants must be Barefoot Researchers who
have graduated from the PUKAR Youth Fellowship after one or more
years of training and feel the need to do more intensive research on
the same or similar themes they explored during the period of the
fellowship. In keeping with the spirit of the Youth Fellowship
Programme, the Advanced Level Research Programme continues to look at
urban research as an engaged and value lead activity. |
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Rahul Srivastava in a workshop with Second Level Researchers
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| The major difference between the Youth Fellowship Research Programme and the Advanced Level Research is the fact that while Youth Fellowship is a process focused programme with emphasis on the filed work, the Advanced Level Research puts equal emphasis on analytic study methods, intensive literature searches and field experiences!
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| This year, ten groups have been selected for this fellowship and research themes include a survey of ration shops in poor neighborhoods, mapping dreamscapes of child rag pickers in the periphery of the city, a study of caste-based social networking on the Web and exploration of “attitudes regarding taking of vows” in multi-religious places in Mumbai, to mention a few! The year long study will involve consultations with scholars from the academia as well as the practitioners in the related subject matters!
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Matias Sendoa Echanove in a workshop with Second Level Researchers.
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| The Research Fellows are expected to produce essays and multimedia projects at the end of the programme which will be reviewed by colleagues and peers involved in urban research. The PUKAR Advanced-Level Research Fellows work with a mentoring team consisting of Research Advisor Rahul Srivastava and Information and Communications Advisor Matias Echanove with inputs from other members of the PUKAR Team and PUKAR Associates. |
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PUKAR inducts New Trustee
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| Srilatha Batliwala has been associated
with PUKAR as an Advisor since its inception. She has now joined
PUKAR in a more active role as Co-Chair of the President of the
Board of Trustees from July 2009. A well-known feminist, researcher
and an independent scholar based in Bangalore, Srilatha worked for
nearly thirty five years in India and internationally in a range of
social change and gender justice activities that spanned grassroots
organizing, advocacy, and research, with a deep commitment to gender
equality and the women’s movement in India. |
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| Later she joined Ford Foundation, US, handling programs related to strengthening international civil society and the nonprofit sector. It was in that capacity that Srilatha was responsible for transforming the idea of PUKAR, as envisioned by Prof Arjun Appadurai - PUKAR’s Founder Trustee, into a reality. The task of “delivering baby PUKAR” was successfully done by Srilata in 2001.
Srilatha is an India-based Civil Society Research Fellow at the Hauser Center for Non-profit Organizations, Harvard University. Though she is best known for her work on gender equality and women’s empowerment, her work at Harvard focuses on transnational civil society. She has co-edited a volume entitled “Transnational Civil Society: An Introduction” (Kumarian Press, August 2006) and is working on her second book, on transnational grassroots movements. She also has published extensively on a range of development and women’s issues including the widely used “Women’s Empowerment in South Asia – Concepts and Practices”.
A multifaceted and multi-talented woman, Srilatha is Chair of the Board of the Women’s Environment and Development Organization, and a member of the Board of PLAN International and Gender at Work. Additionally she freelances in areas of program and organizational evaluations, gender and organizational change, and helping practitioners generate new concepts and theories to challenge dominant discourses.
Currently, Srilatha is Senior Advisor to the project on Feminist Organizations and Movements of the Association of Women's Rights in Development (AWID) and the Chair of the Board of the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), New York among others. |
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PUKAR welcomes new members to the Team |
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Alongside, she initiated, solely of her own accord, a grants making venture for less privileged students interested in pursuing higher studies. From here began her foray into the development field. She further established an educational council to assist and support students wanting to study abroad, following which she joined Pratham. At Pratham, Nyana went through a range of roles, assuming responsibilities as diverse as project management, grant management, fundraising and PR, and donor relations at both national and international levels.
The desire to diversify her skills set, knowledge and proficiency in the field led her to the Masters from LSE. A woman of many talents, including writing poetry and painting, Nyana is driven by her interactions with people and the diversity they bring to her life. This is what brought her to PUKAR—a zest for engaging with different cultures and human ethnographies. Brimming with ideas and a chronic enthusiasm for work, she hopes to contribute extensively to the organisation.
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