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This year, something beautiful took root in Nimon block of Nashik district, Maharashtra.
As we signed MOU with MHADA to plant 15,000 saplings across Nimon and Daregaon, we hold a promise to heal the land, to bring back green and to leave behind shade for the next generation.
Grateful to every hand that dug, every heart that believed.
Thank you MHADA for being a solid support in this journey!
Raah Foundation’s Centre for Policy Research and Action is a civil-society think tank rooted in the Northern Western Ghats, translating community knowledge into actionable, just policy. It is developing a bi-monthly series of thematic/position papers and has already produced two significant research outputs, including a journal publication and a youth survey-led study. The Centre also convenes curated webinars to share insights, shape discourse, and strengthen cross-sector relationships. Looking ahead, it will engage more directly with government systems—offering research-backed inputs, co-designing pilots, and participating in consultative forums to inform regional public policy.
The GRT Research Fellowship is an 8-week, immersive programme that places young researchers at the intersection of climate, gender, and indigenous knowledge. Its first edition focuses on the lived experiences of indigenous women in the Northern Western Ghats, combining academic inquiry with community-centred engagement. Fellows move through three phases—orientation on ethical methods, a literature review, and fieldwork with interviews—culminating in analysis and a comprehensive report. The inaugural cohort features four women from the social and natural sciences, building a pipeline of researchers trained in both rigour and field sensitivity.
Because the collapse is already here, it’s just unevenly distributed. In India, 600 million people are already experiencing high to extreme water stress, while 75% of rural households lack access to piped, potable water. The illusion of progress hides a brutal geography—where tribal communities just 100 kilometres from Mumbai still walk 5–8 kilometres daily for access to drying wells. While urban India debates carbon credits, the Western Ghats—one of the last remaining biodiversity corridors and source of six major rivers. has already lost over 32% of its forest cover in 40 years, unraveling ecosystems that feed millions.
Why us? Because most development work treats the poor as passive recipients. We don’t. We place tribal knowledge, lived experience, and collective resilience at the centre of every intervention. We institutionalise equity through 1:1 gender ratios in local governance, through asset ownership models, through embedded exit strategies that ensure the community doesn’t just benefit, it governs.
What does it lead to? Villages where women no longer lose 4 hours a day chasing water, because the water now flows to them. Forests that are replanted, not just to tick a CSR checkbox. Farming systems that generate year-round income and food security, breaking generational patterns of migration and debt. And above all, a development model that proves dignity can be engineered, if you start from the ground up and stay long enough to be accountable. We’re building for after the collapse. And we’re doing it with those who were abandoned first.