Volunteering and Social Movements

Volunteering and Social Movements

Namaste out there,


I will be in India for five months in 2004. During that period, I would like to volunteer in local development projects (and do my 6 week long field study for anthropology) and - if possible - look at social movements such as the protests against privatisation / environmental degradation / dam building etc. or the Swadhyay Movement. It's really difficult to contact people over the Internet, though ( I contacted people that were listed on idealist.org and different NGOs, but they didnt' reply). Has anyone experience, contacts and/or advice? I don't think I want to work in Dharamsala.

In my studies, I specialise on globalisation, social movements, (participatory) development, religion and conservation. I speak Hindi,so it would be nice to work in a region, where this is of help.


Shukriya, Mira

Hello Mira:
I just spotted your note. Are you in India now? I too had to go there during this winter to conduct field research for my dissertation. I also tried to contact NGOs from the internet and had similar experiences. Mostly, they don't reply on email so I finally wrote a letter and asked a friend in New Delhi to ask her colleague to hand deliver it to an org I was interested in. People prefer some recommendation or hard mail it seems.

Did you finally make contact with an NGO in India? Most people understand some Hindi in India so you should be fine whereever you go. Best way is to just visit the NGOs you are interested in personally and ask for them directly. I conducted my research with SEWA in Ahmedabad. They are a union for poor self-employed women in India. Their website is sewa.org.

Good luck,