iVolunteer Blog - everything about volunteering

I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Every time a brutal rape case shakes the country, the public response is immediate and intense- “Hang them.” It feels like the only proportionate response to something so deeply violent and violating. And I understand that reaction. Sexual violence is not an abstract crime. It is a […]

In development practice, analysis often begins with numbers-coverage rates, compliance percentages, savings generated, and beneficiaries reached. During my fieldwork in rural Uttarakhand, I too worked within such frameworks, documenting kitchen gardens that had begun producing vegetables, recording the savings households generated through home-grown produce, and tracking postnatal mothers’ consumption of iron and calcium supplements. However, […]

Everyone has experienced FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), which comes when you see that others are moving ahead and you are missing out on opportunities at some point in your life. But have you ever felt bad about being in a good situation? It happened when I was conducting outreach to expand the Hamari Bakhli […]

The sun rose bright today. As I opened the tin door, I noticed that more dried jackfruit leaves than usual had fallen in the yard. I was about to quickly sweep them away and head off to wash the dishes when Tribeni appeared. She hurriedly reminded me about some preparations and left just as fast. […]

I still remember my very first solo travel. The nervous excitement, the heavy bag on my shoulders, and the endless stream of thoughts in my mind. It felt like stepping into the unknown, where every small decision carried a weight I had never experienced before. Finding the right bus, asking strangers for directions, figuring out […]

Just when you think you finally understand the ground reality, the field humbles you. It shows you how much more there is to learn. That’s exactly why I love fieldwork. It never lets you live in assumptions. For the past few months, I’ve been on field and visits almost every day. Bastar, with all its […]

During the months of September and October, custard apples in Maharashtra are ready to harvest. My project is about establishing a value chain of custard apple through processing, value addition and market linkages of custard apple. In those times, I was managing the processing unit, people and paperwork, and rarely I woke up with a […]

Life is strange . And full of unexpected turns. The train which is usually on time and was on that day as well, till that point, got late, as Priyanshu reached 1 full minute after it’s usual on time departure. We got the train, which felt nice. We had nice south indian neighbours next to […]

Once our 5 day slot for exhibition at Udyan Utsav was booked, there existed a sense of worry about who will visit our stall, how much public will come, what will sell, how much will sell. Questions about how much we should take, about restocking our products every next thing was panicking us more before […]