iVolunteer Blog - everything about volunteeringMarriages are a very celebrated event in life all over the world, but marriages in India are way more than just a marriage and a celebration. It’s a festival (though there are some changes in the situation now). So, Tuloni Biya literally translates to “Small Marriage”; it’s a way to celebrate a girl’s first menstruation, […]
There are quite a few things here in Uttarakhand (especially in the Kumaon region) which I really like, one of them are the toilets here. I got a good chance of interaction with the community, to see their lives from a close, not initially, but gradually I noticed that, no matter how small or big […]
A Story of Determination, Women Power, and Belief Some milestones are not just achievements – they are emotions, struggles, teamwork, and belief coming together. Delivering our first order of 1 ton traditional rice varieties to BigBasket was one such unforgettable milestone in my journey. I am working at a Common Facility Centre (CFC) involved in […]
Fellowships are beautiful in a sense that they unlock our potential, expose us to the needs of the communities and provide directions for our future endeavours. Tangibly, fellowships help us to establish appropriate networks in the sector, help us to engage with various stakeholders – govt, administration, communities, and other organisations, and cultivate skills of […]
Before joining the Swar Fellowship, I had read bell hooks’ Feminism Is for Everybody and admired its simplicity and clarity. But only after spending months in the field did her ideas start feeling real. Hooks talks about feminism not as a theory, not as something meant for a classroom or an elite group, but as […]
Nine months in the field changes you. It changes the way you look at a forest, the way you listen to an old woman sorting through dried amla berries, the way you calculate the worth of a single tree. When I first arrived in Chhattisgarh, I came with maps, data sheets, and a vague understanding […]
One of the most powerful parts of my Swar Fellowship has been learning how differently women experience life, opportunity, and oppression. In the beginning, I used to think “women’s issues” were similar everywhere mobility, safety, income, workload. But as my fieldwork deepened, I realised something more complex: every woman’s struggle is shaped by the multiple […]
When I look back at the last few months of my Swar Fellowship, I realise that the most powerful part of this journey hasn’t been the activities or the reports, it has been the quiet, slow, human process of building trust. As fellows, we enter communities with a project plan, a purpose, and a list […]
During my fieldwork as a Swar Fellow, there were many moments when the theories I had read suddenly came alive in front of me. But nothing struck me as strongly as the idea Simone de Beauvoir wrote in The Second Sex: “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” I had studied this earlier, […]
I haven’t had a phone for the last three months. I know it sounds hard to believe, but that’sthe truth. I’ve been using my tablet for calling and for all my other work. In field conditions,carrying a tab everywhere is not easy at all, and when the Republic Day sale came, I finally decided that […]
iVolunteer Blog - everything about volunteering 