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| Vision |
Utthan envisions a society that
imbibes and ensures the values of gender justice, equality,
peace and happiness, in practice.
Utthan brings together a group of professional development
workers, committed to working with communities towards
an India free of inequalities and discrimination with
equal opportunities, security and freedom for all. Utthan's
effort to translate this vision into reality is focused
on its mission to serve those most vulnerable such as
Women, Adivasi communities, Dalits, Minorities and the
Poor. Utthan envisages influencing the larger socio-political
environment that should enable the desired change |
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| Mission Statement |
To initiate sustainable gender
sensitive processes of empowerment amongst the most vulnerable
communities, through a process of building conscientiousness,
and organising around their major issues:
A process that would bring about change in the lives of
those who are oppressed, by promoting peace, ensuring
human rights, gender justice and equality, as well as
sustainable development which would result in positive
change in their socio- economic and political status,
both at present and in the long run. |
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| History |
Utthan,
a registered non-profit organization, has been working
in four water stressed and resource poor districts in
Gujarat for the past twenty years. Founded in 1981 by
four professional women inspired by Professor Ravi Mathai's
famous "Jawaja" experiments in Rajasthan, interventions
were directed at initiating sustainable processes of empowerment
among the vulnerable communities to struggle for their
basic rights. Utthan's journey in development began in
Dhandhuka taluka, Ahmedabad district in the geographic
region of Bhal, one of the most resources poor regions
of the state and infamously known as napaania or waterless.
Here, Utthan facilitated the emergence of a community-based
group known as Mahiti that initiated a women's movement
around accessing their right to regular safe drinking
water, a movement which challenged patriarchy and feudal
exploitation, caste discrimination at the local levels.
The struggle for their basic right to drinking water brought
women into public space and enabled them to highlight
their problems at the state level too. The movement also
pressurized the Gujarat Water Supply & Sewerage Board
(GWSSB), a state government agency and the World Bank,
to approve a project that sought to promote decentralized
rain water harvesting structures such as plastic lined
ponds, roof water collection tanks etc. in the villages
of Bhal. This involved a shift in the perspective of these
institutions, from supporting the large centralized water
supply system which left the communities totally disempowered
and failing to provide safe, adequate drinking water to
supporting initiatives for decentralized water supply
system. Although Mahiti has become an independent organization
and a local force since 1994, the activities of the two
organizations are still closely linked.
 Utthan
fulfilled another core objective when it withdrew from
Bhal in 1994. With its more than a decade of experience
in facilitating community based development processes
in one of the most resource poor areas of the state serving
as a guiding bacon, it sought to further similar processes
in other areas. Two events that followed had a significant
bearing on Utthan's expansion rationale. One was a state
level conference it organized in 1994 on " Dynamics
of drinking water in rural Gujarat" where it was
presented to the development fraternity. The other was
a rigorous field survey it carried out in 1995 covering
all coastal districts of the state and select water scarce
districts. The survey was geared towards identifying resource-vulnerable
areas along the coast as well as in water-scarce areas
where the organization would work in the future. It also
focused on examining the status of natural resources and
drinking water resources in the areas that were surveyed.
Three most vulnerable districts surfaced from the data
analysis: Amreli, Bhavnagar and Kacchh. As a part of its
expansion strategy, Utthan also decided to explore other
resource poor areas of Gujarat and after intensive legwork,
settled on the tribal district of Panchmahal. Thus began
its post-Bhal work in 1995.
In each of the three districts of Dahod, Bhavnagar &
Amreli, Utthan has continued to focus on the issues of
gender and drinking water, and in the Saurashtra region
on the issue of salinity. While attempting to mainstream
the needs and concerns of women, the poor and marginalized,
it has addressed issues of equity and equality at varied
levels in its programmes.
 Utthan's
early interventions were thus marked by facilitating and
supporting gender sensitization and building a movement
of women and other vulnerable groups their empowerment
to meet their basic livelihood needs and to protect their
resources and to restore the traditional role of communities
and households in managing their natural resources in
Gujarat.
Utthan's major efforts in the past years, the initiatives
have been from a view to deepen and upscale its interventions
on gender and empowerment, livelihood security through
Integrated Natural Resource management in the context
of manmade and natural disasters, as well as on peace
and justice through conflict transformation and efforts
to ensure human rights. The efforts have been made both
within the team as well as at the community level through
various institutions and mechanisms that should lead towards
more self-reliance |
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| Our
Trustees |
Dr.
Binoy Acharya-Member
Director-UNNATI, Ahmedabad |
Dr.
Ashoke Chatterjee-Member
Consultant-Media & Development, Ahmedabad |
Ms.
Padmini Chougle-Member
Director-Chougle Industries, Mumbai |
Ms.
Penelope Lane Czarra-Member
Environmental Planning |
Dr.
Indira Hirway-Member
Director, Centre for Development Alternatives, Ahmedabad |
Dr.
Sudershan Iyengar-Member
Vice-Chancellor, Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad |
Ms.
Neelima Khetan-Member
CEO, Seva Mandir, Udaipur |
Ms.
Deepti Sethi-Member
Consultant, Gender and HRD, Ahmedabad |
Ms.
Nafisa Barot
Executive Director, Utthan, Ahmedabad |
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Dr.
Sara Ahmed (Honorary Member)
Director, Action Research-Gender |
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| Utthan's
Diversity Profile |
| Diversity |
Numbers |
Male |
Female |
| OBC |
14 |
4 |
10 |
| Dalits (SC) |
4 |
1 |
3 |
| Adivasis (ST) |
9 |
7 |
2 |
| Minorities |
5 |
4 |
1 |
| General |
29 |
11 |
18 |
| Total |
61 |
34 |
27 |
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