Parity Lab

Imagine a life where your dignity is suffocated by the four walls of your own home. For Janata Tai, living in Beed in rural Maharashtra, this was a grim reality after becoming a widow. Not only had both her natal family as well as children turned into voices of disdain, but also each time a family member stepped out, she was bolted shut inside, to ensure that her existence to the outside world was denied, since she had lost her husband’s shadow that was the necessary requirement for accessing public life in any form. Think of what that would do to one’s sense of identity and self-worth, think of the sheer weight of the isolation, think of the gnawing vulnerability eating up any hopes and dreams. Now, however, not only does Janata Tai independently move about in the village whenever she desires, but she is also the elected Sarpanch and a leader figure in the mahila mandal for single women. This profound transformation no doubt required great courage from Janata Tai- however, what really...

Fundraising.  It’s a term that stirs up concern across the non-profit sector, no matter the size, scope, or cause of the organization. From local community initiatives to global movements, every non-profit grapples with the pressure to secure resources and sustain their mission. However, the type of support that a non-profit will require to meet its fundraising goals will very much depend on what kind of non-profit it is, such as where it lies in terms of access to networks and capabilities. Crucially, what also matters is how comfortable the organization is in doing the entire exercise of showcasing their impact and engaging with funders, i.e., marketing themselves. It can be easy to assume that fundraising support for non-profits merely involves advising on packaging impact a certain way, and directing organizations to key networking events. This perspective might be true only for the non-profits already equipped with an ease of marketing themselves. For many non-profits, particu...

An important component of any organization is their communication strategy. What happens in communication is deeply influenced by our understanding of power, our emotions, beliefs and experiences. These deep emotions emerge due to ineffective patterns, beliefs and experiences and become like inner figures - grouping together by the inner voices. In this workshop where we supported the cohort to explore their communication strategy, we explored the inner voices in the mental wellness sessions. We all have many thoughts in our head. Many of these thoughts are like voices. As if there is a person sitting within us speaking to us. While attending Mahabharata Immersion- a program by @Raghu Ananthanarayanan I came across this framework of inner voices. If the thoughts in our head follow a pattern, they are akin to a person sitting and talking. His framework provides seven voices, four of them are ineffective and can be transformed into effective voices with the help of the other three. When...

Sometimes, I wish life was simple: everyone understood everyone else, treated each other equally, and lived a life of ease and tranquillity. Well, this is just a utopian dream. In reality, we are not meant to live a trouble-free, conflict-free life. We are meant to understand the big drama of life and work towards transforming each moment. We are meant to be tested, and life does a good job of it. When we cannot escape, we manage. The fact that humans have made progress means that we are capable of making the best of challenging situations.  What comes in the way is a repeated pattern of viewing the drama instead of tapping into our agency. When I facilitated my first mental wellness workshop for the cohort, I wondered how I could best support them. One of the primary principles we follow at Parity Lab is that each person is the expert of their reality. My job is to bring them face to face with their individual, organizational, and community realities. We began by introducing them ...

In the village of Badapur, in the searing monsoon heat and humidity of Uttar Pradesh, women and children belonging to the Dalit Musahr communities had gathered for their gatisheel paathshaala session under the open sky, a paathshaala where they learnt functional literacy and shared a space for dialogue. This paathshaala is conducted by Muheem , a grassroots organization that has been working with these communities for their education and empowerment, including preventing Gender Based Violence (GBV), for years now. I had the privilege to observe and participate in this particular gatisheel pathsaala session because I was a representative of Parity Lab, an accelerator that Muheem has partnered with for its leadership and capacity development. The session was to be initiated by a round of introductions for the Parity Lab team’s benefit. I did expect that some people might be shy in introducing themselves, just as some people everywhere are with introductions, but more so since our team...

We live in the age of paradoxes. Mobile phones have made us accessible at the press of a button but our ability to communicate is being compromised. Families go to a restaurant and everyone is in their own world. This happens with friends and work colleagues as well. Social media has shrunk the world and isolated individuals. We now have so much awareness of concepts such as the patriarchy and feminism. We are even more aware of violence and yet it continues. Mental health is quickly becoming a major issue and yet, care is not accessible to large populations, especially in rural areas. As a wellness associate with Parity Lab, my job is to make mental wellness accessible to communities via the NGOs that serve them. Parity Lab accelerates the journey of the founder and first-line leader of NGOs that work at the grassroots level to combat gender-based violence. The people working in these NGO’s as well as their communities grapple with mental wellness. They often come from low caste, low ...