ActionAid Association’s Commitment to People and Public Service

Over the past few days, ActionAid Association’s name has appeared in television discussions and across social media. We have also noticed that some inaccurate information and misconceptions about the organisation, its character and its work are being circulated.

We therefore believe it is important to reiterate the facts so that public discussion is informed, fair and grounded in an accurate understanding of the organisation.

For more than five decades, ActionAid has worked alongside communities across India to advance dignity, equality, rights and social justice. Since beginning its work in the country in 1972, ActionAid has supported people experiencing poverty, exclusion and social, economic and gender-based discrimination.

In 2006, ActionAid Association was established as an Indian organisation governed by an independent Indian General Assembly and Governing Board. We are a non-partisan and secular organisation and maintain equidistance from all political parties. Our engagement with elected representatives, governments and public institutions is guided by constitutional values, humanitarian principles and the public interest—not by political affiliation.

Our work is founded on the belief that lasting change becomes possible when people participate in decisions affecting their lives, build collective leadership and claim their constitutional rights and entitlements. We work across rural, urban, remote and crisis-affected areas, paying particular attention to communities whose experiences and voices are frequently overlooked. Our work has expanded today to reach over 200 districts across 24 states and Union Territories, with over 700 grassroots community groups and 32,000+ community-based volunteers.

ActionAid Association’s work encompasses women’s and girls’ rights, the rights of children and informal workers, access to education and social protection, land and livelihood rights, food security, climate justice and the dignity and inclusion of socially marginalised communities. Across the country, our ground teams are helping bring nature back to life—cleaning, desilting and conserving thousands of water bodies, planting lakhs of trees and mangroves, and working alongside communities to create greener, pollution-free habitations. We support people to develop their own leadership and collective platforms, engage with public institutions and seek lasting improvements in the policies and systems that shape their lives.

Children’s Rights and Education

ActionAid Association works to ensure that every child can grow up safe, healthy and educated. It connects vulnerable households with Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), helping children access protection, nutrition and early education. In partnership with district administrations, it supports children and their families to escape child marriage and child labour, and grow, play and learn. Across Rajasthan, West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha, which have high prevalence of child marriage, in collaboration with local panchayats and district administration, ActionAid Association has been able to declare over 3,000 villages free of child marriage.

ActionAid Association also works with state governments and local authorities to ensure all children are enrolled in school, identify those who have dropped out and support their return to the classroom. In Uttar Pradesh, in partnership with the district administration, we have helped identify over 5 lakh out-of-school children and helped their enrolment in government schools.

In August 2013, ActionAid Association launched a nationwide campaign, Beti Zindabad (Long Live Daughters) to raise awareness and put a stop to practices of sex determination/selection, female foeticide, early marriage and other forms of violence against women and girls.

Women’s Rights and Empowerment

ActionAid Association works to advance women’s rights, dignity and economic independence. Across all its long term, community-based engagements it mobilises communities and builds community-based support systems to stand with women facing violence. The Gauravi One Stop Crisis Centre run in collaboration with the Government of Madhya Pradesh in Bhopal provides survivors with essential assistance and a pathway to justice and recovery. ActionAid Association also educates women working in the informal sector about protections under the POSH Act. Alongside these efforts, it provides training and livelihood support to help women build skills, strengthen their incomes and lead more secure, independent lives. In the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, ActionAid Association has supported over 3,000 women from economically weaker sections, to set up Basant, their own farmers producer organisation, which is helping women gain economically along with social dignity and respect among their families.

ActionAid Association works with single women—including widows, separated, divorced, deserted and never-married women—to advance their rights, dignity and social security. It supports their organisation into collectives, strengthens their awareness of legal rights and public entitlements, and helps them access pensions, housing, land, livelihoods and essential services. Drawing on women’s lived experiences and consultations with their collectives, ActionAid Association has provided inputs to state-level policies concerning single women. Its engagement with state governments and local administrations helps bring their distinct needs into policy discussions and promotes more inclusive social-protection measures. ActionAid Association supported the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA)-led campaign against instant triple talaq, advancing legal reform that culminated in this misogynistic social practice being declared void and illegal in 2019, by the Parliament of India.

Rights of Persons with Disabilities

ActionAid Association works with persons with disabilities to advance their rights, dignity and full participation in society. It supports their access to education, livelihoods, social protection and public services while promoting accessibility and challenging discrimination. As part of its advocacy, ActionAid Association joined a delegation that met the President of India in July 2018 to raise concerns about the rights of persons with disabilities and call for stronger legal protections, inclusive policies and their effective implementation.

Collaboration with Public Institutions

Over the years, we have collaborated constructively with Panchayati Raj Institutions, urban local bodies, district administrations, state governments, Union ministries, commissions and other public institutions. These engagements have helped communities access public services, welfare measures and legal protections; strengthened responses to violence and exclusion; and brought evidence and community perspectives into policy and programme discussions. Our approach is collaborative while remaining accountable to the rights, needs and aspirations of the people with whom we work.

We respect people of all religions and faiths, as well as those who do not identify with a religion. We serve people without discrimination while recognising that caste, gender, disability, economic status, minority identity and other circumstances can produce added disadvantages. Through our work, we seek to bring people together around their shared rights, love and humanity while respecting our land’s social, cultural and religious diversity and our civilisational past.

Humanitarian Action and COVID-19 Response

Humanitarian action forms one part of this wider commitment. During the past two decades, ActionAid Association has responded to cyclones, floods, droughts, earthquakes, episodes of violence and public-health emergencies. Alongside immediate assistance, we support the restoration of livelihoods and services, community-led recovery and longer-term resilience. Particular attention is given to people who may otherwise be excluded from relief and rehabilitation, including women and children, informal and migrant workers, Dalits, tribal communities, persons with disabilities, older people and homeless people.

During COVID-19, this community-centred approach enabled ActionAid Association to work with volunteers, community organisations, district administrations, state governments and public-health institutions on a substantial scale. In the first phase, we directly provided or enabled access to relief for more than 77 lakh people across 24 states and one Union Territory. The response included food and essential supplies, public-health information, access to social-protection entitlements, support for migrants, medical equipment for public facilities, COVID Care Centres, vaccination awareness and assistance to vulnerable people in accessing vaccination. In 2021, more than 48,000 volunteers supported this work across 225 districts.

The response also drew upon ActionAid Association’s wider experience of connecting community realities with public policy. We shared recommendations with Union and state governments and district administrations on the needs of informal workers, women, children and other vulnerable groups. At the national level, we offered support to the Government of India’s High-Level Committee for engagement with civil society and development partners, chaired by the CEO of NITI Aayog.

Our engagement with the National Human Rights Commission was especially important during this period. ActionAid Association’s Executive Director served on an NHRC expert committee examining the pandemic’s impact on the rights of marginalised people. Recommendations developed through consultations with workers and community organisations addressed employment, wages, food security, healthcare, social protection and dignified working conditions. Subsequent advisories contributed to NHRC directions to state governments concerning the protection of informal and migrant workers. ActionAid Association and the NHRC also convened discussions with community-based human-rights defenders, helping bring local concerns to the attention of a national institution.

Recognition and Acknowledgement

The contribution of ActionAid Association and its community partners has been acknowledged by a range of public authorities and institutions. NITI Aayog included ActionAid Association in its commendation of civil-society organisations contributing to the national COVID-19 response. District and state authorities have also recognised its support to communities and public systems. In Tamil Nadu, for example, the Chairperson of the State Human Rights Commission commended its work in facilitating vaccination among vulnerable and underserved communities, while state health officials acknowledged its contribution to overcoming vaccine hesitancy.

Across changing governments, political contexts and social circumstances, our commitment has remained consistent: to work in solidarity with communities, serve people impartially, collaborate with public institutions where this advances people’s rights, and contribute to a just, equitable and inclusive India.

We thank all the people, including our individual and institutional donors, our collaborators, amongst which our administrators, people’s representatives across the political spectrum, civil society activists and the community-based leaders and organisations, who have expressed love for our abiding and silent work to serve humanity. We also are grateful to all those who have shown interest in us and our work but have not been factually correct about ActionAid Association. This note has been prepared to dispel the lack of information about five decades of our continued grounded work to serve the weakest members of our society across hundreds of districts of our land. It is people’s goodwill and solidarity that give us the spirit to serve our society in our collective quest for building better futures for all, and we humbly look forward to receiving more of it.

In case anyone has any queries and seek any clarification they can write to us at fundindia@actionaid.org