A New Feminist NGO is Born in India
The word NGO is a very complicated word. Most people think NGOs are corrupt, lazy money laundering schemes. One may even say that those who can’t do anything in life end up opening a shady NGO just to avoid telling people that they are jobless.
The government of India is always suspicious of NGOs getting foreign funding and agitating against government and ruling party. The supporters of the ruling party hate all NGOs. Yet, the government itself works extensively with thousands of NGO partners across India. The RSS and other powerful bodies in India are NGOs.
When I decided to register this NGO, I was cautioned by many that now is not the right time to start an NGO that there is serious funding issue with the government shutting down thousands of NGOs due to non-compliance of FCRA regulations.
So why did I still start this nonprofit organization?
I have started Feminist Alliance Trust to institutionalize some of the research and activism work that I have been doing in the field of women’s rights, particularly, my passion of raising awareness on the topic of gender and public space and spatial justice for women. These are very unique topics and not many organizations in India are working on them.
By charity or nonprofit, people mostly think of tangible welfare and benefits schemes like free education and food or some skill training and so on. The ideas I want to spread are related to feminist theories and philosophies.
I am fortunate to have my friend Leher Sethi to join me in this endeavour.
The story behind the name
The idea behind name “Feminist Allince India” is that there are already thousands upon thousands nonprofit organizations in India who are working on various issues. I would try to form feminist alliances with them and work in partnership with them instead of trying to re-invent the wheel.
Transparency and Authenticity
As I said, nonprofit organizations in India have severe trust deficit, so when I decided to register yet another NGO, I wanted to do things radically different. At Feminist Alliance Trust, we aim to be 100% transparent and authentic. On this website, we would document and share every activities and accounts of this new NGO starting from the registration to team buiding to donation and funding to projects and so on.
I hope, 20 years from now, by the time I would be ready to retire from work and life, this NGO would be my legacy. Our, Leher Sethi’s and my, legacy.