OUR VISION
WHY
OUR APPROACH
OUR STORY

We empower women as active citizens
We draw inspiration from the legend Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s words
“Women have to be present wherever decisions are being made".
We surveyed a 100 women in rural Karnataka.
The results?
Thriving networks of active women citizens vested in self governance, who inspire action by being present wherever decisions are made.

2012:
THE BEGINNING
Avantika was co-founded by TR Raghunandan, former IAS officer, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj along with Swaroop Iyengar and Sonali Srivastava. It pioneered the Centre for Decentralised Local Governance (CDLG) to develop effective leadership amongst elected representatives through Panchayati Raj institutions and Municipalities.

2019:
FRESH START
Avantika was taken over by Uthara Narayanan who is also co-founder and Chief Changemaker at Buzz Women, another non profit which has impacted over 10 million women’s lives. Avantika’s team began research on their Theory of Change. We went on ground, we listened to stories and we asked our contemporaries to understand whether our intervention was required.

2020:
THE PANDEMIC
The pandemic was a setback, pushing our plans by a year. But we had our mission after months of research. To build the civic muscle of women. The eventful 2020 was spent developing our impactful curriculum with the increasing realization of the gravity and need for our work to build trust in our institutions.

2021:
AVANTIKA HITS THE GROUND RUNNING
Wasting no time, we went on ground with our pilot which was met with rousing success. Our interventions empowered our pilot women group to obtain a ration shop in their village. We are on our way to scaling up, building trust and nudging changemakers.

2019:
FRESH START
Avantika was taken over by Uthara Narayanan who is also co-founder and Chief Changemaker at Buzz Women, another non profit which has impacted over 10 million women’s lives. Avantika’s team began research on their Theory of Change. We went on ground, we listened to stories and we asked our contemporaries to understand whether our intervention was required.

2021:
AVANTIKA HITS THE GROUND RUNNING
Wasting no time, we went on ground with our pilot which was met with rousing success. Our interventions empowered our pilot women group to obtain a ration shop in their village. We are on our way to scaling up, building trust and nudging changemakers.
2012:
THE BEGINNING
Avantika was co-founded by TR Raghunandan, former IAS officer, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj along with Swaroop Iyengar and Sonali Srivastava. It pioneered the Centre for Decentralised Local Governance (CDLG) to develop effective leadership amongst elected representatives through Panchayati Raj institutions and Municipalities.

2020:
THE PANDEMIC
The pandemic was a setback, pushing our plans by a year. But we had our mission after months of research. To build the civic muscle of women. The eventful 2020 was spent developing our impactful curriculum with the increasing realization of the gravity and need for our work to build trust in our institutions.


THIS IS OUR IMPACT SECTION

Women do not attend gram sabha

Women do not know who their panchayat members are

Women have never tried to find information for official work

Women stated they find it hard to get local facilities taken care of
We build models of inclusion. The system exists but the citizens need a nudge.
SYMPTOMS & CAUSES
SYMPTOMS

CAUSES


POOR CIVIC PARTICIPATION

LACK OF INTEREST & CIVIC ATTITUDES
perceived lack of control/ agency over local resources

LACK OF PROBLEM SOLVING & PLANNING SKILLS
POOR ENGAGEMENT WITH LOCAL STRUCTURE

LACK OF CIVIC KNOWLEDGE AND COMMUNICATION SKILL
POOR COHESIVE ACTION

LACK OF DELIBRATE DIALOGUE SPACES FOR WOMEN
ACTIVE CITIZEN FELLOWSHIP

Engage Affinity groups in dialogue

Action learning through activity labs

Scaffold scripts to ease communication

Nurture values of civic responsibility and citizenship

OUR TEAM

Uthara Narayanan
Director
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Uthara is also co-founder and Chief Changemaker of Buzz Women, a mobile academy providing doorstep training in finance, entrepreneurship and personal leadership skills to low-income women which has changed the lives of lakhs of women across Karnataka. She was even awarded the Acumen fellowship early on in her journey with Buzz. Prior to founding Buzz, Uthara has had quite a bit of experience in the development sector having worked at Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy. She has also co-authored the following publications among others, “Paisa For Panchayats- Tracking Fiscal Devolution To Local Governments”. A lifelong feminist, Uthara is a firm believer in the possibilities and goodness of the world which in turn has inspired Buzz to form a close-knit community of change makers that holds true the phrase “Empowered women, empower women”.

Gayatri Sriram
Director
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Gayatri is a development consultant and leadership coach who has worked to build and strengthen leadership in diverse organisations around the globe. Her focus area has centred around gender & equity in economic and public participation. Her work with non-profits such as the International Union Against Tuberculosis & Lung Diseases, Buzz Women, NavyaDisha Trust along with several businesses such as Robert Bosch Engineering, Cisco Systems India, L & T has given her a unique perspective on people and behavioural change processes. Her most recent success in large scale people change process, is the architecting and scripting of the Spoorthi community leadership program at Buzz Women. Gayatri has an MBA from the University of Houston and is a Gallup Certified Strengths coach. She loves language, music, art & design and supports organisations working towards sustainable solutions in her spare time.

Sharanya Menon
Program Associate
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Sharanya is a lawyer and development sector professional with a zest for working towards social and political equality of sexes. Prior to Avantika, Sharanya worked as an Intellectual Property lawyer and subsequently a Business Development Manager until she was offered a fellowship with the State Bank of India’s flagship program, Youth for India. The fellowship brought a renewed sense of purpose and passion for women empowerment, she brings her grassroots experience and knowledge of law to her role as program associate at Avantika.

Keerthana Sharma
Program Associate
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Keerthana joined us as a graduate with an MA in development from Azim Premji University, Bangalore, coupled with a BA triple major in Journalism, Psychology and literature. An avid traveler and foodie, Keerthana’s interest lies at the intersection of gender and education. She believes in experiential learning at the grassroots and in the power of constant self-growth.
We conducted a process feedback survey
To make our design more democratic
We asked 24 out of 33 women who attended our program consistently for their feedback on the duration, content, time, engagement level and difficulty level of our sessions.





