52 PARINDEY FELLOWSHIP
2021-2022

Ridhima Agarwal | Jaipur, Rajasthan

Grassroots Social Work & Community Intervention for Change

Ridhima was born and brought up in Jaipur city of Rajasthan. She graduated in B.A. Programme with majors in Economics and Political Science from St. Stephen’s college, Delhi. Being trained in a thorough academic tradition, she tries to gain a sensitive and diverse understanding of the social,economic and political perspectives our community deals with.

As a 52 Parinday Fellow, she travelled to collect narratives of various grassroot level interventions in India. She believes that the communities hold immense wisdom, love and strength to thrive and fight for their own cause. In her journey she tried to build a fundamentals of community work, relationship individual has with the community, the stories of resilience, lessons in moving forward as a collective and the principal of oneness which breathes in every element of social work.

"As part of the 52 Parindey Fellowship by Travellers' University, I got a chance to explore my own interests while travelling across India. I researched various factors of community engagement in rural India by tracing the life and philosophy of seven grassroot level community workers and the various shades of issues we deal with on-ground. The exploration was beautiful and led me to a new understanding of work that came to be defined as Alivelihood by the organisation. Which in my experiential encounters included a non division of work with other aspects of living, realising harmony of self and community and working in the interconnectedness of all beings. It also meant delving deeper to break away from the necessity of indulging in hurtful labour to choosing a way of life which we connect with, and through that connection comes a radically new understanding of life."