Sanjog, India

05/01/2026

What do we want to bring forward in 2026 as a part of our initiative?

2025 was a significant year in the space of social policy, mental health, and inclusion. The expansion of the National Tele Mental Health Programme (Tele MANAS) marked a shift toward treating mental health as public infrastructure rather than a private concern. At the same time, national and multilateral policy spaces increasingly recognised the care economy - unpaid care work, childcare and elder care - as central to economic recovery and labour force participation. Ongoing debates around the Social Security Code further foregrounded questions of dignity, access and portability of benefits for informal, gig, and platform workers.

In light of these large-scale policy shifts and investments, it is crucial to ask whether their intended effects are reaching the grassroots. The project addresses this gap by grounding policy questions in lived realities. In 2025, the project conducted research across six demographics in Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, generating insights into how inclusion and exclusion shape mental health and what communities prioritise for their wellbeing, while also laying the foundation for future research on livelihoods and structural inequality.

Over the next 12 months, the initiative will move into its next phase, shifting from data collection to deeper analysis, interpretation and action. Fellows will engage more closely with their communities to examine how exclusion shapes mental health at the grassroots, while building their own analytical, advocacy and community-engagement capacities through the research process.



Uma Chatterjee EdelGive Foundation Roop Sen Shruti Roy Chowdhury Integrated Leaders Forum Against Trafficking

02/01/2026

Over the past nine months, has grown into a shared process of learning, listening, and collective sense-making. What began as case studies has evolved into a space where lived realities, grounded research and community knowledge come together.

Across states, fellows documented everyday experiences of exclusion linked to disability, caste, gender identity, migration, work and access to public systems. These insights were not treated as static findings, but discussed and reflected upon across contexts - deepening understanding of how inequality is produced and challenged in daily life.

An important learning has been how exclusion operates through work and occupation. Across cases, people in informal and low-status jobs faced discrimination in wages, conditions, and access to social protection, reinforcing existing hierarchies of caste, gender, disability and migration status.

Equally central has been how knowledge is shared. Through simple language, dialogue and collective reflection, Count Us In has tried to move away from extractive research practices, sharing small but meaningful insights along the way.

Nine months in, Count Us In stands not as a finished output, but as knowledge-in-motion - participatory, accessible and rooted in community realities.



EdelGive Foundation Integrated Leaders Forum Against Trafficking Uma Chatterjee

30/12/2025

Check out this article we put together!

Recent field visits across Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal undertaken as part of the Count Us In initiative, offered a powerful reminder of something many of us working in social development know instinctively, but must constantly relearn: policies may travel nationally, but lived realities

26/12/2025

In our work within - we are changing the current definition of "The Standard Citizen"



EdelGive Foundation Integrated Leaders Forum Against Trafficking Uma Chatterjee

24/12/2025

As part of the programme, our field visit to Erode and Tiruppur reminded us that research with the state is as much about navigating institutional rhythms as it is about asking the right questions.

Over five days, we set out to conduct key informant interviews with government officials across labour, legal services, policing, and industrial safety as part of the Count Us In project. Over the course of the visit, we completed five key informant interviews. While schedules often shifted, the fieldwork required flexibility and responsiveness to the working rhythms of government offices.

Access to officials involved coordination with multiple points of contact, and in some cases, interviews were conducted with relevant officers in the absence of senior officials.

The visit also highlighted the importance of preparedness, particularly around documentation and identification, when engaging with public institutions. Most interviews were conducted without audio recording, and we relied on detailed note-taking to capture insights.

This visit left us with a key learning: Field engagement with public institutions requires flexibility, clear documentation, and sustained coordination across departments, and these process-oriented learnings are as critical as the interviews themselves for effective policy-facing research.



Uma Chatterjee, EdelGive Foundation

23/12/2025

In our work within - we promote building trust with community members.



EdelGive Foundation Integrated Leaders Forum Against Trafficking Uma Chatterjee

22/12/2025

Field Diaries #7

As part of the programme, one interaction during field engagement stood out during a conversation with a panchayat-level stakeholder. While discussing issues of access and inclusion, she stated quite matter-of-factly that caste-based discrimination does not exist at the panchayat level, citing the presence of individuals from the same community in leadership positions as sufficient proof of equality.

What lingered after the conversation was not just the statement itself, but how easily and unquestioningly the denial was offered. The assertion appeared disconnected from the lived realities that communities often articulate in less formal spaces. The confidence with which discrimination was dismissed highlighted how exclusion can remain invisible within official narratives, even as it continues to shape everyday experiences.

This moment underscored an important learning from the field: exclusion is not always overt or acknowledged within systems of governance. When discrimination is denied at the institutional level, it becomes harder to recognise, document, and address the barriers that communities face. Such denials can unintentionally silence lived experiences, reinforcing gaps between policy assumptions and ground realities.

For the programme, this reinforces the importance of grounding research and advocacy in community voices - particularly where systems themselves may fail to see or admit exclusion.



Uma Chatterjee EdelGive Foundation

16/12/2025

it is imperative to share the data with the community from where it was generated.



EdelGive Foundation Integrated Leaders Forum Against Trafficking Uma Chatterjee