Inlaks Shivdasani Fellows for Social Engagement 2024: Karthick Sakthivel, Saba Khan and Raj Shekhar
In part 2 of our 3-part series introducing the 2024 Inlaks Shivdasani Fellows for Social Engagement, meet Karthick Sakthivel, Saba Khan and Raj Shekhar.
The Fellowship is designed to give graduates and early to mid-career professionals the confidence and security to explore alternatives and make independent choices about their lives while contributing to social change.
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Karthick Sakthivel
Born and raised in Tamil Nadu, Karthick Sakthivel is currently working with Social Work and Research Centre (SWRC) Sikkim, a sub-centre of Barefoot College Tilonia. He has been part of initiatives/projects by NGOs addressing water scarcity, conservation, and management at the grassroots level for the past 2.5 years. An engineer by qualification, he believes the best place to learn anything is the world outside conventional classrooms and the best way to learn anything is by practice. Post college, he chose a life that would let him travel and live in remote areas, learn, unlearn, work, and live a simple life close to Mother Nature. Volunteering, hiking, reading, and playing sports are his other interests.
Through this fellowship, he aims to work on overall ecological restoration by addressing issues of water scarcity and environmental degradation through research-based community action in select ridgeline and water-scarce villages of South Sikkim. By building awareness and capacity on community-based resource governance, he aims to co-create self-sustainable communities, which he believes are the true form of development. He also plans to collaborate with individuals and organizations working on the same in the eastern Himalayas to create holistic impact around the region.
Saba Khan
Saba is from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh and has been working in the field of social justice for the last 14 years in different parts of Madhya Pradesh. She has been trying to create space for the voices of marginalized and deprived communities, be it the voices of tribal children or the stories of exploitation of tribal women. She has been working to bring them out and connect them with avenues of access to justice. Presently, she is working with Pasmanda and Dalit tribal communities. Through the Inlaks Shivdasani Fellowship for Social Engagement, she will continue this work. She will identify Vimukt Adivasi (Pasamanda) communities in 4 districts of Madhya Pradesh, document them and their social conditions to enable their transition into mainstream society. She will also create community awareness and advocacy on the issues affecting them and will work closely with the government to improve access to entitlements and access to justice.
Raj Shekhar
Raj Shekhar is a researcher from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, engaged in the understanding challenges small and marginal farmers face He has worked with the people-led Right to Food Campaign as National Coordinator and volunteered in various other social movements. His commitment to these movements has equipped him with organizational and mobilizing capabilities at the grassroots level.
To take forward these learnings and experience, he plans to study the impact of the land acquisition and construction done for the Purvanchal Expressway on small and marginal farmers. Through this study, he wants to contribute towards bringing the critical concerns and demands of farmers to the center stage. Prioritizing inclusive efforts without diminishing the opportunities of the future, and thereby building a model of development that includes every section of society, is the need of the hour. Raj Shekhar believes this is important and attainable with the efforts and advocacy of young people like himself.
To know more about the Fellowship, visit our website here.
