Our Story

Established: 2001

Mission: Catalyze enabling environments for improved participation and enhanced bargaining power of ethnically, socially, economically and geographically disadvantaged groups, especially women, youth and poor.

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A Guwahati-based research and training organization, Centre for Humanistic Development was established in the year 2001 with the mission to “catalyze enabling environments for improved participation and enhanced bargaining power of disadvantaged groups like women, poor and excluded peoples in the development processes”.

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Led by Dilip K. Sarma, a former bank economist, CHD in the initial years, focused on “Understanding Grassroots and Institution Building”. For understanding grassroots, especially understanding communities, poverty and livelihoods, it had undertaken many fundamental grassroots studies. Some of its national and international collaborators were Praxis-India (on behalf of Asian Development Bank); International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi; Action Aid India, NEI office; UNICEF, Guwahati; Asian Dialogue Forum, Singapore; Indo-Global Social Service Society (IGSSS), Guwahati; Basix Livelihood School, Hyderabad; etc. The focus of these research studies were marginalized communities like Tea tribes.

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It also undertook extensive vision building exercises, livelihood and organizational management related training for NGOs and other CBOs with active support from IGSSS and Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi (RGVN).

 

It also actively moved into entrepreneurship training and handholding, especially among youth and women in remote areas. The trainees were also organized under cooperatives. Two such notable endeavours, among others, were dairy cooperatives of youth in Kakopathar, Tinsukia (2007-08) and Saral Para, Kokrajhar (2009-10).

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The organization back in 2007-08, started a mobilizing, training and handholding programme – Entrepreneurship Development & Enterprise Creation (EDEC) Programme. Over the years, it became CHD’s flagship programme and expanded to different parts of Assam and has been continuing till date. It trained ex-militant youth from Bodo, Karbi and Tea tribes in 2014-16 under this programme. In 2017-18, CHD was also engaged in training & handholding a programme for forming a cooperative at Kokrajhar District for ex-militants of ULFA. During 2016-18, it collaborated with Numaligarh Refinery Ltd. (NRL) for training youth organized in JLGs and also highly educated local youth with intent to prepare them to hold small contracts in NRL’s expansion activities.

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Since 2019, CHD, supported by NRL, has been organizing, training and handholding of two women cooperatives in business development, by actively supporting them in

• Developing Business Leadership;

• Creating businesses in non-traditional areas;

• Creating systems & procedures;

• Developing a Technological platform for online marketing;

• Creating a marketing network.

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CHDs’ core focus has been Enterprise Building & Efficiency Enhancement. The programme of self-leadership development which was started in 2007-08, also became an important ingredient of its programmes over the years. At present, the organization’s strategy is to create a trinity -

• Social and economic situational research.

• Building collective institutional mechanisms; trainings for cooperatives & Federations; and self-leadership training for young professionals.

• Enterprise creation and efficiency enhancement.