Taking the Baton: My First Months as Director of Jeevika

March, 2026

I am writing this while my phone keeps lighting up with Holi messages from friends and family across the world. Holi marks renewal. In India, it celebrates the arrival of spring and the possibility of new beginnings. It feels like the right moment to reflect on my first few months as Director of Jeevika.

Stepping into this role after Mark Roberts, has been both a privilege and a responsibility. Mark leaves behind something rare. Jeevika is not simply an organisation that delivers socially impactful projects. It is a values-driven institution that has quietly demonstrated how small, village-level interventions can compound into deep and lasting change over time. That legacy matters. The task now is not to reinvent Jeevika, but to understand what makes it work and build on it with clarity and care.

My instinct in these early months has been simple. Listen before leading.

One of my first meetings was with the founders’ family, the Hoda’s, whose vision and commitment helped bring Jeevika into existence. The family also founded the Gandhi Foundation, and that early conversation was more than a symbolic beginning. It was an opportunity to reconnect with the intellectual and moral lineage behind the organisation.

Through those conversations, I found myself hearing the names of people whose ideas have shaped development thinking for decades. E.F. Schumacher, whose book Small is Beautiful challenged dominant ideas about scale and economics. The Hoda family and Professor Mansur Hoda, whose work connected scholarship with rural realities. George McRobie, who helped translate Schumacher’s ideas into practical development approaches. And political and social leaders such as Jayaprakash Narayan and George Fernandes, who believed deeply in decentralised power and the dignity of ordinary citizens.

Hearing those stories placed Jeevika within a much longer arc of thinking about development. It reminded me that the organisation emerged from a set of ideas about dignity, local leadership, and village self-reliance. Those ideas feel just as relevant today as they did decades ago.

Alongside these conversations, I have been spending time listening to volunteers, partners, and supporters. The deeper I look, the clearer a few lessons become.

First, continuity matters more than novelty. Jeevika’s strength has always been its proximity to the communities it serves. Real change happens because the organisation remains close to villages and sustains long-term relationships with trusted partners. The goal is not constant reinvention. It is consistency, patience, and the careful scaling of approaches that already work.

Second, partnership is at the centre of everything. Our Indian NGO partners are not simply implementing programmes designed elsewhere. They are co-architects of the work. The ideas, insights, and adaptations that make programmes successful often come directly from their lived experience in villages. Whether the focus is water security, health, or women’s livelihoods, these partnerships are what make the work credible and sustainable.

Third, the external context is changing rapidly. Climate disruption, migration pressures, and widening inequality are increasingly shaping rural life. These forces are intersecting in ways that make rural resilience more urgent than ever. For Jeevika, this changes the question we ask ourselves. The challenge is no longer simply identifying the next project. The real challenge is how to scale what already works without losing the trust and relationships that made those solutions possible in the first place.

This thinking is shaping how I see Jeevika’s path forward.

The first pillar is women at the centre. Women’s empowerment is not simply one programme outcome among many. It is a design principle. When women gain agency, families become more resilient and communities become more stable.

The second pillar is the idea of thriving villages. Migration from rural areas often happens not because people want to leave, but because they feel they have no alternative. If villages can support viable livelihoods, secure water systems, and local enterprise, migration becomes a choice rather than a necessity.

The third pillar is partnership capital. Impact at scale will not come through funding alone. It will come through coalitions of trust that connect local organisations, global supporters, researchers, and institutions.

The baton has indeed been passed. But the race itself remains unchanged. The purpose is still to demonstrate that dignity, sustainability, and prosperity can begin in the smallest of villages.

When villages thrive, the future becomes more stable for everyone.

If these ideas resonate with you, I would welcome the conversation. Whether you are a practitioner, researcher, supporter, or someone simply interested in the future of rural communities, Jeevika’s work grows through dialogue and partnership.

As we draft our next chapter, we’re opening space for new voices and leadership at Jeevika. If you are passionate about women’s livelihoods, climate‑resilient livelihoods, and community‑led change, we would love to hear from you. We are inviting expressions of interest from potential Board members and advisors who can help shape our strategy, strengthen our governance, and walk alongside the women we serve.

If this resonates with you, please write to info@jeevika.org.uk with a short note on your background and why you’d like to be involved.