About Us
The Alliance of Grassroots Collectives (AGC) is composed of over 20 organisations and federations. With 33000+ membership, AGC is a Pan India movement currently present in the states of Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Assam. The Alliance is a platform which center stages the grassroots’ voice, agency and leadership to claim their place as citizens, workers, partners in development, and as constitutional rights-holders.
History
The abrupt cessation of Government of India funding for the Mahila Samakhya (MS) programme in 2015-16 disrupted the phased process by which MS groups were moving towards federating at higher levels. Support from American Jewish World Service (AJWS) and others, has facilitated this Alliance to grow from a few to 21 grassroots member collectives today, who carry forward the transformational processes towards an autonomous, sustainable institution built on feminist principles and working for gender equality and gender justice.
Core Values
Strong Accountability
Democratic Processes
Gender Inclusive
Inclusive of all forms of marginalisation
Shared Vision & Mission
Feminist and rights-based approach
Why the AGC?
To build solidarity across barriers of age, caste, sexuality, and other identities.
To act as a pressure group for issues including gender-based violence (GBV), and entitlements and to engender governance.
To create a learning platform to exchange ideas and solutions, understand challenges and respond through collective action.
What We Do?
Grassroots leaders from this mobilised constituency of marginalised communities representing the Alliance, constitute a vibrant community committed to creating supportive spaces for women, minorities and persons of different gender identities. Supported by a network of individual feminists, women’s rights groups and gender equality advocates, the Alliance is carrying forward the transformational processes initiated by government programmes and establishing an identity as an autonomous, sustainable institution, built on feminist principles and working for gender equality and gender justice.
Our Vision
The AGC celebrates and builds on core feminist values of solidarity and collective action to create gender-just, inclusive and democratic spaces where everyone can experience equality and claim the full range of rights and freedoms.
Our Mission
To build a movement and corresponding systems that can mobilize and build on the experience and strengths of collectives, expanding the scope of their agency. To accomplish this, the Alliance engages in the following:
- Convene dialogues across movements and actors on violence, entitlements and rights-based issues.
- Mobilise collectives of women, adolescent girls and boys, sexual minorities and transgender people, to convene and hold dialogues on new and existing forms of violence.
- Build a common vision based on feminist principles.
- Build a resource pool that supports action against violence in multiple arenas, ensuring that community members can exercise their rights and access entitlements.
- Build competencies and commitment towards feminist transformational leadership.
- Develop organizational management skills to operate with greater autonomy.
- Build participatory monitoring, evaluation and learning (PMEL) capacities to ensure learning from experience.
- Build a robust communication strategy for broad and inclusive public advocacy.
- Set up a national platform for bottom-up processes to enhance voice, synergy and networking between CBOs, women and gender/sexual rights organizations.