Our Story

SAHAS India was founded in 1995.

 

SAHAS India, a social development organisation, is the brainchild of Sunita Palita. 

 

For close to twenty years, from the mid seventies to the early nineties, Sunita had been working with various national and international organisations in the development sector, and was disillusioned with the system. International aid and local fundraising meant that there was limitless resource generation - millions, if not billions of dollars to go around - but the rich kept getting richer, and the poor kept getting poorer.

 

Add to that if you told anyone in the 80’s that you work in the development sector, you would often hear a remark suggesting that you must thus be earning a lot of money!

 

In other words, the 1980’s was an era in which social development was fast gaining a notorious reputation of being a ‘for profit business avenue’, by the elite, for the elite. An exploitation of resources in the name of the underprivileged masses by the privileged few.

 

Sunita dreamt of a just and equal society where the gap between the “have’s and the have not’s” would vanish and human beings lived in harmony, sharing resources equitably. 

 

(Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognises that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.)

 

A paradigm shift was needed!

 

Was it possible to develop a development model which would foster a healthy sharing of resources between the classes? If yes, would this model not be akin to ancient philosophies such as vasudhaiva kutumbakam (the world is one family)?

 

How would this model work? If it worked would it not be built on the values and principles of caring, sharing, responsibility, accountability, and create liberty, justice, equality, 

 

Fraternity, it seemed, was the key - a movement, where the community lives truly as a commune!

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Thus was born SAHAS