One Future Post #12: Strong, and stronger together
Contents
Hello From the CEO
Key Story
What’s New?
Coming Soon!
OFC Spotlight
Art x Social Justice
From the Toolbox
Get Involved
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Hello From the CEO
Feminist civil society organisations across the country today are faced with a complex problem - how do we continue to do meaningful work in the midst of strong anti-rights movements and discourse, that affect both our funding and impact landscapes? By prioritising strength-building, mutual support and exchange, strategy, and collective action within feminist civil society organisations, we may be able to mount an effective defence. I believe we are strong, but we are much stronger together. One Future Collective’s Indian Urban Feminist Civil Society Network, launched in September, is our response to the need for such a space. I am excited to tell you more about the Network and invite you to join us in seeing it take shape. Welcome to Volume 12 of One Future Post.
Love,
Vandita Morarka
Founder and CEO, One Future Collective
Key Story
For us at One Future Collective, August was action-packed! This was a month with lots of opportunities for civil society engagement, facilitation, and coalition building.
We started strong, with a series of different workshops under the One Future Festival, building capacity for social justice, feminist leadership, and feminist lawyering in different organisations and institutions. We were also part of many new spaces with regional and global civil society organisations, attending conferences and facilitating dialogues on gender, technology, violence, and inclusion.
Our most exciting update for the month was the kick-off of the Indian Urban Feminist Civil Society Network, facilitated by One Future Collective.
For too long, feminist organisations have been operating in under-resourced environments, often isolated in their efforts. Overarching human rights and social justice agendas often invisibilise issues central to feminist resistance, highlighting the need for dedicated feminist spaces that actively nurture feminist discourse, creativity, cooperation, and joint action to challenge and transform harmful power structures and inequalities. To truly build a feminist world, we must join forces, foster cross-organisational solidarity, and cultivate meaningful partnerships.
This is what the network is all about—a vibrant, inclusive space where we are collectively able to recognise, predict, and prepare ourselves for emergent human rights challenges and build strategies to address them collectively. As we embark on this journey, we are committed to co-designing and co-leading a network that is contextual, responsive, and relevant to the unique realities of Indian feminist civil society.
In our kick-off meeting, member organisations came together to get to know each other, set collective ways of working, and brainstorm our first steps together. Hear from our Founder and CEO, Vandita Morarka, about why we need this network.
We would like to thank Tarshi, Nazariya, Haiyya, Point of View, Breakthrough, Rangeen Khidki, Gender Lab, YP Foundation, Centre for Restoration, Netri Foundation, South Asia Women Foundation India and Led By Foundation for joining the network. We are proud of the team behind this project - Kuhoo Tiwari, Uttanshi Agarwal, Matam Manogna and Anvita Walia.
If you know an organisation you think should join the network, connect them with us by commenting below and tagging them, or emailing us at info@onefuturecollective.org.
Our (re)learnings through this month of collaboration, dialogue, and activity were:
The themes of our work may vary, but feminist organisations in urban India face similar challenges in operating within contexts with increasing anti-rights and anti-gender movements, accessing funding for meaningful work, and having a space to convene and collaborate to channel our strengths and achieve our human rights objectives together.
Civil society strengthening, collaboration and coalition building are crucial tools for our just institutions work - they enable us to hold each other accountable towards our social justice and human rights goals, support each other, strategise together and act to address collective challenges.
We are excited to continue putting these learnings into action and see where we go!
What’s New?
One Future Collective was invited to the ‘Advancing Women in Health Leadership: Barriers and Breakthroughs’ event organised by ICRW on August 9. On our behalf, Kuhoo from the team shared insights into our leadership work, particularly in developing women's and queer folks’ leadership capacities and feminist leadership approaches.
We held a casual dinner for our alumni and larger community in Bangalore on August 10 in Sri Udupi Park, Indiranagar. Easy, joyful spaces such as these allow our community to network and build close connections.
From the Bangalore community dinner On August 10, we attended the Yuvaa Conclave, where various industry experts discussed how we can activate youth leadership towards issues plaguing the youth.
From the Yuvaa Conclave On August 12, Arshiya Kochar and Kuhoo from One Future Collective moderated a conversation on ‘Unveiling the Intersection: AI's Role in Addressing Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence’ for UN Women. The event, which drew over 100 participants from around the world, was intended to discuss tools and strategies for supporting youth-led digital innovation initiatives. Our mentor, Kirthi Jayakumar, also led an informative session on AI-facilitated gender-based violence.
From the UN Women event Tanisha J, One Future Fellow (2021-2022), attended the ‘Feminist Futures Now’ conference organised by Point of View and Digital Futures Lab from August 19 to 21. This was an interdisciplinary experiential learning space
At ‘Feminist Futures Now’ On August 22, we hosted an informal healing space for our community to come together and process the ongoing events and discourse around sexual violence set in motion by the rape and murder of a junior doctor in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, including the re-traumatisation that it may lead to for those who have survived or witnessed sexual violence.
To learn more about the RG Kar case and act today, sign a petition by Jhatkaa.org to demand justice.
On August 23, Uttanshi and Arshiya attended a conference organised by Nazariya: A Queer Feminist Resource Group, to highlight the findings from a survey in their participatory research on queer representation within the Generation Equality Forum Processes. The conference facilitated a dialogue among stakeholders on exploring avenues for the GEF processes to invite and centre queer voices. One Future Collective presented important insights into the urgent need for increased localisation, intentional inclusion, and transparent decision making processes as being key in making this a reality.
We held the following spaces under the One Future Festival in September.
Trauma Informed Spaces for Pratisandhi on August 4.
Understanding Power and Oppression for Kuviraa on August 4.
Navigating burnout through communities of care for Parenthesis on August 8.
Social Justice for the Department of Social Work at Delhi University on August 12.
Intentional Inclusion and anti-caste allyship for Aajeevika Bureau on August 14.
Gender Sensitivity Workshop (including gender identity and expression, the spectrum of sex, and the importance of inclusive language) for St. Xavier’s College on August 30.
Gendered Lawyering for Gender Champions for Sophia College on September 4.
From the One Future Festival
What more would you like to know about our work? Tell us in the comments below!
Coming Soon
The Sanskari Girls Book Club is a community space hosted by One Future Collective, aimed at facilitating feminist critical literary inquiry. Registrations for the next cycle of registrations to the club will open in September - subscribe to the mailing list to be the first to grab a spot!
Under the One Future Festival, we will be facilitating workshops on themes like feminist leadership and values and gender in popular media with Nazaria Arts Collective and Whistling Woods.
Want to host a similar workshop on themes of social justice, feminist leadership, etc. in your organisation or educational institution? Reach out to us at info@onefuturecollective.org.
OFC Spotlight
As part of our digital community spotlight, we highlight a few stories of impact and contribution from the One Future Community. This month under the spotlight, we have:
Jerin Jacob, an education leader, educator, researcher, mentor, and former COO of One Future Collective. Jerin believes in the transformative power of literature and language to drive social change and create a more just and inclusive society. Read more about their incredible contribution to OFC here.
Ananya Kharidhi, a One Future Fellowship alum, who found emotional and intellectual space and community, theoretical knowledge, and practical tools to explore and understand social justice with the Fellowship. Read more about their journey here.
Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn to catch upcoming OFC Spotlights and more and learn about our work and the communities that drive it.
Art x Social Justice
Here is a curated list of social justice-based art recommendations. This month, these recommendations are based on themes of colonisation and survival, participatory action and loss, collectively reclaiming the production process, and joy. Click here or on the image to learn more.
From the Toolbox
Social Justice and Feminist Leadership
This is an introductory course on social justice and feminist leadership and is designed to equip all change-makers with an important foundational understanding of these core concepts along with providing an insight into all related concepts as well such as power, privilege, oppression, and feminism as well.
Get Involved
Are you part of a feminist civil society organisation based in urban or peri-urban India and eager to join One Future Collective’s Indian Urban Feminist Civil Society Network? Write to us at info@onefuturecollective.org to join or ask questions!
Join the Feminist Leadership Hub - a virtual, community-driven, peer learning platform centred around Feminist Leadership, developed in collaboration with FAIR SHARE of Women Leaders - now accessible in French!
Access our digital community centre, where you will find free trauma-informed peer listening support. To access affordable labour rights advisory through the Labourdesk, send in your queries to labourdesk@onefuturecollective.org today.
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