Welcome to the website of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung - India office
Introduction
The face of the India programme was carved out of its concern for various forms of prejudice, discrimination, exclusion, and violence amplified especially between diverse ethnic, communal and religious groups within India; the South Asian contours of globalization; the neglect of environmental concerns given the increasing pace of climate change; and the challenges to India’s democracy that lacks truly an emancipatory and participatory component.

Imperative to all programmes and projects of the Foundation is a commitment to gender justice and equality. Gender democracy is an overarching and crosscutting issue being mainstreamed in all activities and approaches.

National conferences and political campaigns on many critical issues, as well as active engagement with the international community on Global and South Asian experiences of democracy and inclusion have been key tools of political education to face political challenges. HBF India’s encouragement of new forms of civil society assertions has been significant in this light.

Our overall approach is to (a) generate opportunities of sharing, analysing and learning among formations of civil society (b) engaging in independent and critical analysis of societal trends and issues (c) enabling dialogue across varied perspectives, sectors and institutions of the concerned stakeholders.

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Gender and Trade

Documentary Film

1 Cube: Three; yet one!

1 Cube: Three; yet one! - is a documentary film by Pramod Dev. Depicting three women who work in export-oriented sectors of India's economy, the film shows how the demands of trade impact upon the personal, familial, social, economic and cultural aspects of the lives of the protagonists. more»

South Asia Regional Autumn School

Global Finance and Human Security in South Asia: A Gender Perspective

 - August 1, 2011 - Lady Shri Ram College for Women (University of Delhi) in partnership with the Heinrich Böll Foundation is holding a South Asia Regional Autumn School on the theme - Global Finance and Human Security in South Asia: A Gender Perspective from November 1–5, 2011. more»

Briefing Papers

Food Security, Human Rights and the India-EU FTA agreement

- December 21, 2011 - The ‘Ecofair Trade Dialogue’ project, promoting discussion about a sustainable and fair agricultural trade, presents two new papers: one discussion paper, examining Human Rights in EU Trade policy and one new analysis of the Trade Agreement between EU-India that gives a closer look to issues of food security.

Briefing Papers

Free Trade Agreements and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Series

- September 29, 2011 - This series is the output of a project on Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in India, a joint initiative by Traidcraft Exchange, Third World Network and Shramik Bharti. The project is developed in collaboration with and is supported by the Commonwealth Foundation, Network for Social Change, and the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The series is published for information dissemination and capacity building on issues related to the specific provisions in and likely impacts of FTAs on the MSME entrepreneurs and workers in India.

Briefing Papers

HBF-TWN Trade & Gender Briefs

- September 22, 2011 - HBF India has published in collaboration with Ranja Sengupta of Third World Network (TWN) 4 briefing papers in simple language on trade liberalization and their gender impacts in India. These papers available here demystify & deal with the four functional areas of current global trade paradigm – namely Agriculture, Services, IPR and Investment. more»

International Politics

POLICY PAPERS

Foundation Newsletter and Resources on the G20

The Heinrich Böll Foundation publishes a monthly newsletter, the “G20 Update,” on the G20 Summit processes and outcomes with special emphasis on the contributions to the processes by civil society organizations (click here for the November 2011 issue. It also maintains a “drop box” of information and publications about the G20. more»

Democracy and Conflict Resolution

Report

Bearing Witness: A Report on the Impact of Conflict on Women in Nagaland and Assam

September 21, 2011 - The stories of women and their families who have suffered silently in the decades of conflict between insurgents and Indian security forces - and between the idea of India and those who sought political and cultural spaces outside of it – come alive in ‘Bearing Witness: A Report on the Impact of Conflict on Women in Nagaland and Assam’. Edited by Sanjoy Hazarika and Preeti Gill more»

Climate & Energy

Briefing Paper

Lighting Up Ladakh

 - September 28, 2011 - The Case Study analyzes the lessons learnt from ground realities on implementation of Solar Energy systems in rural India. This is an excellent case of making policy-practice connect viable. By Mohd Shawahiq Siddiqui, Shilpa Chohan and Sanjay Upadhyay more»

Report

Banking on Forests: Assets for a Climate Cure?

- September 27, 2011 - Strategies of valuation and compensation of forest loss are central to forest regulation in India. A new book by Kanchi Kohli and Manju Menon looks at the continuity between the domestic regulation on forests and the new abstractions created by the climate change discourse in the form of REDD and REDD+. more»