Routes to Grassroots
Routes to Grassroutes where we trace Personal Journeys into Collective Action
For some, this journey begins with a memory. For others, with a moment of injustice they could not ignore. Sometimes it begins in their own neighborhood, and sometimes in a community far from the life they once imagined for themselves.
Routes to GrassRoots is a podcast featuring conversations with people whose personal journeys led them to grassroots action and community-driven change. We’ll speak with organizers, activists, volunteers, social entrepreneurs, and changemakers about the experiences that shaped them, the communities that changed them, and the choices that turned concern into commitment.
In a planet upended by war, strife, injustice and darkness; one where we often find ourselves in dispair complaining, much like Frodo from Tolkein’s world "I wish it need not have happened in my time," to which the wise Galdalf replies "So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
We hope you join us in this quest, and give a little bit of your time to discover pathways to building a different, brighter, world.
Contributors
Anand Param
Aravinda Pillalamarri
Guests
Kalpana Karunakaran
Kalpana Karunakaran is an Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, where she has been teaching since 2010 . She holds a Ph.D. in Development Studies from the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), an M.A. in History from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and a B.A. in Economics.
Karunakaran’s research focuses on gender and development, women’s studies, microfinance, self-help groups (SHGs), and critical analysis of state-sponsored livelihood and poverty alleviation initiatives. She has also explored state–civil society collaboration in service delivery and women’s work in the informal sector
Her teaching experience includes courses such as Gender and Development, Women in India: Problems and Prospects, Decentralization and Governance, and State and Development at IIT Madras, as well as guest lectures at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai