People’s Science Institute

Training and Field Support

PSI provides training and technical support to community institutions, civil society organisations, and local stakeholders to strengthen their capacities and improve development practices.

A woman presents survey results on a large chart

Projects in this area

  1. District plans built from the village upUttarakhandBRGF

From our work over the years

1996

A regional training centre is born

  • 47NGOs supported
  • 36,000+trainee-days

In 1996 the Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technologies (GoI) selected PSI to train and support organizations implementing participatory watershed development projects in north India. Several states’ agencies and district administrations recognized our Centre for Participatory Watershed Development (CPWD) as a training centre.

CPWD established its own watershed development programme for NGOs in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand with financial support from Sir Ratan Tata Trust. In all, it supported 47 NGOs in participatory watershed development, clocking over 36,000 trainee-days.

See it on the timeline
Open a larger view: Trainees sit in a classroom at the watershed training centre
Open a larger view: A group of villagers meets outdoors during a watershed training

2020

Training the next generation of practitioners

Development Practitioners Training Course (DPTC)

  • 10month intensive programme
  • 4batches trained

PSI leads one of the most comprehensive programmes in the country to train the professionals for the development sector. The ‘development practitioner training course(DPTC)’ which is a ten months intensive programme has successfully trained four batches since its inception in 2020.

The program was intended to prepare the youth to develop skills such as critical skills, field knowledge and practice knowledge to effectively contribute to grassroot development.

See it on the timeline
Open a larger view: Development Practitioners Training Course students hold their certificates outside PSI
Open a larger view: Course students take notes during field work beside a hill road

2002

Poor people become changemakers

Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, Western Odisha

  • 314villages prepared their own development plans

After reports of starvation deaths in the Western Odisha’s KBK region in 2001, PSI began the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (GSA) on the request of the PMO and Sahabhagi Vikash Abhiyan (SVA), a local organization. Our initial recces revealed that the deaths were more due to rural indebtedness than starvation.

We initiated GSA to strengthen grassroots democracy so that the poor become subjects of development rather than its objects. We trained a cadre of local activists and village resource persons.

314 villages prepared their own development plans. Village-level institutions and the resource persons began ensuring that mandated government services, were duly available to the villagers.

It led to enhancing livelihood opportunities and incomes, especially for the very poor.

See it on the timeline
Open a larger view: A large village gathering under the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan in Western Odisha
Open a larger view: Villagers dig together on a community work site

Our partners and supporters

  • Sir Ratan Tata Trust
  • WWF-India
  • ICIMOD
  • GIZ
  • ACWADAM
  • IIT Roorkee
  • University of Birmingham
  • University of Arizona
  • University of Delhi
  • IWMI
  • CGIAR
  • Hero MotoCorp
  • NIUA
  • MoHUA
  • USAID
  • CAPART
  • Department of Science and Technology
  • Planning Commission
  • BIOME Environmental Trust
  • CEDA
  • IIT Kanpur
  • ICAR-NBFGR
  • Gwalior Municipal Corporation
  • Government of Uttarakhand
  • MoRD