Community Engagement

The Thread That Runs Through It

Not every part of UJAS’s work fits neatly into a single grant or report. Alongside the funded programmes, a steady rhythm of community activity keeps the settlements connected — to each other, to the seasons, and to the people who come to learn from them.

Winter relief. With support from Children’s Hope India, UJAS runs blanket distribution drives ahead of the desert’s cold winter nights, reaching families in settlements with little insulation against the drop in temperature.

Digital literacy. Small, informal computer training sessions bring basic digital skills into homes that would otherwise have no access to them — often just a shared screen, a few residents gathered around, and a volunteer teaching the basics.

Visitors from afar. UJAS regularly hosts researchers, students, and delegations from abroad who come to understand the settlements’ history and the community’s ongoing fight for citizenship and rights — sessions that mix orientation briefings with direct conversations between visitors and residents.

Festivals. Holi is celebrated in the settlements much as anywhere else in Rajasthan — a Holika Dahan bonfire, a rangoli of colour laid around it, and children gathered close, masked in the COVID years but no less festive.

Planting for the future. Community plantation drives, including a tree planted at the Asha Kendra in Anganwa as part of the “Jackie Melwani Day of Service” with Children’s Hope India, add a small but lasting mark of green to the settlement landscape.