About Us

In April 1998, the FAO-NGO South Asia Programme and the Institute of Development Policy Analysis and Advocacy, Bangladesh, organized a South Asian workshop of gender trainers in Koitta, Bangladesh. It drew an overwhelming response from women and men from across South Asia and Europe.

Over the course of the workshop, participants discussed and deliberated various issues, shared their respective experiences and opinions, and came to a unanimous conclusion—the space for transformatory gender work in South Asia was declining steadily. That the need to create a network of South Asian gender activists and trainers was both urgent and critical was strongly felt and articulated by the group.

Sangat was born out of this realization 11 years ago. In a way, it is the continuation of the FAO-NGO South Asia Programme which worked for 25 years and was coordinated by Kamla Bhasin during its entire lifetime.

The network was thus named ‘SANGAT’ merely because the acronym clearly projected its identity—South Asian Network of Gender Activists and Trainers. However, for many of us and our partners, ‘Sangat’ is incidentally also a word in some South Asian languages – such as Hindi and Urdu – which means a gathering or community of like-minded people, working for a worthy, socially useful cause. And that Sangat certainly is!

Sangat works with like-minded individuals, non-government organisations and civil-society groups across South Asia on issues of gender, sustainable livelihoods, democracy, peace, pluralism and human rights.

Over the years though, Sangat has outgrown its name as well as its mandate.  

The network could not afford the luxury of focusing only on the issue of gender and women. Even though these subjects span a broad area of concern with clear linkages across other related concerns (poverty, sustainable development, livelihoods,  to name a few), Sangat’s team and partners could not be mere bystanders to other raging contemporary debates and issues. Various countries in South Asia have been gripped by increasing civil and economic unrest. The war in Sri Lanka, terror attacks in India, turmoil in Bangladesh, violence in Pakistan with an increasing foothold of Taliban have all further rocked the foundations of peace and friendship within and between countries in South Asia. Fundamentalist responses against non-mainstream or alternate political and economic ideologies, backlash against women and the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community also seem to have taken root. Intolerance towards other faiths has particularly seen horrific displays.

All this necessitated a major rethinking and restructuring of the vision, objectives and strategies of development. We need a new paradigm that places people at its centre and works in harmony with nature. Such a vision of development, increasingly articulated by more and more people all over the world (for example, by the World Social Forum), is guided by values of equality, justice, cooperation, peace, diversity, democracy and decentralisation. Such a paradigm will also challenge and counter the processes which marginalise women and the poor. This new vision demands that women and other marginalized groups be empowered not to adapt to or serve the present system but to challenge it. Along with this, it also calls for changes in the structures, approaches and ways of functioning of all actors and agencies to make them more participatory, egalitarian, decentralised and gender-just.

Sangat believes that this paradigmatic shift is only possible through a regional perspective and cross border understanding, solidarity and cooperation. Instead of the earlier emphasis on Declaration of Independence’ what we need today is Declaration of Interdependence. In South Asia genuine development, democracy and peace are only possible if we develop a South Asian identity and perspective. Developing and strengthening regional/cross border perspectives, programmes and cooperation has always been expressed through Sangat’s favourite slogan “I am not a wall that divides. I am a crack in that wall”.