Jan Sahas, a community and survivor-centric NPO working across India has embraced the SDGs not because it has been forced to by donor demands, but because they are proving a useful way to organise and communicate its work

From its inception, Jan Sahas’s work on addressing structural reasons for poverty, exclusion and violence through the lens of gender, caste and class inequality and inequity has been guided by the values enshrined in the Indian constitution. Our work closely associates with the SDGs, which act as a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and planet. Even before the inception of SDGs, social movements worldwide have long been dedicated to achieving similar development goals, and India is no exception to this development. Therefore, the journey towards aligning our work with the SDGs was underway even before the formalisation of the goals.

There are three-quarters of a billion workers globally who migrate within their countries; most of them travel thousands of kilometres for work, often leaving behind their families for months and/or years. These internal migrants usually work at construction sites, manufacturing units and agricultural fields. Most of them migrate for mere survival. Often, they come from vulnerable sections of society and work for meagre wages with little or no social security or safety nets.

Jan Sahas’s Migrants Resilience Collaborative is committed to SDG 8, supporting workers’ rights. Credit: White Pictures