Overview

Hazards Centre - An Overview

The Hazards Centre is a unit of the Sanchal Foundation that was set up by the Foundation in 1997 for the specific purpose of providing professional services to community and labour organisations. It consists of a multi-disciplinary team which has, for the past ten years, been assisting such organisations in identifying, understanding, and combating the “hazards” that beset them. The Centre is largely not pro-active, but responds to requests. At times, where several communities are affected by the same set of factors, the Centre may also undertake to do research on a common theme in order to disseminate the findings to a larger range of social groups.

The activities of the Centre, therefore, flexibly situate themselves around research, training, publication, communication, and assistance for campaigns. The Centre also encourages community organisations to conduct their own primary research and policy analysis. In this effort the Centre depends heavily on the sympathetic expertise of a wide range of professionals, practitioners, and academics that are part of a Resource Group for the Centre. While most of the requests received have been located in urban areas, the Centre has been able to assist a wide range of groups and organisations on a multiplicity of issues across the country and promote wider alliances on common themes.