About Arghyam
We are a public charitable foundation based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, founded through a personal endowment from Rohini Nilekani in 2005 to support sustainable water and sanitation solutions.
Principles of engagement
Through our partners across the country we are building a blueprint to achieve safe, sustainable water for all of India. We operate with three core principles in our engagements: Community-led approach; design for scale; and generate trusted data.
Design for scale
To ensure water security in every village in the country, programs have to be designed for scale and saturation with technology as an enabler.
Community-led
Because water is a common pool and finite resource, communities should be at the center of making decisions. To make informed decisions, they have to be equipped with knowledge to understand and manage their water effectively.
Trusted data
The right type of digital technology can generate trusted data on a real time basis. Open data can become digital assets for the community and the ecosystem
Strategic partnerships
Societal problems like water security are inherently complex. In order to solve water problems at scale, we build strategic partnerships with Samaaj, Sarkaar and Bazaar to collaborate and work collectively to achieve meaningful impact.
Samaaj
Civil society organizations bring the domain experience and expertise to develop participatory approaches for communities to sustainably manage water at the Gram Panchayat level.
Sarkar
Government is committed to development outcomes and the only one with a mandate to scale. While civil society finds innovative models, only the government can invest to scale these models.
Bazaar
We need breakthrough innovators, systems’ thinkers and technology solutions from the enterprises committed to solving complex, dynamic and mutating social challenges.
Water security assets
Through our programs and partnerships, we are building an open repository of water practitioners and content used in our partners' programs that can be leveraged as future assets, which otherwise are locked in programmatic silos.
Here is a snapshot of such assets created so far. For more detailed information, please visit India Water Portal.
India Water Portal
India Water Portal (IWP) is a comprehensive knowledge resource on water - Arghyam’s flagship offering for the water sector. It is an open repository of content, data and articles on water. It is also a place to share experiences and solutions, to talk to water experts, and to learn about the work that others are doing in sustainable water management in India.
Sign-up to the IWP newsletter to access latest updates on everything water.
Partners
Our partners design and implement large scale participatory programs to help build local capacity to resolve water security challenges.
What do our partners say?
Our partners have been our greatest asset. They provide knowledge and invaluable perspective on deepening the water security work. Arghyam grant projects have always ensured empowerment of the communities through people's participation.
