Sikkim Alpine University Students Visit JanMitra Nyas and PVCHR to Learn About Community Innovation and Human Rights

 

From Classroom to Community: Sikkim Alpine University Students Explore Grassroots Innovation at JanMitra Nyas and PVCHR

Varanasi | 1 October 2026

Connecting Political Science with Human Rights, Public Health and Community Action

On 1 October 2026, students from the Department of Political Science, Sikkim Alpine University, visited the offices of JanMitra Nyas (JMN) and the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) in Varanasi during their study tour.

The visit created an opportunity for students to move beyond classroom learning and engage directly with grassroots experiences of human rights, community health, social justice and survivor empowerment.

The students interacted with members of the JMN and PVCHR team and learned about the organisations’ efforts to develop community-based responses to some of the most persistent challenges faced by marginalized communities.

Learning from Communities: Innovative Approaches to Malnutrition

During the interaction, JanMitra Nyas shared its experience of developing community-based best practices to reduce malnutrition.

The discussion emphasized that malnutrition cannot be addressed only through clinical interventions. Sustainable change also requires families and communities to participate actively in improving nutrition, accessing available resources and developing locally relevant solutions.

The students were introduced to the importance of community participation and household-level action in creating healthier and more resilient communities.

Preventing Maternal and Neonatal Deaths

Another important area discussed was community action to address maternal and neonatal deaths.

The interaction highlighted the importance of awareness, timely healthcare, family and community support, and access to appropriate services. The discussion also encouraged students to understand maternal and neonatal mortality through a wider social-justice lens, recognizing that health outcomes are closely connected with social and economic vulnerabilities.

Testimonial Therapy: Giving Survivors a Voice

A significant part of the interaction focused on Testimonial Therapy, an innovative brief narrative therapy approach used to support survivors of torture, violence and other traumatic experiences.

The students learned how survivors can be supported to narrate and document their experiences in a structured and dignified way. Testimonial Therapy creates a space where survivors can reclaim their voice, dignity and agency, while their testimony can also become an important part of human rights documentation.

For PVCHR and JanMitra Nyas, psychosocial support is closely connected with the broader process of seeking justice, recognition, rehabilitation and social transformation.

The approach reflects an important principle: survivors should not be seen only as victims of violence, but as individuals with knowledge, dignity, resilience and the capacity to contribute to change.

Human Rights as a Living Practice

The visit also provided an opportunity to discuss how grassroots organisations translate human rights principles into everyday practice.

From community health and nutrition to survivor support and human rights documentation, the work of JMN and PVCHR demonstrates that social transformation often begins with listening to communities, recognizing their knowledge and creating spaces for participation.

For students of political science, these experiences offer an important perspective on the relationship between rights, democracy, public policy and grassroots action.

Young People and the Future of Social Change

The participation of young students in such exchanges is particularly important. Universities can provide theoretical knowledge, while grassroots organisations offer opportunities to understand how those ideas operate in real communities.

The visit encouraged the students to reflect on questions of inequality, human dignity, access to healthcare, violence, justice and the role of civil society in strengthening democratic participation.

The interaction was also a reminder that meaningful social change requires collaboration between academic institutions, civil society organisations, communities and young people.

Building Bridges Between Universities and Communities

JanMitra Nyas and PVCHR value such learning exchanges because they create a bridge between academic knowledge and lived experience.

The visit by Sikkim Alpine University students demonstrated how a study tour can become more than an institutional visit—it can become an opportunity for dialogue, reflection and mutual learning.

As the students explored the work of JMN and PVCHR, they also encountered a central lesson of grassroots human rights work:

Social transformation begins when communities are heard, their dignity is respected, and they are supported to become agents of change.

JanMitra Nyas and PVCHR remain committed to strengthening community-led approaches to health, nutrition, human rights, psychosocial healing and social justice, while creating opportunities for young people to learn from grassroots experiences.