An Overview of India: Tackling Uncertainty and Building Community Resilience and Wellbeing Through Experiential Learning
Updated: 3 hours ago
The prevailing chaos and uncertainty in personal and professional lives is leading to increasing stress, confusion and abnormal behaviour amongst a large number of people, especially the youth, in most societies. The steps taken by governments to deal with the situation are often inadequate contributing to even more dissatisfaction. This is essentially because efforts by governments can never be enough in such matters. Instead, the civil society comprising people based institutions in social, educational and political circles need to come up with solutions that are A. Participatory, trust worthy and practical despite differences among people; B. Resilient over time to cope with shifting scenarios, local and global and C. Holistic in nature contributing to overall wellbeing and happiness among all age groups.
A civil society institution “Manavodaya” based in India has been working on such a challenge amongst the most disadvantaged sections of society with outcomes that have been spread widely throughout the country as well as in other regions of the world with beautiful outcomes. The process started with development of the concept of self help groups the impact of which has been so popular that the financial institutions and the government accepted them as their own. In India, there are now more than 10 million self help groups each comprising 10 to 20 women. These are now spreading to other countries in South Asia and Africa. The groups provide a space to people to move towards social and economic stability, deal with larger institutions like the government with confidence and help in handling their problems themselves. Such groups also help in improved local governance, resilience to climate change and overall well-being of the members through multiple means decided by people themselves. The role and significance of such groups, their working methods, issues of management and leadership are a subject of learning among students and professionals alike.
It is important to mention here that people’s groups can develop on their own independent of government programs or policies. It is a process of facilitating awareness and systems of collective decision making and action by the people themselves. For example, a recent intervention deep inside rural Kenya showed that when a local facilitator is trained and guided in the methods, values and associated management inputs, it affects the lives of several thousand persons living in a region towards improved well-being in all aspects of life. These methods and values, being well established and tested in different cultures and contexts, can easily form the basis of tackling uncertainties and problems in some of the most difficult working conditions e.g. among distressed youth, rebuilding of communities in conflict zones and for tackling issues of poverty and injustice anywhere. Being based on building self and collective awareness the process leads to overall well-being of people leading to sustainable development.
Practical experiential learning on the subject is available to students, professionals in development planning or social work as well as leaders of change programs working in different contexts. These have been attended by students and serious social workers from European countries like Norway and UK for almost two decades with excellent outcomes. This has also been found useful by those working in the global South. There is a rich body of resources, feedback and visuals to support. All programs are residential, strongly interactive, based on reflective learning that is combined with yoga and self-awareness practices for a holistic understanding of the subject.
A two week residential retreat for the purpose is combined with visits to ancient historical monuments, introduction to a variety of arts and cuisines loved by all. The programs are usually held at the campus of Manavodaya in Lucknow during the winter months when the weather is pleasant. The opening of the minds through new perspectives, evolution of thoughts and direct health improvements are some of the indirect benefits that are shared by almost all participants.
Varun Vidyarthi
Manavodaya
Varun Vidyarthi, Coordinator
Published October 21 2026.
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Turku University of Applied Sciences, Kukunori, MARKED with Purpose, Innocamp Poland, Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), Erhvervsakademi SydVest, Business College Syd, IES Bernat Guinovart, Jugend am Werk, University for Continuing Education Krems and the University of Gdańsk.
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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
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