The last decade and a half saw a rapid rise in the social development sector of India, with many NGOs coming up in the spaces of health, education, youth leadership, sanitation etc. Many of these organizations are doing absolutely brilliant work in their areas of expertise but in silos. They were becoming individual islands of excellence.

Nitesh Sachan, a youth, then in his late 20s, identified this issue and endeavoured to do something about it, especially in the rural context. “After working for around 3 years in a corporate culture and 7 years at the grassroots level, I feel I have been introduced to both worlds and felt a sense of inequity”, says Nitesh. He further adds, “Last few decades have been an age of hyper-individualism where following narrow self-interest and personal desires has led to many conflicts everywhere. Inequality and empathy deficits have never been as stark as they are today. People are unwilling to face reality and pretend problems don’t exist. In the face of these social and environmental injustices, some of us feel raged, some impotent and others to turn a blind eye. Right now, we have an extraordinary capacity for interconnectedness but lack interdependence.”

Nitesh deeply feels that empathic actions force us to confront the social injustices not as spectators but as fully committed participants. Empathy is the social glue that can hold the society together. And with this intent and spirit, Nitesh founded Empathy Connects which strives towards leveraging the power of empathy to create this social, cultural and more importantly individual transformation.

Nitesh (Third from left) with the Yatris during the Halma Yatra in Jhabua, rural Madhya Pradesh in Feb 2018

Empathy Connects is trying to solve a problem of “Perception Vs Reality”. They feel that youth must play a key role by being involved in the development sector, policy-making and civil services and directly contribute to decision making with respect to the grassroots issues. These solutions often fail to make a sustainable impact because of a lack of complete understanding of grassroots problems. Not employing an empathic approach to solve the problems result in a waste of already scarce resources.

When Nitesh was introspecting on the need for a space like Empathy Connects, he felt that there was an absence of a platform that could provide and arrange a channel for a global community of concerned and motivated individuals to reach and experience ground realities.

A participant in a conversation with a local to understand their daily lives.

He felt that the solution is to design and implement experiential learning toolkits, activities and modules in the context of the local environment. Being aware of the local context and respecting it is something Empathy Connects espouses as its core value. In action, it means connecting and engaging motivated individuals with social organizations, enterprises and development movements across India through experiential travel, volunteering, internship, and cultural immersion programs.

Nitesh (First from right) facilitating a discussion between locals and the participants at Bir in Himachal Pradesh.

“Our mission is to make experiential learning programs an integral part of the curriculum of educational institutes. We envision a society more equal, just and deeply connected through empathy,” says Nitesh.

After starting his journey in the social sector, Nitesh got a lot of enquiries from his friends and acquaintances to suggest them credible grassroots organization for volunteering. It led him to a realization that there was no platform which either creates or helps in expediting such experiences.

With this need in mind and a forever burning passion to stay close to the grassroots and help others do the same, in March 2017, Empathy Connects launched its first Yatra in rural Madhya Pradesh with a bunch of 35 enthusiasts. With the success of Yatra, Empathy Connects started building a community of socially aware and motivated citizens which grew over the time creating a synergy. It helped in networking among the like-minded people.

Yatris digging trenches for water conservation as a part of the yearly tradition in Jhabua Village, rural Madhya Pradesh

One of the yatris, Deepak who was working on e-learning got connected to a professor in the same field. Post the yatra, Empathy Connects and their yatris were able to contribute a significant financial amount to the organisation as well.

He narrates his experience; “I got to know about Empathy Connects from a friend and I went for the first Halma Yatra where I met a lot of people. The best part of it was that in Jharkhand, where I am working for the under-resourced children, I got to meet a lot of role models in different organisations, one of them being Goonj and other being Shiv Ganga, where I got a perspective on how to make the education a transformative…