An American 501(c)(3) public charity

Funding community-led change across India, in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi's Swaraj.

We support grassroots organisations that work directly with India's most marginalised communities, so that villages can grow their own food, keep their own seed, care for their own children, and govern their own forests and water.

Meet our partners Walk with us

The communities our partners serve do not see themselves through the lens of poverty or underdevelopment. They see themselves through the lens of sovereignty, resilience, and agency. Adivasi families in the forests of Chhattisgarh, seed savers in Karnataka, herders in the high valleys of Ladakh, and women farmers in the hills of Nagaland have long known that development is not something to wait for. It is something they can, and must, shape for themselves.

Voluntary Alliance for Sovereignty is a US 501(c)(3) public charity, registered in New Jersey in 2024. We raise funds in the United States for a network of Indian organisations that share this view: seven partners, working in six regions of the country, each rooted in its place and each working directly with communities on the principle of sovereignty.

7partner organisations

6regions of India

1978when our longest-serving partner began

1principle: communities lead

Gandhiji spinning at a charkha during a khadi demonstration in Mirzapur, 1925 — Gandhiji spinning, Mirzapur, 1925. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Gandhiji's talisman

“Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny?”
Mahatma Gandhi, 1947. From Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase, Vol. II

Why Gandhiji's constructive programme guides our work →

Our partners

From the Himalaya to the Deccan

Seven independent organisations, each rooted in its region. Their impact is the reason we exist.

Leh Nutrition Project

Ladakh

Artificial glaciers, village reservoirs, greenhouses and women's enterprise in the high Himalaya.

140,731 m³of ice storage from artificial glaciers built in four villages in 2023-24

PRO RURAL

Nagaland

Youth, women and remote tribal villages: cooperatives, skills, mobile health and flood relief.

323 patientstreated on its mobile clinic's first tour, where no doctor had come before (2024)

Samarpan

Jharkhand & Uttar Pradesh

Born to free children from Koderma's mica mines; now crèches, schooling, literacy and millet enterprise.

1,250+ childrenenrolled in school in 2022-23

Chaupal

Chhattisgarh

Run by Adivasis, for Adivasis: forest rights, village crèches, and health care for the marginalised.

88,096 hectaresof forest now under community rights, won by 262 village councils

Vikas Samvad

Madhya Pradesh

Community answers to child malnutrition: kitchen gardens, poultry, women's groups and food rights.

~10,000 childrenhelped out of malnutrition through its community model

VAAGDHARA

Rajasthan, Gujarat & MP

Swaraj in practice with Bhil communities: native seed, children's councils, women-led village planning.

162,000 familiesin 1,168 tribal villages across three states (2025-26)

Sahaja Samrudha

Karnataka

A farmers' movement keeping India's traditional rice, millets and vegetables alive, the organic way.

800+ rice varietiesconserved by 6,340 farmer-breeders and seed savers

See all seven

Read each partner's story, their verified impact, and the sources behind every figure.

Our partners →

A Pahadi Korwa elder in Chhattisgarh holds up his forest rights title

A Ladakhi girl in traditional dress by a frozen stream

Children in Banswara holding out seed balls at a seed festival

A farmer in Nagaland beside her Naga King Chilli harvest

Adolescent girls in Jharkhand celebrating with their kabaddi medals

The work

Six threads of sovereignty

Our partners work on different things in very different places. Together their work touches every part of village life.

Seed & food

Native seed kept in farmers' hands, organic farming, and traditional grains like millets brought back to the fields and the kitchen.

Sahaja Samrudha · VAAGDHARA · Samarpan

Forests, land & water

Community rights over forests, artificial glaciers in the Himalaya, check dams and reservoirs built with voluntary village labour.

Chaupal · Leh Nutrition Project · VAAGDHARA

Nutrition & health

Kitchen gardens, village crèches, growth monitoring, sickle cell care, and mobile clinics for villages that have never seen a doctor.

Vikas Samvad · Chaupal · PRO RURAL

Childhood & learning

Children freed from mines and brought into school, children's councils heard by their village, libraries and adult literacy.

Samarpan · VAAGDHARA

Self-governance

Village assemblies and women's groups that plan their own development and hold public systems to account, as equals.

VAAGDHARA · Chaupal · Vikas Samvad

Livelihoods with dignity

Farmers' cooperatives, women's enterprises, and skills for young people, so families need not migrate to survive.

PRO RURAL · Samarpan · Leh Nutrition Project

“Swaraj is not a concept—it is a living, breathing practice. And it is already alive in the seed savers, child speakers, women planners, and youth facilitators across this region.”
From the Annual Report 2024-25 of our partner VAAGDHARA

If a thread of this work matters to you, walk with us.

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