Vikas Adhyayan Kendra (VAK) is a secular voluntary organisation established in 1981 to be an interface between scholars, academics and social activists, and to initiate the process of social awakening through critical reflection and alternative discourse, thereby contributing to strengthening people's struggles towards the goal of a just and more humane social order.

Focus
People are the subjects and makers of history. Their creative energies are expressed in their day-to-day activities as well as in their movements. These valuable experiences often, however, remain undiscovered and diffused. A crucial need is to crystallise and consolidate these experiences so as to lead towards a critical social theory. VAK seeks to contribute to this process through the facilitation of a continuous dialogue and interaction between theoretical research and the living experience of the people.

Geographically, VAK activities focus primarily on Western India - Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat. The orientation and spread of a number of its other activities are essentially of a national character.

Major Areas of Concern

• Dalits and adivasis
• Gender rights
• Children's rights
• Livelihood security
• Environment and ecology
• Religion and society: Secularism and communalism
• Theory and practice of social transformation
• Ideology and culture

Activities

• Study and research
• Consultations
• Publications
• Documentation
• Education
• Direct community action
• Campaigns and advocacy

Study and Research: Objectives

• Identify the various emerging social trends and processes
• Understand and bring to light the realities of the lives of the people
• Investigate traditional cultures, wisdom and knowledge systems and practices
• Critically contribute to the search for alternatives

Consultations
Consultations are designed to facilitate free exchange of ideas among activists, among social thinkers, as well as between activists and social thinkers.

Publications and other media initiatives

• Media advocacy that introduces in the public domain images chronicling the everyday life experiences and struggles of the marginalised, sensitising the public on issues that the mainstream media fails to consider or address.
• Alternative fairs, which create alternative spaces to exhibit and distribute a wide range of development literature, video films, crafts and artefacts that activists, action groups, academics and the concerned public do not have easy access to.
• Alternate video festivals on topics of interest to action groups, people's organisations and concerned individuals; started in 2001, and will be an annual feature.

Education
Education aims to provide analytical and other related skills to activists in order to understand socio-political realities, and to motivate them towards action for social transformation.

Documentation
Documentation is for a number of topics, compiled from varied sources. The documents classified and stored in our retrieval system are accessible, and open to all users. VAK is engaged currently in creating an electronic information bank that will collect information from various national and international sources.

Direct community action
Direct community action encompasses work with women and children in the fields of health, education and care, as well as non-formal and supplementary education for children.

Campaigns, advocacy and coalition building
Campaigns, advocacy and coalition building includes developing and promoting more focussed advocacy, as well as lobbying and campaigning strategies on issues ranging from dalit to gender rights, and from rights of minorities and children to the livelihood struggles of the people, suppression of human and democratic rights and erosion of cultural values. The programme also seeks to promote and strengthen civil society organisations in building solidarity-action networks on critical issues affecting the lives and 'rights' of the people.