The xSDG Podcast

About the Guest:

Vivekanandan is the founder of SEVA - Sustainable-agriculture and Environmental Voluntary Action (SEVA), an organisation founded in 1992 with a focus on finding and researching rural people’s traditional knowledge systems and innovations. SEVA emphasizes on the preservation of indigenous agricultural practices, conservation of local livestock breeds and documentation and dissemination of indigenous knowledge and grassroots innovations.

In today’s episode, Vivekanandan walks us through the work at SEVA, initiatives such as the Breed Saviour Awards, and the socio-cultural and economic implications of livestock rearing on indigenous pastoralist groups.

This podcast series is hosted by Amiya Chaudhuri, Research Associate at Belongg. Amiya is interested in the intersection of food, identity and social justice, and has previously worked with grassroots NGOs and served as an AIF Clinton Fellow.

You can also listen to this podcast and more conversations on intersectional inclusion, by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, available on the Apple and Google app stores. To connect with intersectional experts for guest lectures or consultations, check out Belongg Circle, a platform that makes it easy for a range of organizations and individuals to integrate intersectionality in their work.

About the Guest:

Dr Nitya Ghotge is a veterinarian and one of the founders of Anthra and presently its Director. Her work includes research, training and policy advocacy on different aspects of livestock development especially on systems of health care as well as planning for gender-sensitive and sustainable ways of farming and livestock rearing. A special focus for her now is pastoral and nomadic communities and the animals they rear.

In today’s episode, Dr Nitya sheds light on sustainable livestock rearing, women pastoralists and the uses of ethno-veterinary practices, as we attempt to reimagine India’s livestock sector with indigenous pastoralists at the centre of the narrative.

This podcast series is hosted by Amiya Chaudhuri, Research Associate at Belongg. Amiya is interested in the intersection of food, identity and social justice, and has previously worked with grassroots NGOs and served as an AIF Clinton Fellow.

You can also listen to this podcast and more conversations on intersectional inclusion, by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, available on the Apple and Google app stores. To connect with intersectional experts for guest lectures or consultations, check out Belongg Circle, a platform that makes it easy for a range of organizations and individuals to integrate intersectionality in their work.

About the Guest:

Sibabrata Choudhury is the CEO of Living Farms Odisha, an organisation that works with the community to protect indigenous culture, forest, land, agriculture, food, and life practices. Under the leadership of the late Debjeet Sarangi, Living Farms initiated impactful interventions including community kitchen gardens, preservation of indigenous seed varieties and uncultivated forest foods. 

In today’s episode, Sibabrata talks about the work at Living Farms, as we discuss the potential of indigenous farming methods in the face of increasingly commercialised ‘modern’ farming practices.

This podcast series is hosted by Amiya Chaudhuri, Research Associate at Belongg. Amiya is interested in the intersection of food, identity and social justice, and has previously worked with grassroots NGOs and served as an AIF Clinton Fellow.

You can also listen to this podcast and more conversations on intersectional inclusion, by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, available on the Apple and Google app stores. To connect with intersectional experts for guest lectures or consultations, check out Belongg Circle, a platform that makes it easy for a range of organizations and individuals to integrate intersectionality in their work.

About the Guest: 

Porkodi Palaniappan is an Art Therapist and Founder of Better Chances. Better Chances works towards building inclusive societies where friends and neighbours support those with mental health issues live on their own. She also headed the Larrence Charitable Trust, a home for destitute children and was also involved in other activities related to child welfare during this job stint.  

This series is hosted by Saransh Bisht, mental health collective associate at Belongg. They are also a mental health practitioner who works extensively with queer persons on various psycho-social themes. In 2019 they co-founded queer listening circle to enable healing spaces among community spaces.

You can also listen to this and more by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, spelt U_N_O_T_H_E_R which is available on both the Apple and Google app stores. To invite such experts to your organization for guest lectures or expert consultations, please also look at Belongg Circle, a platform that curates intersectional experts and makes it easy for a range of organizations to integrate such thinking in their work. 

About the Guest: 

Raviraj Shetty is an occupational therapist, children's book author, supervisor, library educator and a teacher who believes that all the problems of this world are rooted in the structural systems of oppression rather than in communities or peoples bodies and identities. His work is informed by Narrative practices, sensory integration, accountability practices, queer writings, children's books, his mother’s cooking practices and his communities ways of living.  He is a teacher of Narrative practices and Early childhood development; and teaches in local and international workshops and diplomas. He supports the work of  therapists and community health workers through supervision and consultation. Raviraj has published articles and is a peer reviewer for the Indian Journal of Occupational Therapy and has also co-curated Jugaad, a little book of know-hows by young people with disabilities about mental health  and conceptualised Our Jugaad, a handbook of know-hows by mothers of disabled children. He has peer reviewed articles for international journals including Journal of Occupational science.  

This series is hosted by Saransh Bisht, mental health collective associate at Belongg. They are also a mental health practitioner who works extensively with queer persons on various psycho-social themes. In 2019 they co-founded queer listening circle to enable healing spaces among community spaces.

You can also listen to this and more by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, spelt U_N_O_T_H_E_R which is available on both the Apple and Google app stores. To invite such experts to your organization for guest lectures or expert consultations, please also look at Belongg Circle, a platform that curates intersectional experts and makes it easy for a range of organizations to integrate such thinking in their work. 

About the Guest: 

 Zehra Mehdi is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Religion, Columbia University working at the intersections of religion, politics, and psychoanalysis. Her doctoral dissertation studies how Muslims as persecuted religious minorities in India draw upon religion to perform the psychic work of verbalizing trauma, mourning losses, as well as staging political protest.  Her research interests are political psychology, religious minorities and nationalism, trauma and violence, gender theory, psychoanalytic anthropology, and Partition literature. She has written articles in psychoanalytic journals on Islamophobia and secular psychoanalysis in India and contributed chapters in edited volumes on Winnicott and political theory, psychoanalysis and literature, and religious-political identities in the clinic. Her forthcoming articles are on psychoanalysis and nationalism in India, listening to injustice, and the need for political psychoanalytic anthropology. 

This series is hosted by Saransh Bisht, mental health collective associate at Belongg. They are also a mental health practitioner who works extensively with queer persons on various psycho-social themes. In 2019 they co-founded queer listening circle to enable healing spaces among community spaces.

You can also listen to this and more by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, spelt U_N_O_T_H_E_R which is available on both the Apple and Google app stores. To invite such experts to your organization for guest lectures or expert consultations, please also look at Belongg Circle, a platform that curates intersectional experts and makes it easy for a range of organizations to integrate such thinking in their work. 

About the Guest: 

Rory Cahill is an experienced psychotherapist, lecturer and trainer specialising in a compassion-focused approach to wellbeing and counselling. He is a leading expert in the application of Compassionate Focused Therapy (CFT) in educational settings to improve both staff and pupil wellbeing. Rory takes a no nonsense approach to wellbeing cutting through the jargon and transforming evidence-based concepts into practical, understandable and effective solutions and interventions. His workshops can make a positive difference to individuals and teams working in a range of stressful environments including businesses, universities and the NHS.

This series is hosted by Saransh Bisht, mental health collective associate at Belongg. They are also a mental health practitioner who works extensively with queer persons on various psycho-social themes. In 2019 they co-founded queer listening circle to enable healing spaces among community spaces.

You can also listen to this and more by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, spelt U_N_O_T_H_E_R which is available on both the Apple and Google app stores. To invite such experts to your organization for guest lectures or expert consultations, please also look at Belongg Circle, a platform that curates intersectional experts and makes it easy for a range of organizations to integrate such thinking in their work. 

About the Guest:

Nikita Sonavane is a legal researcher and lawyer based in Bhopal, India. She is the co-founder of the Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project, a litigation and research intervention focused on building accountability against criminalisation of marginalised communities by the police and the criminal justice system.

This series is hosted by Muda Tariq, Research Associate at Belongg. Muda graduated with a Bachelor's in Political Science, followed by a postgraduate diploma in Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding from Lady Shri Ram College for Women. She is passionate about working on the intersections of gender, human rights, and conflict. She is also a fellow at the LedBy Foundation and the EU-funded ALLY Project.

You can also listen to this podcast and more conversations on intersectional inclusion, by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, available on the Apple and Google app stores. To connect with intersectional experts for guest lectures or consultations, check out Belongg Circle, a platform that makes it easy for a range of organizations and individuals to integrate intersectionality in their work.

About the Guest:

Prof. (Dr.) Dalwai specializes in gender, sexuality, and law. Her Ph.D. thesis analyses the legal ban on dancing in the bars of Mumbai. In this work, she focuses on sexuality and law during globalisation in India with a specific reference to the caste capital of hereditary dancers. She has published in international journals and offered conference papers in many international conferences. Ms. Dalwai has worked as a lawyer with human rights organizations in Mumbai as well as health NGOs in rural Maharashtra. She envisioned and heads Development and Human Rights Institute (www.dhri.org ) a human rights education and exposure programme for students of western universities.

This series is hosted by Muda Tariq, the Research Associate at Belongg. Muda graduated with a Bachelor's in Political Science, followed by a postgraduate diploma in Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding from Lady Shri Ram College for Women. She is passionate about working on the intersections of gender, human rights, and conflict. She is also a fellow at the LedBy Foundation and the EU-funded ALLY Project.

You can also listen to this podcast and more conversations on intersectional inclusion, by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, available on the Apple and Google app stores. To connect with intersectional experts for guest lectures or consultations, check out Belongg Circle, a platform that makes it easy for a range of organizations and individuals to integrate intersectionality in their work.

About the Guest:

Manjula Pradeep is currently the Director of Campaigns in Dalit Human Rights Defenders Network Project, which covers five states of India. Manjula has also founded the Wise Act of Youth Visioning and Engagement (WAYVE) Foundation (www.wayve.net.in) which works for the empowerment and rights of marginalized youth in India building their leadership and building awareness about Constitutional Rights.

Apart from that, Manjula is involved with the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights. She also served as a member of the executive group of the International Dalit Solidarity Network and the Secretary of the Executive Committee of the National Center for Advocacy Studies, India. She also represents issues facing Dalits and Dalit women in international forums, such as the United Nations and the European Union.

This series is hosted by Muda Tariq, the Research Associate at Belongg. Muda graduated with a Bachelor's in Political Science, followed by a postgraduate diploma in Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding from Lady Shri Ram College for Women. She is passionate about working on the intersections of gender, human rights, and conflict. She is also a fellow at the LedBy Foundation and the EU-funded ALLY Project.

You can also listen to this podcast and more conversations on intersectional inclusion, by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, available on the Apple and Google app stores. To connect with intersectional experts for guest lectures or consultations, check out Belongg Circle, a platform that makes it easy for a range of organizations and individuals to integrate intersectionality in their work.