YUVA Urban

The birth of Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA), a voluntary development organisation, in the year 1984 marked the beginning of a journey of empowering the oppressed and marginalised in urban areas and later in rural areas. Since 1984, YUVA has questioned social structures along the side of the poor, with the aim of empowering them to participate in a process of meaningful change

Understanding and intervening in issues of urban poverty, environment and governance in the city, state and national levels were undertaken by YUVA Urban since its beginnings while working with the youth in the worker’s colony of Jogeshwari in North West Mumbai. Almost 27 years after, YUVA Urban continues to focus on engagements with youth, women and children to protect and promote the rights of the urban poor to housing, basic services, education, livelihood, social security, and public participation.

Over the years, YUVA Urban has implemented projects and interventions which ranged from action organisation to creation of alternatives, from training and capacity building to formation of people’s organisations and institutions, and research and policy work to lobbying and advocacy. YUVA Urban’s endeavor to engage holistically on social issues accounts for its broad range of activities that span from action organisation in communities to international solidarity action.

While the range of interventions become wider and broader over the years, the focus of YUVA Urban’s programmes remain the same—enable vulnerable groups to access their rights and address human rights violations in the cities. YUVA Urban works to build linkages between the direct experiences of communities and the larger context of the cities, states and countries. YUVA Urban strengthens the capacities of communities to understand and respond effectively to the local development issues, and encourage new formations—such as community action groups and groups of women, youth and children—to engage in development.

Our Core Values

In all of YUVA Urban’s programmes and activities, the organisation never ceases to conduct itself according to it’s five non-negotiable core values:

  1. Social Justice
  2. Gender Justice
  3. Secularism and Democracy
  4. Honesty and Integrity
  5. Environmental Sustainability