Knowledge Power

Chintan is constantly pushing for policy shifts that enable environmental justice. To do this, we need answers to key questions, and this requires rigorous research, extensive consultation and discussion, and multi-level dissemination of knowledge. This is the objective of our Knowledge Power programme.

What Chintan Does

Chintan is currently engaged in two research projects:

• The first, in partnership with the Centre for Advanced Studies for India, University of Pennsylvania, seeks to understand the barriers to and opportunities in Dalit entrepreneurship in the recycling sector.
• The second seeks to identify the barriers to recognition and formalization of informal-sector waste recycling in Delhi's non-authorized areas. The objective of this study is to push for a policy that will incentivize increasing formalization and creating green jobs. Chintan's partner in this is the Delhi Government.

Chintan also believes that research alone does not power knowledge and action. We are convinced that art, in particular, can play an important role in provoking public thinking. Therefore, one key strategy we deploy is to partner with artists and artists' groups that work in the area of consumption and detritus, or on related issues that are central to Chintan's mission.

This partnership can be of many kinds, ranging from active brainstorming, research and collaboration to simply linking up the artists with waste recyclers and facilitating a mutually beneficial exchange.

Here is a list of some of our artistic collaborations. Please click on each name to learn more:

• Khoj International Artists' Association
• Enrico Fabian
• Vivan Sundaram
• Gigi Scaria
• Students of the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi