Author: Smile Foundation

In India, grassroots organizations are often the first to respond when systems fail. They run schools in remote hamlets, organize women’s collectives, deliver health services where clinics don’t reach, and step in long before external funding arrives. But for all their proximity to communities, many of these organisations remain structurally fragile — dependent on short-term grants, foreign funding cycles or a small pool of donors far removed from the people they serve.

The challenge is not a lack of commitment or innovation. It is a lack of power — specifically, the power to mobilise resources locally, tell their own stories and sustain their work on their own terms.

This is the gap that Smile Foundation set out to address through its Empowering Grassroots programme and more recently through Change the Game India (CtGI) — the India adaptation of the global Change the Game Academy approach. At its core, CtGI is about shifting mindsets: from dependency to agency and external validation to local legitimacy.

Why local sustainability matters now more than ever

Over the past decade, India’s civil society landscape has undergone significant change. Regulatory shifts, shrinking international funding and heightened scrutiny have made it increasingly difficult for grassroots organizations to rely on traditional funding sources. At the same time, expectations on these organizations have only grown: deliver impact at scale, demonstrate accountability and respond to complex, overlapping crises — from climate stress to gender inequality.

What has not kept pace is investment in organizational capacity. Many community-based organizations are expected to perform like professional institutions without being equipped with the skills, systems or confidence to do so.

CtGI responds to this imbalance directly. Anchored within Smile Foundation’s Empowering Grassroots programme, it focuses on strengthening local fundraising, communication, planning and governance as core competencies. The idea is simple but powerful: if organizations can mobilize support from the communities they serve and the ecosystems they operate in, they become more resilient, more accountable and ultimately more effective.

Learning from the India story: when fundraising becomes community-building

One of the most compelling insights from the India chapter of the Voices of Change storybook is that the real impact of CtGI is relational.

Take the example of a women-led organization in rural Maharashtra, working with farmers and informal workers. Before engaging with CtGI training, fundraising was viewed as something external — grant proposals written for distant donors, often in language that did not reflect local realities. There was hesitation, even discomfort, around asking the community for support. After all, how do you fundraise among people who themselves have limited means?

CtGI challenged this assumption head-on. Through local fundraising training facilitated by Smile Foundation, the organization began to see fundraising not as extraction, but as participation. A community-led food festival, rooted in local culture and collective effort, became both a fundraising event and a public statement. It brought together women farmers, families, local leaders and supporters in a shared space of pride and ownership.

The funds raised mattered. But what mattered more was what followed: increased visibility, stronger trust and a shift in how the organisation was perceived — not as a beneficiary of aid, but as a credible local institution.

This is a recurring theme across India and Asia in the report. When organizations raise funds locally, they also raise confidence. They negotiate differently with partners. They plan with longer horizons. They are better positioned to say no to projects that don’t align with community priorities.

Reframing capacity building: skills, yes — but also power

Too often, capacity building in the development sector is framed narrowly: a workshop here, a toolkit there. CtGI takes a broader view. It recognizes that skills without confidence or systems without legitimacy, do not translate into sustainability.

By embedding CtGI within the Empowering Grassroots programme, Smile Foundation has been able to contextualise global learning for Indian realities. Training modules are adapted to local languages, social norms and funding ecosystems. Organizations are encouraged to experiment, reflect and iterate rather than replicate models designed elsewhere.

Importantly, CtGI also works with youth. Through its youth track, young people are introduced early to the idea that social change requires not only passion, but planning, communication and resource mobilisation. In a country with one of the world’s largest youth populations, this is a strategic investment in the future of civil society leadership.

Gender, dignity and local ownership

Another thread running through the India story is gender. Many of the organizations supported through CtGI work with, or are led by, women. For them, local fundraising is a financial tool and a pathway to visibility and voice.

When women organize public events, speak about their work and mobilize resources, they challenge entrenched ideas about who leads and who decides. In rural and semi-urban contexts, this visibility has ripple effects: shifting household dynamics, influencing local governance and inspiring younger women to step into leadership roles.

This aligns closely with Smile Foundation’s broader commitment to gender equity across its programmes. CtGI does not treat women as a “target group” but recognises them as central actors in building sustainable, community-rooted institutions.

From local roots to ecosystem change

While CtGI focuses on individual organizations, its implications are systemic. Locally sustainable organizations are better partners for government programmes. They reduce dependency on volatile funding flows. They contribute to a healthier civil society ecosystem — one where accountability flows both upwards to donors and outwards to communities.

The India experience also offers lessons beyond the country’s borders. Across Asia, from Sri Lanka to Cambodia, similar patterns emerge: when local organisations gain the tools to fundraise, communicate and plan strategically, they are better able to navigate uncertainty and assert their role as agents of change.

What distinguishes the Indian model is scale and localisation. By anchoring CtGI within a nationally rooted organisation like Smile Foundation, the programme benefits from deep contextual understanding and strong delivery networks. It is not a pilot on the margins but a growing movement within India’s development landscape.

A shift with lasting consequences

CtGI, through the Empowering Grassroots programme, is helping rewrite the story of grassroots work in India, from one of perpetual scarcity to one of shared responsibility. It reminds us that sustainability is not only about money. It is about dignity, trust and power.

As the development sector grapples with questions of localization, decolonisation and long-term impact, the lessons from Change the Game India are clear: when communities are trusted to fund, shape and sustain their own solutions, change is not only possible but durable.

And perhaps most importantly, it is owned by the people it is meant to serve.

Asia is ageing at a speed without historical precedent. Japan, South Korea and China have moved from young to aged societies in a matter of decades, compressing demographic transitions that unfolded far more slowly in Europe. By 2050, more than a quarter of Asia’s population will be over 60, placing unprecedented pressure on labour markets, health systems and social protection frameworks.

India stands apart.

While its neighbours prepare for 100-year lives, India remains one of the youngest countries in the region. Its median age is still under 30, compared to over 48 in Japan and rapidly rising in China and South Korea. This demographic divergence positions India as both an outlier and a hinge point in Asia’s future: a country whose choices today will determine whether youth becomes a dividend, or a deferred burden.

Youth Is Not Immunity

India’s demographic youthfulness should not be mistaken for insulation from longevity challenges. Research from the UN Population Division shows that India will begin ageing rapidly after 2035, with the absolute number of older adults rising sharply even as the country remains younger, on average, than its neighbours.

What distinguishes India is timing. Unlike East Asian economies that aged before achieving universal health coverage or gender parity in the workforce, India has a narrow but critical window to prepare by investing in health, skills and social systems before ageing accelerates.

This window is especially consequential for women.

The Longevity Gap Is Gendered

Globally, women live longer than men but they also spend more years in poor health, unpaid care work and financial insecurity. In Asia’s ageing societies, women account for a disproportionate share of the elderly poor.

India’s younger age structure offers a chance to break this pattern early. However, evidence suggests that without intervention, the gendered longevity gap will persist.

The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2023 study shows that Indian women experience high years lived with disability due to anaemia, reproductive health conditions and non-communicable diseases beginning in midlife.

At the same time, labour force participation among Indian women remains among the lowest in Asia. OECD and ILO data consistently link women’s lifetime health and economic participation to better ageing outcomes, both at individual and societal levels.

How India supports women in their 20s, 30s and 40s will shape how the country ages decades later.

Learning from Ageing Neighbours — Before It’s Too Late

East Asia’s experience offers clear lessons.

Japan and South Korea built long life expectancy through strong public health and education systems, but entered ageing with rigid labour markets and deeply gendered care roles. China, despite rapid economic growth, faces a growing old-age dependency challenge as chronic disease and pension gaps converge.

Comparative research in The Lancet Healthy Longevity highlights that societies which failed to integrate women into paid work and preventive healthcare early now face higher long-term fiscal and care burdens.

India can chart a different path by aligning youth, women’s agency and health as a single strategy.

Health Today Is Longevity Tomorrow

Longevity is not built at age 60. It is accumulated across the life course.

WHO’s life-course health framework shows that nutrition, reproductive health, mental wellbeing and economic security in early and mid-adulthood are decisive determinants of healthy ageing.

India’s younger population means that investments in women’s health and prevention today have multiplicative returns: fewer chronic diseases later, lower dependency ratios and higher productive ageing.

This is particularly relevant in low-income and marginalised communities, where health risks accumulate earlier and ageing begins sooner in functional terms, even if chronological age remains low.

Women as the Bridge Between Demography and Development

From a macroeconomic perspective, women sit at the centre of India’s demographic advantage.

World Bank modelling shows that countries which combine demographic youth with higher female labour participation see sustained growth and slower ageing-related fiscal stress.

Women’s economic agency improves household nutrition, education and health outcomes — key inputs into a healthier future elderly population.

But this requires moving beyond episodic interventions toward integrated life-cycle support.

Grounding the Demographic Dividend in Community Systems

Evidence from implementation research shows that outcomes depend on whether services reach women where they live, work and care.

This is where organisations such as Smile Foundation play a structurally important role. Through women-centred initiatives that combine healthcare access, nutrition, livelihood support and education, Smile Foundation operates at the intersection where demographic potential is either realised or lost.

By strengthening women’s health, skills and agency during working years, such programmes shape India’s future ageing profile reducing vulnerability long before it appears in old-age statistics.

This is not social spending but longevity preparation.

Rethinking Longevity from a Young Country’s Perspective

Asia’s longevity narrative is often framed around retirement systems, pensions and eldercare. India’s contribution to this conversation must be different.

For India, the central question is not how to manage long lives but how to build healthy, productive ones early enough that ageing becomes manageable later.

This requires:

• prioritising preventive health for women and adolescents
• expanding women’s participation in paid and dignified work
• reducing unpaid care burdens
• embedding health and financial resilience across the life course

The evidence is that countries that act early age better.

A Window That Will Not Stay Open

India’s youth advantage is real but temporary.

Demography is destiny only if policy is absent. As neighbouring countries grapple with the costs of rapid ageing, India has a rare chance to prepare while it is still young.

Whether India becomes a country that ages before it grows old or one that transforms youth into lasting wellbeing will depend on how deliberately it invests in women today.

In an Asia defined by longevity, India’s exception may yet become its greatest contribution.

India is often described as a future workforce superpower. By 2030, it will have the world’s largest working-age population. But demography alone does not create productivity. Skills do.

But India’s workforce challenge lies in a less visible but decisive constraint: foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN). These basic capabilities of reading with comprehension and working with numbers are not early learning milestones to be “completed” by age ten. They are the load-bearing foundations of every advanced skill, from digital fluency and vocational training to adaptability in a fast-changing labour market.

Global evidence increasingly shows that without strong FLN, investments in skilling, digital transformation and future-of-work initiatives deliver diminishing returns. For India, where learning deficits emerge early and compound over time, FLN may be the single highest-return investment for long-term economic growth.

The Learning Crisis Beneath the Skills Conversation

India’s learning challenge is well documented. The 2023 ASER report found that only about 43% of children in Class 5 could read a Class 2-level text and basic arithmetic proficiency remains similarly low. These gaps do not disappear with age; they harden.

International research confirms this pattern. The World Bank’s State of Global Learning Poverty estimates that 70% of children in low- and middle-income countries cannot read a simple text by age 10, with long-term consequences for productivity and earnings.

From a workforce perspective, this matters because skills build cumulatively. Cognitive science shows that higher-order skills like problem-solving, digital literacy and technical training depend on early mastery of reading and numeracy.

In other words, a weak FLN base constrains the effectiveness of every subsequent investment in human capital.

FLN as an Economic Multiplier

Education economists increasingly frame FLN as a macro-critical variable.

A landmark study by Hanushek and Woessmann shows that improvements in basic cognitive skills are strongly correlated with long-run GDP growth — more so than years of schooling alone.

More recent modelling in The Lancet estimates that closing foundational learning gaps could generate trillions in lifetime earnings globally, with especially large gains in countries with young populations.

For India, this implies that FLN is both a social investment and a growth capital. Every cohort that enters the labour force without basic literacy and numeracy represents lost productivity, lower adaptability and higher vulnerability to automation.

The Workforce Consequences of Weak Foundations

The future of work is often framed around AI, automation and digital skills. But evidence from labour economics suggests that workers with weak foundational skills are the most exposed to technological displacement.

OECD research shows that adults with low literacy and numeracy are significantly less likely to benefit from digital upskilling programmes and more likely to be trapped in low-wage, informal employment.

In India’s context, where over 80% of employment remains informal, weak FLN limits mobility even within low-skill sectors. Workers struggle with written instructions, basic financial calculations, safety protocols and digital interfaces increasingly embedded in logistics, manufacturing and services.

This is why skilling initiatives that bypass FLN often underperform. Training cannot substitute for foundations it assumes already exist.

Why Early Intervention Delivers the Highest Returns

Neuroscience and developmental economics converge on a clear insight: returns to learning investments are highest in early childhood and primary school.

James Heckman’s work on skill formation demonstrates that early cognitive skills make later learning more efficient; remediation becomes costlier and less effective over time.

In India, delays in foundational learning often stem from first-generation schooling, language barriers, malnutrition and inconsistent early schooling. These challenges disproportionately affect children from low-income and migrant families — precisely those who will form the bulk of the future workforce.

Targeting FLN early is therefore not only equitable, but economically rational.

FLN and the Digital Economy: A Hidden Dependency

India’s digital public infrastructure — from payments to health records — is often cited as a global model. But digital inclusion depends on the ability to read, interpret and act on information.

Studies on digital adoption show that literacy is a stronger predictor of effective technology use than device access alone.

Without FLN, digital tools risk widening inequality rather than reducing it. Workers may be connected but not empowered; enrolled but not capable of navigating systems independently.

Seen this way, FLN is a prerequisite for inclusive digital growth.

Why Delivery Matters

India has recognised the centrality of FLN through policy initiatives such as the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the NIPUN Bharat Mission. The challenge now lies in execution — particularly in communities where schools face teacher shortages, high student mobility and limited parental support.

Global evidence suggests that community-embedded models combining classroom instruction with parental engagement, remediation and contextual learning are most effective in accelerating foundational skills.

This is where civil society plays a critical role as an implementation partner.

Bridging the Last Mile: Community-Led FLN in Practice

Organisations like Smile Foundation operate at the intersection of education, nutrition and social context where foundational learning outcomes are actually shaped.

Through school-based programmes, remedial learning, teacher support and parental engagement in underserved communities, Smile Foundation’s education initiatives address the non-academic barriers that undermine FLN: poor nutrition, irregular attendance, language gaps and lack of learning support at home.

This integrated approach reflects findings from implementation research showing that learning outcomes improve when education interventions are paired with health, nutrition and family engagement.

By stabilising learning environments and supporting early mastery, such models increase the likelihood that children transition into secondary education with the skills needed to benefit from further training.

FLN as a National Workforce Strategy

Countries that succeed in the future economy will be those that ensure:

• early mastery of literacy and numeracy
• smooth transitions from school to skill development
• continuous learning across the life course

India’s scale magnifies both risk and opportunity. Small improvements in foundational learning, applied across millions of children, generate outsized economic returns.

Investing Where the Compounding Begins

The most powerful investments are those that compound over time. Foundational literacy and numeracy do exactly that persistently, and across generations.

If India’s ambition is to build a resilient, adaptable and productive workforce, the starting point is not the factory floor or the coding bootcamp. It is the primary classroom, the community learning centre and the child learning to read with confidence and count with understanding.

That is where the future workforce is already being shaped.

On January 26, 1950, India did something quietly radical. It granted every adult citizen the right to vote, regardless of literacy, caste, gender, wealth, or social standing. At a time when large parts of the world still restricted democracy to property-owning men or the formally educated, India placed its faith not in readiness, but in participation.

That decision was less about optimism than about moral clarity. The framers of the Constitution understood that democracy would not mature before it was practised. It would mature only through use, error, correction and persistence. The Republic began, therefore, not as a finished project but as a wager on its people.

Seventy-five years later, the Indian Republic stands transformed. Life expectancy has more than doubled. Literacy has expanded across generations. Hundreds of millions have moved out of poverty. The economy has diversified, cities have grown and institutions have thickened. Yet the Republic’s most consequential work has not been the writing of laws or the passing of amendments. It has been the slow, uneven and often contested translation of constitutional ideals into lived dignity.

Republic@75 is therefore not a celebration alone. It is a moment of stocktaking. How far have we travelled from equality on paper to equity in practice? And what does the next phase of the Republic demand from the state, from institutions and from society?

The Republic’s First Promise: Equality of Citizenship

India’s Constitution was not just a legal document. It was a moral architecture. Universal adult franchise, fundamental rights, affirmative action and the Directive Principles of State Policy together attempted something unprecedented: correcting historical injustice through democratic means rather than elite paternalism or violent rupture.

The early decades of the Republic focused on nation-building through access. Schools were expanded to previously excluded populations. Food security became a state responsibility through public procurement and distribution, culminating in the Green Revolution. Banks were nationalised to widen access to credit and savings. Public sector enterprises were built to anchor industrial growth.

These moves were imperfect, often inefficient, and sometimes exclusionary in new ways. Yet they reflected a coherent belief: that development was a public good and that citizenship had to mean more than formal equality.

At the same time, the Republic learned hard lessons about the fragility of rights. The Emergency of 1975–77 exposed how easily constitutional guarantees could be suspended when power concentrated without accountability. The Supreme Court’s articulation of the Basic Structure doctrine in 1973 and the restoration of civil liberties thereafter, reaffirmed a core republican truth: democracy survives not by trust alone, but by institutional restraint.

From Welfare to Rights: Republic Day 2026

The turn of the millennium marked a decisive shift in India’s governance philosophy. The state began to move from discretionary welfare towards rights-based entitlements.

The Right to Information Act gave citizens the legal authority to question the state. The Right to Education made schooling a justiciable claim rather than a policy promise. MGNREGA reframed employment as a guarantee, not charity. Food security was codified into law, recognising nutrition as foundational to citizenship.

This shift mattered because democracy deepens not through elections alone, but through everyday accountability. Rights created claimants, not beneficiaries. They altered the relationship between citizen and state, especially for those historically marginalised by caste, gender, geography or poverty.

But the rights-based turn also revealed structural limits. Enrolment rose sharply, but learning outcomes stagnated. Healthcare coverage expanded, but quality and affordability remained uneven. Women entered classrooms in record numbers, yet exited the workforce early. Access improved faster than capability.

The Republic had succeeded in opening doors. It had not yet ensured that people could walk through them with confidence.

The Unfinished Work Gaining Steam for Republic Day 2026

As India enters demographic maturity, the central question facing the Republic is no longer scale alone. It is capability.

The National Education Policy 2020 reflects this recognition, shifting emphasis towards foundational learning, flexibility and skills rather than rote progression. Labour reforms acknowledge that work is no longer linear and that employability depends on continuous learning rather than static credentials. Digital public infrastructure has enabled unprecedented reach in service delivery, but has also exposed digital divides and uneven capacity to use technology meaningfully.

In this phase, the Republic’s challenge is not to expand systems endlessly, but to make them work better for those they were designed to serve. This is where execution, local context and institutional learning matter more than headline reforms.

Civil society plays a critical role in this transition. Organisations working at the grassroots translate policy intent into lived reality, identify bottlenecks and feed learning back into systems.

Smile Foundation’s work sits squarely within this capability framework. Across education, healthcare, skilling and women’s empowerment, the focus has moved beyond service delivery towards system strengthening. Whether it is improving foundational learning in government schools, taking primary healthcare to the last mile through mobile units, enabling vocational dignity through skill programmes or supporting adolescent girls to stay in school during high-risk transition years, the emphasis is on enabling people to exercise their rights meaningfully.

This work recognises a simple but often overlooked truth: rights mean little if people lack the capacity, confidence or institutional support to use them.

Measuring Progress at 75: Republic Day 2026

At 75, the Indian Republic is no longer young. It is complex, layered and unequal. But it is also resilient, so clearly demonstrated during Republic Day 2026.

Its success cannot be measured only by GDP growth or infrastructure creation. It must be measured by whether a child can learn without fear, whether a woman can work with dignity, whether a worker can adapt to economic change and whether an older person can age with care rather than neglect.

The Constitution spoke of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. Over the decades, India has made uneven progress on each. Justice has expanded through rights, but remains slow and inaccessible for many. Liberty is constitutionally guaranteed, but socially constrained. Equality has improved in access, but not always in outcomes. Fraternity remains the most elusive, requiring institutions that listen, adapt and include.

The next quarter-century will likely be defined less by constitutional amendments and more by administrative capacity, institutional trust and social cohesion. Development will depend on whether the state can deliver not just schemes, but outcomes. Whether democracy can offer not just voice, but opportunity.

Republic Day 2026, then, is not a milestone to be crossed and forgotten. It is a reminder. The Constitution was not an end point. It was an invitation to build a society where dignity is ordinary, not exceptional.

Each generation must decide whether to accept that invitation anew.