About Sanjog:
Sanjog is a technical resource organization based in Kolkata, India, and registered as a society (2012). We work with governments, civil society organisations and businesses, as well as individuals and collectives to combat violence against children and women.
Sanjog was formed in 2005, and comprises of a group of committed, passionate and skilled professionals from various sectors. Sanjog is legally registered as Kolkata Sanjog Initiatives under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961.
Our Governing Body is a team of 8 thought leaders in sectors ranging from mental health and social psychology, sociology, social work, to the criminal justice system, law, and organisational management.
The executive team includes mid career professionals who have a personal commitment to the causes of child protection, gender justice and social equity. Each programme is led by a programme director. This allows for leadership to foster within the organization. It also separates the role of the organisational director from that of programme directorship.
A joint management committee comprising of 3 members forms the management body making decisions on operations. Policy decisions are referred to the Board.
Sanjog’s strategic plans and role are influenced by internal as well as external stakeholders, including all its partners – the government agencies it works with, partner organisations (other international and national nonprofit organisations) – and, most importantly, the constituencies it works with (survivors of violence, communities affected by violence, children in vulnerability).
Inception and raison d’etre:
“The idea of Sanjog came to us when we were leading Groupe Developpement’s (a French child protection organisation) regional office for South Asia, developing interventions to address child protection issues. It became clear to us that the region has a vibrant civil society which has also organised itself through non-profit organisations of different kinds.
These organizations play different roles and fulfill different functions. They offer a similar or complementary range of services. Yet, a range of structural and systemic issues, including the very nature of the social sector and organisations, were not being addressed by these micro, service delivery models. This restricted their impact.
The role we experimented in, and found meaningful, was that of a facilitator. Someone, or some organization, that could foster a coming together of organisations and agencies and help groups of organisations work through the difficulties thrown up by collaboration. We found it useful to engage in long-term study of existing practice by practitioners (instead of short term evaluations) and locations. This helped us to generate a deeper understanding of what works (and what does not), so that we could theorise.
We found that practitioners value learning whereas trainers tend to translate theoretical frameworks drawn from social work, psychology or psychosocial approaches. They transmit these through experiential and skills development trainings. Beneath this learning were numerous ‘failures’ that have led to deeper insight than successes ever could.”
-Uma Chatterjee & Roop Sen
Sanjog’s Roles
- Consortium programme management
- Policy development
- Research
- Leadership development, fostering of children’s collectives, survivors’ collectives
- Support services on trauma management, livelihood and legal aid
- Participatory monitoring and evaluations
Statutory & Legal
- Registered under Society’s Registration Act as Kolkata Sanjog Initiatives (Registration of Societies West Bengal Act XXVI of 1961)
- Registered under section 12A of Income Tax Act, 1961
- Registered under section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961
- Registered PAN and TAN numbers under Income Tax Exemption Act 1961
- Registered under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010
- Registered for undertaking CSR Activities. Our CSR Registration number is CSR00008310
