Hridya is co-founder of the Center for Social Innovation & Impact. She creates programmes where applied art forms can be used to inform stakeholders and inspire inclusive decision-making, experimentation, innovation and evaluation. She has worked as a Program Manager for the Chief Minister's Youth Center project in Meghalaya, creating 20 community spaces for learning. Her work with the Manthan Sanstha involved the designing and implementation of SMILE Exchange program, the Eureka project, Gullak Project, and more to promote education, financial inclusion, and sustainable development.

CHATS WITH CHANGEMAKERS

Hridya shares her ideas on making aikyam space more inclusive

It is rather extraordinary when a Zoom meeting starts with an apology around parrots. That was exactly how our meeting with Hridya Jairam, co-founder of Centre for Social Innovation and Impact, went. Seated out in the open in a village in Rajasthan for our call, Hridya explained how ‘there’s something going on with the parrots’ and to please excuse the commotion’. It also very aptly placed Hridya’s challenge in perspective. Over seven years of working in the socio-development sector, Hridya has had one constant struggle. That of finding a brick-and-mortar space to work out of, with no distractions.

“When you are at a strategic level, a leadership position, sometimes, you really need some headspace to work,” she said. “We mostly use libraries, and for meetings, we go to coffee shops and restaurants. But you know how the atmosphere can be…” This was one of the reasons why Hridya was so excited about the possibilities of aikyam space.

Hridya also spoke about the importance of having access to a library or a pool of open source software. Especially for changemakers who are starting out. “I'm really looking at technology because it is very useful for us. And we cannot afford most of it,” she said. “So having access to a library of open source resources would be really nice.”

She was extremely interested in helping make aikyam space more inclusive. “We think about a lot of things around accessibility,” she said. “Like lifts, wheelchair-friendly entrances, and the like. We should also consider making the space accessible to the blind. For instance, having signage in Braille. It’s actually quite easy to implement and they can just place their hands on it and understand.” She shared that she had not seen many such inclusive institutions or even cities, for that matter.

Hridya also vouched for the need for a good POSH policy and training. She suggested making POSH-related literature and information easily accessible at the space. “Because prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace is important. So we need to figure out how we can easily, smoothly and creatively put across the POSH policy, making it visible and available to all.