Swades ki Khoj offers graduates under the age of 28 the opportunity to spend a year living and working in a rural area to discover rural India and themselves and to use their knowledge and skills to help transform someone else’s life.

The programme commences with a fortnight long foundation course at the Chirag training centre. The youth then go and join their host organisation where they will live and work for the next eleven months.  At the end of the year, the youth return to Chirag for a final workshop.  The areas that the participants can choose from are environmental regeneration, primary healthcare, primary education, and rural livelihoods.

The current organisations hosting the youth are located in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Uttarakhand.

The 3rd batch of Swades ki Khoj will have its debriefing workshop on the 25th and 26th of June 2010. Applications for the 4th cohort of the program are under review and will be announced shortly.

Please download documents with further details and frequently asked questions (in Hindi) about the program

This short film records the expectations of some of the youth from the 3rd cohort.