PUKAR is an independent research collective based in Mumbai, India that aims to democratize research and broaden access to knowledge. It provides a platform for cross-disciplinary, community-based research on issues related to urbanization and globalization. PUKAR's goal is to create a world-class incubator for knowledge, debate, and innovation about cities and globalization through maximum citizen participation. It works to achieve this goal through facilitating cross-knowledge exchanges, developing partnerships with other institutions, and providing a learning space for observing and replicating best practices. PUKAR is supported by trustees, advisors, associates, and staff from cross-disciplinary backgrounds. It has collaborated locally with organizations like the Tata Institute of

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3. PUKAR is an
independent research
collective and an urban knowledge
production center that provides a platform for
cross-disciplinary, multi-sectoral, community based
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research for issues related to urbanization and globalization.
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PUKAR aims to democratize research and broaden access to knowledge
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among disenfranchised or weakly institutionalized groups and to create a
space from which their traditional and non expert knowledge can contribute to
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local, national and global debates about their own futures. It promotes research as
a right for everyone and uses it as tool for pedagogy, advocacy, intervention and
transformation.

4. The goal of PUKAR is to create
a world-class incubator for knowledge,
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debate and innovation about cities and
al globalization. It takes Mumbai as its conceptual base
and laboratory for concerns related to global cities and helps
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create new urban knowledge, through maximum participation of the
citizens, thus enhancing circulation of ideas, designs and concepts between the
local and the global. It works though the following means to achieve these goals:
Cross Knowledge:
PUKAR facilitates scholars, public intellectuals, policy makers, corporate leaders,
activists, practitioners & researchers to brainstorm outside the constrains of a single
institution, constituency or a project to identify new ways to think about urban challenges.
Partnerships: The center draws on global institutes from the world of urbanism, planning,
design, research to develop partnerships in all its activities- initiation, execution,
dissemination and evaluation.
Learning Lab: The center provides a space where observers, researchers and
practitioners from other institutions and locations, including funders,
can gather to create discourses on issues related to cities that
could be replicated in their own institutions/cities.

5. p le PUKAR is
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supported by trustees,
e
advisors, associates and staff
members that form the backbone of the
p organization. Hailing from cross-disciplinary,
academic, and professional backgrounds, this group of
individuals comprises the PUKAR team.
Trustees
Prof. Arjun Appadurai
K.M.S.(Titoo) Ahluwalia
Shyam Benegal
Rahul Mehrotra
Zia Mody
Sheela Patel
Advisors
Rama Bijapurkar
Narendra Jadhav
Kumar Ketkar
Abha Pandya
Sujata Patel
Kalpana Sharma

6. PUKAR
s has collaborated with
the following institutions:
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Local:
Sir Ratan Tata Trust
tit
Tata Institute of Social Sciences
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UNICEF, India
International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
The Foundation for Medical Research (FMR)
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SNEHA
Majlis
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Center for Policy Research
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Global:
Harvard School of Public Health, Boston
New York University, New York
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germany
African Centre for Migration and Society, WITS University, South Africa

7. e s
e m
h th
arc PUKAR’s research revolves around some of the
se
major issues created by the rapid pace of urbanization.
The projects are multi-disciplinary with expositionary
re dimensions. The projects involve a complex mix of traditional and
non-traditional methods, positing documentation as a form of intervention.
Events and workshops, fellowship and internship opportunities, participation of
community members are vital parts of the research process. PUKAR’s research themes
include:

8. Urban Youth and Knowledge Production
Projects under this theme have focused on marginalized city youth that cannot avail
formal education systems on multiple accounts. These Barefoot Researchers use the city
itself as a learning lab to build new knowledge without the intermediary of a formal
structure of learning that tends to otherwise distance them from their contexts. In this
process, the youth get exposed to existing hierarchies and social, cultural and economic
diversities of the world to which the learner/researcher belongs. Thus the Barefoot
Researchers gain the ability to reflect upon themselves, learn to ask vital questions
related to social practices and governance, challenge the prevalent wisdom to make
arguments about their future and become problem-solvers for the future of their cities.
Urbanism: Spatial Utopia and Conflicting Realities
Projects under this theme have focused on urban form, design, spatial contestations and
influencing factors like gender, religion, migration, post-industrialism, gentrification,
neo-liberalism etc. and the subsequent impact of these on diverse communities across the
metropolis. Projects under this theme seek to explore the relationship between
globalization and entrenched social and economic hierarchies through multiple lenses.
Archiving, documenting live narratives, photography and mapping form an integral part
of these projects.
Healthy Cities Wealthy Cities
Projects under this theme have looked at the impact of social determinants like tenure,
habitat, water, sanitation, environmental pollution, accessibility to livelihood and health
services on the most marginalized communities within informal settlements of Mumbai city.
Based on the results of this empirical research, recommendations are made to policy
makers and appropriate interventions are implemented within these communities.

9. Youth
Fellowship
Programme (Supported
by Sir Ratan Tata Trust – India)
The Youth Fellowship, PUKAR’s flagship project, is
a unique knowledge initiative, which provides a space for
the critical engagement of the youth. It uses research as a
pedagogical, interventional, and advocacy tool to empower youth to
negotiate the city and focuses on transforming the quality of their life in Mumbai.
Each year four hundred youth coming from all spheres of society join this process of “Search” which
starts in July and ends in the following June. Most of the topics they wish to learn about are situated
in their localities and anchored in their living experiences. Outcomes of the research process
are shared with the communities through a graduation ceremony and globally through
PUKAR’s interactive website. The research process brings about transformational
change within youth fellows, the organization, communities and society at
large.

10. cts
Exploring
Social and Physical
je
Determinants of Urban
Health
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(Supported by Rockefeller Foundation)
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This is a collaborative project between the Harvard
School of Public Health (HSPH), New York University, PUKAR and
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Kaulabandar, an unregistered slum located on the eastern waterfront of
Mumbai. This community, mostly made of migrants living in very high density
areas, is devoid of basic services like water and sewage disposal. The project has
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generated a massive data bank of health indicators of community members through
multiple sub-projects. Based upon these findings, health service provisions have been
initiated by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai.

11. Mythologies of Mumbai
(Supported by Ford Foundation)
The Mythologies of Mumbai Project seeks to explore the
relationship between globalization and entrenched social and
economic hierarchies through three lenses – livelihood, habitat and
educational institutions. The two areas of the city chosen for this exploration are
Girangaon – the erstwhile industrial centre of Mumbai and Dharavi – supposedly the
largest slum neighborhood of the city, both undergoing gentrification.
The researchers, residents of Dharavi and Girangaon, have archived the rich structural and live
heritages of both localities through longitudinal follow up over a period of three years. The
second phase of this project will use the archived material to create and disseminate
products through digital and electronic media. These will be disseminated locally and
globally so as to generate more participatory and representative
discussion on the lopsided development of Mumbai in particular and
about urbanization in general.

12. PUKAR’s
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research and
KA
pedagogic activities are
supported formally by Studio PUKAR.
PU
The Studio is responsible for producing and
updating print and digital media products related to our
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research projects, which include: Short films and documentaries,
di
posters, publications and postcards. The Studio builds on PUKAR’s core
stu
philosophy of pursuing documentation as a form of intervention and
provides the space for using digital technologies as research tools in
innovative ways.

13. n ts
e
R ev P U K A R
A
organizes four
K
annual events that
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bring together scholars,
P
academicians, researchers,
activists and concerned members of the
public around cross-disciplinary themes and
issues.
PUKAR Public Lecture Series
PUKAR partners with allied organizations to host both local and
international speakers in an annual lecture series that is open to the public. These
lectures attended by hundreds of local students, scholars, researchers and
professionals, comprehensively address interlinked urban issues and provide a platform for
discussion and debate.

14. Carol Breckenridge Memorial Lecture
Carol Breckenridge Memorial Lectures aim to explore urban issues from a critical lens of
people who participate in the creation of urban knowledge at various levels through
different avenues. To achieve this goal, renowned international scholars and practitioners
are invited to participate in this event. From economists to urban planners, from social
scientists to grassroot activists, corporate heads to policymakers, everyone debates and
deliberates about concerns of citizens and cities. On one hand they bring a global
perspective, experiences and narratives to Mumbai and on the other hand they learn from
the local and inform the global. The lecture is held annually and is dedicated to the memory
of PUKAR’s founder-patron Professor Carol Breckenridge.
PUKAR Winter Institute
PUKAR Winter Institute constitutes the high end of the research collective with a
theme-based dialogue between scholars, intellectuals and practitioners. Faculty members
from various academic institutions, both regional and national, are invited for three to four
days of intense debates about issues related to cities and citizens. Be it media, or water
resources, habitat or energy, linguistic diversity or religious pluralism, health or design,
papers are invited, discussions are encouraged and films and documentaries are screened
to deepen the understanding and the scope of the subject. This yearly exercise in Mumbai
provides fodder for ongoing discussions on many concerns and helps create a network of
individuals for further collaborative research.
PUKAR Monsoon
PUKAR Monsoon is a celebration of the city’s youth, their vitality, vigor, vision and their
creativity. It targets the undergraduate college students of the city and gives them an
opportunity to express their concerns through creative mediums like photographs, poetry,
essays, videos and films. Contemporary themes that resonate with the lives of the
undergraduates are chosen and experts from related fields are invited to act as resource
people who guide and mentor these students through two weeks of workshops, seminars,
documentary/film screenings and lectures.