Gramya Manthan is a 10-day transformative youth leadership development program designed to immerse Indian youth in the diverse knowledge systems of rural India. The program focuses on inner transformation, building systemic awareness, and supporting community development.
Since its inception, a few hundred young individuals from across the country have participated in this journey of self and social discovery. More than half of these participants are now actively contributing to social change as social entrepreneurs, leaders, and committed professionals across diverse fields.
This program offers a unique opportunity to explore - the complexities of society, development, knowledge systems, caste and gender dynamics, leadership, and social change—not in isolation, but in direct connection with the self.
Over the past decade, Gramya Manthan has become one of the longest-running rural immersion programs in the country, with a vision to foster -
Self-development
Systemic change
Structural development through equal and participative dialogue between urban and rural India.
The program is carefully designed to intertwine three major components:
Self-introspection
Rigorous immersion
Social-emotional learning
While these themes are explored individually during the program, they remain deeply connected, influencing each other throughout the ten days.
The 18th edition of Gramya Manthan will take place in Indrana (Jabalpur), a village where the craft-based economy remains an integral part of everyday life. Participants will engage with the local community and gain hands-on experience working with indigenous art forms, using crafts as a lens to understand the broader social and economic system.
Gramya Manthan invites young leaders to engage in a meaningful dialogue with rural India, creating a space for reflection, learning, and growth.
Program Details
Dates
The 18th edition of Gramya Manthan shall happen from 21st June to 29th June 2025
Location & Weather
Temperatures vary in a wide spectrum during day and night between 37 to 27 degrees Celsius, also expecting some rain.
The upcoming edition will take place in Indrana, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh
Travel & Accommodation
• Food, stay, and all other mandatory requirements during the program will be taken care of.
• Stay will be basic with shared accommodation and bathroom facilities
• Participants will have to reach Jabalpur by Day 0 (20th June) evening or early morning on Day 1 (21st June).
Financial Contribution
Putting together all the different parts of this whole program incurs significant financial cost, which includes costs of Facilitation, Program Design, Food, Accommodation, Transport, Material and logistics, Mentoring, etc.
The cost per participant for 30 participants is 42,000 INR. Thanks to a generous donor, we have been able to subsidise it to Rs 30,000 per participant.
We strongly invite that you are able to cover the full cost of the program. However, we understand that for some participants, this amount might be difficult, so we have a few options of partial financial assistance available for those who truly need it due to structural disadvantages.
To accommodate the varied paying capacity of our participants we have carefully invented a contribution scale of Rs.15000 (50% scholarship), Rs. 22000 (25% scholarship). The details of the same are available in the application form.
To make it accessible for participants from difficult socio-economic backgrounds, we are delighted to announce that we received applications for and given five full scholarship slots.
An Invitation: For those who have the means, please consider stretching your budget a bit more so that we can offer more financial assistance to those coming from challenging and marginalised backgrounds. Your generosity will go a long way to help us accommodate someone who has many structural obstacles to break to access alternative educational programs like this one. It is a shared responsibility to create a diverse cohort for the program, to enrich our own learning.
Know more about the contribution model here.
Eligibility
The program is open to both Indian and International applicants.
Participants in the age group of 18-30 years will be preferred.
Applicants below or beyond these age limits will be duly considered on a case-to-case basis.
We have kept 5 slots reserved for people from ethnic, sexual, and cultural minorities. We strongly encourage Dalits, Adivasis, Bahujans, LGBTQ and people from other such structurally marginalised groups to apply.
Note: The maximum number of participants that we can host is 30. Applications will close once we reach this count.
Sign up to know more about the program and meet the team of Gramya Manthan
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