India
Together with PCI India, we support transformative, locally driven programs that advance health, gender equality, and economic opportunity across some of India’s most underserved regions.
Global Communities has been working in India for over 20 years, originally operating as Project Concern International (PCI) from 1998-2021. Today, we partner with PCI India — an independent, locally led organization affiliated with Global Communities — to co-create and scale sustainable solutions to complex development problems.
PCI India works across 18 states to support vulnerable communities through programs that advance health, nutrition, gender equality, social protection, and economic opportunity. In partnership with governments, the private sector, and local organizations, PCI India helps create lasting, community-driven solutions that promote equity and resilience. Their work includes improving maternal and child health, expanding access to family planning, strengthening nutrition practices, and addressing gender-based violence by engaging both women and men.
PCI India also plays a key role in eliminating neglected tropical diseases, supporting disaster response, and improving access to social protection services, especially for women, migrants, and marginalized groups.
Through evidence-based strategies, innovative communication tools, and close collaboration with community platforms, PCI India ensures that the people they serve are at the center of change.
*hero image by Steven Wade Adams
Current Programs
The Shelter Home: A Safe Haven for At-Risk Boys
In Delhi’s crowded streets, countless children struggle to survive each day. Many are out of school, working to support themselves, and exposed to malnutrition, disease, exploitation, and violence. Without access to education, skills training, or even basic necessities like food, health care, and clean water, breaking free from poverty is nearly impossible.
For more than 20 years, Global Communities and PCI India have worked together to change this reality. Through The Shelter Home in Tauru, we provide at-risk boys ages 6 to 18 with housing, meals, health care, and education in a safe, supportive environment. Beyond meeting immediate needs, the home nurtures their emotional, intellectual, and physical development while protecting them from exploitation and abuse.
Our dedicated staff guide the boys through every stage of their growth, preparing them for a future of independence. As they approach adulthood, we support their transition with education, vocational training, and pathways to employment. Whenever possible, we also work to reunite children with their families, ensuring lasting stability and support. In close partnership with India’s Child Welfare Committee, The Shelter Home offers not just refuge, but a foundation for a promising future.
Previous Programs
Breaking the Cycle of Child Marriage in Jharkhand
From 2019 to June 2025, PCI India implemented Project Umang in partnership with the Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (Palash) to reduce child marriage and expand opportunities for adolescent girls in Jharkhand, India. Leveraging the influence of mothers and women’s collectives, Umang fostered stronger mother–daughter bonds and community dialogue to challenge harmful norms.
Independent surveys in 100 villages showed clear progress: more mothers gained a stronger voice in their daughters’ marriage decisions (rising from 45% to 61%), more girls felt confident about continuing their education through 12th grade (increasing from 60% to 75%), and nearly all reported greater conviction to resist early marriage (from 77% to 95%).
Over the life of the program, Umang reached 178,000 women with information on delaying child marriage, trained more than 50 community cadres and 100 teachers in psychosocial and career counseling, and helped over 300 girls re-enroll in school. By emphasizing education and economic aspirations as alternatives to early marriage, Umang disrupted intergenerational cycles of poverty and gender inequality and nurtured a lasting shift in community attitudes. (closed in 2025)
Advancing Women's Agency and Empowerment in Odisha
PCI India implemented a scalable, community-based model called Strengthening Women’s Institution for Agency and Empowerment within the framework of the Odisha Livelihood Mission. The project aimed to address gender disparities by focusing on:
- Security and freedom from discrimination, atrocities, and violence against women
- Ensuring women’s access to their social protection, rights, and entitlements
- Strengthening the identity of women and community-based institutions
- Creating institutions led by women for sustaining change
The project successfully implemented multiple interventions, including a Gender Facilitation Center that improved access to information, resources, and entitlements through tele-counseling. It also launched a Gender Self-Learning Program, organized Gender Forum meetings, and held community events across 20 districts, 54 blocks, and 61 Gram Panchayats. (closed in 2025)
From Polio Eradication to Pandemic Response
From 2001 to 2024, PCI India served as a leading civil society partner to the CORE Group Polio Project (CGPP) in Uttar Pradesh. The organization played a pivotal role in supporting government efforts to eliminate polio and sustain community immunity, even after India was declared polio-free in 2014.
The community mobilization strategies pioneered by CGPP became a model for public health initiatives across India, combining participatory engagement with a strong, systems-driven approach that united key stakeholders. A hallmark of PCI India’s contribution was its ability to build trust with local faith leaders while empowering women from within the community. Through the innovative deployment of Community Mobilization Coordinators (CMCs) — local women trained to engage directly with households — PCI India established a trusted presence, strengthened the project’s identity, and secured lasting community support.
This foundation of trust proved invaluable during the COVID-19 pandemic. CMCs drew on their credibility to encourage safe behaviors and promote vaccine uptake, helping overcome hesitancy and reinforcing government response efforts at a critical moment. (closed in 2024)
Supporting Migrant Workers in Uttar Pradesh
As a consortium partner, PCI India played a key role in the Migrants’ Support Cell, an initiative of the Department of Rural Development in Uttar Pradesh created to provide employment opportunities for returnee migrants and Self-Help Group members affected by COVID-19. The cell played a key role in expanding access to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), enabling 8.8 million households to receive wages — a sharp increase from previous years. In 2021, the initiative deepened its impact by prioritizing gender-responsive programming and increasing women’s participation in MGNREGA. Efforts included convergence with the Uttar Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission, support for individual asset creation, expansion of households receiving 100 days of guaranteed employment, and the promotion of Cluster Level Federations as lead agencies for MGNREGA implementation across the state. (closed in 2022)
Protecting Health, Ending Neglected Tropical Diseases
With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PCI India partnered with the Government of India to help eliminate the neglected tropical diseases Lymphatic Filariasis and Visceral Leishmaniasis. PCI India led the social mobilization effort, providing technical support to strengthen mass drug administration and improve indoor residual spraying activities. In 2020, the program reached nine states and 94 districts, activating 10,707 schools, 8,655 women’s Self-Help Groups, and 5,029 panchayat leaders to engage communities in protecting their health. (closed in 2022)
Advancing COVID-19 Vaccination Equity
Supported by the Packard Foundation, RECOVER Bihar was a joint initiative of PCI India and Vihara Innovation Network (VIN) that worked in close partnership with the Government of Bihar to achieve universal COVID-19 vaccination. Launched to close gaps in access and overcome vaccine hesitancy, the initiative focused on reaching vulnerable and marginalized populations, expanding access in hard-to-reach areas, improving the vaccination experience, and addressing social and behavioral barriers to uptake.
By the time it closed in 2022, RECOVER Bihar had helped more than 249,000 people get vaccinated, including groups often left behind in public health campaigns: 20,589 elderly individuals, 6,892 migrant workers, 7,336 lactating mothers, and 3,443 pregnant women. The program not only expanded coverage but also demonstrated how community-driven, human-centered approaches could make lifesaving health services more equitable and inclusive. (closed in 2022)
Impact
2.5 million +
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12,322,802
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$103 million
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Resources
Promoting Positive Youth Development & the Advancement of Adolescent Girls and Young Women
Facilitating behavioral change: A comparative assessment of ASHA efficacy in rural Bihar
Improving primary health care delivery in Bihar, India: Learning from piloting and statewide scale-up of Ananya
News
Uniting for Change: Community-Driven Solutions to Prevent Child Marriage
Sanjay Dubey, a high school teacher in the Palamu district of Jharkand, India, was taking attendance for his 9th grade class when he noticed something unsettling — Shreya*, one of his students, had been absent for five consecutive days. This wasn’t an isolated case. Time and again, Sanjay had watched girls in grades 9 and…
Promoting Women’s Entrepreneurship to Drive Economic Growth: Perspectives from India
By Irina Sinha, Project Concern International (PCI) India India has grown into the fifth largest economy in the world. The growth of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) indicates the existence of a plethora of opportunities that people can leverage to partake in the economy. Over the past decade, there has been a notable increase…
Mothers Take the Center Stage to End Child Marriage
By Sushmita Mukherjee, PCI India and Dennis Mello, Global Communities Proposals for marriage began coming for Pushpa three years ago, when she was only 15 years old. Pushpa felt too young to be married and wanted to continue her studies, something that many girls in Jharkhand – her home region of India – are unable…