Unlocking Local Power: SeSTA’s Path to Community-Led Change in the North-East
From scepticism to trust, SeSTA shows how policy can root itself in community hands
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SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth | SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions
Institutions: Ministry of Rural Development | Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region
“Who are you to represent us?”
That was the first question put to Pradyut Bhattacharjee by panchayat leaders in Assam when he began his work with Seven Sisters Development Assistance (SeSTA) in 2016. He recalls it with a smile.
“It wasn’t hostility,” he says, “but scepticism. They wanted to know I was not another outsider with an agenda.”
That exchange captures the challenge of grassroots work in the North-East. Legitimacy is never granted at the door; it has to be earned. For Pradyut, who had worked earlier in Bastar and Jharkhand and seen how conflict corroded trust, it confirmed a conviction: empowerment cannot be handed down, it must grow from below.
SeSTA, the organisation he now leads, takes its name from the Assamese word for “putting in effort.” Its philosophy, Nirmana, meaning creation, embodies a transformative approach that sets it apart from the microfinance-heavy civil society landscape of the region.
“Microfinance was everywhere,” he says, “but it did not necessarily empower people. We wanted to create progress, not projects.”
That meant working with existing institutions, rather than around them – panchayats, village councils, women’s groups, all functioning collectively.
“The question,” he explains, “is whether grants can flow through institutions and reach the end user. If we can decentralise, we strengthen local governance instead of sidelining it.”
When Policy Meets Practice
Pradyut points to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) as a prime example of how policy translates to impact on the ground.
“If Farmer A wants to start a fishery, the pond itself is the biggest cost. If MGNREGA funds the pond, the whole community benefits. Over time, this creates sustainable assets that grants alone cannot deliver.”
It is a neat demonstration of how a wage safety net can become productive infrastructure when tied to local priorities. The challenge is not just to open state resources, but to ensure communities can actually use them without bureaucratic choke points.
SeSTA has experimented with Geographic Information System (GIS)-based planning to help villagers identify the assets they most need and present them to administrators. The same approach extends to the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). Women’s groups may be encouraged to form collectives, but without support they rarely become viable enterprises. Here SeSTA’s role is to turn policy design into lived practice – enabling groups to navigate procedures, access credit, and link to markets.
It is these linkages between national schemes and local priorities that explain SeSTA’s scale today: SeSTA works with over 200,000 families across 2,540 villages in 26 districts of Assam, Meghalaya, and Tripura. Of these, some 30,000 families in Assam and Tripura receive intensive support through 60 young professionals working across 457 remote villages – a model of depth as well as breadth. The numbers matter less than the principle – that public finance, when mediated through trusted local institutions, can shift from temporary relief to lasting empowerment.
Where Policy Falls Short
Although schemes like MGNREGA show potential, limitations persist. Budget allocations are still largely top-down, and rural collectives face intimidating procedures. In the North-East, regulation adds further barriers.
“There is a tighter scrutiny of foreign contributions and restrictive tax rules, which makes working in border states such as Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura even more difficult” he says.
Civil society organisations are often viewed with suspicion rather than welcomed as partners.
“Ease in Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act and tax exemptions would help,” Pradyut says. “But beyond that, what we need most is recognition. Too often, the government is apprehensive of civil society organisations, unsure if they are genuine.”
The paradox is stark: policy calls for community mobilisation, yet the organisations best placed to do it are constrained by mistrust.
Earning Legitimacy and Training Youth
When asked how SeSTA overcame these hurdles, Pradyut points to patience and persistence. In the early years, panchayats doubted their presence. The organisation had to prove it was not a rival but a partner, committed to making schemes work better. By 2019, recognition from multiple levels of government made collaboration easier.
Human resources posed another test. In a region where young people often prefer secure government jobs, how do you build a team for community work?
“We had to create our own pipeline,” he says.
New recruits undergo a one-year, learning-by-doing programme before being deployed. They in turn mentor the next line, creating a cycle of professionals. The demand is evident: a single job opening recently drew more than 3,000 applications.
Today over 250 professionals are associated with SeSTA, many drawn from the communities themselves.
“Civil society in regions like the North-East cannot work on goodwill alone,” he stresses. “We need to professionalise the development sector.”
This calls for policymakers to recognise development work as a skilled profession, rather than a voluntary charity.
Voices from the Ground
The impact is perhaps best seen through those who take part. In Dhemaji district, a group of women pooled their savings with SeSTA’s help to buy looms.
“We never thought we could run this on our own,” one of them says in a SeSTA video. “Now we sell directly to buyers in Guwahati.”
The leap is not just financial, from weaving for subsistence to earning cash incomes – but institutional: women running their own collective business.
Elsewhere, farmers have used MGNREGA funds to build ponds for fisheries, while youth in villages like Karbi Anglong have stayed back to run piggery or vegetable ventures instead of migrating to towns. These stories are not tales of handouts but of Nirmana – creation from within, enabled by schemes the state already provides.
Yet they also point to what policy often misses. NRLM may encourage women’s groups, but few thrive without the patient handholding of organisations like SeSTA. The framework exists on paper, but practice decides whether it delivers. By accompanying families through credit procedures, market negotiations and institutional hurdles, SeSTA demonstrates what policy by itself cannot guarantee: that empowerment actually takes root.
Planning for Exit
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of SeSTA’s approach is its “exit strategy.” The organisation enters a block with an eight-year horizon, after which it expects to withdraw. The aim is that by then, communities have strong groups, financial independence and functional governance.
“If we can leave,” Pradyut says, “it means empowerment has taken root.”
This stands in contrast to how most schemes are judged, by funds disbursed or assets created. For Pradyut, success lies in whether communities can manage without external support once the scheme ends.
“We want to leave space, not footprints,” he says.
Looking Ahead
The organisation’s ambitions lie in going deeper, particularly in Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. But the path, to an extent, depends on how policy frameworks evolve.
The question is whether the state will allow civil society to act as a genuine partner in development. When asked to reflect on the larger lesson, Pradyut pauses.
“Development is slow,” he says. “At first, you may be asked who you are. But if you persist, if you show you are here to enable, legitimacy follows.”
For policymakers, the message is sharper. India’s challenge is not the absence of schemes or funds. It is whether the state can trust civil society as a partner. Where that trust is present, public finance does more than provide wages or subsidies: it helps communities build the capacity to thrive on their own.
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Pradyut Bhattacharjee is Executive Director of SeSTA (Seven Sisters Development Assistance), based at Guwahati. All the details are based on his account and have been approved for publication. This piece was prepared with assistance from Ms Vaishali Sharma, a member of the editorial team at The Policy Edge.