Brief Overview of ICA

Indians for Collective Action (ICA) was founded in 1965 by a group of Indian students in Berkeley lead by Dr. P.K. Mehta and was formally incorporated in 1968 as a tax-exempt public charitable organization. That makes ICA the oldest service organization in the Bay Area working on behalf of India's poor. Since its inception, ICA has believed that economic opportunity thrives best in a sustainable environment and a just society. Our objective is to support innovative, community-initiated development projects that empower low-income people in India. Over the last 30 years, we have pursued this objective in partnership with dedicated social workers in India. We have provided seed funding and logistic assistance to communities in over 16 Indian states.

ICA's first few projects were rather small, in keeping with its slender experience and even more slender finances. From the start, it avoided working with political parties and religious organizations. But project priorities and selection guidelines were a little unclear. Should ICA, for example, focus on education and health alone? Should it respond to emergencies such as floods or riots? What constituted sustainable development? Did "development" mean more income, or did efforts to create community harmony count? One way to answer these questions was to learn more about India and development in India. So throughout the 1980s, ICA members organized "study groups" and visiting lectures, mainly on the Stanford campus, for members of the Bay Area community. Slowly ICA's mission developed to be the broad mandate it is today-- we seek to enable the poor of India to gain access to education, health services, a clean environment and economic opportunities. It is not for us to decide which one of these is most important for a particular village or community.

Many individuals have been inspired and influenced by the work of ICA and similar organizations in the USA. For example, Mr. S.R. Hiremath, an environmental activist in Karnataka; Dr. Ravi Chopra, a scientist who develops appropriate technology for water resource development; and Dr. Sandeep Pandey, co-founder of ASHA and now a social worker for health and education have all returned to India to work with its marginalized communities. In addition, ICA has facilitated the growth of like-minded efforts in the Bay Area. ASHA, SEVA and FFE were all started as projects of ICA and subsequently became independent non-profit organizations.

ICA Initiated Partner Organizations

Seva was formed in 1991 by a group of Silicon valley professionals to support organizations working for the underprivileged in rural India. The driving force of Seva was an urge to understand development issues in India and support organizations that took a creative approach to solving traditional, age-old problems. An emphasis was placed on projects which promised a "ripple-effect", where the experience of the organization could be utilized by other, similar communities through replication of the project. Seva's projects focused on children, women and rural community development. As a first project, Seva worked with a school in Pune to develop a mentorship program for the underprivileged children. This project later spread to 5 rural schools in Maharashtra with tremendous success. In 1996, Seva embarked on a innovative project to collect and ship medical supplies to India. This led to the project for shipping used computers to rural India a few years later. Seva has also used its network in the bay area for emergency relief efforts during natural disasters in the early 90's. In 1998 SEVA merged with ICA to strengthen one another's shared vision of development through innovation.

Asha was founded in 1991 with the goal of providing basic education to underprivileged children in India. In the years since its inception, the organization has grown to having chapters all over the United States and in >other countries as well. Asha supports groups in India that work on the issues of children's education in different parts of the country. Until recently ICA actively facilitated Asha's activities, but ASHA has since emerged as an independent organization. ICA is in close contact with, and supports projects initiated by, Sandeep Pandey and Dr. Deepak Gupta founders of ASHA who are now returned to India.

FFE was set up in 1994 by Dr. Prabhakar Goel to enable meaningful transformation in the lives of bright but financially constrained students in India. This transformation is sought to be accomplished by providing financial assistance as well as mentoring and guidance to the students selected for such assistance. The students should be extraordinarily bright, financially under privileged and they should be in an approved field of study at a recognized institution. ICA has facilitated initial setup of FFE, which is now an independent organization.

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Executive Committee

President: Bhupen Mehta

Vice President: Anup Khurana

Treasurer: Nishita Bakshi

Secretary: Govind andJayashree Desale

Project Committee Chair: Suresh Gaddad

Fund Raising Committee Chair: Abhay Bhushan

Project Committee: Suresh (Chair), Santosh, Govind, Shobha, Nishita, Dave, Lata

Fundraising committee: Abhay (Chair), Anup, Shrikrishna, Mukesh, Dave

PR/Outreach/Marketing Committee: Lata (Chair), Nishita, Shobha, Anup Youth

Project Committee: Unmesh (Chair), Raj, Shrikrishna, Govind, Tanuja, Mukesh, Abhay

Finance/Admin Committee: Mukesh (Chair), Nishita, Abhay, Santosh, Jaya (DB/Website/Accounts)

Fellowship Committee: Lata (Chair), SuresH, Geetha, Shobha, Isha ray, Rakha Ray