Project NIRMAN: MUKTI Initiates Household-Level Need Assessment in Lataguri

MUKTI has initiated a household-level need assessment under Project NIRMAN in the Lataguri project area as part of its ongoing commitment to participatory and context-responsive development practice. The exercise builds upon MUKTI’s long-standing engagement with the community and seeks to strengthen programme planning through deeper understanding of lived realities and emerging local priorities.

Unlike conventional assessments designed as one-time diagnostic exercises, the current initiative is being carried out as a reflective and iterative process. It draws from existing relationships, trust, and continuous field engagement, allowing the assessment to evolve alongside community interactions rather than remaining a static data-collection activity.

The assessment is being conducted through systematic house-to-house visits across the project area. Field teams are engaging directly with households to understand everyday challenges, coping mechanisms, and aspirations. Information is being gathered through informal interviews, field observations, and focused discussions with different community groups, including women, youth, and elders. This approach allows community members to articulate their concerns and priorities in their own voices, within familiar and comfortable settings.

Emphasis has been placed on dialogue and ethical engagement rather than extractive data collection. Conversations are being facilitated in a manner that encourages openness and mutual learning, reinforcing trust between the community and field teams. The process recognises that meaningful insights emerge not only from responses to questions, but also from careful observation, listening, and sustained interaction.

Field animators, supported by the entire Lataguri field team, are playing a central role in carrying out the assessment. Field facilitators are providing guidance to ensure cultural appropriateness, inclusivity, and effective communication throughout the process. Special attention is being given to ensuring that voices often marginalised in formal consultations—particularly women and young people—are actively included.

The ongoing assessment is expected to generate grounded insights that will directly inform programme strategies and implementation approaches under Project NIRMAN. The findings will help identify gaps, refine interventions, and strengthen community mobilisation efforts, while also contributing to evidence-based proposal development for future initiatives.

At its core, the need assessment reflects MUKTI’s rights-based and participatory approach to development. Community members are not viewed merely as beneficiaries, but as key stakeholders whose perspectives and experiences are essential in shaping responsive and sustainable interventions. By embedding assessment within everyday field engagement, MUKTI aims to ensure that development planning remains rooted in local realities and guided by community priorities.

The process will continue in the coming weeks, with learning and reflection informing subsequent phases of programme design and action. Through this approach, Project NIRMAN seeks to reinforce community ownership and strengthen the foundation for collective and contextually relevant development efforts.