About us
A community that refused to leave.
Our story
ANHAD — Act Now for Harmony and Democracy — was founded in 2003 and registered as a trust to promote democracy, secularism, communal harmony, gender equality and social justice across India.
When the earthquake struck in October 2005, Anhad volunteers reached Kashmir within days and distributed relief across fifteen villages of Tangdhar. What began as relief became a decade of presence: women's empowerment centres, youth clubs, post-school tuitions, cultural activity and the first computer centres in Tangdhar and Uri — in more than thirty villages between 2005 and 2011. Livelihood support reached seven hundred families.
Volunteers returned during the Srinagar floods of 2014 and worked extensively through them. Today the Anhad Community Resource Centre near Panchayat Ghar, Khumriyal carries that work forward in the Lolab valley of Kupwara.
Our mission
To promote democracy, secularism, communal harmony, gender equality and social justice — in the everyday life of a village, not only in principle.
Our vision
A Lolab valley where every child learns, every woman is heard, and every neighbour is safe — held together by people who chose to stay.
Our values
What we hold to
Six commitments that shape every programme we run.
Harmony
Communal harmony is not a slogan here. It is the daily practice of neighbours choosing each other.
Democracy
We teach the Constitution because rights only work when people know they hold them.
Gender equality
You cannot have democracy without women. Our work begins and ends with that sentence.
Social justice
We stand with the families that public systems reach last.
Local leadership
Programmes are designed and run by the people who live with the outcomes.
Persistence
We have been in these villages for two decades, not for a project cycle.
Our journey
From 2003 to Khumriyal
2003
ANHAD is founded
Registered as a trust to promote democracy, secularism, communal harmony, gender equality and social justice.
2005
Arriving after the earthquake
Volunteers reach Kashmir immediately after the October 2005 earthquake and distribute relief in 15 villages of Tangdhar.
2005–2011
Rooted in the villages
Women's empowerment centres, youth clubs, tuitions and the first computer centres run across 30+ villages in Tangdhar and Uri.
2014
Return during the floods
Volunteers come back and work extensively through the Srinagar floods.
Today
Anhad Kashmir
The Anhad Community Resource Centre near Panchayat Ghar, Khumriyal anchors year-round work in the Lolab valley of Kupwara.
Initiatives
Campaigns and spaces we run
Ongoing initiatives of Anhad Kashmir in the Lolab valley.