From Lived Realities to Leadership Abilities: The Margin as Method Approach | Hosted by Prantakatha

​What if marginality is understood not merely as a condition of disadvantage, but also as a source of knowledge and leadership?

Drawing from Prantakatha’s twenty-year journey, this interactive Collab Room will explore Margin as Method—an emerging youth leadership approach that moves through memory, sharing, healing, solidarity and social action.

The conversation will examine how lived realities of exclusion can generate distinctive leadership capacities, how development organisations can move beyond deficit-based approaches, and what research, documentation and collaboration are required to test and further develop this framework.

Key Discussion Areas

Margin as Method currently follows five interconnected movements:

1. Smriti – Memory: Revisiting deeper memories to understand identity, exclusion and lived realities.

2. Shruti – Sharing: Creating safe spaces where young people can speak, articulate and make meaning of their experiences.

3. Susrusha – Healing: Responding to wounds that surface and supporting the restoration of dignity, stability and self-belief.

4. Sathi – Solidarity: Building connections across identities and developing a larger, more inclusive understanding of the self.

5. Samaj Nirman – Social Action: Transforming personal and collective learning into action towards a more inclusive society.