Dear Reader,
What makes a society truly resilient, laws on paper, or the lived dignity of its people? This week’s highlights circle around that question: whether it’s our failure to give children the schooling they deserve, or our urgent need to build inclusive safety nets that don’t leave millions behind.
Our video highlight brings you an unflinching conversation tracing how India has let its kids down in education and what it might take to fix it. Our essay highlight focuses on social protection, arguing that policies without public consultation risk missing the very people they’re meant to serve.
And in our Climate + Health corner, we dive into a landmark report on social protection in India (2025), showing how 3,000+ schemes now cover 94 crore citizens, and why it’s time to move from piecemeal safety nets to a National Mission for Assured Protection.
As always, thank you for reading and championing better policy.
With that, we bring to you: Policy Post #203!
Policy Charcha 💬
The best of Podcasts, Videos, Essays, Fellowships and other Career resources from the world of Policy and Governance from the week gone by!
💡 Essay Highlight:
Social Safety Net and the Need for Public Consultation
When policies are designed behind closed doors, they risk becoming distant and ineffective. This essay makes a case for why social safety nets, meant to protect the most vulnerable, must be shaped through deep public consultation. From pension adequacy to scheme design, the piece highlights how democratic processes can strengthen both trust and impact.
💡 Opportunity highlight
Policy Agora
Ever wanted to break into the policy space with real-world skills, networks, and practice? The Esya Centre and Observer Research Foundation (ORF) have launched Policy Agora — a 13-week in-person programme in New Delhi designed for graduates and early-career professionals who want to build serious careers in public policy.
🗓️ Format: Weekly Saturday sessions + 3 intensive weekend deep-dives
📍 Location: New Delhi
🎯 Eligibility: Graduates and early-career professionals from any discipline
🔎 Databases and Guides:
Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!
🌟 Avenues for Upskilling
Public Policy Puzzle
Public Policy Puzzle (PPP) is a platform on a mission to make public policy accessible, engaging, and useful for students, young professionals, and curious citizens. Through courses, resources, and interactive formats.
▶️Video Highlight:
Shaheen Mistri on India’s Education Crisis
One of India’s great tragedies lies in how we have schooled (or failed to school) our children. In this episode of The Seen and the Unseen, Shaheen Mistri joins Amit Varma to describe her journey, and what decades of working on education have taught her about what must change if we are to give every child a fair chance.
🌍Climate + Health Corner
In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst
👉🏽 State of Social Protection in India, 2025 – A Ground Up Report by SETU
Led by the SETU Coalition, this landmark report shows how India’s social protection coverage has expanded from 24% in 2021 to 64% in 2025, now reaching 94 crore people. The report lays out both achievements and urgent reforms, urging India to treat protection not as charity, but as resilience and equity in action.
Careers Corner 💼
A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.
📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!
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