About

Who We Are

Youth Organization for Green India (YOGI) is a youth-led organisation building active citizenship for climate action. We began on World Environment Day, 5 June 2020, from a simple conviction: that young people, trusted with real responsibility, can lead the way in caring for the shared world around them.

Five years on, that conviction has grown into a body of work that spans schools and rivers, villages and city halls, research studies and street-level action. We operate publicly as YOGI and are registered as the Gramswaraj Research and Development Foundation under the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950 (Reg. No. F-21035/Jalgaon).

MISSION

A world where young people lead climate action by stewarding the commons and shaping the governance that sustains them.

VISION

YOGI builds active citizenship for climate action, enabling young people to research, advocate for, and act on the health of our commons and the governance of our shared future.

How We Work

Climate is our lens. Through it, we work across three pillars.

Youth

We trust young people with agency, leadership, and the confidence to act, keeping them at the centre of the work, not at its edges.

Governance

We place young people inside the systems and decisions that shape public life, from school policies to municipal partnerships to river committees.

Commons

We care for the shared resources, rivers, water, land, and forests, that sustain us all, working with the communities who depend on them.

Across all three pillars, we work through a consistent method: research, advocacy, and action. We study a problem, we push for change, and we do concrete work on the ground.

What We Stand For

Agency

We trust young people with real responsibility.

Integrity

We tell the truth about what we find, even when a simpler story would be easier.

Solidarity

We stand with communities, not above them.

Equity

We hold fairness and justice at the centre of our work.

Open Knowledge

We democratise access to research, data, and learning.

Stewardship

We care for shared resources as something held in trust for the future.

Our Story

YOGI began in 2020, born from a conviction shared by a handful of young people in North Maharashtra: that the climate crisis needed young people not as helpers at the edges, but as leaders at the centre.

The early years were a season of experimenting, trying things, learning what worked, and slowly discovering what tied it all together. This past year, we found our clarity: that YOGI exists to build active citizenship for climate action, and that everything we do runs through youth, governance, and the commons.

From reviving a dying stream in a tribal village to making city schools plastic-free, from placing adolescent girls in their own climate parliament to producing research that reaches the halls of government, our work has always returned to one idea, that when young people are trusted with responsibility, they lead. Today, YOGI is a growing community of young people, mentors, volunteers, and partners, rooted in Khandesh and reaching outward, building the belief that active citizens can drive the change our world needs.

Recognition

Over the years, YOGI's work has been recognised by government bodies, institutions, and civil society, honours we receive on behalf of the young people, communities, and partners who make the work possible.

Awards & honours:

Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan District Youth Award — Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India
Nobel Vigyan Sanstha Award — for environmental awareness and youth-led action
The Tale of Humankind Changemaker Award
Mula-Mutha Award — Pune Municipal Corporation & Worship Earth Foundation
Young Crusader Award — Gandhi Global Family, New Delhi
Deepstambh National Youth Inspiration Award — Deepstambh Foundation, Jalgaon

Our work has also reached national and international platforms, including Climate Week India, the Youth Climate Convening, the Geneva Water Hub (Switzerland), and the JASS Global Movement Builders' School (South Africa), and YOGI was selected for Changelooms, a national leadership programme by Pravah and ComMutiny, from among a small number of youth-led organisations across the country.