8/12/2019 Cover Letter_Darad Harsh

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Dear Sir/Madam,

Please consider my application for the role of Project Associate. This job opportunity has aroused my urge to

serve the country in an effective and constructive ways and has ended my quest for the type of work I had been

looking for. This job will provide me a career opportunity not confined to development of self as an individual

but also for masses to take interest in their well being. I find myself deeply connected to your mission and also

believe that I have the abilities required for this role.

As a student:In my two years at Tata Institute of Social Sciences as a student of Social Entrepreneurship, I hadthe opportunity to implement projects at our institute and evaluate those using formative assessments. We had to

develop the entire process and structure by taking feedback, brainstorming on challenges and coming up with

solutions that did not compromise on our results despite the of the lack of resources.

As a Researcher: As a research officer with READ Alliance (joint project between Center for Knowledge

Societies and USAID, I analysed the policy level issues in the education sector as well as the roadblocks that

these policies face during the implementation phase. This gave me a thorough idea about the problems being

faced by the teachers in this country as well as the students, primarily rural and during the initial years of

education. I also had the opportunity to conduct primary and secondary research while working in close

partnership with some of the prominent educationists of this country and prepare research papers and concept

notes.

As a project associate with a start-up:Avanti focusses mainly on providing low-income high school students,

training in science education and prepares them for engineering and medical entrance examinations. At Avanti, I

was involved in building partnerships with other educational institutions and conceptualizing and implementing

new initiatives to identify meritorious underprivileged students. Also, I was recruiting and managing a team of

volunteers from IIT Delhi that helped me with the outreach.

As the founder of a start-up:Aashiyana that focussed on providing shelter to the cycle rickshaw pullers in and

around North Campus, University of Delhi. As a part of beautification of the city, Delhi Government decided to

remove the hutments where most of the cycle rickshaw pullers used to stay. In such a scenario, the cycle

rickshaw pullers had nowhere to go and spent their nights uncomfortably either on their rickshaw or on thepavements along the streets in highly unhygienic conditions. To provide them a good nights sleep, I came up

with the idea of providing them shelter on a first come first serve basis. What started as a college project grew up

to become a small organization comprising six people. I also had to involve the community to make my venture

successful. This entire experience taught me the value of collaboration and leveraging alternate solutions by

being open - minded. I also had to make sure that the impact of each activity was measured using suitable

parameters. To run the operations smoothly, required me to be an efficient time manager and a team player so

that we could provide maximum satisfaction to the stakeholders. We constantly worked to better our services by

working on suitable customer feedback.

Working for an organization with a mission to initiate and implement legislative advocacy on issues of human

development, is a mission that I will be proud to be a part of. Also, I want to be able to create greater impact by

being part of an organization such as Centre for Legislative Research and Advocacy, contribute my skills and

learning and acquire more so by working to create a synergistic system with researchers and my colleagues. My

intent and enthusiasm to apply to this role are two-fold. Firstly, I will be proud to be a part of an organization that

focuses on policy level issues related to human development in India. Secondly, my interest lies in policy

research and advocacy. Having spent almost 2 years in infrastructure as well as the education sector, the

realization that certain policy level issues in various sectors, are hampering the growth of a multinational state

such as India, dawned upon me gradually and I would definitely like to delve deep into the subject. Working with

this organization will give me a chance to explore and build on my interests.

I hope you find me a suitable candidate for this role and look forward to discuss this in person. Thank you for

your time and consideration.

Yours sincerely,

Darad HarshPh: +91-9643959835