Ruchi Varma

  • HumanQind

  • 2020 Global Fellow

Ruchi Varma head shot
  • HumanQind

  • 2020 Global Fellow

bold idea

Increase safety and compassion for children in India through design-thinking workshops focused on co-designing everyday spaces, mobilizing communities, engaging stakeholders, and leading for change.

organization overview

HumanQind seeks to make cities safe and kind by giving children visibility, a voice, and an agency to drive change. Its mission is to mainstream their needs and build trust, safety, and a shared purpose in their communities in which they reside. HumanQind offers a “crosswalk” curriculum, which is a set of nine design thinking workshops where children express, reimagine, and develop an action plan for access to their school. Young leaders further build momentum, unify urban stakeholders, and influence the government to implement change. HumanQind aspires to build a movement where children are considered not invisible or small, but equal.

Personal Bio

Ruchi Varma is the founder and chief executive officer of HumanQind, a social design enterprise building equitable, kind, and compassionate cities. Ruchi, an architect and urban designer by training, adopts a human-centered approach in her work. She is passionate about cities and public spaces and closely observes how the latter influences the way we function and grow. Ruchi has worked extensively in the road safety and urban development sector with government and nongovernmental agencies. She is associated with the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme at IIT Delhi, and she also volunteers to help school children as a Mentor of Change with the Atal Innovation Mission. For her vision of equity and happiness, Ruchi has been selected as an SSE India Fellow (2019), a Dalai Lama Fellow (2018), and a LEAD India Fellow (2017). Ruchi won the global honor award for her project “Crosswalk—250 Meters of Happiness” at the World Urban Forum 2020 in Abu Dhabi. A flaneur at heart, she loves traveling, exploring cities, public spaces, and their everyday life. Ruchi is a 2020 Echoing Green Fellow.

  • Organization/Fellow Location ?

    Our most recent information as to where the Fellow primarily resides.

    NEW DELHI, India

  • Impact Location ?

    Countries or continents that were the primary focus of this Fellow’s work at the time of their Fellowship.

  • Organization Structure ?

    An organization can be structured as a nonprofit, for-profit, or hybrid (a structure that incorporates both nonprofit and for-profit elements).

    Nonprofit

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