BACKGROUND AND HISTORY

ERU Consultants, earlier known as ERU Consultants Pvt. Ltd. is a research and consulting group established in 1996, by Vimala Ramachandran. It was set up with the objective of working in an interdisciplinary manner on women’s empowerment, education, girls’ education, public health and child development. ERU is the first virtual (electronically networked) research group since the mid-nineties.

ERU brings a strong feminist, gender and equity perspective to all its work. Strategic planning and programme development has been a running theme in our work with government, donors and non-governmental organisations to enable the move from macro policies to concrete programmes and interventions.

One of the running themes of all our work is the intersectionality of gender and social equity. ERU has done extensive qualitative research, participative evaluations, documentation and training on children/ girls’ education and development, the school system and teachers and women’s empowerment both in the government and the non-governmental sector. The ERU team is passionate about girl’s/ women’s empowerment and education.

We have worked in several regions in different language zones of India, South Asia and Africa through our partners and consultants.

Core areas of ERU’s expertise:

The core sectoral areas of focus has been education especially girls education, teacher development , women’s empowerment, women’s health, sustainable development.

Our experience is embedded in qualitative research, participative research and evaluation methodologies, strategic planning and programme development/assessment, participative and process documentation, and in strengthening and building gender/equity perspectives among field researchers.

We have in-depth understanding of government, national and international donor policies and norms and implications from macro to micro level implementation.

ERU has the experience and capability to engage with government, bilateral agencies, INGOs and NGO programmes and projects at national and state levels.

ERU’s special features

ERU is recognized for adhering to time schedules and the quality of delivery of our reports and assignments. The quality and rigor of our work has been commended by UNICEF, the World Bank and Government of India.

Our research methodologies are process and people oriented as they engage with the respondents, particularly women, adolescents and children to participate in the process of questioning and analysis.

For qualitative research, documentation and data collection we engage consultants and field researchers from the local area as they are familiar with the language, local governance and field areas.

We ensure strict adherence to ethical protocols when working with children as well as other respondents.