Objects Clause
Sixty charitable objects, grouped into six missions. This is the legal mandate of SWAMITRA Foundation and the document every programme, course and publication must trace back to.
Why a Foundation needs a written mandate
The Objects Clause is the part of the Foundation's constitution that says what it may do and, by implication, what it may not. It was drafted before any programme existed, so that the work would follow the mandate rather than the mandate following the work.
Stated plainly, the Foundation exists to build an India that is Constitutionally Competent, Legally Empowered and Civically Responsible — by advancing constitutional literacy, legal education, civic leadership, institutional excellence, public participation and the Rule of Law through education, research, innovation, capacity building and charitable public service.
Each of the six chapters below opens with the mission it serves and then sets out ten objects. Read together they cover the whole path from constitutional understanding to institutional practice: what people should know, how they should be taught, what evidence should guide it, who it should serve, how the institution should be built, and how it should endure.
Every programme SWAMITRA runs, every course it certifies and every framework it publishes is required to sit within one of these sixty objects. Where an idea does not fit, it is not pursued — however popular or well funded it might be.
The chapters at a glance
Sixty objects, ten to a chapter. Each chapter is a mission in its own right, and each one is supported by programmes, training and research already in operation or in development.
All sixty charitable objects
Select a chapter to read its objects. Objects are numbered continuously from 01 to 60 in the order in which they appear in the Foundation's constitution.
How the objects become programmes
The Objects Clause is not a formality filed once and forgotten. It is the working test applied to every proposal the Foundation receives.
Before a programme is approved, it must be mapped to a specific object and shown to advance it. Before a research project is commissioned, it must fall within the research and knowledge mission. Before a partnership is signed, the intended activity is checked against the same clause. That mapping is recorded, reviewed by the Board and reported in the Annual Report.
The practical effect is a Foundation that can explain, for any activity it runs, exactly which part of its charitable mandate the activity serves — and can decline work that would take it outside that mandate, whatever the funding attached to it.
- Chapter 1 gives the constitutional and legal mission its authority — legal education, constitutional literacy and access to justice programmes.
- Chapter 2 authorises curricula, training, certification and the whole capacity-building portfolio.
- Chapter 3 underpins the Research & Policy Centre, its publications and its academic collaborations.
- Chapter 4 covers community legal awareness, child protection and work with women, children and vulnerable groups.
- Chapter 5 supports institutional partnerships, advisory work and lawful resource mobilisation.
- Chapter 6 commits the Foundation to continuity, knowledge preservation and responsible innovation.
About the Objects Clause
Sixty objects, ten national programmes, one standard
See how the Foundation's charitable mandate translates into frameworks, training and published research that institutions can adopt today.