Why we started
Grihvatika began as a Nyayapath project in a handful of housing colonies, on the observation that almost every home has some usable growing space — a windowsill, a balcony rail, a stairwell landing, a strip beside the gate — and almost nobody has been shown what to do with it. Advice existed, but written for farms or for glasshouses in other climates, and it did not survive an Indian summer on the eleventh floor.
So we wrote it again from the balcony out: soil mixes you can make from what a local nursery sells, plants that live through a heatwave and a monsoon, and watering advice that assumes you have a job.
How we work
Everything we publish is free, in English and Hindi, and written to be handed on. We run workshops and seed swaps in public parks, support school green clubs with activity packs and a plant rota, and help resident groups turn neglected ground into a garden that the residents themselves keep. We do not sell plants, pots or fertiliser, and we take no money from anyone who does.
What we will not do
We do not recommend chemical pesticides for home use, we do not promote plants that need more water than a city can spare, and we do not pretend gardening is effortless. It takes ten minutes a day. We think those are the best ten minutes of the day, which is a different claim.