Job losses, end to community support: How USAID fund freeze is affecting India

In January, Gunja Kirti was a part-time consultant with a humanitarian organisation working for gender rights when the company offered her a full-time role to lead their programme in India.

“At that point I was also consulting with other organisations, but I decided to take the job offer and withdrew my services from other organisations,” Kirti told Scroll.

But on January 20, US President Donald Trump issued a freeze on all foreign assistance disbursed by the US Agency for International Development or USAID.

The effect on the organisation’s work in India was immediate. Ten days later, Kirti received an email informing her that the firm would not implement any other projects. On January 31, her job offer was withdrawn. “I am currently jobless,” she said.

A series of programmes in the social, health, education, and renewable energy sectors in India have been put on hold and lay-offs are in line following Trump’s executive order pausing all US foreign assistance from the State Department and US Agency for International Development.

Around the same time as Kirti accepted the job offer, South Asia Regional Energy Partnership – a US government programme to create sustainable energy in the region – had hired a 35-year-old public relations officer in their Delhi office.

By then, SAREP had...