Transform Rural India Foundation Senior Programme Officer salaries in India

Likes

This organization is a breeding ground for toxic favoritism, with a culture that thrives on connections rather than competence. If you happen to be in someone's good books, you essentially don’t have to work. The institution runs on blatant nepotism, with favoritism institutionalized across all levels. Every team is riddled with personal alliances, particularly husband-wife duos, who manipulate the system to their advantage. In Uttar Pradesh, for instance, the HR head is the wife of someone who is notorious for having the most complaints filed against him. This individual shamelessly threatens employees, saying, *"Your job is in my hands,"* creating a culture of fear and submission. Key positions are held by husband-wife teams, with power concentrated in their hands, leaving little room for accountability. The Managing Director plays favorites, promoting select individuals while assigning them oversight over others. This creates a hostile environment where promotions and scrutiny are weaponized to maintain control. The promise of a “non-hierarchical” structure is nothing but a facade. The hierarchy is glaringly obvious, even in trivial matters like vehicle allocations. Senior staff get luxury Innovas, juniors settle for hatchbacks, and associates are often left to travel by bus. Associates, despite their critical role on the ground, are excluded from any meaningful decision-making processes. Leadership remains disconnected, conducting only superficial field visits. The Managing Director, Anish, has no real understanding of the ground realities, as he never engages with associate practitioners, the backbone of the organization. The culture and climate within the organization are dire. The toxic favoritism not only demoralizes employees but also creates an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. Employees are perpetually scared—scared of losing their jobs, scared of retaliation, and scared for their future. Complaints are swept under the rug, and no effort is made to address the deep-rooted issues plaguing the workplace. To make matters worse, there’s no genuine attempt to build a supportive or inclusive environment. Any semblance of celebration or team-building is non-existent. Employees are forced to spend out of pocket for personal milestones like birthdays, as the organization refuses to invest in its people. Leadership is entirely absent when it comes to employee welfare, focusing only on securing funding and impressing external stakeholders. This institution is a prime example of everything wrong with organizational culture—favoritism, nepotism, exploitation, and a complete disregard for employee well-being. The facade they present to funders and the outside world is nothing but a well-crafted lie, hiding a decaying, toxic core. It’s not just an organization; it’s a systematic failure, built on fear, favoritism, and falsehoods.

Dislikes

...or morale-boosting activities. Incentives or benefits beyond work? Non-existent. The salary structure is another area rife with discrimination. There’s a deliberate policy of suppressing wages for talented employees while inflating paychecks for their favorites. This blatant exploitation and mismanagement reveal an organization not just flawed but fundamentally corrupt. It’s a place where mediocrity is rewarded, innovation is stifled, and the facade of integrity is all that keeps it afloat.

Likes

The good thing about the company is that they simply copy government data and present it as their own work. They consistently replicate models from other organizations and claim them as original. The people working there are mostly below average, and talented individuals rarely join. Even if they do, they tend to leave within six months due to the lack of opportunities for growth and improvement. If you’re someone who’s good at clerical tasks, has no career ambitions, and are lucky enough to get a decent posting that suits your job role, they essentially pay you to copy government data and schemes.

Dislikes

... no support for employees, no promotion or growth unless you're close to the MD. People come for the salary but remain stuck at the same level for 3-4 years with only inflation-adjusted 5% raises. The company lacks a proper promotion or transfer policy, moving employees around arbitrarily without considering professionalism or family circumstances. For example, women are transferred to unsafe locations without considering the demands of the job or travel requirements. The organization has no coherent culture, strategy, or framework, yet it continues to hire consultants to create fancy reports. They even hired a foreign communications director to project an image of being a high-level NGO, but in reality, none of the leadership has any real intellect, and the associate directors dictate the company based on their own rules, standards, and moods, making it feel like a privately-run entity. The worst part is that an employee attempted suicide, and another died by suicide, but the company suppressed the news and threatened employees not to speak about it, claiming it wasn’t related to the organization. However, the first employee attempted suicide after being repeatedly denied leave by someone leading operations in Uttar Pradesh, who runs the company like his personal property, constantly jeopardizing job security. This person also forced two women to quit—one who was two months pregnant and about to apply for maternity leave, and another who disagreed with his working style and unreasonable demands for working outside office hours. He even brought his wife into the organization. Another team lead in the government vertical operates through personal flattery of bureaucrats, forcing employees to perform clerical tasks in government offices. There is no strategy in the government vertical, just constant appeasement of bureaucrats. I urge everyone to consider multiple factors before joining this organization. The funders have no idea that the work being presented as the company’s own is actually the government's, and large amounts of money are being wasted.

Likes

This organisation is a scam, and I strongly warn against joining, Even if they offer a salary hike. You will regret it, big time. Someone needs to expose this to Axis Bank CSR and the Bill gates Foundation to hold their funding, which is based on fabricated and misleading data, specially in UP, MP and Jharkhand. They are not consultants; They infiltrate government offices under the guise of partnership and embedded cell. As an NGO, It is unethical and likely illegal to act as the data collector and its validator. Their strategy is simple place, unqualified fellows with no professional ethics to appease government officials, ensuring favourable review while deceiving funds into thinking they are creating impact. One fellow in State office with no consulting background, achieve nothing meaningful, but to do massaging and buttering of officials. Their role devolves into psycho fancy, keeping the government content while serving as me Commission agents, they create workforce largely that come prices of individual with no professional skills or ethic, selecting for their ability to flatter Rather than delivering result. Leadership pretends to uphold values publicly, but privately intimidates and dismiss employees without transparency. Transfers are arbitrary with no policies or framework for performance evaluation, protecting incompetent favourites while alienating real talent. Good employees leave quickly leaving behind a core in efficient individual who are wasting funds money. This organisation thrives on manipulation and if inefficiency and its operations are disservice to both the government and the causes it claims to protect. Avoid them at all cost.. I get suffocating and there was no growth for me, even salary was not increased for so long. Just 5% inflation thing and Directors and Associate Directors take 5 times the salary of fellows doing nothing productive.

Dislikes

...r ethics, raising serious concern about its purpose and judgement of it funders. I feel funders should talk to Employees and get to know the reality that why they are wasting their money on these leadership who take such huge salary and try to control loping employees in their own ways as I saw on the ground, how associates were feeling so helpless and how they were manipulated .

Likes

Nothing good, they want their staff in Government Office as Pimps and commission agents. They place their people in Government office without any plan or agenda setting just based on buttering and getting a letter. But in those office you’re just another clerk.

Dislikes

Management is lost, they don’t know what they want to do. They pay huge salary to associate directors who are most useless in the company. They don’t come from any recognized universities or from professional experience of working with a reputed organization. If you try to show talent they feel insecure. Toxic culture, running organization on mood of Bosses, no transfer policy, no work recognition, no performance assessment, just buttering of people and if your boss feels it’s good, then you’re in good books. Effort and talent are not recognised. Government intervention should be structured and employees should be placed with good positioning instead of just buttering the officer. need to make some policy for transfer and placement, can’t force people to stay away from home. Management has rubbish leave policy as leave taken on Friday and Monday will make even holidays count. Sounds like a British age policy, sounds like authoritative and forced workplace. Stop branding only your high buttering employees and get a real health expert in health and real education specialist in education.

Likes

They pay well and one can get good exposure working with government.

Dislikes

Zero mentorship or support from manager. Toxic work environment with zero learning. They just mine data from government and present to funders as thier own work. Also some managers are working as commission agents in government tenders and involved in corruption.