“Coastal Voices Turn the Tide”: Some Responses and the Author’s Rejoinder

The article hosted by the AIDEM titled “Coastal Voices Turn the Tide” on February 14, 2026 received a string of communications post-publication from a number of stakeholders involved in the project that was featured in the article . The article had mentioned that there were multiple stakeholders in the project . However , the responses suggested that there could have been possible misidentification regarding the institutional and organisational roles that were referred to  in the article.

The AIDEM is of the view that the  work done in collaborative capacity by the stakeholders  is of great importance. However , The AIDEM is not in a position to stand in judgment about a possible gradation of these roles.

With a dedication to put forward all contentions raised and avoid any misconstrued optics of bias or favourability in providing due recognition to those who deserve it, The AIDEM wishes to make these communications a matter of public record, voicing all opinions from all concerned stakeholders.

It may be stated here that the institutional players involved were, Bureau of Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State, the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF), the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) , the Community Resource Centre (CRC), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and EQUINOCT Community Sourced Modelling Solutions .All of them have played either flagship or lead roles, under collaborative agreements in technical and field support capacities and funding capacities. Many congratulations must be extended to all those involved for dedicating time, capital, and effort into this project.

The following communications and clarifications are supplied by Shakeela (Former Director MSSRF-CAbC), Dr. Jayaraman Chillayil [Project Director & Team Lead (AEIF Project) Managing Director, EQUINOCT], and Manjula Bharathy (Professor at Centre for Urban Policy and Governance, The School of Habitat Studies TISS, Mumbai).

On Sun, Mar 1, 2026 (From Jayaraman C to The AIDEM)

Dear Mr. Venkitesh,

I hope you are doing well. Hope you remember meeting the EQUINOCT team along with the curator Radha Gomati at KaBhumM, the exhibition at Kerala Museum, addressing the coastal issue of high-tide flooding.

I write to you in reference to the article published on your media portal, AIDEM, titled “Coastal Voices Turn the Tide: How High Tide Flooding Became a Recognised Disaster in Kerala.”

This article draws upon a year-long project titled “Co-Creating Community Resilience to Climate Change-Aggravated High-Tide Flooding in Coastal Kerala,” funded by the Bureau of Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State, under the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF), and executed by the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in collaboration with EQUINOCT Community Sourced Modelling Solutions and the Community Resource Centre (CRC), Puthenvelikkara.

As a Fulbright alumnus and the Project Director, I led this initiative alongside two fellow Fulbright alumni, Dr. Manjula Bharati and Mr. K.P.M. Basheer.  Dr. Shakeela served as Programme Director during the project period (2022–2023) in her capacity as Director (CABC), MSSRF, to whom the Project was awarded.

Please find appended to this email a formal communication from Dr Shakeela outlining several critical factual inaccuracies regarding the project’s institutional roles and leadership. As Project Director, I have verified these findings and formally affirm their accuracy

The article incorrectly identifies the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) as the lead institution. To ensure a correct public record, please note that the project was formally awarded to and led by MSSRF, not TISS.  The initiative was implemented as a multi-stakeholder collaboration with technical and field support from EQUINOCT and the Community Resource Centre (CRC), Puthenvelikkara.

To ensure factual accuracy and institutional accountability, we formally request the following corrections to the published article::

Lead Institution
The project was awarded to and led by the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) under the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF), Bureau of Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State.

Institutional Roles
While Dr. Manjula Bharathi contributed significantly as a Fulbright Alumnus and joint team lead, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) was neither the lead organisation nor an institutional partner in this specific project.

Collaborative Framework
The project’s outcomes—including its contribution to the Government of Kerala’s recognition of high-tide flooding as a state-specific disaster—resulted from a five year long multi-stakeholder collaboration involving EQUINOCT, the Community Resource Centre (CRC), Puthenvelikkara, local self-governments, and district administrations.

Implementation
Field-level implementation and community mobilisation were undertaken by the MSSRF team in Ernakulam along with EQUINOCT and CRC Puthenvelikkara.

We acknowledge and appreciate AIDEM’s role in bringing visibility to the critical issue of high-tide flooding. However, given the formal nature of the AEIF grant and the statutory and administrative responsibilities associated with it, accurate attribution of institutional leadership and roles is essential. Misrepresentation of such information may lead to confusion regarding institutional accountability and project governance.

We therefore request that appropriate and immediate steps be taken to rectify the inaccuracies in the published article and update the record accordingly.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter of professional and institutional integrity.

Warm regards,

Dr. Jayaraman Chillayil

Project Director & Team Lead (AEIF Project)

Managing Director, EQUINOCT

On Mon, Feb 23, 2026 at 10:31 AM  (From Shakeela V to Jayaraman C) 

*This correspondence was appended in the first mail addressed to The AIDEM by Dr. Jayaraman C*

Dear Dr. Jayaraman,

Greetings!

I hope you are doing well.

I am writing to bring to your attention a concern regarding the article titled “Coastal Voices Turn the Tide: How High-Tide Flooding Became a Recognised Disaster in Kerala” authored by Dr. Manjula Bharathi, who was associated with the project “Co-Creating Community Resilience to Climate Change-Aggravated High-Tide Flooding in Coastal Kerala” in her capacity as an AEIF Fellow and project collaborator.

The article presents a narrative that appears to misrepresent the institutional leadership of the project. Contrary to what has been indicated in the publication, the project was awarded to the AEIF Fellows, with the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) serves as the leading and host institution responsible for its implementation. The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) was neither the lead organization nor an institutional partner in this initiative. The project was officially awarded to and led by the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State, under the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF).

Further, the official agreement and project documentation reflect that the signatory was the Director of MSSRF – Community Agrobiodiversity Centre (CAbC), representing MSSRF as the implementing institution. The project was supported by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State, under the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF).

As you are aware, the initiative was implemented as a multi-stakeholder collaboration involving technical inputs from partners such as EQUINOCT and the Community Resource Centre (CRC), Puthenvelikkara, Local bodies and District administration, Ernakulam along with several other experts. Importantly, the community engagement and local field-level implementation were facilitated by MSSRF and its Ernakulam team, whose efforts in mobilizing community participation and providing on-ground support were key contributors to the overall success of the project.

It may also be noted that the project significantly contributed to enhancing the visibility of high-tide flooding as a critical coastal issue in Kerala, reflecting the collective efforts of the entire project team. The initiative played an important role in bringing the concerns of affected communities to the attention of government authorities, and this momentum has contributed to the recent Government of Kerala Order recognising high-tide flooding as a disaster. This outcome reflects the broader institutional and community-level impact of the project.

Given your role as the Project Lead and point of contact among the AEIF Fellows, I wished to bring this concern to your attention and seek your support on how best to address the matter and ensure accurate representation of the project’s institutional leadership and partnerships.

I have copied The Executive Director, MSSRF, on this communication for her information.

I look forward to your feedback and thoughts on the above

Warm regards

Shakeela

(Former Director MSSRF-CAbC)

On Tue, Mar 10, 2026 (From The AIDEM to Dr. Manjula Bharathy)

Dear Manju,

The contents of this mail below are self-explanatory. I request you to respond at the earliest. We are planning to publish the responses from Dr Jayaraman and Shakeela as well as your response to them.

I had tried calling you on phone but could not get connected.

Regards.

On Tue, Mar 10, 2026 (From Dr. Manjula Bharathy to The AIDEM)

Dear Mr. Venkatesh Ramakrishnan,
Thank you for your communication regarding the article published in AIDEM.

I appreciate the seriousness with which you approach institutional accountability, and I would like to clarify certain points raised in Dr. Jayaraman’s letter.

1. Lead Institution and Role of TISS I have consistently acknowledged that the project was formally awarded to MSSRF under the AEIF grant. At the same time, my designation and participation were explicitly as a Professor from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

• My Fulbright award was granted in my capacity as a faculty member of TISS, and the institution officially sanctioned my leave to participate in the program.
• As team lead, I coordinated the rights-based information campaign in my role as a TISS faculty member.

The documentary produced as part of the project, shared widely with communities in Ernakulam and internationally, explicitly acknowledges TISS as an academic institution leading this campaign.

This role has been highlighted in multiple publications (AIDEM, IMPRI, Mathrubhoomi Weekly, Policy Circle), establishing the fact that TISS was part of the project through my leadership and representation.

Thus, while MSSRF was an institution in the project , the role of TISS, a leading academic institute in India and its role in this project was acknowledged through my participation and leadership, and it is neither accurate nor fair to erase this presence.

2.Institutional Roles and Execution It is correct that only Fulbright alumni could formally be designated as project leads. The rights-based information campaign of the project was conceptualised, designed, and implemented by me as TISS faculty, with the support of my selected team.

Key interventions included:
• Community Counter-Maps – developed through three months of online and offline training given by me and Mr. Antony Kunnath with the Kudumbashree women.

• Community Video Documentation – forty short videos produced under my guidance with team members G. Sajan, Bindu Sajan, Sunil Prabhakar, and Abhijit Narayan.

Community Theatre – directed by Dr. Sreejit Remana, introduced and insisted upon by me as a creative form of community expression, despite initial resistance. We also screened the documentary, Climate Resilience: Life as Told by Women, which is a process documentation of our intervention on gender counter-maps, before many policymakers, elected representatives, and policy institutes such as INCOIS and KUFOS, and more than 40 screenings in academic institutes within Kerala and outside like APU, Mumbai University, TISS. It is important to note that while I have always acknowledged
the presence and contributions of other partners in my articles, and in the documentary, none of their write-ups or institutional pages discuss the significant contribution of the rights-based information campaign and the gender counter-maps introduced in this project. This omission is troubling, given that this intervention was a key contribution both theoretically, methodologically, and operationally.

3.My Role in the Project- As a Fulbright alumnus and Professor at TISS, I was one of the team leads of this initiative.

My rightful claim rests on the fact that I conceived, designed, and executed the rights-
based information campaign, which was one of the key interventions to the project’s approach. The quarterly reports submitted to AEIF clearly mention the work completed under my leadership on this campaign. The documentary produced and screened with communities, ministers, and elected representatives also explicitly acknowledges TISS’s role in leading this strand of work.
While MSSRF was the formal grantee under the AEIF program, and EQUINOCT contributed technical interventions, it is important to recognise that the rights-based information campaign, a social intervention was led by me in my capacity as TISS faculty. Erasing this contribution undermines both institutional integrity and the collective spirit of the project.

4.Collective Effort and Ethical Acknowledgment- Throughout the project, we have presented our work as a collective effort— screening documentaries, meeting ministers and elected representatives, and discussing outcomes. At no point did I claim sole credit. However, the current communication seems to erase the role of TISS and my leadership, which is ethically and morally problematic. Collective struggles demand collective acknowledgment, not narrowing of institutional credit. I reaffirm that MSSRF was the lead institution under the AEIF grant. But the rights-based information campaign, which the article discusses in detail, was led by me as team lead and faculty of TISS. My role was integral to the project and has been acknowledged in multiple public forums as well as in official reports. It is important that this collective effort be represented accurately, with due recognition to all institutions and individuals involved.

In conclusion, the article presents accurate information about the collective project and my designated role, role of TISS and therefore requires no correction.

Warm regards,
Dr. Manjula Bharathi
Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Fulbright Alumnus & Team Lead, Rights-Based Information Campaign of the Project

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 at 2:30 PM (From: Jayaraman C to Shakeela V)

Dear Dr. Shakeela,

I am writing to bring to your attention the continued public attribution in The Aidem article “Coastal Voices Turn the Tide,” which incorrectly states that TISS led the AEIF project. Despite repeated efforts to seek correction, the editor has indicated that he does not intend to withdraw or amend the article.

From a research ethics perspective, the public record should accurately reflect the institution responsible for the project, its implementation, and the associated funding. Misattribution can create confusion regarding institutional responsibility and accountability.

From an FCRA compliance perspective, while a false public statement does not by itself establish a violation, it may create ambiguity and invite regulatory scrutiny if it suggests that an organisation not formally part of the project had a leadership or implementing role. Such ambiguity could raise questions concerning the approved recipient, use of foreign contribution, and institutional responsibility. Clear documentation and prompt correction are therefore important to protect the integrity of the record.

In view of the above, the following actions may be considered:

Placing the matter before the MSSRF leadership and compliance team for immediate review.

Issuing a formal communication to TISS to ensure that the incorrect attribution is not repeated or endorsed.

Informing the relevant grantor or programme authority of the publication error, where appropriate, to preserve clarity in the official record.

Preserving all supporting documents, including the grant letter, project records, and correspondence seeking correction.

The issue appears to be one of public misattribution and compliance ambiguity rather than a proven violation. However, timely institutional intervention would help prevent further misunderstanding and protect the legal and ethical integrity of the project record.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jayaraman Chillayil

Project Director, AEIF Project