The State Consultation on "Challenges before Voluntary Sector" was organized by VANI and DST in Pune on 27 August 2010. The main objective of the state consultation was to make the participants aware of the challenges faced by voluntary sector at the national as well as the state level. About 35 representatives from all parts of the Maharashtra participated in the consultation.

Shri Harsh Jaitli, CEO of VANI, introduced VANI to the participants and the role its plays for the sector in articulating the voice of the sector and strengthening the sector. He highlighted the challenges faced by the sector in the form of regulation issues with ols acts, taxation issues in the form of direct taxes code and issues related to funding after the new FCR Bill 2010 etc.

Dr. Mukund Ghare a renowned name in the development sector in his key note address highlighted the challenges faced by the voluntary sector in various periods. He said that, in different periods the voluntary sector faced different challenges and the voluntary sector always overcome those challenges. He stressed that the most important point to overcome the challenges is to be accountable and transparent by bringing in self-discipline and improving governance in the voluntary sector.

There was experiences sharing session where the participants highlighted the local challenges faced by them at various stages of work and how thy have overcome them. The discussion was facilitated by Shri Subhash Deshpande, Gyan Prabodhini. He categorized the challenges in four parts and asked the participants to place their challenges in each category and how they have overcome those challenges so that it becomes a learning experience for the other participants.

In the end, Shri Kishore Wankhade of VANI thanked the participants on the behalf of VANI for coming to the consultation and actively participating in it. He also thanked DST for partnering in this initiative.