Research is not a straight-forward, neutral process of gathering, analyzing and translating information into truth or knowledge. It is layered and loaded with much more. As the prominent scholar Foucault (1977) states, Truth is a thing of this world: it is produced only by virtue of multiple forms of constraint, highlighting the inseparable role of knowledge and truth from power relations and discourses within societies, and that it is in fact constituted from it (apud HEWETT, 2004, p.3). Thus, research can be seen as a process of power struggle. Decolonizing research is thus an attempt to acknowledge, credit and validate the existence of multiple truths, ways of knowing and myriad ways of using the outcomes to impact communities. Participatory research is a key milestone to decolonizing research where the researched become active participants in all steps of the process. While this is transformative, it also means that participatory research has power dynamics that are intrinsic to the collaborative process (MCDONALD, 2021). This paper attempts to highlight a model of participatory research with youth from urban poor communities in India, examining the critical elements of the process that make it distinctly empowering and challenging of mainstream processes, while also reflecting on the challenges and dilemmas that emerged from this process.