edelgive diary 2016

Education

Livelihood

EDELGIVEEDELGIVEEDELGIVEDIARYDIARYDIARY

Women Empowerment

Everyone aspires to collaborate. Discussions are held, ambi�ous plans are created, coali�ons are formed aiming at collec�ve impact in the philanthropic world. But unfortunately, very few of such ventures func�on and even fewer succeed. EDGE 2016 will a�empt to deliberate on why in spite of great intent within teams, there are very few groups working together collabora�vely.

“Why collaborations don’t work?”

Time Session

07:45 – 08:00 AM Reach Gateway of India, PNP Ferry Boating Point

09:30 – 10:00 AM Breakfast at Fountainhead, Alibaug

10:00 – 10:15 AM Setting the Context

10:15 – 11:15 AM Leadership & Intent: Where It All Begins Paresh Parasnis - CEO, Piramal Foundation (Moderator)•

Madhukar Banuri - Pune, India Lead - Education Projects•

Maneesha Chadha - Hea, Philanthropic Initiatives, J.P. Morgan•

Shankar Maruwada - CEO, EkStep•

• Vivek Vig - Group CEO, Destimoney

11:15 – 11:45 AM When the Stakes are High Vidya Shah - CEO, EdelGive Foundation (Moderator) •

Aditya Nataraj - CEO, Kaivalya Education Foundation•

Daljit Mirchandani - Managing Trustee, Gyan Prakash Foundation•

• Dr. Siddesh Wadkar - State Education Specialist

11:45 – 12:15 PM Finding the Right Alignment Sasha Sanyal - SVP, Genpact•

Vijaya Balaji - CEO, Toolbox India •

12:15 – 1:00 PM Leveraging Productive Personal Relationships Govind Iyer - Managing Partner, Egon Zehnder•

Alka Puri - Founder, Roads Ahead Consulting •

Nimesh Sumati - Caring Friends•

1:00 – 2:00 PM Lunch

2:00 – 3:00 PM NGOs Speak How critical collaboration between NGOs has catalysed great outcomes

3:00 – 4.30 PM Open Networking Session

5:00 PM Leave for Gateway

EdelGive Foundation was started in 2008 to provide strategic direction to the philanthropic activities of

Edelweiss and its employees. Today, it is a grant maker that endeavours to extend its philanthropic work to not

only Edelweiss but also any en�ty that believes in collec�ve impact through collabora�on. The Founda�on

began its journey with modest financial support to 10 niche community driven projects, largely in

Maharashtra. Over the last eight years, the Founda�on have influenced over Rs. 60 crores into the

philantrophic sector, partnered with more than 80 NGOs and provided pro bono support of 14,500 hours of

skilled volunteering across India.

We believe that foundations like EdelGive can play a constructive role in building sustainable institutions and

organisations that promote societal growth and innovation. We want to be a vibrant, growing and responsible

foundation that advances the common good by bringing the skills, resources and talents of the for-profit

world to the not-for-profit world.

To encourage an atmosphere of discussion and cross learning, we are together at EDGE 2016.

EDGE is a journey of collaborative philanthropy with participation from exceptional grassroots organizations,

corporates, philanthropists and social development experts. It facilitates discussion, deliberation and insight

sharing for effective cross learning to enable our partners to be ahead of their issues and challenges.

EDGE 2016 brings to us the opportunities and insights of collaborations that worked - through the sheer grit

and determination of all of you involved.

At EDGE we will hear people who have worked together in different capacities discuss their experiences: what

worked, and what did not. We hope this forum inspires us to participate and deliberate the makings of

effective collaboration – why it is easier said than done. As an engagement platform, we encourage all our

collaborators to discuss, deliberate and share industry insights for best cross learning. This platform attempts

to improve understanding of the challenges faced.

Our experience, over the years, has convinced us that this forum definitely gives an EDGE to the partners to be

ahead of issues and challenges. It aids in addressing the real life challenges that we face as stakeholders in the

development process.

Leadership & Intent: Where It All Begins

Mr. Paresh S. Parasnis is the Head of Piramal Founda�on. He is responsible for the Piramal Group's CSR ac�vi�es implemented through its ini�a�ves including Piramal Swasthya, Piramal Founda�on for Educa�on Leadership, Sarvajal and Piramal Udgam. He is also ac�ve on the board of trustees of Shoshit Seva Sangh and Collec�ve Good Founda�on. Prior to joining the Founda�on, he served as Execu�ve Director & COO with HDFC Standard Life Insurance Limited. He has previously worked with HDFC Standard Life, HDFC Limited and Hindustan Lever Ltd. He has also been a consultant to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

Piramal Founda�on is the philanthropic arm of Piramal Group. The founda�on undertakes

projects under the four broad areas – healthcare, educa�on, livelihood crea�on and youth

empowerment. Piramal Founda�on develops innova�ve solu�ons to resolve issues that

are cri�cal roadblocks towards unlocking India's economic poten�al. They believe that

considerable posi�ve change can occur, when collabora�on happens with likeminded

partners to nurture projects that are scalable ensuring a long term impact

Paresh S. ParasnisCEO, Piramal Founda�on

(Session Moderator)

This session aims to highlight the importance of strong leadership that inspires an environment conducive to innova�ve or collabora�ve work. The discussion will address the cri�cal role that leadership intent plays in defining clarity of goal and alloca�on of resources.

Speakers

Madhukar BanuriPune, India Lead -Educa�on Projects

Madhukar is Head of Educa�on Track at Pune City Connect where he works with

municipal administrators, corporate leaders, NGO's and school teams to develop and

implement a working agenda for scaling quality educa�on in Pune. He also works as a

partner consultant with the Maharashtra State Government's Educa�on department.

Madhukar is passionate about collec�ve ac�on models that build the capacity of key

stakeholders in schools and government machinery. He previously spent five years with

Teach For India (TFI) as a Fellow in the first cohort in 2009 and also as a Manager, working

with the Pune city team. Previously, Madhukar worked as a Senior Consultant for School

Improvement at Gray Ma�ers India and also as a Marke�ng Manager with Larsen &

Toubro. Madhukar holds a degree in engineering from BITS Pilani. He is also a 2015

Acumen India Fellow and an Advisory Board member of Teach For India.

Maneesha ChadhaHead Philanthropic Ini�a�ves,

J P Morgan

Maneesha Chadha is part of J P Morgan’s Global Philanthropy team and heads its India

grants and CSR programs. Working closely with J P Morgan Chase Founda�on, she is

responsible for driving the firm’s philanthropy and employee engagement strategy

across the country. She has held similar posi�ons with Ci� Founda�on, RBS Founda�on

India and ABN AMRO Founda�on India. Maneesha started her career 15 years ago in the

financial inclusion space and has been a microfinance rela�onship banker, credit rater

and trainer at interna�onal organisa�ons. She is also involved in the industry, serving as a

director on the boards of two non-profit organisa�ons - Railway Children India and

Parinaam Founda�on.

The J P Morgan Chase Global Philanthropy ini�a�ve works with community partners to

create pathways to opportunity by suppor�ng workforce development, financial

capability, small business development and community development in the regions

where they operate. Addi�onally, the global philanthropy team invests in affordable

housing and community development programmes.

Vivek VigCEO, Des�money

A Post Graduate from the Indian Ins�tute of Management (Bangalore), Vivek has over 30

years in retail banking experience in India and different parts of the globe. From the IIM

campus he joined Ci�bank, India in 1986. There he served in various capaci�es with the

Consumer Bank �ll 1992. Between 1992 and 2004, he held senior business posi�ons

overseas in Ci�bank as Director (Marke�ng) – Samba (Ci�bank), Saudi Arabia and

Business Head – Poland & Taiwan. A�er this, he was appointed as the Country Head

(Consumer) of Ci�bank, Turkey and later Saudi Arabia. A�er Ci�bank, he joined

Centurion Bank of Punjab in 2004, as the Country Head (Retail Bank), where the Bank

acquired Bank of Punjab and Lord Krishna Bank before its merger with HDFC Bank Ltd., in

2008. Later, he led Des�money Group of Companies as Managing Director & Group CEO,

which was recently sold to a global PE fund.

Currently, he advises and is on the board of financial services organisa�ons and is also

mentor/investor in a couple of start ups, including social impact funds.

Shankar Maruwada is the CEO and Co-founder of EkStep. Shankar is passionate about

addressing social problems at scale through technology based tools. He is an

entrepreneur and marke�ng professional with a wide range of experience working on

large scale projects such as the AADHAAR, India’s na�onal iden�fica�on program, where

he was the Head of Demand Genera�on and Marke�ng.

Shankar pioneered data analy�cs in India, Marke�cs, a company he co-founded. He is an

investor in startups and a mentor to entrepreneurs. He is an alumnus of Indian Ins�tute

of Management-Ahmedabad and Indian Ins�tute of Technology-Kharagpur.

EkStep is a not-for-profit founda�on co-founded by Nandan Nilekani, Rohini Nilekani and

Shankar Maruwada in 2014. EkStep’s mission is to improve learning outcomes in literacy

and numeracy by increasing access to learning opportuni�es for millions of children.

Shankar MaruwadaCEO, EKStep

When the Stakes are High

Clear structure and processes are cri�cal along with the flexibility to adapt to each other in a collabora�on.

• How does the structure become an enabler instead of a deterrent?

• Why should each party bring in a dis�nc�ve strength and role? Why is an exit strategy important?

The panelists have been ac�ve par�cipants in crea�ng the structure illustrated below throws light on the above.

Corporate Partnersas equal stakeholders

THE COALITION

GOVERNMENT

EDELGIVE

COMMUNITY

On-ground partners

EdelGive Coali�on for transforming Educa�on (ECE) is a collabora�on with the Department of School

Educa�on and Sports, Government of Maharashtra under Pragat Shaikshanik Maharashtra (PSM). The

interven�on aims for district transforma�on by expedi�ng implementa�on of PSM to enhance learning

outcomes of children (class 1 to 7) using construc�vism approach. The Coali�on is managed by EdelGive

Founda�on as an anchor funder. It brings together three stakeholders-funders, Government and NGOs. The

government has signed an MoU commi�ng itself to ensure delivery of the program. The implemen�ng NGOs

are working in four backward districts of Maharashtra.

Vidya ShahCEO, EdelGive Founda�on

(Session Moderator)

Vidya Shah is the CEO of EdelGive Founda�on, the philanthropic arm of the Edelweiss

group.

Under her leadership, in the past eight years, EdelGive Founda�on has become a catalyst

for change, and dedicated to collabora�ve philanthropy. In addi�on to being a board

member of Edelweiss, where she worked as a CFO for many years, she serves on the

board of various prominent organiza�ons like Agastya Interna�onal Founda�on,

Janaagraha Centre for Ci�zenship and Democracy, Asian Venture Philanthropy Network,

Common Purpose, Women on Wings, Toolbox India Founda�on and Masoom. Vidya

earned an MBA degree from IIM-Ahmedabad and spent the first 11 years of her career in

the field of investment banking with companies like ICICI, Peregrine and NM Rothschild

a�er which she served as CFO, Edelweiss Group.

The Founda�on aims to leverage capacity and capital of the for-profit world to equip and

enable the social sector to achieve the greatest impact on the lives of the poor in India.

EdelGive offers both financial and capacity building support to Non-Profit Organisa�ons

(NPOs) by working closely with them to help them overcome organisa�onal

development challenges and create stronger and more sustainable organisa�ons in the

social sector.

Speakers

Siddesh WadkarState Educa�onal Specialist

Dr. Siddhesh is an organiza�onal development professional with wide ranging

experience in development sectors. With 17 years of rich experience in

conceptualiza�on, design and implementa�on of educa�onal programmes, he currently

works as State Educa�on Specialist, under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR),

department of School Educa�on for the Government of Maharashtra (GoM).

He played a proac�ve role in the State Annual Work Plan and Budget and contributed in

the approval process for the implementa�on of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory

Act, 2009. He lent his technical exper�se in compila�on, valida�on, analysis and

dissemina�on of UDISE; Track compliance on RTE as per DISE data. He also facilitated

convergence among key Departments of Government of India, Government of

Maharashtra and Educa�on.

In the past, he has supported UNICEF in the conceptualiza�on and implementa�on of the

elimina�on of child labour project in co�on growing areas in three districts of the state.

He previously served as the Assistant Director of Educa�on, Government of

Maharashtra. He was a member of various boards and commi�ees such as State Quality

Educa�on Cell, Maharashtra Government Taskforce cons�tuted by Department of

Educa�on, GoM.

For a Managing Trustee member, Daljit L Mirchandani, building Gyan Prakash Founda�on

(GPF) was to ensure a new dawn in rural India in the space of Rural Elementary Educa�on.

His career has spanned 40 years in the corporate world covering diverse businesses.

During this period, he worked with State and Na�onal Level Commi�ees to influence

policy changes in the field of infrastructure and post - harvest technologies for

perishables. He re�red in 2010 as the Chairman of Ingersoll-Rand (India) Limited.

At present Daljit is on the Advisory and Statutory Board of various Indian and MNC

companies in the field of bio fuels, water and waste water, infrastructure development,

infrastructure finance, Auto Components and Energy Management.

GPF is focused on bringing educa�onal gains to the deprived sec�ons who have limited

access to resources and educa�onal exposure – gains that will eventually lead to social

and economic emancipa�on of the disadvantaged popula�on.

Daljit MirchandaniManaging Trustee,

Gyan Prakash Founda�on

Aditya NatrajCEO, KEF

Aditya Natraj qualified as a chartered accountant and worked as a corporate finance

consultant for KPMG before working in senior management and business development

posi�ons in Europe.

On returning to India, he took over and steered Pratham Gujarat into becoming the

state’s largest educa�onal not-for-profit. He subsequently launched the Gandhi

Fellowship and founded Kaivalya Educa�on Founda�on (KEF) in 2008. Aditya is an

educa�on expert for Monitor Consul�ng and a member of the Advisory Board of the

Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work in Mumbai. He has an MBA from INSEAD in

France.

Kaivalya Educa�on Founda�on (KEF) is a non-profit organiza�on (sec�on-25 Company)

opera�ng in the domain of educa�on. It started opera�ons in 2008 with 100 schools,

focusing on transforming the quality of educa�on in public schools by providing

leadership training to school principals. Since then, KEF has partnered with many

government, private, and educa�onal ins�tu�ons to impact more than 1,500 schools in

five states - Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, U�arakhand and Haryana.

Finding the Right Alignment This session will highlight the challenges encountered to set up GSIF within Genpact and the con�nuous challenge of ensuring that vision is being realized. We will also discuss the complexi�es of execu�ng a collabora�ve endeavour while encouraging mul�ple stakeholders with different capabili�es to deliver desired output.

The Genpact Social Impact Fellowship (GSIF) in partnership with EdelGive Foundation is a highly selective one

year fellowship program. Genpact Social Impact Fellows are entrusted with the responsibility of crea�ng an

ecosystem within NGOs that promotes con�nuous improvement, enables large scale social impact and

delivers quality educa�on to underprivileged children. The fellowship program draws its strength and benefits

from the level of exper�se of the fellows in process excellence and helps in building capacity of the NGOs.

Genpact needed to structure a program which would help in building capacity of the NGOs with six sigma

exper�se. EdelGive Founda�on worked for six months with teams from Genpact, KPMG, E&Y and teams in

Edelweiss to enable program delivery.

EdelGive Founda�on is facilitator and guide to GSIF and will ensure smooth execu�on for enhancing impact.

Through a rigorous process a total of seven Fellows have been selected and placed at three NGOs-Teach For

India, Udayan Care and Kaivalya Educa�on Founda�on. These Fellows work from the NGO offices and help the

organiza�on.

Sasha Sanyal is Genpact’s global leader for strategy and corporate ini�a�ves. In this

capacity, Sasha is responsible for building and execu�ng Genpact's five-year financial

blueprint and capability strategy for Genpact’s industry ver�cals, horizontal solu�ons

and services offerings, and geographies. She also oversees the Lean Digital

Transforma�on program which leverages the company’s core strength in Lean and Six

Sigma methodologies combined with design thinking and digital technologies. In

addi�on, she leads Genpact’s global diversity and inclusion (D&I) and (CSR) programs.

Sasha SanyalSVP, Genpact

Vijaya BalajiCEO, Toolbox India

Vijaya Balaji is the CEO and Managing Director of ToolBox. She has over 15 years of

experience that include the manufacturing and educa�on sectors. She began her career

in the Treasury and Finance Division of Kodak India Limited before moving on as an

academic co-ordinator with an interna�onal school. A Post Graduate in Business

Management, Vijaya joined ToolBox India in 2011 and has worked as Project Advisory for

over 40 projects. She is an advisory member for India@75. Toolbox works as a catalyst to

provide strategic assistance to non-profit, growth-stage organizations through its

portfolio of highly skilled, corporate volunteers.

Speakers

Leveraging Productive Personal RelationshipsTwo varied groups, Caring Friends and Social Venture Partners have mastered the art of leveraging personal rela�onships to get desired philanthropic outputs. This session a�empts to throw light on their journey of using an more informal setup while simultaneously introducing structures for efficiency.

Govind Iyer, Egon Zehnder’s Managing Partner in India, builds leadership teams in family

businesses and maximizes value for private equity investments through deep

engagement with por�olio companies. He is also a founding board member of Social

Venture Partners in India and on the Advisory Board at Asian Venture Philanthropic

Network (AVPN), both philanthropic organiza�ons focused on deep engagement with

non-profits. Prior to joining Egon Zehnder, Govind was Vice President Marke�ng with

Heinz India. Previous roles include Senior Manager, Key Accounts, Coca-Cola India and

brand management assignments with Procter & Gamble in Mumbai and Sydney.

Social Venture Partners India (SVP India), founded in May, 2012 in Bangalore brings

together a diverse community of 100+ business leaders, ac�ve ci�zens and

philanthropists commi�ed to solving complex social issues through personal

philanthropy, advocacy and capacity building. They focus on organiza�ons that work to

promote livelihoods – be it through income augmenta�on, voca�onal skills training and

placement, or micro-enterprise development. Currently, SVP works with NGOs that

create inclusive livelihood opportunity for youth, women, farmers, ar�sans and the

differently-abled in various ways.

Govind IyerManaging Partner, Egon Zehnder

Nimesh Suma�Caring Friends

Mr. Nimesh Suma�, is Nimeshbhai to everyone in the Caring Friends Family. He has

spearheaded the growth of the organisa�on since 2005. His main focus is on " QUALITY "

and to strengthen the organisa�onal fundamentals. A keen social entrepreneur, he

recognizes a social problem and undertakes painstaking research and background

checks to iden�fy a credible and efficient social organiza�on in that space for ‘Caring

Friends’ to support, nurture and grow. He is very passionate about visi�ng all CF

associated organisa�ons in different states in India on a regular basis for con�nuous

evalua�on, many �mes with new poten�al donors and supporters. Nimesh is working to

build a solid team to take the ‘Caring Friends’ pla�orm to a truly na�onal level.

Caring Friends is a group of friends who have come together over the years to act as a

bridge between outstanding NGOs and the donors. Their goal is to help people in ci�es

who are willing to support outstanding humanitarian efforts, but do not have the �me to

visit, assess, and monitor such NGOs. They iden�fy, visit, assess, and evaluate the

promising NGOs and connect the relevant NGOs to the right people.

Alka PuriFounder, Roads Ahead Consul�ng

Alka is an Innova�on and Foresights consultant who makes said areas relevant and simple for individuals and teams. She works in the areas of growth strategy, future consumer shi�s, insight explora�on, idea�on & prototyping, and leadership team development. She has been involved with mul�ple senior leadership team interven�ons, par�cularly in shi�ing mindsets, building aspira�on, new ways of opening up thought within a team/ organiza�on, and interpersonal alignment. She is the Founder of Roads Ahead Consul�ng.

Roads Ahead Consul�ng believes crea�ng a momentum for growth in organiza�ons, by helping them make sense of the change happening within and around them, and preparing them for this change. Their focus is in growth opportuni�es through innova�on, customer centricity, and mindset change within the organiza�on.

Speakers

Index

Educa�on

Soshit Seva Sangh 01

Centre for Civil Society 02

Ssrish� 03

Bala Janaagaraha 04

Raza 05

Aadharshila 06

Agastya Interna�onal Founda�on 07

Gram Mangal 08

Gyan Prakash Founda�on 09

Kaivalya Educa�on Founda�on 10

LeapForWord 11

Learning Space Founda�on 12

PUKAR 13

Centre for Unfolding Learning Poten�als 14

Design for Change 15

Samaritan Help Mission 16

Livelihood

Ac�on for Food Produc�on 17

U�han 18

Torpa 19

Vru� 20

AROEHAN 21

Bright Future 22

Dilasa Janvikas Pra�shthan 23

Ugam Gramin Vikas Sanstha 24

Vikas Sahyog Pra�shthan 25

Yuva Rural Associa�on 26

Basic HealthCare Services 27

GRAVIS 28

Rajasthan Shram Sarathi Associa�on 29

Medha 30

Women Empowerment

ANANDI 31

Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan 32

CORO 33

Majlis 34

Mann Deshi Founda�on 35

Olympic Gold Quest 36

VACHA 37

Ibtada 38

AALI 39

Milaan -Be The Change 40

Nishtha 41

EdelGive’s Capacity Building Partner

ToolBox India Founda�on 42

Bihar

Delhi

Karnataka

Madhya Pradesh

Maharashtra

Rajasthan

Tamil Nadu

West Bengal

Chattisgarh

Gujarat

Jharkhand

Karnataka

Maharashtra

Rajasthan

Gujarat

Maharashtra

Rajasthan

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

West Bengal

Maharashtra

Education

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SHOSHIT SEVA SANGH

Patna, Bihar

Soshit Seva Sangh (SSS) was established in July 2005 with an aim of improving the quality of life of children belonging to

Bihar's Musahar (rat-eaters) community who have traditionally lived in abysmal conditions and have negligible exposure

to a better life.

SSS has established Soshit Samadhan Kendra, a cost- free English medium residential school imparting quality education

to their target group and provides tuition, clothes, books, healthcare and other necessary facilities to them. The school

has recently shifted to its own residential building with a capacity for 600 students. Currently, 340 children from the

Musahar community are attending the school.

The beneficiaries under SSS have consistently shown high academic performance and exhibit flair in co- curricular

activities. Another important parameter of their effectivness is the low drop- out rate among the students. Such

continuous efforts are aimed at gradually lifting a five million –people strong community out of oblivion and neglect.

This is of paramount importance as this generation of learners have the potential to become catalysts of change for the

entire community.

J.K. Sinha

Founder

J.K. Sinha worked in the Indian Police Service from 1967 and retired in 2005. This experience

and exposure made him aware of not only the strengths and weaknesses of India but also the

glaring development disparities between the urban and the rural areas. He also realised that it

is imperative for the civil society to reach out to the poorest of the poor and not to leave

transformation solely to government machinery and thus launched Shoshit Seva Sangh. He

received the 'India Positive Award' in October 2012 by CNN-IBN, for outstanding work in the

field of education for the underprivileged.

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CSR EligibilityYear ofRegistration Registration 80 G Certificate FCRA

Annual Budget (Lacs)

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CENTRE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY

New Delhi, Delhi

Centre for Civil Society (CCS) has grown as an independent think tank with its efforts directed towards decentralization

and promoting policy reforms for inclusive and sustainable development.

The School Choice Campaign is a policy initiative by CCS which aims to ensure that all children receive quality education of

their choice and can afford it too. It works with government schools and promotes strengthening of the School

Management Committee while the end goal of the campaign is to push for amendments to the Right to Education Act,

2009 for better innovation in the education sector.

Their programme, Jeevika is geared at achieving greater livelihood freedom for the rural and urban poor and promotes

choice and accountability in the fields of skill development for the underprivileged youth. Their works are directed

towards legalizing street vending and streamlining their processes by facilitating effective implementation of the Street

Vendors Act - 2014.

The CCS Academy conducts policy training, certificate courses, research internships, and outreach programs for a diverse

audience comprising of students, journalists, development, and business professionals, academicians and government

officials. The aim is to inspire future leaders and change agents to pursue the vision of a free society by championing a

liberal approach to public policy.

Till date, 7,700 individuals have graduated from their policy training and related programmes while 10 graduates have

started their own policy research organisations.

Parth Shah

Founder

Parth taught economics at the University of Michigan in Dearborn for seven years before

returning to India to advocate for what he calls a 'Second Freedom Movement' for economic,

social and political independence. He arrived at the conclusion that the statist model of

governance was the reason for India's lack of development and decided to provide an

alternative view through the Centre for Civil Society (CCS). He writes regularly for newspapers

and magazines and has published academic articles in the areas of development economics,

welfare economics, business-cycle theory, free or laissez-faire banking, and currency-board

systems.


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SSHRISHTI

New Delhi, Delhi

Since 2003, Sshrishti has been running effective programmes in the education and development space with their major

target group being women and children who are part of the underserved communities of Delhi and Uttarakhand. In the

education sector, the NGO is working with children of the migrant labourers, children living in slums and from

economically weaker sections who do not have access to quality education. In addition, they are also working towards

women empowerment by initiating skill development and adult literacy programmes for them.

The four major functional areas for this organisation include- education, digital literacy, women empowerment and rural

development. Sshrishti aims to move towards achieving sustainable social change through their programme for skill

development among women from marginalised communities. In addition, they provide legal counsel and grievance

redressal to women through their partnership with the Delhi Commission for Women.

Sshrishti's programmes are democratically envisaged, keeping in mind the distinct needs of the communities it seeks to

serve. Conceptualized and implemented through a rigorous scheme of community participation, the programmes

cater to the persisting ethos of urban impoverished peripheries, gender discrimination and rural underdevelopment.

They are currently running six centres in Delhi and and providing quality education through a play- way method. They

have till date expanded their reach to 10,488 individuals and are empowering them all through various initiatives.

Sanghamitra Bose

Founder

Sanghamitra worked in the garment export industry for 15 years in Delhi after a getting master's

degree in English literature. She wanted to do something more meaningful in life and the futility

of spending 12 hours a day working to fill racks of fashion garments in European stores started

bothering her. Having always nursed a passion for teaching, she quit her job and started

teaching a child from a nearby slum and soon 50 kids became a part of her class. To provide

quality education and reach out to more children she finally set up Sshrishti in 2003.


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BALA JANAAGRAHA

Bengaluru, Karnataka

Bala Janaagraha, a practical civic education programme, aims to transform today's children into informed, responsible,

and active citizens, with a focus on addressing local civic issues. This is an initiative by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship

and Democracy, Bangalore and the parent organization works with an overall aim of improving quality of life in urban

India.

Bala Janaagraha programme is conducted for Grade 8 students across government, aided, and private schools in various

urban centres across India. The method is an interactive child- focussed pedagogy with three core components- a

structured module of classroom sessions, a hands-on practical civic project, and a civic fest which is an exciting platform

for students to showcase their civic projects to each other and to compete for the chance of recognition for outstanding

work.

A book called 'I Change My City' is provided to support the curriculum and covers topics to do with understanding how the

local governance in their city functions, understanding sustainable urban development, and contributing as an active

urban citizen.

Civic education schools are covering over 39,000 + students in 527 schools across 25 cities in India.

Ramesh Ramanathan & Swati Ramanathan

Co-founders

Ramesh is a social entrepreneur, and works on urban issues in India. He works closely with

government on urban issues in a pro-bono capacity. His current positions include being the

National Technical Advisor, Government of India for the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban

Renewal Mission, the country's flagship urban mission.

Swati leads Janaagraha's innovations in technology for greater government accountability and

citizen participation. She has received international recognition for ipaidabribe.com on retail

corruption; and ichangemycity.com on hyper local citizen participation, most recently winning

Google's Global Impact Challenge, 2013.


2005 Trust /GAN-4-00109- DIT(E)BLR/80G(R)/524/ 94421312 1586 2005-06 AAATJ6814H/ITO(E)-1/Vol2009-2010



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RAZA


Education disparity in Bismillah Nagar, a small locality within Benagaluru, Benazeer Baig to take a step towards improving

the condition of children working as labour in scrap centres, garages and small factories. RAZA Educational and Social

Welfare Community was born as an answer to hazardous work environment and difficult conditions prevailing among the

low- income areas.

After an informal beginning in 1994, Raza has transformed itself from being a small school to an NGO serving more than

400 needy students per year and is providing vocational training to parents and siblings of the direct beneficiaries,

enabling them to earn a respectable living. The well- equipped school delivers quality education and has adopted

innovative ways of teaching in response to the ever- changing education system.

The formal school set up by the organization in Bismillah Nagar is called Excellent English School and is located amidst the

IT hub with over 600 students on its roll. The school conducts classes from kindergarten to 10th standard under the state

syllabus.

As part of continuous upgradation, the high school classrooms now boasts of smart classes. In addition to improving the

quality of education, Raza's intervention has also kick- started a trend of students going for higher studies, community

awareness, women empowerment and an upward growth for the community.

Benazeer Baig

Founder

Benazeer is popularly known as the Gentle Revolutionary of Bismillah Nagar, Bangalore. Her

journey began in 1994 when she saw young boys working in factories, deprived of any

opportunities to study and the hazardous work environment inflicting terrible damage to their

health. She took it upon herself the challenge of eradicating this exploitation of children and set

up Raza. Currently, she is designated as the Honorary co-ordinator of National Commission for

Minority Educational Institutions, New Delhi.


1999 Society/ 359/98-99 DIT(E)/80G/622/W-2 09442103 89



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ADHARSHILA

Sheopur, Madhya Pradesh

The Sahariya tribe of Agraa village in Sheopur, Madhya Pradesh is a severely marginalized Adivasi community that ranks

low in terms of human development indicators of literacy, health and livelihood and account for 20 percent of Sheopur

district’s total population. Almost 24 Sahariya villages were displaced from their original inhabitations to build Kuno

Wildlife Sanctuary, where the Adivasis were driven out from the forests without proper rehabilitation. This displacement

has resulted in the loss of their livelihood, which degraded them to abysmal levels of poverty in the last few decades.

Adharshila Shiksha Samiti started Adharshila School in the year 2005. The school follows a 'Hub-and-Spoke' model to

reach the maximum number of children in their area of intervention and it has essentially come as an opportunity for

children belonging to Chambal's Sahariya Tribe. The Resource Centres (hub) are backed by satellite classes (spokes) in the

villages that are meant for children between ages 4 -10 years, who later join the Adharshila School for further studies. The

students are motivated to learn by experimenting and exploring the concepts taught to them which not only gets the

students interested in learning but also enhances their cognitive skills. Their revolutionary education model aims to

engage the first generation learners in creative syllabus- based learning solutions.

The Adharshila School is recognised as a high school by the Madhya Pradesh State Education Department. The region has

only two middle schools one is a government school and the other is Adharshila. This initiative has not only increased the

literacy rate in the area but has also kick started careers for youth of the displaced Sahariya Tribe.

Merajuddin Syed

Founder

Meraj began his work with the displaced from Kuno sanctuary in Sheopur district of Madhya

Pradesh, after graduating from University of Delhi. Initially he worked with the villagers from

the sanctuary on issues of livelihoods, agriculture and relocation. He later decided to focus on

providing education facility for the villagers, majority of whom belong to the Sahariya tribe.

After running informal schools for a number of years he finally set up the Adharshila School in

2005. He has been a part of Adharshila’s Board from its inception and now oversees the

managing team.

2003 Society/8368 AA/Gwl/80G/10/16/2013-14/ 063370018 35



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AGASTYA INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION

Alibaug, Maharashtra

Agastya International Foundation runs the world's largest mobile hands-on science education program for economically

disadvantaged children and teachers. By making practical, hands-on science education accessible to rural government

schools, Agastya aims to stimulate the thinking of underprivileged children and teachers through various outreach

methods.

They have 123 mobile labs in major Indian cities and are taking hands- on science education to the village doorsteps.

Another innovation is the lab- in- a box, which is helping students learn science in an engaging manner. The creativity lab

spread across a 172 acre property houses science, art, astronomy and media labs. In addition, Agastya is also supporting

290 remedial classes that are community run.

Overall, through their revolutionary education programmes, Agastya has reached over six million children and two

lakh teachers across 16 states in India. Their low- cost learning methods are creating a knowledge bridge between the

rural and urban communities, bringing about a paradigm shift in the Indian education scenario.

Ramji Raghavan

Founder

Ramji left a career in banking in London to create Agastya International Foundation, a

transformative and innovative education charity in India. Prior to Agastya he worked as a senior

executive in financial service organisations in the US, Europe, the Caribbean and Asia. Under his

leadership, Agastya's innovative 'TechLaBike Project' was announced as one of the four winners

of the Google Impact Challenge in India. In 2009, he was elected as a Senior Fellow by Ashoka:

Innovators for the public and in 2011, the People's Hero Award by the Confederation of Indian

Industry (Southern Zone) was conferred upon him. He has written numerous articles on

education for Indian and foreign journals and spoken on creativity and leadership to audiences

at prestigious forums including the Education World Forum, Harvard India Conference, Peking

University and Indian Institute of Science among others.

1999 TRUST/718/10A/VolI/ DIT(E)BLR/80G(R)/591/AAATA3882c/ITO(E) 094421207 1200 A-806/99-2000/CIT-II



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GRAM MANGAL

Palghar, Maharashtra

Gram Mangal's mission is to ensure that every child, up to the age of 18 years, receives quality education in an

environment conducive to joyful self- learning. The organisation began its work with activities around developing

infrastructure components like bore wells, roads, bridges, etc., leading to generation of employment opportunities for

the tribal youth.

With time, Gram Mangal's scope of work expanded to ensuring provision of quality education to the segment of people

who have been traditionally deprived of any exposure to the formal education system. The methodology devised by them

allows for creation of self- learning material that is locally prepared by the teachers and is developed using low- cost

indigenous material.

Their education model goes beyond the formal curriculum and allows for activity and project based learning while also

giving insights into off- beat study areas like Warli art, Hindustani classical music and natural farming practices.

Ramesh Panse

Co-founder

Prof. Panse taught Economics at S. N. D. T. University in Mumbai, India, for about 23 years. While

at this position, among other things, he exposed his hundreds of students to the rural and tribal

problems, and the need for the upliftment of these communities. In 1982, along with the

eminent social worker/educationist late Anutai Wagh, he founded Gram-Mangal. He has

authored over 20 books, on the subjects of economics and early childhood Education. His

literature spans a wide range, from simple instructional guides for parents of small children, to

comprehensive texts on new theories of child-education. He was invited by UNICEF, India, to

conduct an extensive research/survey of innovative Primary Schooling Experiments in the State

of Maharashtra, and to write a detailed analytical account of the same.

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GYAN PRAKASH FOUNDATION

Pune, Maharashtra

Last Mile Connectivity, a social change model aimed at achieving educational transformation, is the core belief of this

organisation. Since the establishment of Gyan Prakash Foundation (GPF) in 2011, community engagement has been the

primary method for ensuring effective management and functioning of Aanganwadi as well as community run schools.

Their vision is to empower communities to build the foundation of children in early years of schooling and bring the joy of

learning to underprivileged children.

The key reasons for declining learning outcomes are poor pre-school and primary school teaching inputs and lack of

parental and community involvement in child education as well as managing functioning of government of schools. While

significant efforts have been made by the government to improve access and infrastructure in education, important

areas such as imparting early childhood education, enhancing parental and community involvement in management of

schools through effective School Management Committees and devising ways to impart need based on site teacher

trainings still needs adequate focus.

GPF's interventions can be broadly grouped under 'Quality of Learning' and 'Community Engagement'. The programmes

that fall under Quality of Learning are SMC Effectiveness', In-Service Teacher Training', Bridge Model and those under

Community Engagement are Early Childhood Interventions: ECE and ECCD.

Vikas Ghar for grades one and two are running in nine villages of the Khed- Shivapura cluster and have an overall

enrolment of 83 and 222 children in grades one and two respectively.

Daljit Mirchandani

Founder

For founder member, Daljit, building Gyan Prakash Foundation was to ensure a new dawn in

rural India in the space of rural elementary education. His career has spanned 40 years in the

corporate world covering diversified businesses. During this period he worked with state and

national level committees to influence policy changes in the field of infrastructure and post -

harvest technologies for perishables. He retired in 2010 as the Chairman of Ingersoll-Rand

(India) Ltd. At present he is on the advisory and statutory board of various Indian and multi

nationalcompanies in the field of bio fuels, water and waste water, infrastructure development,

infrastructure finance, auto components and energy management.

2011 Trust/ 7308/2011-12/4 DIT(E)/2012-13/G – 1207/758 NA 386



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KAIVALYA EDUCATION FOUNDATION

Amaravati & Gadchiroli, Maharashtra

Kaivalya Education Foundation (KEF) is a non-profit organization (section-25 Company) operating in the domain of

education. It started its operations in 2008 with 100 Schools, focusing on transforming the quality of education in public

schools by providing leadership training to school principals. Since then, KEF has partnered with many government,

private, and educational institutions to impact more than 1500 schools in five states - Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra,

Uttarakhand and Haryana.

KEF is improving the learning levels of students across 1500 public schools through its 4-year in-service approach -

School Transformation Program (STP). It is designed to encourage self-change in three key stakeholders - Principals,

Teachers and Education Officers. There are customized interventions specifically designed for each key stakeholder to

build their capacities.

KEF believes in the importance of developing a cadre of Youth Leaders exposed to the complexities of bringing change in

social and public systems. The Gandhi Fellowship Program at KEF selects the best from among the inspired and inventive

youth of India to help them develop into tomorrow’s leaders, by giving practical, grassroots and transformational

experience. KEF constantly assesses the impact of its interventions on the basis of change in Student Learning Outcomes

(SLO). It hires a third party assessment organization – Educational Initiatives (EI), to conduct student assessment in all the

program schools. After analyzing the collected assessment data, EI prepares a program impact report without any

prejudice ensuring fair and transparent practices.

Aditya Natraj

Founder

Aditya Natraj qualified as a chartered accountant and worked as a corporate finance consultant

for KPMG before working in senior management and business development positions in

Europe.

On returning to India, he took over and steered Pratham Gujarat into becoming the state’s

largest educational not-for-profit. He subsequently launched the Gandhi Fellowship and

founded Kaivalya Education Foundation (KEF) in 2008. Aditya is an education expert for

Monitor Consulting and a member of the Advisory Board of the Nirmala Niketan College of

Social Work in Mumbai. He has an MBA from INSEAD in France.

2008 Section 25/UB0211 DIT(E)/MC/80G/1497/2009-10 083781381 676 MH2008NPL188322



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LEAP FOR WORD

Dhule, Maharashtra

LeapForWord (LFW) is dedicated to enhancing English language skills among children and youth hailing from the under-

served communities.

LFW identified that the youth in Shirpur lag behind because of their limited or no knowledge in English language. The

organisation was set up for enabling the youth to continue their studies or to get a job. After four years of continuous

iterations (product development & delivery) in extremely under-served locations which are representative of the India,

LFW chooses to service, they have developed solutions which can take on the English-illiteracy challenge.

This initiative is the perfect example of using the widely available technology to impart necessary education as the

LeapForWord team has developed audio- visual tools along with mobile based applications to help children learn the

English language. In order to attain maximum effectivity, the LFW supervisors educate the parents regarding the

programme and once the village residents express willingness to participate, one or more local youth is nominated for

teacher training. After receiving a comprehensive training, the youth assume the role of mentors and help children learn

English using the LFW tool- kit.

This solution has been delivered (at various stages of development) to more than 11,000 students and 2000 teachers

across five districts in rural Maharashtra. The NGO is engaged in training teacher entrepreneurs, building capacities for

in- system teachers, creating innovative audio- visual and written content- all with an aim to make real the dreams of rural

youth.

Pranil Naik

Founder

Pranil, an engineer by profession, has been involved in many volunteering services since 2001.

He started teaching in night schools of Mumbai for his love of teaching mathematics and

continued to volunteer all through the years, looking for opportunities to work in rural

Maharashtra. During the course of time and experience he realized that development work

mostly lacks structured approach, measurable results, and sustainability, which helped him to

zero down on the principle of doing something which is measurable and impactful. He thus

started working on developing a mechanism, gathering support to develop products that would

become a tool to achieve the set objectives and in 2006, founded LeapForWord to promote

English as a tool of social transformation.

2009 Trust/ E-25680 DIT(E)/MC/80G/1572/2009-10 NA 60



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LEARNING SPACE FOUNDATION


LSF is engaged in designing programmes to enhance English language proficiency, dance and dramatics, music and

singing, Warli art and basic computer skills. Some of their most effective tools include the E- teach, English E-learning

project with a coverage of 5000 schools across four districts, studying in the primary classes.

There is a need for development of basic concepts through active learning in the children attending Aanganwadi schools

as they are in the concept formation stage. It is commonly observed that these children get by through rote learning and

the lack of structured parent engagement adds to the limited participation and monitoring.

LSF also runs programmes like Adopt-a-School; a school development program running in association with ICDCS Thane

and Zilla Parishad, Thane aimed at improving conditions of Anganwadis and schools in interior tribal villages in Wada and

Bhiwandi Taluka.

Nitin Orayan

Founder

Nitin worked in the advertising industry in Mumbai for a few years before he left the city in 2004

to work in rural areas. He found his calling in serving as a creative teacher to children from

villages around Ganeshpuri in Palghar district where he eventually set up a non-profit

educational service, Foundation for promoting better education for children and youth in this

area. He has published a book 'Integrate the Self' in 2007, a philosophical treatise on self-

development In 2010 and a fiction novel for young readers titled 'The Princely Gift'.

2006 Trust/ E-4258 THANE/ AA/-II/80G/220/2008-09 / 1872 NA 75



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PUKARMumbai, Maharashtra

PUKAR is an independent research collective that provides a platform for multi-disciplinary, community-based

participatory research. It aims to democratize research and broaden access to knowledge among disenfranchised or

weakly-institutionalized youth groups and to create a space from which their non-traditional knowledge can contribute

to the local, national and global debates about the future of their city.

'Right to Research', an innovative idea was an important turning point in how research within PUKAR was conceptualised.

It suggests that research needs to be democratized so that all people, irrespective of educational qualification, have

access to methods of knowledge creation and ownership of such knowledge. As the unique movement of the Barefoot

Researchers enters its tenth year, local youth are provided the forum to aspire for themselves and their communities

resulting in their imagination of the city.

They have been empowered to use the tool of research to create local knowledge in local languages by documenting the

realities of their neighbourhoods. Given the complexities of slum population, having Barefoot Researchers who live in

those slums, and have knowledge of the cultural, social and political ethos of the community, as well as the trust of the

respondents, bring out the nuances of their stories, thus giving an illuminating edge to the research they conduct.

PUKAR works to create an agency for the youth by empowering them with capacity to use research as a tool to create

knowledge for the cities that is embedded in the local context yet is shaped by the global processes. They have so far

trained 3000 Barefoot Researchers who have in turn conducted over 300 research projects and created over 100 audio-

visual content products. In addition to publishing research journals, PUKAR has found mention in other journals.

Carol Breckenridge & Arjun Appadurai

Co-founder

Carol was a major contributor in founding PUKAR. As a historian of India and as a passionate

researcher on Mumbai, she was tireless in sharpening PUKAR's mission, in energizing and guiding its

projects and in supporting its leaders and members, while insisting on the highest standards of

integrity in all its efforts.

Arjun is the Goddard Professor in Media, Culture and Communication at New York University, where

he is also Senior Fellow at the Institute for Public Knowledge. He was previously Senior Advisor for

Global Initiatives at The New School in New York City, where he also held a Distinguished

Professorship as the John Dewey Distinguished Professor in the Social Sciences. He has also served

as a consultant or advisor to a wide range of public and private organizations, UNESCO, UNDP and

the World Bank among others.

2002 Trust/ E-20295 147/2007/2007-08 083781042 158



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CENTRE FOR UNFOLDING LEARNING POTENTIALS

Tonk, Rajasthan

The CULP represents a group of professionals dedicated to bring positive social change via affirmative action in the

domain of education and development. The vision of CULP is ‘towards a learning and democratic society’ and its mission

is ‘to make learning unfold and develop in an environment of mutuality and discovery’. The CULP provides bridge courses

for mainstreaming of out-of-school children, works to improve pedagogic processes in the government elementary

schools and creates enabling environment for girls. It involves in capacity building of community based organization to

understand rights of their children and quality education and provides coaching support to girls for secondary education.

CULP also mobilises rural communities to create a positive environment towards girl child education, stop child marriage

and child labour.

Dr. Om Prakash Kulhari

Co-founder

Dr. Om Prakash Kulhari is a co-founder of the organization CULP (Centre for Unfolding Learning

Potential). He has 20 years of experience in working on elementary education and has

extensively worked in the state level innovative education projects such as Shikshakarmi, Lok

Jumbish and Janshala . He has significant contribution in developing curriculum , text books

and teacher training in elementary education. he managed a team to develop a curriculum,

TLM and 3 Text books titled Khoji Pothi in EVS under Lok Jumbish Project for grade 3 to 5. His

innovative and conceptual understanding of science involved him in designing Curriculum &

textbooks of Science & social science for Upper Primary classes with Vidya Bhawan Society,

Udaipur and Eklavya, Bhopal. He is PHD in Botany and share a special interest in the issue of

bio-diversity. His experience of working for considerable number of years in different areas of

the development sector such as Adolescent Health, Life Skill Education , Micro finance and SHG

bring sound understanding about community and treatment required to proceed the situation .

2001 Society/783/Jaipur/2000-2001 1/80-G/168/2010-11/1134 125560173 89



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DESIGN FOR CHANGE

Tamil Nadu

Design for Change is the largest global movement empowering children to drive change in their own communities using a

simple design-thinking framework. It is an initiative of the Riverside Education Foundation and its India chapter was

started in the year 2009.

It works by incorporating the human centered approach of design thinking and a simple four step model of Feel-Imagine-

Do-Share (FIDS) incorporates core values of empathy, optimism and collaboration. Under this framework, children are

encouraged to 'Feel' a problem that bothers them, 'Imagine' a way to make it better 'Do' something to make a change and

'Share' their story of change with the world. Children are using this framework to arrive at simple solutions to very

complex problems. From teaching their parents to read and stopping child marriages to cleaning up their

neighborhoods, fixing potholes on the street and preserving their cultural heritage; children are proving that they have

what it takes to be able to 'design' a future the world desires.

Design For Change is now present in over 46 countries across the globe. In the last seven years DFC has impacted over 2

million children & 60,000+ teachers. In India alone, over 4,83,000 children across 27 states have participated in DFC

movement and authored over 12,000 stories of change. In past seven years DFC has received over 18,000 stories of

change from across the globe. In India alone, over 3,50,000 children across 27 states have participated in DFC movement

and authored over 8500 stories of change.

Kiran Bir Sethi

Founder

Kiran is the founder of Design for Change Worldwide movement. In 2001, she founded the

Riverside School in Ahmadabad, designing the primary school's curriculum from the ground up.

Her early training as a designer is clear in her work as an educator - she looks beyond what

exists, to ask, "could we do this a better way?". Using her background as a designer, Kiran

focussed on identifying the right problem before developing her solution. She integrated her

knowledge of the design thinking process into creating an educational experience that was

embedded in common sense. She also runs an NGO, called AProCh - which stands for 'A

Protagonist in every Child', which works for making cities child friendly.

2002 Sec 25 C / DIT(E)/ 8OG(5)/460/2008-2009 NA 87 U80302GJ2002NPL040474



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SAMARITAN HELP MISSION

Howrah, West Bengal

Tikiapara Slum of Howrah in West Bengal is notorious for drug pedaling and other nefarious crimes. Low literacy rate,

limited livelihood options like rickshaw pulling, construction laborers and ill habits of drinking. The area is characterised

by poor living conditions, having the worst effects on women and children. An added negative was absence of proper

functional school in the vicinity, leaving children out of school.

In 1999, Mamoon Akhtar had his first brush with children eager to learn and aspiring to be successful in life. What had

then started as private tuition classes for five to six students, gradually grew to a well- established initiative benefitting

over 800 kids since 26th May, 2006, which was when the English- medium Samaritan Mission School was set up. The

school is presently running their first batch of 10�� Standard.

Though provision of formal education is the primary focus area for SHM, the organisation has expanded to the fields of

healthcare services, computer literacy, vocational training centre and bank linkage initiative. For more than a decade

now, SHM has been actively working with the community, building awareness and empowering the underprivileged

especially, children, girls and women.

Mamoon Akhtar

Founder

Mamoon established Samaritan Help Mission in 2001 with the motto of 'Help People on Need –

Not on Creed'. Mamoon was deeply moved by the condition of poor children in Tikiapara slums,

who were forced to sell drugs and illicit liquor and get involved in other nefarious activities by

the anti-social elements. He thus started a small non-formal school for the poor children of

rickshaw-pullers, orphans, children of fathers in jail etc. at his house of 600 sq. ft. with six

students, which is now recognised by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. Times of

India, in its special Christmas issue dated 25th December, 2005 included his name amongst the

six Uncommon Heroes selected from all over India.

2001 Society/ S/1l/4754 DIT(E)/8E/369/04-05/1343-1345 147000199 260



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ACTION FOR FOOD PRODUCTION

Raipur, Chhattisgarh

Action for Food Production is a socio-technical development organization that visualizes itself as working to enable the

rural poor - including women and men belonging to small and marginal farmers and the landless, dalits, tribal people,

fisher-folk and unemployed youth - to move towards sustainable development, through an overall increase in their

knowledge and skills in areas that directly affect their standard and quality of life. It visualizes itself as an organization,

which over the next decade will enable marginalized rural groups to achieve enhanced socio-economic and personal

status in society through appropriate technologies for the management of natural resources. Aquifer Water

Management in Jalgaon District, comprised of 32 villages improved quality of lives of people in distress through adoption

of integrated approach for Water Conservation, Sanitation and Women Empowerment in 25 villages of five Districts in

Maharashtra. AFPRO has developed competencies and strategies for community based management of natural

resources and management of Common Pool Resources (CPR). These strategies cover the purviews of creation and

strengthening of institutional set ups like Water User Associations, and Village Watershed Committees etc. AFPRO has

project experience in management of Common Pool Resources comprising of pastureland, wastelands, and fisheries. An

additional technology promoted for the conservation of land resources especially in hilly areas is the Sloping Agricultural

Land Technology (SALT). AFPRO has developed an experience in propagating this simple low cost method of contour

farming using techniques that can be adopted by communities having limited tools, capitals and infrastructural support.

Dr. Someshwar Srivastava

Regional Manager

Dr. Someshwar Srivastava, did Master of Sceince & Technology (M.Sc.Tech) from 'Banaras Hindu

University (BHU)', and Registered for Ph.D. programme in the Department of “Geology &

Geophysics” and competed the degree from “Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur.

Followed by post-doctoral degree from IIT-Kharagpur, he was selected as a Research fellow from

“International Water Management Institute (IWMI). For last 15 years, he is engaged in AFPRO as

a “Regional Manager” for Chhattisgarh.

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UTTHAN Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Utthan was founded in 1981 and its first interventions were directed at initiating sustainable processes of empowerment

among vulnerable communities to struggle for their basic rights. Utthan's journey in development began in Bhal region of

Dhandhuka taluka in Ahmadabad district, one of the most resource-poor regions of the state and infamously known as

napaania or waterless. Utthan initiated and facilitated the emergence of a community-based group known as Mahiti

(information).

Over more than 30 years Utthan has worked in coastal areas of Ahmadabad, Bhavnagar, Amreli and extremely resource

poor and conflict affected tribal districts of Dahod and Panchmahal covering about 810 villages through its local teams. Its

major thrust areas have been access to safe water and sanitation as a basic human right, integrating perspective of

gender equality and women's empowerment, conflict prevention through conflict transformation, peace and justice and,

livelihood security through protection, conservation and augmentation of natural resources.

The major focus groups have been the women, youth, Dalit, religious minorities, Adivasi, other poor and marginalized

sections of the society including children. It has also facilitated establishment and growth of a large number of

community based institutions such as women's village level sangathans, federations, youth groups, area resource groups

and several committees such as Nyay and Shanti Samitis (justice and peace committees), livelihood committees, savings

and credit, committees, water and sanitation samitis, watershed committee and land rights committee and others.

Through its Coastal Area Development and Tribal Area Development Programme, Utthan covers 207 villages and

benefits around 1,000,000 people. They have initiated the formation of four District level women's federations with a

total membership of 6,600. The setting up of five Gender Resource Centres is providing information and resources to

800,000 families across 400 villages. The Area Resource Groups have coverage of over 700,000 people in 228 villages.

Pravin Bhikdiya

CEO

After completing his graduation he started working with Utthan as community organizer. He

working handing different roles and responsibilities in the organization and currently he is Chief

Executive Officer in Utthan. Internal leadership is an important part of organization building for

Utthan. Pravin comes from a farmer’s family and could not complete his masters due to

financial crisis in the family. He has forgotten his past and enjoys his work in the organization

since last 21 years.

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TORPA

Khunti, Jharkhand

Torpa Rural Development Society for Women was founded in 1995 for the welfare and empowerment of tribal women

and children.

In last 20 years, the agency has been working for quality education and livelihoods through building people's

organisations and developing capacities of the community and local institutions to enable them improve the quality of

their lives. The experience and deliberations over the years have led the agency to two important instruments of

empowerment which are education and community organisation at the grassroots. Torpa engages with community with

various services in education and livelihood generation; integrated for the community development.

Pre-primary education to 5000 children . Remedial education to 5000 children. Computer literacy for 1250 children in

five schools. Rescue and livelihood training for about 280 girls. Livelihood interventions with 200 SHGs. 300 families

involved in income generating activities . Training of young girls as educators and teacher, 100 girls every year.

Karuna Mary Braganza

Founder

Sister Karuna is a Padma Shri Awardee who grew up in Bandra in the 1920s and joined the

Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1950 she served as the headmistress of Sophia High

School, Bangalore and later held the posts of Professor and Head of the Department of English,

Vice-Principal and Principal of Sophia College. Sister Karuna worked closely with Dr. D.S. Kothari

and served on many UGC commissions including the committee for the Revision of the New

University Act. She has worked for 14 years in the tribal belt of Jharkhand and on return to

Maharashtra facilitated numerous projects for water harvesting, healthcare, sanitation,

income generation and literacy.

1995 Society/ 177 AA/Ranchi/ Tech /VII-79/80G/2008-09/232-34 031190131 215



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VRUTTI


Vrutti promotes livelihoods of disadvantaged groups by working with communities and development partners towards

developing effective strategies, processes, models and support system through farm advisory and planning for

development of entrepreneurship culture, establish appropriate corporate and investment linkages, build and empower

community institutions, facilitate knowledge management for farm, markets and entitlement. It is a centre for excellence

that contributes to livelihood promotion and improves the quality of life of disadvantaged group, while enhancing

people’s well-being through knowledge, innovation and transformative actions.

The organisation has reached more than 90,000 Farmers and observed an income increase of as much as five times. It

has proven impact models of Agriculture Enterprise Facilitation Centre (AEFC) and Livelihood Social Security (LSS)

EdelGive provides funds for farm advisory and planning for demand generation, development of entrepreneurship

culture. Through the support it establishes appropriate corporate and investment linkages, builds and empowers

community institutions; facilitate knowledge management for farms, markets and entitlements.

Shiv Kumar & N. Raghunathan

Co- founders

Shiv has two decades of experience in social development in India and internationally. Starting

his career in a leading farmer owned co-operative, he has founded several organizations within

the Catalyst Group - Catalyst Management Services, a consulting firm, two not for profit

resource centers, Swasti - health resource centre, Vrutti - a livelihood resource centre, and

Fuzhio Health and Business Services Pvt. Ltd.

As a social entrepreneur, Raghunathan’s passion is to facilitate sustainable solutions at a scale

that eliminate inequities, marginalization, hunger and poverty. He has ideated, Invested and

scaled up ‘Farm Enterprise Facilitation Centre (FEFC)’, a community-led social enterprise and

Swathi Jyothi Financial Inclusion Cooperative. He is a strategic consultant with ‘Centre for

Excellence of Market Based Partnerships for Public Health etc.

2004 Society/ 1143: 2004-2005 CIT(E)12A/K-114/AAJC0156H/ITO(E)-2/VOL 2014-15 094421378 722



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AROEHAN


AROEHAN is a field action project of Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work, Mumbai and aims at the holistic

development of tribal communities through an integrated approach addressing the issues of health, education,

livelihood and effective governance. It has its base in Mokhada Tehsil of the old Palghar District. The main focus of the

organisation lies in improving access to health services and promoting health awareness among adolescent girls.

It motivates people to come together and articulate their demands regarding employment, water scarcity, health and

education as core services to which they must get an access and organizing women and youth in the villages around

these issues is thus an important part of their programmes.

Having started with working on improving access to health services and promoting health awareness among adolescent

girls outside schools and in schools, AROEHAN went on to connect education to health status, rainwater harvesting to

better functioning of schools and later, to improving agricultural productivity in the area. It realized that all this can be

sustained only if people agree with these interventions and make them their own which led to the work on governance.

Thus, today AROEHAN works on health, education, livelihood and governance, with governance being the overarching

link for the other three thematic areas.

In continuation with the active work of AROEHAN in five Gram- Panchayats of Mokhada, namely: Adoshi, Shiragav,

Nashera, Shivli, Kashti-Savarde; this year of implementation focuses on scalability and expansion of intervention to new

villages of Mokhada and Jawhar blocks of Palghar district.

Shraddha Shringarpure

Programme Manager

Shraddha has done her Masters in social work from Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work in

Mumbai. She has been working as a Programme Manager at AROEHAN since 2008. She is an

active member of Rugna Kalyan Samiti of Mohranda PHC and Rural hospital of Mokhada block

and has served as master trainer of National Rural Livelihood Mission. Currently she is a Master

Trainer with State Government Social Audit Unit of Maharashtra and has successfully carried

out five social audits including a Special Social Audit in Buldhana District (Lonar Block). She has

been awarded the Yashwantrao Chawhan Pratishthan award for her work on tribal rights.

2006 Society/BOM-101/78 G.B.B.S.D AAATN0091N 083780171 79



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BRIGHT FUTURE

Mumbai, Maharashtra

The motivation behind launching Bright Future was to provide a conducive educational environment with positive role

models, both of which would eradicate the issue of aimless learning. Their two pronged approach intervenes at both

school and community level ensuring a more holistic model of growth among people.

Bright Future is an initiative by New Resolution India (NRI) which was set up in the year 2009. The NGO grew as an

outcome of hard- hitting personal experiences and verifiable observations and through the years, Bright Future has

succeeded in reaching out to people in four locations within Mumbai.

It is common knowledge that the youth today have become followers of the norm of aimless learning and NRI has

attempted to alter the scenario by introducing a model which starts with provision of relevant education and ends with

gainful employment for the beneficiaries. The target group for the project is youth aged between 13 to 25 years which

includes school going children and drop- outs.

The model is based on sourcing out role models from within the community and inspiring the alumni to come back and

guide the future batches. In the last year, 119 individuals have enrolled for their programme and 59 percent of them are

female aspirants. Out of the ones who completed the course, 85 percent of them are now placed at a job and 9 of them

wish to pursue further studies.

Kishor Palve

Founder

Kishor, a professional social worker, had always felt the need of supporting and equipping youth

to make smart and appropriate choices in career and life. Bright Future was born as a

culmination of his personal experiences of being a first generation graduate and research that

highlighted the problem of aimless education. Prior to this, Kishor worked with organizations

like Yuva Parivartan and Angan Trust and this experience led him to the idea of helping youth to

make smart career and life choices. In 2008, he began conducting several workshops and career

camps with children of underprivileged strata of G-south ward, Mumbai and started New

Resolution India with the goal of 'Connecting education to employment'. He later set up the

Bright Future project, conducting vocational training, skill development, mentorship etc. for

school going children and drop out youth.

2009 Trust/ E-26080 DIT(E)/MC/80G/285/2010-11 083781420 108



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DILASA JANVIKAS PRATISHTHAN

Aurangabad, Maharashtra

Dilasa Janvikas Pratishthan works in the villages of the Maharashtra by improving the condition of water, soil and

vegetation along with the empowerment of women. Dilasa is a Resource Support Organization of NABARD in

Marathwada under Indo-German Watershed Development Programme and Vidarbha under NABARD’s Holistic

Watershed Development Programme. Dilasa has implemented aquifer management projects in Aurangabad, which is

recognized as a landmark concept in watershed management. Watershed treatments executed include - farm bunding,

agro horticulture, stone outlets, grass seeding, dry land horticulture, afforestation works - continuous contour trenches,

earthen gully plugs, drainage line treatment, earthen nalla bund, cement nalla bund, louse boulder structures, gabions,

along with women empowerment interventions and training and demonstration.

Dilasa treated approximately 3,25,809 hectares of land under watershed within a decade.Empowerment of women is yet

another priority of Dilasa, it has formed 1554 Self Help Groups (SHGs) in Aurangabad district. It also works towards

improving existing ecology for drought mitigation and creation of sustainable livelihood opportunities for communities.

Mr. Sanjeev Unhale

Founder

Dilasa Janvikas Pratishthan was established by Mrs. Anagha Patil, Associate Professor in

Psychology and Mr. Sanjeev Unhale, renowned journalist of the region. The organisation

developed with his communication skills and capacity of networking from village level to

commissioner. As he is very much committed for the cause of natural resource management,

the organization developed with technical, social and at different multidisciplinary levels within

20 years.

1991 Society/ MAH/AGD/47/91 ABD/CIT/TECH/80G/SBES/143/62/2009-10/ 083750134 592



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UGAM GRAMIN VIKAS SANSTHA

Hingoli, Maharashtra

Ugam Gramin Vikas Sanstha, was established in Hingoli district of Marathwada region, which is considered to be a

drought-prone area and falls in water deficit zone. The area is known for its extreme aridity, hot climate and acute

deficiency in water availability. Due to these adverse climatic factors, the population continues to be under continual

stress of drought, which has contributed to extreme poverty levels in the rural areas. The main occupation of the

population in the area is subsistence farming which is rain-dependent; with very less groundwater availability in the

region. The onslaught of drought in the region brings in lack of food security for animals and human, lack of drinking water

and poverty leading to enforced migration. With the objective of creation of sustainable livelihood opportunities through

promotion of agriculture and organic farming and organizing community, especially in the area of women

empowerment; it was established in the year 1996 by Jayaji Paikrao, with a commitment towards empowering the most

vulnerable sections of the Marathwada region. Primary focus is on preservation, conservation, regeneration and

sustenance of the natural resources. Under this umbrella, activities on Watershed management, biodiversity awareness,

Exchange of local knowledge on organic farming, enterprises development, organic bazaar, capacity building on technical

& non-technical skills are being provided to the vulnerable and marginalised section of the community.

Ugam has assisted more than 1150 families through micro finance for building toilets and helped in formation of over

350 SHGs for promotion of livelihood activities.

Jayaji Purbhaji Paikrao

Founder

Jayaji is a pioneer of self-help groups in Hingoli district. He has been a part of land and livelihood

related campaigns of Maharshtra and many other movements on issues of Dalit communities.

After studying social work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, he worked as a social welfare

officer in Government's Social Welfare Department. He later realized that the job was not a

solution to the social problems and the issues need holistic solution. Thus he decided to resign

and work independently and established Ugam Gramin Vikas Sanstha. Since last three decades

he has been painstakingly working in the rural parts of Hingoli for the under privileged.

1996 Society/ MAHA/448/96 ABD/CIT/TECH/80G/UGVS-180-43 84090005 226



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VIKAS SAHYOG PRATISHTHAN

Buldhana, Maharashtra

Livelihoods, Water Shed Management and Women Empowerment are the key focus areas for Vikas Sahyog Pratishthan

(VSP) which has been in action since 1995. VSP is effectively a collective of 15 grassroots organisations that are primarily

working with the poor and deprived communities in Maharashtra. Their multi- pronged approach works towards better

management of natural resources, improvising farming techniques and promoting roles of women in community

development. The farmers and their families of Vidharbha region suffer from the agricultural productivity issues,

irrigational problems etc. In many parts of the Vidharbha district, land salinity and irrigation are becoming major hurdles

in increasing livelihoods, coupled with these issues; there is lack of access to financial and non-financial services like

micro credit, micro pension, micro insurance, market linkage and institutional building linkages. Vikas Sahyog Pratishthan

works on social awareness amongst women and tries to develop their community support systems through programmes

like Astitva Sakhyanche (means identity of friends) is an exchange process of women activists working in field. They share

and analyze the women's issues and reflect on solutions from different perspectives.

VSP's impact is evident in numbers- more than 1400 women have been trained in organic cultivation technique which

has been adopted by over 1125 households. They have set up household poultries in various households providing

them with an alternate income source. On the education front, their social and financial literacy initiative has reached

257 primary schools ultimately benefitting 50 thousand students.

Mohan Surve

CEO

Mohan started his work from Mumbai in 1985 by initiating a local youth mandal and focussed

on working on the issues of slum youth, street children in urban areas. After completing post-

graduation in social work he led networking processes of rural organizations in Maharashtra to

advocate human rights of rural poor. Mohan is well known in the social sector for strengthening

capacities of grassroots organisations and developing sustainable livelihood initiatives for

various deprived communities. He has contributed to many organisations in conducting

participatory trainings, strengthening management of social organizations, facilitating

organizational change processes, creating educational literature, designing and executing

campaigns on social issues.

1995 Society/ GBBSD/439 DIT(E)/MC/80G/2144/2010-11 083780697 86



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YUVA RURAL ASSOCIATION

Nagpur, Maharashtra

YRA is committed for a social transformation though socio-economic and political empowerment of the poor and

marginalized focusing Dalits, tribal, minority and women in rural areas. YRA works on four thematic areas, as per strategic

plan, with a dual approach, working directly with the communities to bring about change, and advocating for the

development of poor communities through state and national networks. Key strategy is to build and strengthen People’s

Organisation (PO) and People’s Institution (PI) which can work collectively on various issues faced by the communities

towards sustainability. By training volunteers and prospective leaders, YRA helps in identifying need and rights based

issues such as youth development, education, health, employment, livelihood, women empowerment, tribal

empowerment, and sustainable agriculture.

YRA Established a farmer’s producer company having a share capital of Rs. 11 lakh with 537 share holders and a

turnover of Rs. 50 lakhs. Through this company, Tur and Chana worth Rs. 11.5 crores were procured from 1693 farmers

through SFAC which helped them to get a premium of Rs. 84.65 lakhs approximately. 3000 farmers were certified as

organic farmers and market linked for organic cotton. 1,25,000 Change Makers were promoted under the state wide

campaign on We Can End Violence Against Women. A forum of Women Organization called “Mahila Vikas Parishad”

having more than 30,000 members is functioning.

Datta Patil

Founder

In 1994 like minded organizations across Western India came together and founded a platform

called RSCD (Resource and Support Center for Development). RSCD distributed regional

responsibilities to different organizations like YUVA Abhivyakti, Vikas Sahayog Pratishthan etc.

YUVA (Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action) took Vidarbha’s responsibility as Regional

Resource Agency. Mr. Datta Patil, on behalf of YUVA took the responsibility and Yuva Rural

Association was registered in 2002 as independent organization.

2002 Society/BPL/1973 CIT –II/80G/Tech/80G/73/2006-07 083870252 252 U/s. 4410775/2002



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BASIC HEALTH CARE SERVICES

Udaipur, Rajasthan

Basic HealthCare Services (BHS) is an off- shoot of Aajeevika Bureau and was founded in the year 2012 at Udaipur,

Rajasthan. BHS is driven by a vision of responsive and effective healthcare ecosystem that is rooted in the community. In

line with this vision, the organization has been working towards providing high quality, low cost healthcare services to the

most vulnerable communities.

BHS works in underserved areas of south Rajasthan which has a dense tribal population and is characterized by

inaccessibility to resources and basic livelihood opportunities. The families in the area subsist on small landholdings and

rain- fed agriculture which accounts for their irregular income. Factors like these prompt men to migrate into cities for

manual and unskilled work in exchange of minimal pay; while women and children are left behind in the village,

vulnerable to malnutrition and ill- health. In line with their focus point, BHS and Aajeevika Bureau have launched

Ambulance Services and AMRIT clinics to offset some of the structural constraints to accessing healthcare. The model

consists of a network of primary care clinics, each serving a population of about 12,000. Three nurses provide clinical care

and outreach care to the surrounding dispersed populations. A physician visits the clinics once a week and is available for

tele-consultation 24 hours a day. AMRIT Clinics have led to significant improvement in access to affordable care in its

catchment population of about 24,000. The end result of BHS's vigorous work is to attain community empowerment

through health care and decent livelihood generation for all.

Pavitra Mohan

Founder

Pavitra graduated in Medicine and Surgery, and following a residency program in Pediatrics,

earned a Doctor in Medicine from University of Delhi. While managing large scale maternal and

child health programs, he realized that despite increased investments in health, most people in

different parts of rural India do not have access to basic health care with dignity. He also

realized that in absence of strong primary care systems, any health interventions cannot make a

lasting impact on health of the populations. Based on this realisation, he set up Basic

HealthCare Services aiming to provide high quality primary health care to vulnerable

populations. Since then, he has been engaged in setting up and managing AMRIT Clinics, a

network of primary health care clinics in underserved areas of South Rajasthan, India.

2013 Trust/ 2693 DEL-BE25139-24122013 NA 35



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GRAVIS

Jodhpur, Rajasthan

The fundamental basis of the work of GRAVIS is the mitigation of drought in the Thar Desert region, and over last three

decades, it has done commendable work in many villages of Rajasthan in developing watershed models.

Thar Desert is the most populous desert in the world, despite its scanty rainfall with all its variations in time and intensity,

and the rural economy is predominantly based on agriculture and animal husbandry, which are hardly able to provide a

sufficient income in years of drought. The livelihood of people is thus dependent on monsoon behaviour. During times of

severe drought some family members or whole families migrate in search of food, fodder and water with their livestock as

they can no longer sustain their livelihoods in their own villages.

In this context, GRAVIS ensures clean and accessible water to thousands of villagers through water shed management

programmess like tankas, nadis and beris, to promote sustainable infrastructure of catchments and containers. Apart

from the water projects, GRAVIS also provides education by building schools, works for women rights by providing them

social and economic support, providing affordable health care, agricultural and livelihood generation support, plantation

of horticulture units, etc. GRAVIS has worked with over 58,000 families in the desert areas in more than 1300 villages in

Rajasthan reaching a population of over 1.2 million and has established over 2800 community based organizations. Over

5500 water structures have been built and they have provided training to more than 7000 families over water structures.

Under their education plans, 3000 children have benefitted and their penetration has reached the core through 800

Village Development Committees, 1300 Self- Help Groups and 70 Farmer Clubs.

Dr. Prakash Tyagi

Executive Director

Prakash is a trained physician and a public health professional, who has been actively involved

with health and development programmes nationally and internationally. He has been working

with GRAVIS since 1999 and currently leads the organization through planning and

management of its various programs and projects. He is an active development practitioner

and has contributed significantly in the fields of maternal and child health, geriatrics, HIV, TB

and occupational health through his writing, research and field work.

1983 Society/ 204/83-84 AAII/Jodhpur/ AA Tech/ 2007-2008/1782 125610001 830



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RAJASTHAN SHRAM SARATHI ASSOCIATION

Udaipur, Rajasthan

Rajasthan Shram Sarathi Association (RSSA) aims towards ensuring secure, dignified lives of communities dependent on

labour and migration. RSSA provides financial services to migrants and their families to help them stabilize their cash

flows and strengthen their ability to deal with uncertainties during their work cycles.

In India, internal migration accounts for a large population and often they are excluded from the economic, cultural,

social and political life of society and are often treated as second-class citizens. The constraints faced by migrants are

many - lack of formal residency rights; lack of identity proof; lack of political representation; inadequate housing; low-

paid, insecure or hazardous work; extreme vulnerability of women and children to trafficking and sex exploitation;

exclusion from state-provided services such as health and education and discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, class

or gender. RSSA tries to deliver financial services to migrant households, by offering financial services such as Gullak

savings, bank linkages, micro-loans, insurance, pension and financial literacy programmes for migrant households. Under

this hybrid model, migrant households receive a customized combination of both livelihood support and financial

inclusion services. The approach towards financial inclusion is migrant centric and has evolved around a deep

understanding of migration patterns, their financial goals and socio-economic vulnerabilities.

Among loan disbursements, 44 percent is for long duration and short duration workers with 86% of the migrants

belonging to tribal communities, 56 percent are unskilled or semi- skilled workers and 61% are daily wage laborers

with uncertain incomes and employment. Also, 75% of the loan beneficiaries attributed to repayment of old debts which

freed up their future finances.

Rupal Kulkarni

CEO

Rupal has over six years of development experience in India, Malaysia and Ghana. A silver

medallist from Mumbai University, she was also an HSBC scholar at the London School of

Economics where she pursued her Masters in Development Studies. She was awarded the ICICI

fellowship 2012, India and the Opportunity Collaboration fellowship 2009, Mexico for young

social entrepreneurs. She was also the Co-founder and Vice President of the Youth wing at

Wockhardt-Harvard Medical International HIV/AIDS Education and Research Foundation in

Mumbai.

2007 Section 25 Company/ A.A/ UDAI/ JUDICIAL / 2010-11 / 2978 125690109 250 U91990RJ2007NPL024871



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MEDHA LEARNING FOUNDATION

Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

Medha is a non-profit with a mission to better prepare youth for life after school. They support college going students

with employability training, career guidance, and placement services. They aim to change the employability training

paradigm in the country by integrating their approach into the existing public sector education system.

The founders recognized that students after being educated lack the necessary skills and training to make them

employable and realized that the already existing interventions were limited in their scope and success. They thus set out

to bring the youth closer to employment and have till date benefitted hundreds of individuals through relevant training

and placement services. Medha approaches employability development by working within the existing education

system, specifically government and government-aided institutions, by designing and implementing their own

curriculum, based on shared employer demands. Medha uses experiential learning techniques to engage students in the

skill, leadership, and career development process. This unique, integrated approach aims to bridge the gap between

industry and education, and address the widely publicized 'unemployability' problem at its root cause, through three key

areas: curriculum, channel and career services.

They have trained and certified more than 3000 students with 1500 who are engaged in internships or full- time

placements. Medha has also established over 100 employer relationships and developed 35 educational institution

partners.

Byomkesh Mishra, Christopher Turillo

Co-founders

Byomkesh and Chris started Medha in 2011 with a vision to change the way employability skills

are imparted in the country. They met while working for a microfinance organization in

Hyderabad where they saw firsthand, the social and economic impact job creation and

employment could have on this country. They planned to start a social enterprise that worked

to improve employment outcomes for similar youth across the country and after conducting a

comprehensive research report on the employability training industry, finally started Medha

Learning Foundation full-time in 2011. They have frequently published and spoken on the

unemployability problem facing the country, and were awarded the prestigious Echoing Green

Global Fellowship in 2012.

2011 Section 25 Company/ URN 104 NA 44 U80904UP2011NPL045664



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ANANDI

Ahmedabad, Gujarat

ANANDI is working towards changing the nature and direction of systemic forces an engages with women from low

income groups such as the tribals, migrant families, salt pan workers, marginal farmers, farm and construction labour and

fishing community for their empowerment. ANANDI has seeded and developed seven women led local organisations

with a collective membership of over 10000 women that address different needs of its women members. It works for

advancing rights of women and intervene in structures/institutions to make them gender responsive and accountable to

address inter and intra household inequities.

About 3500 women have been engaged in savings and credit activities with 250 strong leaders. The programme covers

175 villages and in each year on a average 20 tonnes of vermicompost produced by women for the past six years.

Approximately 600 women received the land titles from families and from forest department through Lok Adhikar

Kendra.

Anandi works towards empowering women leaders to strengthen governance of livelihood based women’s community

organisations. They provide support for capacity building of women farmers to improve livelihoods, reduce

vulnerabilities for food and livelihood security with dignity and enable women led community organizations to increase

women farmers' access, control and ownership over resources and entitlements for food and livelihood security.

ANANDI began its journey in the year 1995 and was formed by a collective of women working

for women’s issues. ANANDI is led by a dynamic team of leaders in senior management and

among its staff, all of whom are professionally trained, have extensive grounded field

experience, and bring immense passion to their work on women’s empowerment. Their work

on gender and livelihoods is cutting edge, ranging from grassroots programming to taking the

learning from the field into research and policy advocacy. Strengthening Sangathans is a core

program and strategy of ANANDI. Organisation believes that change is possible and sustainable

only when there are leaders and collectives who believe and implement the change agenda in

their contexts. Over the past twenty years ANANDI has formed and built capacities of seven

women’s collectives that are also led by women from economically and socially marginalized

communities.

1995 Society/ Guj/5189-AH-D DIT(E)/80G(5)/1224/06-07 041980031 199



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KUTCH MAHILA VIKAS SANGATHAN

Kutch, Gujarat

Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS) organizes poor rural women to question and address gender inequities within

their minds, homes, communities, and regions. Through a range of strategic interventions it has fostered the leadership

of women to transform their condition and impact their economic, political, social and cultural status. For more than two

decades now, KMVS has worked for the holistic empowerment of rural women through a process of awareness,

organization, and initiating empowering interventions. This has resulted in the formation of organized local women's

organizations/collectives, capable of independently addressing gender inequities in the development process. The

ongoing journey has engendered varied women led socio-economic transformation in different parts of the region, and

facilitated a range of impacts in the larger environment.

KMVS has grown from a single collective of rural women, to become a network of seven grass-root women's

organizations with a presence across Kutch district, and an active membership of more than 20,000 women. KMVS has

set up specialized resource support units which provide knowledge, training, and advocacy support to the 'sangathans'.

Ensuring safety of women through implementing safe city programme in Kutch district of Gujarat, involves serving

women in distress, capacity building of lawyers, para-legal, police officers, staff members, protection officers, counsellors

and helpline staff of 181 and 1098, collaboration with district legal institutions for better services and inculcating a

culture of safety in communities.

1989 Society/ F/168 – Kutch CIT.R-1/Tech./80G/2012-13/1582 042050043 205



KMVS was led by Sushma Iyengar, who had completed her master's in development

communication from Cornell University. She wanted to work with women groups and she met

Gagan Sethi from Janvikas, another NGO in the region who inspired her to work in Kutch. A

voluntary group of people Alka Jani; Pankaj Shah; Kiran Vaghela; Meena Raste were working with

children in slums. Sushmaben met this group and asked if they would like to work with women in

Kutch. Alka Jani and Meena Raste immediately agreed and joined her on her first journey to

Pachham. Meera Goradiya who had completed her Master's also joined them in the early years. In

June 1989, KMVS was formed. Lata Sachde also joined group after six months. Alka and Lata

provided their time in forming block level collectives and nurtured women's leadership.

Sushmaben worked more in formulating strategies. Gagan Sethi and Philly Contractor acted as

mentors to the founder group and provided support throughout their struggles.

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CORO

Mumbai, Maharashtra

Sustainable change is achievable and the same has been demonstrated by CORO's attempts of promoting 'Grassroots

Leadership' in Maharashtra. From two municipal wards in Mumbai to six districts in Maharashtra, CORO has grown by

leaps and bounds since 1989.

The organisation's objective is to promote integrated community development via rights- based social change amongst

the marginalised communities. They facilitated the creation of Mahila Mandal Federation along with actively taking

action towards Violence Against Women.

CORO, in collaboration with Leaders Quest, UK (a non-profit social enterprise) has developed and delivered a grassroots

leadership development program called Quest Fellowship Program (QFP) spread across the Maharashtra state. The

program is a 12 months long fellowship award to potential grassroots leaders which aims at building their leadership

capacities through extensive training and quality mentoring. Since 2008, it has provided training, mentoring and

support to 775 grassroots leaders in partnership with 200 organisations and 250 mentors to reach over 1.5 million

people living in marginalised communities.

With time, CORO has become a leader in the advocacy campaign on gaps in implementation of the Domestic Violence

Act, 2005 in Maharashtra. Another one of their successful campaigns was the initiation of Right to Pee, advocating safe

and clean urinals for women. They are also recognised as a resource organisation for school based gender sensitization

programmes across 25000 schools in collaboration with Maharashtra State Government and UNICEF.

Sujata Khandekar

Co-Founder

Sujata was formerly an assistant engineer in the Maharshtra State Electricity Board. She was

later deputed for adult literacy-related work initiated by the Government of Maharashtra and

CORO. She received an MA in Gender, Education and International Development from the

University of London and was a Fellow in the Leadership Development programme of the

MacArthur Foundation. She represents CORO on several international forums and contributes

to various publications.

1990 Society/MS/MUM/270/ 80G/3025/2006/2006-2007 083780567 257 1990/G.B.B.S.D



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MAJLIS

Mumbai, Maharashtra

Majlis started in response to a growing need for lawyers with a gender perspective who are dedicated to evolving

innovative legal practices to defend women's rights. It was established by Ms. Flavia Agnes with an overall agenda of

achieving positive social change through quality legal representation for individual women.

Majlis's all- women team of lawyers and social activists have been working on issues concerning women and are helping

them access the rights and necessary legal support in court. The NGO is based in Mumbai and has an outreach within the

city as well as in other parts of Maharashtra. Majlis has entered into a partnership with Maharashtra's Department of

Women and Child Development to train and handhold the Protection Officers and supervisors who are the backbone of

the Domestic Violence Act, 2005. This action was taken as part of their initiative MOHIM which aims to ensure effective

implementation of the Domestic Violence (DV) Act in Maharashtra State.

Another one of their prominent programmes is RAHAT which looks at Sexual Violence Cases and monitors the

Manodhairya Scheme in Maharashtra. Apart from an active team of women lawyers carrying out the programmes, Majlis

also has a learning centre where its members share their legal expertise with state and non- state stakeholders.

Over the last 25 years, through their team of dedicated women lawyers and social workers, Majlis has reached out to

over 50,000 women and helped them claim their rights.

Flavia Agnes

Founder

Flavia began her journey into the domain of women's rights in 1980, when following the

Mathura rape case, the entire country was rising to a spontaneous movement which was to be

later termed as the new wave of feminist movement in the country. She placed her own

personal struggle into the public domain to make out a case for foregrounding domestic

violence as a campaign issue for the movement. In 1990 Flavia, along with a few other close

friends with varied expertise, founded Majlis. Her rather long list of awards includes an award

from the Commissioner of Police, the Woman of Steel award by Pearl-Weave and the first

Neerja Bhanot Bravery Award for bravery in 1992.

1991 Society/206/1991/G.B.B.S.D 80G/3025/2006/2006-2007 083780545 272




MANN DESHI

Satara, Maharashtra

Mann Deshi Foundation has its concentration upon all things financial that ultimately have a social impact. The target

region is primarily drought prone rural Maharashtra with empowerment of women being their ultimate goal.

It was in 1996 that the highly motivated founder of Mann Deshi, Ms. Chetna Gala Singh, started the organisation in

answer to the problems faced by rural poor who did not have access to the formal credit lending system. Through a

bouquet of programmes aimed at financial literacy, skill development and credit delivery, the foundation has made

significant impact. The Foundation is linked to the Mann Deshi Mahila Sahkari Bank, India's first microfinance bank to

have received the cooperative license from the Reserve Bank of India. With a membership of 1,85,000 clients and

counting, this cooperative financial institution has come close to starting a revolution by ensuring financial stability to

rural women.

The revolutionary 'Doorstep Cash Credit Programme' has caught the attention of many in the recent times and has till

date supported more than 1000 women entrepreneurs. The project ensures delivery of cash credit to the doorsteps of

women engaged in business activities with dynamic locations and uncertain profits. Similar such projects have

revolutionised the business scenario for budding women entrepreneurs in addition to safeguarding their lives. Since their

inception, Mann Deshi has reached over 300,000 beneficiaries and around 12000 women have enrolled for their financial

literacy programme. Through the Mobile Business School, they have reached more than 10,000 women and have

provided bi-cycles to 2400 rural girls.

Chetna Sinha

Founder

Chetna is an economist, a farmer and an activist who works for social change in poor, drought-

stricken rural India. She is the founder and president of Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank Ltd., a

micro-enterprise development bank whose clients are women on low incomes. Since her

college days in Mumbai, Chetna had been working as an activist, initially with Jai Prakash

Narayan's organisation against emergency–Sangharsh Vahini and later with Sharad Joshi's

Shetkari Sanghatna. She has been organising women in rural Maharashtra to fight for land and

property rights. Since founding Mann Deshi Foundation in 1996, Chetna has received

numerous awards, including fellowships at Ashoka and Yale.

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OLYMPIC GOLD QUEST

Mumbai, Maharashtra

Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) is a programme of the Foundation for Promotion of Sports and Games, a not- for profit

company with a commitment towards bringing the best of Indian athletes closer to the top line of players from all across

the globe by helping them win accolades at the Olympic Games and other competitions.

The organization was founded by Indian sporting legends, Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone, with an aim to create a level

playing field for our athletes and enable them to be competitive at the highest level of their sport. OGQ's first test was the

2012 London Olympics where four out of the six medalists from India were supported by them. OGQ strives to

compliment the efforts of the Indian Government and various Sports Federations in identifying and funding the best and

most deserving medal prospects for the Olympic Games such as shooting, athletics, boxing, wrestling, archery and

badminton. OGQ experts systematically oversee and benchmark the progress of athletes and provide funds to them so

that they have access to the best coaching and training facilities and to exploit scientific aids including planned nutrition &

diet. Their support system is not restricted to overseeing the funding requirements but goes beyond providing an intense

all- round support to maintain the players' physical, mental and emotional health. OGQ supports athelets like Mary Kom,

Ayonika Paul, P.V. Sindhu and the likes while identifying talented junior athletes in the age group of 11-18 years and

grooming them for 2020-2024 Olympics. Each of the athletes will be given a monthly scholarship and mentoring by

their team.

Geet Sethi & Prakash Padukone

Founders

Billiards maestro Geet Sethi has featured in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the

first amateur in the world to compile the maximum 147 break in Snooker. Prakash Padukone is

the only Indian to reach the top of the World Badminton honours by winning the All India

Championship in 1981. Through their interactions with Indian athletes on various platforms,

they saw at close quarters, the problems faced by our athletes and a general feeling of dejection

as a sporting nation. Geet and Prakash realized the need of a strong support system for Indian

athletes and together set up the Olympic Gold Quest.

2001 Section 25 Company/ DIT(E)/80G(5/971/2008-2009 083781091 851 38(25/N)/2/2001/2529



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VACHA CHARITABLE TRUST

Mumbai, Maharashtra

VACHA’s vision is of a world without exploitation, oppression, discrimination, and injustice against women or any other stsection of society. VACHA facilitates 21 century life skills to marginalised adolescents with special focus on girls and

gender. These skills can be broadly categorised as information, skills and opportunities. Girls gain information and

knowledge of their rights, resources around them as well as opportunities. VACHA is working towards preventing girls

from dropping out of education, creating safe learning and interacting spaces for adolescent girls in communities, stproviding 21 century life skills to girls and drive advocacy in communities for gender justice.

VACHA started working with girls in 1995 when girls and has produced resources for girls and on girls issues over the years

that has widely been disseminated by UNICEF and many other organisations as advocacy material. VACHA has been

coordinating Learning Community of Adolescent girls for last three years, which is a collaboration of eight organisation

in Mumbai. VACHA was asked to coordinate this collaboration by the donor as well as partner organizations because of

VACHA’s innovative and pioneering work with girls.

VACHA is a group of women with varied backgrounds in social activism, community work,

media, research, writing, teaching, and homemaking. VACHA emerged as a women's group

during the 1980s. Initiated by women active in the women's rights movement, it started as a

resource centre to address need for space for discourse, resources, and collective action. It was

established and registered as a Trust in 1990. Since 1995 VACHA has focused working with

adolescent girls and boys with special focus on girls. VACHA looks at its work with adolescents

as a preventive measure against creation of vulnerabilities in women due to lack of education,

exposure, and opportunity. VACHA believes that empowered girls and sensitized boys have

better chance of developing into adults who value equality and become productive citizens.

1990 Trust/ E- 12703 80- G/ 2878 083780525 130



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IBTADA

Alwar, Rajasthan

Ibtada, has been working towards improving the condition of education, livelihood and community based institutions in

Mewat region which cuts across the Indian states of Rajasthan and Haryana. The word Ibtada, an Urdu word, means a

beginning and has inspired the work of the organization towards welfare of the Meo- Muslim community in Mewat.

The quality of education and the school infrastructure in this region were in deplorable state and the families refrained

from sending the children to school as they need them to help out in the daily chores. Such problems motivated Ibtada to

devise a method of development through community participation and thus began the process of organising women into

Self- Help Groups in 1998.

By the year 2000, education for girls had begun through seven Taleemshalas set up in the region (learning centres for girls

for grade I to V) in five villages. Gradually work started with Government schools, providing capacity building support for

teaching and strengthening of School Management Committee through their Education promoter model. The groups of

women are organised at three levels- SHGs, followed by MahilaSabhas (cluster level) and Mahila Manch (block

federation) which provides them with a platform to discuss the community problems and come up with solutions.

Ibtada's presence is evident in 350 villages in six development blocks of Alwar through their learning centres. They

have mobilised over 12,000 women by way of SHGs and almost 5,500 persons are supported for goat rearing,

agriculture and dairy activities.

Rajesh Singhi

Founder

Rajesh worked with Urmul Trust in western Rajasthan for a few years after joining the Institute of

Rural Management, Anand. The exposure helped him make up his mind to work directly in

community with a grassroots NGO. He decided to set up his own organization, Ibtada in November

1997. He has been actively involved in SHG-livelihoods movement in Rajasthan and provides

inputs to many other organisations through Ibtada. Rajesh has served as Treasurer on the Board of

Sa-dhan (an association of community development financial institutions) and Board of Centre for

Micro Finance, Jaipur. He is also a founder Trustee of The Goat Trust, Lucknow.

1997 132/ALW/97-98 80G/2004-05/2240 125420021 373



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AALI

Uttar Pradesh & Jharkhand

The organization’s vision is to strive for an egalitarian social system which recognizes women as complete individuals and

equal human beings, through proactive advocacy and work on the issues and concerns of women, especially from

marginalized and deprived communities. It also seeks to promote and protect the women’s social, economic, and

political rights guaranteed in the Constitution of India and in the international human rights treaties. It involves

protecting women’s right to choice and decision making, development of sustainable grassroots leadership,

empowerment of women to understand law and demand justice with increased access, stakeholder sensitization and

research based advocacy.

Competency in the field of law, particularly the criminal justice system and human rights, gives the organization an

edge over others. It has intervened in 535 cases, successfully resolved 472 cases, rehabilitated 397 woman & child

survivors of human rights violations and developed legal capacity of 263 grassroots organizations.

EdelGive funds AALI to promote gender-based justice by empowering marginalized women, especially survivors of

human rights violations including Violence against Women (VAW), in the states of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Jharkhand

through direct intervention, capacity building and research.

AALI was founded in 1998 by a feminist collective in the pursuance of the UN’s Fourth World

Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China in 1995. From the outset, AALI harnessed the

United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

(CEDAW) as its primary ideological framework. As its main focus, AALI adopted a rights-based

approach and elected to concentrate its work on ensuring women’s rights in the private sphere.

However, over the years AALI’s interventions have encompassed a wide-range of issues.

Following the 1995 Beijing Conference, began to brainstorm new opportunities and platforms

for the improved planning and organization of their efforts to further women’s human rights,

both locally and statewide.

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MILAAN - BE THE CHANGE

Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

Milaan, a youth-led organisation, aims to educate, enable, and empower children and young people, especially

adolescent girls in rural India. It believes in the power of every individual to be a change-maker in their own lives and the

communities they come from.

Through various educational and leadership building programs, they identify, incubate, and invest in adolescent girls

from marginalised backgrounds to challenge social barriers for education locally. Milaan additionally consolidates local

voices to strengthen advocacy platforms that empower and amplify the voices of adolescent girls nationally as well as

globally. Over the last 8 years, Milaan has worked with over 10,000 beneficiaries and advocated for safer and more

inclusive spaces for them at various state and national forums.

The uniqueness of Milaan initiative’s come from program participants taking charge of the program to lead the design,

outreach, implementation and monitoring impact. The organization also celebrates extraordinary girls who take

responsibility for creating systemic change into their hands and take ownership through the Girl Icon Fellowship program.

Their Swarachna School and Milaan outreach program are also worth mentioning for their innovative social work.

Dhirendra Pratap Singh

Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder

Dhirendra Pratap Singh is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Milaan - Be The Change

(India) and Milaan Foundation (USA), which is a youth-led non-profit organization. Milaan

works to empower, enable, and engage young people from economically and socially

challenged backgrounds by creating collective learning places to explore their potential. Over

the last 8 years, Milaan has worked with over 10,000 beneficiaries and advocated for safer and

more inclusive spaces for them at various state and national forums. In the past, Dhirendra has

worked with many international and national development organizations like Vidya Grants

India, United Way of Delhi, ASER, etc. He is also the Co-Founder of Azadi, an US based impact

venture, with a commitment to making menstruation a non-issue in India.

2007 Society/ S/60105/2007 DIT(E)/2010-11/M-1766/862 231661498 87



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NISHTHA

North 24 Parganas, West Bengal

Nishtha is a community based women's organisation, operating in 300 villages of the 24 Parganas District of West Bengal

since the early 1970s. They consider education to be the strongest tool for empowerment, especially in case of women

and over the years have carried out various successful awareness campaigns against child marriage, trafficking, domestic

violence and gender discrimination. They have in place a four- tiered cross- generational organisation pyramid consisting

of Vahinis or armies, Balika- Balak Vahinis (Girls' and boys' groups), Kishori-Kishore Vahinis (Adolescent girls' and boys'

groups), Mahila Mandals (Women's groups). All the members of these groups are trained and oriented to work for the

development of the villagers, specifically the women and girl children. Their initiatives have started a movement towards

improving the environment and a culture of speaking against violence and alcoholism while also promoting community

participation in village decision making. Along with supporting girl child education, Nishtha carries out leadership and life

skills training for adolescent boys and girls. They have also set up health clinics for the villagers and day- care centres for

children of sex- workers. In addition, they have also begun an income- generation and vocational training facility for

adolescent and elder girls.

Nishtha works extensively with the government and strongly advocates the promotion of equal rights for women and

girls, ensuring that the government services become sensitive towards catering to needs of women. The organisation's

work has helped readmit 1,989 children into formal schools with 1,379 who have received sponsorship for continuing

their studies.

Priti Lata Das

Founder

Priti Lata started a Mahila Samity (an informal women's group) after getting married at a very

young age in the Baikunthapur village of West Bengal. The distressing condition of women in

the area prompted her to start the Group which gradually expanded to include adult women

education classes, health clinics, and vocational training classes. She formalised the women's

group and registered it in 1983 in the name of Nishtha. She focused on ensuring girl child

education and made Vahinis (armies) of women as per their age to build their perspective and

increase their strength, which have now collectively taken the shape of a full-fledged grassroots

women's organization.

1983 Society/ S/41821 DIT (E)/SE/204/97-98/5487-89. 147110101 460



EdelGive’s CapacityBuilding Partner

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TOOLBOX INDIA FOUNDATION

Mumbai, Maharashtra

Toolbox India Foundation’s vision is to help non-profit organizations amplify their impacts if better managed. Toolbox

works as a catalyst to provide strategic assistance to non-profit, growth-stage organizations through its portfolio of highly

skilled, corporate volunteers. Toolbox brings these two together, and provides a platform in which they can collaborate

effectively by offering quality coaching to a selection of non-profits and a stimulating and structured environment for

volunteers. Toolbox emphasizes capacity building as a means of strengthening internal operations and outreach in the

long run.

Toolbox India completed 5 years this year and is in the 3rd year of its strategic partnership with EdelGive Foundation.

TBXI helps non-profits in the definition of their objectives and the development of their organizational capacity to best

reach those objectives, while enabling volunteers from the private sector to share their experience and know-how in the

field of management, finance, communication etc.

ToolBox India Foundation is registered as a not for profit organization under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956.

Vijaya Balaji

Vijaya Balaji is the CEO and Managing Director of ToolBox. She has over 15 years of experience

that include the manufacturing and education sectors. She began her career in the Treasury and

Finance Division of Kodak India Limited before moving on as an academic co-ordinator with an

International School. A Post Graduate in Business Management, Vijaya joined ToolBox India in

2011 and has worked as Project Advisory for over 40 projects. She is an advisory member for

India@75.

EdelGive Foundation: Edelweiss House, Off CST Road, Kalina, Mumbai 400098 | Tel: +91 (22) 4009 4600 | [email protected] | www.edelgive.org

edelgive diary 2016

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