self help groups

Dr Kalpana Sankar, a nuclear physicist turned social reformer, co-founded Hand in Hand India, an NGO empowering 2.2 million women, eradicating child labour, and creating 1.5 million jobs. Through self-help groups, financial inclusion, and education, her organisation has transformed rural lives across India, improving sustainable development and gender equality.

Haryana-based Pooja Sharma started Kshitiz, a self-help group, that makes homemade cookies and food items, which sell like hotcakes in five-star hotels and employ 130 women.

Kamal Kumbhar from Osmanabad spent her early years battling incessant poverty, till one NGO changed the course of her life. Today, she hopes she can play the same role for women like her.

For two decades, Telangana's Veer Shetty Biradar -- the founder of SS Bhavani Foods -- has been making millets like sorghum, bajra, foxtail millet and finger millet accessible to the masses.

A victim of child marriage and domestic abuse, Laxmi Waghmare still chose a life of uplifting and empowering women.

Without a college degree, the opportunity of getting a proper job had become slim. But he persevered.

“Today, women from all backgrounds and other villages, including those who have B.Ed degrees or more, come to us to join our work.”

Married off while pursuing her BEd degree, Gurdev Kaur Deol chose not to cower to rural social constraints and ventured into a unique profession. 25 years later, she is a star entrepreneur in Ludhiana!

"These women were stuck in the daily rigmarole of managing the kitchen, kids and the household. But now they were emerging as faces of a widespread change."

“I happened to visit Chandipur in Odisha for test firing of missiles and the people of the state became very close to my heart. When I cleared the UPSC, I opted for Odisha as my first preference."