Dr Kalpana Sankar is a nuclear scientist turned champion of social development. She is also the co-founder and chairperson of the NGO Hand in Hand India.

The international NGO based in India works towards empowering women, educating children, creating healthcare access, combating climate change, and creating jobs.

What is amazing is that Hand in Hand India started out as a charity model in 2002 to help children who were victims of child labour in Tamil Nadu’s Kancheepuram.

“We started eight residential schools across Tamil Nadu, where the curriculum focused on Tamil and English literature, mathematics, physical education, and activity-based learning,” Dr Sankar notes. Nearly 40,000 children benefited from these schools.

In time, the vision was extrapolated to the kids’ families too. “We decided to address issues of community health, skills development, and eventually, job creation. Today, we are a pan-Indian NGO rewriting the story of rural India,” Dr Sankar smiles.

The Nari Shakti Puraskar (2016) awardee is best known for the inclusion model that she has been instrumental in creating.

“We have been able to provide financial inclusion to one million poor people,” she shares, adding that the model focused on facilitating access to economic capital for women.

“We ensured this while providing them (the women) skill training to hone their entrepreneurial ability,” she says.

Dr Sankar adds that the women are trained in group dynamics, benefits of savings, interest computation, and financial and functional literacy.

Through the ‘Graduated Entrepreneurs Programme’, Hand in Hand India partners with reputed academic institutions, banks, and MFIs, and focuses on promoting women-led businesses.

These social entrepreneurship programmes facilitate access to capital, bank credit and a mentoring programme, paving the way for gender equality and financial independence for women.

Dr Sankar has been instrumental in the formation of 50,16,728 family-based enterprises — these include tailor shops, mobile repair shops, petty stores, and food businesses.