Fellows by Category
Bhumi Hukka Andolan
John Abraham is leading the rural poor in Maharashtra to occupy and stake a formal claim on unused government land, with potential legal, economic, and political implications nationwide.
Working with health insurance companies, Mukteshwari “Mukti” Bosco is establishing a comprehensive health education and health financing system that will enable the poor to access fair, cost-effective, high-quality medical treatment.
Since India’s booming microfinance sector has failed to include the poorest of the poor in its economic development programs, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh has created an innovative “trickle-up” approach to poverty alleviation. Starting with grants and training for people who otherwise lack access to microcredit, his program aims to graduate participants first to regular microfinance programs and then...
Anshu K. Gupta is facilitating an economic bridge between urban, wealthy India and impoverished, rural India by simply sharing the surplus of wealth. Anshu is establishing a culture of sustained donations in India by creating a mechanism for second-hand clothes and goods to pass from the wealthy to the poor.
Pratima Joshi is using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to survey and map city slums, generating critical information to advocate for the provision of essential public services to slum inhabitants in Pune, India and surrounding urban areas.
Rajendra Joshi’s organization, Saath, creates public, private and citizen sector partnerships to transform the slums of large Indian cities into equitable living environments for vulnerable communities.
Youth Technical Training Society
Vineet Khanna (India 1993) is developing a job placement program that includes technical on-the-job training for unskilled, unemployed youth from rural and urban areas.
In Bihar, the poorest and most underdeveloped state in India, vegetable farmers are locked into an inefficient and extractive system currently controlled by middlemen. But Kaushlendra has re-engineered the value chain so that small-scale farmers organized as majority shareholders in their own producer companies bring vegetables to local collection points where his organization transports...
Sunanda Mane is bridging the gap between education imparted in secondary schools and real-life skills required in rural India. By introducing trained local entrepreneurs into schools, Sunanda creates an environment where students are able to develop entrepreneurial skills. As a result of her work in over sixty government-aided schools in rural Maharashtra over the last four years, absenteeism...
By setting up rural labor associations to monitor the transparent and effective implementation of the new National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Seema Prakash and Prakash Michael are creating a grassroots democratic process that improves food security and rural labor relations in India.
Vivekananda Seva Kendra O Shishu Uddayan (VSSU)
Kapil Mondol is moving beyond traditional approaches to microfinancing by introducing microbanking to villagers. Beginning in rural Bengal, Kapil's approach has rapidly spread over the last few years to encompass more than 200 villages, catching the attention of microfinance practitioners who have come from Bangladesh, Africa, and the United States to learn from him.
LEARN
This profile is dedicated to the memory of Nitin More, founder of LEARN Mahila Kamgar Sangathana. It is his passion, integrity, and vision that have changed how thousands of women think not what they cannot do, but of what they can, and the contribution they will each make to society. We celebrate his life with respect and admiration.
Through a unique women worker s union Nitin More...
