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At present, we have 175 NGO partners working in 24 states and 5 union territories in India. 45% of these organizations are women-led. These organizations work with 25+ vulnerable groups including scheduled castes and tribes, particularly vulnerable tribal groups in remote regions, persons with disabilities, sexual minorities, members of the LGBTQIA++ group, survivors of acid attacks and gender-based violence, bonded laborers, farmers, and children in need of care and protection. Our partner NGO interventions are enabling social protection by building agency, protecting rights, and supporting health and education infrastructure while nurturing the well-being of communities and NGO staff.
Click above boxes to see the NGOs working in the respective sector
Founded: 2013
Geographical Focus: Manipur
Lives impacted: 14,400+
Organization Overview:
InSIDE Northeast, under the leadership of Hejang, focuses on uplifting marginalized communities in remote, conflict-affected regions of Manipur. Through interventions in livelihoods, education, youth development, and peacebuilding, the organization supports the Kuki, Naga, and Nepali communities. By providing skill-based training to women, running education centers for children and youth, and organizing cultural and sports events, InSIDE Northeast fosters holistic development. Its emphasis on peace and conflict resolution through awareness camps promotes reconciliation and harmony among diverse groups. Committed to sustainable progress, InSIDE Northeast plays a pivotal role in cultivating a resilient and inclusive society in Northeast India.
Founded: 1999
Geographical Focus: Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh
Organization Overview:
Yuva Vikas Mandal works with communities through a participatory approach to building community leadership and bringing about shifts in trends about intergenerational caste-based slavery. They do this by engaging with community members at the stage of need identification through community meetings, research, and data collection. Through each intervention, they have a defined model of engaging with community members in a holistic manner - for e.g. the PR3- prevention, response, and rehabilitation model for addressing issues of gender-based violence and the social registry-security-protection model for working with migrants. Through each of these interventions, they have built community based organizations representative of community leaders that become forums for community members to come together and collectivise - Survivor Forum for Survivors of Violence (Survivors of Gender Based Violence), Balika panchayats (prevention of SGBV), Dalit shakti sangathan (manual scavenging).
Founded: 1989
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Organization Overview:
WEEDS focuses on building community participation and leadership by first collectivizing women into SHG groups. They build the capacity of SHG members across aspects such as financial literacy, advocacy with local authorities and political participation. Active members of SHGs are further trained in running programs on the ground and join the organization in the capacity of field staff/volunteers. Beyond this, they have also seen community leadership come through in certain projects which are fully run by SHG members, such as the tailoring unit that SHG members now run end to end and the computer and life skills training program wherein SHG members oversee implementation, monitoring and improvement.
Founded: 1998
Geographical Focus: Maharashtra
Organization Overview:
Manav Vikas Foundation works with different stakeholders such as mental health patients, people with disability, and people living around these groups to build awareness and provide handholding support for the application of government policies. They start by engaging the community and including them in different conversations to understand the issues on the ground. For example, HIV patients are included in the decision to change medicine recommendations for HIV-related intervention. They also liaise with doctors, nurses, and block/district administration about the issues of the target community. The organization has volunteers to support them in fields and reach out to the target community, which the organization cannot reach directly.
Founded: 2008
Geographical Focus: Odisha
Organization Overview:
VIEWS is co-founded and led by Beema Rao, a proximate leader from the Jalari community dependent on fishing for livelihoods in Odisha. The organization is actively working to develop youth leaders and capacitate them with all the skills required to function independently. By setting up adolescent resource centres in slums for girls and youth, the organization has been able to create a safe space for them to discuss their issues and build awareness on issues like SRH, child marriage, early pregnancy, menstrual health and more. Girls' clubs have been formed to discuss problems in a mentorship format that enables problem solving. Youth are encouraged to provide remedial classes for their peers to increase completion of education. The organization believes in building social capital to strengthen reach and encourage local leaders or role models.
Founded: 2011
Geographical Focus: Assam
Organization Overview:
Utsah engages with children in need of care and protection through a holistic intervention model, serving as the first point of contact for a child and their family, understanding the support they are seeking - this may include legal aid, education support, compensation and counselling. Utsah's model keeps the child at the centre, and their aim is to create a safe space for children to own their narrative and heal at their own pace. This is done through system strengthening by working with the police system at three levels - the state, district, and police station to make these structures and processes more child-friendly. They also take a participatory approach by engaging communities where children are being reintegrated by running sensitisation programs.
Founded: 2013
Geographical Focus: Madhya Pradesh
Organization Overview:
Sangeeta, a survivor of early marriage and abuse, leads the Udan Women Empowerment Welfare Society. The organization initiates its efforts by collaborating with various stakeholders (families, community members, local police officers, and medical professionals) to support the communities. Awareness camps, workshops, and partnerships with schools and law enforcement agencies support their interventions. The organization extends support to victims of sexual abuse, offering crucial services such as medical and legal aid, rehabilitation, and mental health support. Regular engagement with survivor forums reinforces a sense of community, creating a space for shared experiences and healing. Survivor forums provide a support network and foster a resilient community that enables survivors to rebuild their lives.
Founded: 2005
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Organization Overview:
Sr. Valamarthi, a former domestic worker has led the organization since 2006 and is a proximate leader. The organization involves the target population at every stage, from design to decision making. The community actively shapes the organization's interventions through feedback mechanisms and comprehensive data collection, including community surveys and primary data. A notable example is the journey of elderly domestic workers post-COVID. Initially facing job terminations, these individuals became trainers within the organization. Similarly, the organization’s community-centric approach has been contributing to building leadership in the community and providing a platform for the voices of the target group to empower and educate themselves and others around them.
https://www.sparshgadchiroli.org/
Founded: 2008
Geographical Focus: Maharashtra
Organization Overview:
Sparsh's primary objective is to bring about positive transformation in tribal communities by cultivating strong partnerships with community members. To address deep-rooted customs, Sparsh takes a multi-stakeholder approach to establishing its presence in the community by engaging local governance bodies and faith leaders. Leveraging the expertise of the founder and his students, who are subject matter experts in health and social work, the organization identifies core issues within the community with the support of the volunteer cadre, who have been increasing their proficiency in the Madia Gond language to communicate better with the tribal community. One of the core interventions of the organization is to raise awareness of the practice of Kurma custom. As a result of their approach to awareness building regarding the Kurma custom, in two of the hamlets, the community has abolished the practice and destroyed all Kurma residences.
https://www.sikshasandhan.org/index.php
Founded: 1995
Geographical Focus: Odisha
Organization Overview:
The organization was founded by Anil along with support from Agragamee, another NGO that works tribals in Rayagada, who decided to specifically work on the cause education for Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups in remote areas of Mayurbhanj. Sikhshasandan works with the tribal communities and Denotified Lodha tribe to build community leadership and promote tribal culture and education. They facilitate school-level meetings among community members, Panchayat leaders, and teachers to discuss the issues and challenges in education. They collectivize people in new areas through sports activities and community feasts and start engaging them in community meetings. They capacitate tribal women through locally run Sabai grass crafts and provide marketing and resource centers for them.
Founded: 2003
Geographical Focus: Odisha
Organization Overview:
Seva Niketan is led by Kanchan Bhag and Dashrati Behera. The organization has been actively engaged with the community for a long period, refining its methodology to effectively work with community members. Employing a rights-based approach, the organization initiates its efforts by generating awareness within the community. This involves engaging in open discussions on the rights of the community. Though time investment is required, the organization aims to enhance the community's capacities, enabling them to advocate for their rights.
Founded: 2006
Geographical Focus: Jharkhand
Organization Overview:
Samarparan aims to break the cycle of poverty using a rights-based and agency-building approach. They bring together and support the target community by focusing on education, forming women's and farmer's collectives, and creating safe spaces for youths. Working with various target communities, they encourage agenda-based discussions, facilitate community based planning for interventions, and provide resources. Their objective is to develop local leadership in socio-economically deprived communities that depend on mica mining.
Founded: 2005
Geographical Focus: Uttar Pradesh
Organization Overview:
Samaan works with the intent to empower women so that they can then empower other women in society. They start by creating awareness around women's rights, entitlements, and ways to access rights with the objective of building structures of support for the larger community. They also build capacity amongst women to fight their own court cases through moot courts and mock trials. They pair all their training for women (such as driving) with knowledge of legal and gender equality laws to build their agency. Through their driving training module, they have empowered a group of women to set up their own mechanic garage, which they run end-to-end. Samaan also provides other support to their target communities, such as writing and accounting.
Founded: 2008
Geographical Focus: Bihar
Organization Overview:
Sahyogi's overarching objective is to empower women and girls by providing a platform for open dialogue and support through establishing safe spaces like Gender Resource Centres. Cadres form a volunteer base for the organization, support the team members in identifying needs, implementing monitoring programs, and running Gender Resource Centres. Each centre has two boxes; in the first one is called ‘sawaloon ka pitara’ (question box). Women and girls are encouraged to write their queries that they would like to talk about in upcoming group sessions, and the second box is for feedback. Anonymity and confidentiality are key to both boxes as they foster a safe environment for individuals to ask queries and share their experiences without judgment. Thus, each centre serves as a hub for local women and adolescent girls to learn, express their voices and collaborate with the team for need-based interventions to support survivors.
Founded: 1990
Geographical Focus: Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh
Organization Overview:
Prakriti Women focuses on community involvement right from the start to build abilities to enable the transfer of ownership and accountability to community representatives and enable the sustainability of programs. The organization inputs community voices into program design via Focus Group Discussions, surveys with different village stakeholders (including village-level representatives) to identify challenges and solutions. They also form groups of community members who are capacitated through fellowship programs- to work alongside the organization to run these interventions. For each intervention that they plan with a specific target group, they onboard members of that group into the fellowship.
Founded: 2005
Geographical Focus: Odisha
Organization Overview:
Patang aims to build youth leadership to drive social change and mobilize youth by building their capacities. They do this through different thematic areas like education, gender and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (to build a gender lens), livelihoods (working with young farmers, 60% of whom are women) and child rights. By working with the youth across these themes, they are able to provide support on skill-building (interpersonal and project skills), work plan curriculum and an enabling fund of INR 3000 per month to youth teams to run their programmes. With these efforts, Patang is able to mould youth into more confident leaders who can contribute to the community and advocate with government.
Founded: 2014
Geographical Focus: Assam
Organization Overview:
NEAID is co-founded and led by Neeladri and Miraj who have grown up in the northeast and have personally experienced the lack of exposure and focus on holistic education while growing up which prompted them to start NEAID. The organization is led by people from the region to support development initiatives in tribal and rural areas of Northeastern India focusing on Quality Education, Health, and its determinants. NEAID’s interventions are aligned with sustainable development goals (SDGs) and designed to complement the existing public system.
Founded: 1988
Geographical Focus: Ladakh
Organization Overview:
The organization was started as a relief campaign by Save the Children (STC) during the 1978 flash floods in the Indus Valley. After LNP was formally registered in 1988, STC fully handed over the organization to the local community, and LNP continued working on different issues in the area. Currently, the organization is led by Chotak Gyatso, who belongs to one of the tribal groups in Leh, where LNP ran a nutrition program in the 80s. Since its inception, its focus on building the capacity of the members of the community with the objective of building sustainable solutions has been high, and it undertakes this approach across all projects and interventions.
http://jharkhandmahilautthan.org/
Founded: 2002
Geographical Focus: Jharkhand
Organization Overview:
Neelam Besra, who belongs to the Santhal tribe, is the founder and leader of the organization. While growing up, she witnessed caste and gender-based exploitation of members of her family, and this prompted her to set up the organization. Jharkhand Mahila Uthan works with different stakeholders in Panchayat, such as community leaders, Panchayat leaders, women, and youths, to build community leadership. They initiate their work by collaborating with Self-help groups and also form their own women and youth collectives to cultivate leadership qualities. They also capacitate Panchayat leaders and ward members, especially women leaders, to advocate for village development policies.
Founded: 2003
Geographical Focus: Odisha
Organization Overview:
Jan Sahas Social Empowerment Society works in the Malwa and Nimar regions in Central India to increase access to mental health support for marginalized communities. They work with highly excluded communities, including survivors or those who are at risk of mental health, gender-based violence, unsafe migration, forced labour conditions, sexual exploitation, and trafficking. The organization recognized that the communities they work with, deal with trauma in their day-to-day lives and are largely deprived of adequate mental health care that they require to be back on their feet. To bridge this gap, the organization has developed an in-house counseling unit to foster resilience among our communities and ensure their access to mental health care at a grass-roots level.
Founded: 1979
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Organization Overview:
Led by Jeevanandam, a proximate leader from a small farmer's family in the Shivgangai district. IRCDS provides need-based support to vulnerable communities across Shivgangai and intervenes across various social vulnerabilities associated with bonded labour, education, health (TB and HIV), and social protection. IRCDS's approach entails system strengthening by working with government stakeholders to identify core community-level challenges while strengthening scheme implementation at the grassroots level. The organization has been able to build trust within the community and remains accessible to community members at all times for any form of support.
Founded: 1993
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Organization Overview:
Human Rights Advocacy and Research Foundation is a women led organization led by Tamalarasi a proximate leader. The organization supports both networks and communities through investing in capacity building of both the stakeholders basis their requirements with the larger aim that the learnings from these training are then taken forward and disseminated with the larger community at a village level. The organization also works with the governance bodies by taking inputs from them on the compendium that the organization has created, which has information on all acts, reforms, entitlements and rights of the community. Subsequently, training is conducted with networks and village representatives to help build their capacities. The organization also works with representatives from other districts and smaller CBOs to extend their reach further within the state.
Founded: 2002
Geographical Focus: Rajasthan
Organization Overview:
Gramin Shiksha Kendra was established in response to rural communities' demand for quality education in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan. Their aim is to focus on transforming education perceptions in the community. Through the Uday Community Education Program, the organization empowers communities to lead change, combining service delivery with education. Over nearly two decades, the priority is to eradicate caste and gender discrimination in accessing quality education and fundamental rights. The organization collaborates with children, parents, teachers, adolescent girls, youth, and indigenous De-notified and Nomadic communities in Ranthambhor, fostering confidence and capacities for overcoming present and future challenges in their growth journey.
Founded: 1999
Geographical Focus: Bihar
Organization Overview:
Gram Vikas Yuva Trust was set up by youth from Madhubani district. Gram Vikas Yuva Trust works with communities through a systems-strengthening approach to identify the community's core needs and supports government schemes access to remote geographies. They engage directly with community members at the village level to discuss key issues and how to address these. They further contribute to building strong youth leaders from these vulnerable communities through skill-based training and capacity building initiatives. As a result, many youth leaders have joined the state administration and community representatives at the panchayat and ward levels.
Founded: 1999
Geographical Focus: Chhattisgarh
Organization Overview:
Gram Mitra Samaj Sevi Sansthan has been working towards tribal development for the past two decades. GMSS raises awareness, builds capacity, and empowers marginalized tribal communities with 'strength in cooperation' as its motto, Gram Mitra Samaj Sevi Sansthan envisions an exploitation-free society, ensuring dignity and protected rights for tribal people. Focused on livelihoods, education, health, and women's empowerment, the organization promotes sustainable agriculture, runs tribal schools, enhances healthcare, and empowers women through vocational training. Their collective action approach has significantly improved the economic and social standing of Chhattisgarh's tribal communities.
Founded: 2004
Geographical Focus: Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi
Organization Overview:
The organization is led by Satyender, a Dalit leader who represents the target community the organization works with. The larger goal of the organization is to make the first-generation learners (youth) into role model figures for the communities. Gram Jagat has been able to partner with several Community Led Organizations (CLOs) across Bihar to work with socially excluded communities including Dalit, Adivasi and minority children and youth to facilitate their access to education including higher education, leadership on rights and entitlements, making local governance inclusive and enhancing employability and entrepreneurship among the most marginalized.
Founded: 2002
Geographical Focus: Rajasthan
Organization Overview:
Ekal Nari Shakti Sansthan focuses on creating an identity for single women and empowers them to advocate for their rights by forming membership groups of single women. ENSS mobilizes single women into block, district and state level committees, all of which are democratically elected by single women in the area. They capacitate these groups to liaise with relevant authorities and support them with planning projects to solve problems at a local level. They also build a clear growth path for women leaders who go on to represent the group at the state level.
Founded: 1993
Geographical Focus: Gujarat
Organization Overview:
Drishti is a non-profit, which uses arts and communication tools to cultivate grassroots development in India. Their programs are all approached through the prism of equality and with a commitment to community participation and outreach.
Founded:1985
Geographical Focus: Gujarat
Organization Overview:
Disha has created new community-based institutions based on the principles of equity and freedom, where all citizens are empowered stakeholders, thereby able to influence policies that affect their lives and livelihoods. These community-based institutions are robust and actively working to improve the economic and social conditions of marginalized communities, including daily-wage labour, tribals, Dalits, landless persons, and women.
Founded: 2001
Geographical Focus: West Bengal
Organization Overview:
The organization aims to empower children residing in and around red-light areas to break an intergenerational cycle of forced entry into sex work and has created a safe space for children within these vulnerable communities to report any form of distress. Diksha has enabled this through a model focused on building youth leadership who are trained and mentored to become the first points of contact for any child in a situation where they are feeling unsafe. Youth leaders and women's collectives built by Diksha are now trained to address community issues and sensitive cases independently, especially in areas like Kalighat where sex work is prevalent.
Founded: 2005
Geographical Focus: Mizoram
Organization Overview:
Cod Nerc focuses on building community leadership through the collectivization of target communities into Farmer Producer Organizations, Self Help Groups, Joint Liability Groups, and women's groups. They focus on building the institutional capacities of such groups, including training in financial management, compliance and strategic planning with the objective of building independent institutions. In addition to this, they have also created pathways for community members to play a key role in decision-making pertaining to Cod Nerc's programs by forming decision-making groups for each program they run. By mandate, these groups have representation from the communities that these programs serve, along with specialists and staff who take collective decisions on program financing, implementation and planning.
Founded: 1991
Geographical Focus: Odisha
Organization Overview:
Bijaylal, the founder and leader of the organization, belongs to the OBC community, which is one of the target communities for the organization's initiatives. Having grown up in a family dedicated to community-based education, Bijaylal returned to his village post-graduation to engage in social service. The organization's commitment to community empowerment is evident in its early work, where after building capacities in watershed management, the community took charge of its development initiatives, raising funds and overseeing programs independently. The overarching goal is to foster self-reliant communities capable of sustaining their development initiatives even after the organization exits the community.
https://communityinitiative.in/
Founded: 2002
Geographical Focus: Manipur
Organization Overview:
Centre for Community Initiative's (CCI) leader Pauzagin Tonsing's personal experience with his son, who was born with a disability, prompted him to work with Children with Disabilities(CwD), specifically in Manipur, where there is a huge gap in infrastructure, community support and resources for disability. CCI focuses on building community ownership and agency in several ways. While working with CwDs, they take an individualized approach to building a customized plan for each child. To ensure the child can receive the support required, they engage and capacitate different stakeholders in a community. With parents, they heavily engage in identifying needs, monitoring progress, forming parents’ groups, training them to advocate with different authorities for the rights of CwDs, facilitating access to special educator learning courses and providing counselling. They also train the staff of government and private schools in the area to enable the inclusion of CwDs in mainstream education facilities. In addition, CCI also runs a school for children with disabilities to ensure that access to education is not hampered.
https://bravesoulsfoundation.org/
Founded: 2021
Geographical Focus: Delhi, West Bengal, Chandigarh
Organization Overview:
Brave Souls Foundation's works with acid attack survivors and their aim is to ultimately ensure that survivors are able to reintegrate within society, are financially independent and capable of leading a self-sufficient life. Brave Souls Foundation engages with the target community in a holistic manner, working with survivors of acid attacks through a 360 degree intervention model supporting them as a first point of contact post-incident, to providing legal aid, health support, rehabilitation and reintegration support. They also work on strengthening systems through advocacy efforts with government stakeholders for a ban on access to acid and the introduction of safeguarding policies. Through their interventions, Brave Souls Foundation has been able to build a strong network of survivors of acid attacks, who have a strong sense of camaraderie amongst themselves and have been reclaiming public spaces for themselves through social campaigns.
Founded: 2005
Geographical Focus: Madhya Pradesh
Organization Overview:
The main aim of Aim for Awareness of Society (AAS) is to build community leadership that can help create child-friendly panchayats where every child has access to education and government support. AAS's interventions are based on 4 pillars – protection (tackling issues like child abuse, child marriage and child labour), prevention (working with parents and supporting individuals in the child's immediate ecosystem), people's participation, partnerships (knowledge and resource based partnerships) and propagation (awareness building). Through this pathway of 4 pillars, the organization has been able to impart life skills training, capacity building, and access to education and basic amenities to children. They also aim to build community volunteers who can mobilize youth groups towards volunteering work.
Founded: 2006
Headquarters: Mysore, Karnataka
Geographical Focus: Karnataka
Lives Impacted: 7,000
Organization Overview:
Sahaja Samrudha is one of the leaders in traditional agrobiodiversity. They primarily operate in Karnataka where they create market-based models of conserving indigenous seeds/crops via farmer collectivization amongst tribals (Jenu kuruba), minorities and the landless community. Sahaja Samrudha then act as resource agency to advocate these models across the country and influence policy for the same.
Founded: 2001
Headquarters: Goalpara, Assam
Geographical Focus: Assam and Meghalaya
Lives Impacted: 30,000+
Organization Overview:
Ajagar Social Circle was started to bring about a change in socio-economic status, support low-income communities and increase the livelihood opportunities of the people in north-eastern region. The organization at present is engaged in a range of activities that collectively aim to provide social and economic security to the farming, allied and non-farming community living in the Assam-Meghalaya belt.
Founded: 2002
Headquarters: Sipajhar, Assam
Geographical Focus: Assam
Lives Impacted: 2,00,000+
Organization Overview:
SATRA supports families from economically poor ST communities (Bodo, Rabha and tea-tribes) as well as religious minorities and Nepalis living in flood prone areas of Assam. Their mission is to empower them for economic growth and self-reliance. They do this through interventions in livelihoods, disaster risk reduction, mental health, literacy and child protection.
Founded: 1998
Headquarters: Baksa, Assam
Geographical Focus: Assam
Lives Impacted: 53,000 households
Organization Overview:
The organization works with the farmers, women, and youths residing in the flood-prone areas of Assam. It aims to promote the sustainable development of communities through research and advocacy in the field of disaster management, livelihood generation, women empowerment, health, education, and vocational training initiatives.
Founded: 1987
Headquarters: New Delhi
Geographical Focus: Delhi NCR
Lives Impacted: 15,000+
Organization Overview:
Shakti Shalini approaches gender-based violence through a response and prevention model. Through response interventions they work with survivors and children of survivors of GBV through crisis intervention, shelter and counselling support. They work with socio-economically poor migrant communities in South-East Delhi focused on prevention of gender & sexual violence.
Founded: 2003
Headquarters: New Delhi
Geographical Focus: 15+ Indian states*
Lives Impacted: 150,000+
Organization Overview:
Zubaan documents hidden histories and lived experiences of different marginalized groups by engaging with students, women’s groups, unions and collectives, young researchers and theatre groups from these communities through knowledge sharing, mobilization and building unity. The organization has been an active participant of the women’s movement and continues to carry forward the work of its parent organization Kali for Women.
Founded: 1993
Headquarters: Secunderabad, Telangana
Geographical Focus: Telangana
Lives Impacted: 10,000+
Organization Overview:
Yakshi is a resource and creativity centre for children, youth and women from Scheduled Caste (Dalits), Scheduled Tribes (Savara, Jatapu, Konda Reddy, Konda Kammara, Koya, Chenchu, Gond, Pardhan) and minorities. They focus on building common knowledge and an aligned understanding of the issues of democratic governance, social justice and food sovereignty, within these communities.
Founded: 1986
Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra
Geographical Focus: Maharashtra
Lives Impacted: 30,000+
Organization Overview:
Akshara Centre enables access to education for girls from deprived communities by building safe public spaces and college campuses for women and girls. They work with girls from families headed by single women, migrant and minority families, students in government colleges from marginalized communities and children from SC-ST communities. They do this through youth mobilisation, scholarship opportunities and advocacy efforts with local institutions.
Founded: 1992
Headquarters: Osmanabad, Maharashtra
Geographical Focus: Maharashtra
Lives Impacted: 200,000+
Organization Overview:
HALO Foundation works with survivors of domestic violence, single women and children of single women from Scheduled Caste (Mahar and Mang)/ Scheduled Tribe / OBC (Chambar and Dhor) communities. They do this through various health support initiatives and crisis intervention support for survivors of domestic violence. HALO also works with community members to build a cadre of health workers capable of identifying and treating minor illnesses.
Founded: 1997
Headquarters: Balodabazar Bhatapara, Chhatisgarh
Geographical Focus: Chhatisgarh
Lives Impacted: 1,000,000+
Organization Overview:
Kalp Samaj Sevi Sanstha works with Adivasi communities (Gond, Kamar and Bhunjia), forest dwellers, Persons with Disability (PWDs) and other tribes in Chhattisgarh. By building community leadership, it aims to sustainably empower them socio-economically through interventions across livelihoods, education, health and environment.
Founded: 2006
Headquarters: Ranipet, Tamil Nadu
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Lives Impacted: 25,000+
Organization Overview:
Thendral Movement (TM) works with women and children from Scheduled Caste (SC), nomadic and other tribal communities. They work towards empowering women and girls who face different forms of violence and sexual harassment, through a range of community-based, action-oriented, and people-centric programs. TM started working in 2004 and was registered as a Trust upon collective demand by women from the target communities.
Founded: 1997
Headquarters: Bhubaneshwar, Odisha
Geographical Focus: Odisha
Lives Impacted: 55,000+
Organization Overview:
Nirman works with farmers, tribals, and forest-dwelling communities in Odisha. Nirman is committed to the inclusive, holistic, and sustainable development of marginalized communities through a regenerative eco-system, and empowerment of the local community and resource-poor. The struggle as a household and community-led the founders to start Nirman to address the needs and issues of the farming community.
Founded: 2005
Headquarters: Murshidabad, West Bengal
Geographical Focus: West Bengal
Lives Impacted: 250,000+
Organization Overview:
Karna Subarna works with gender sexual minorities or the LGBTQIA+ community with a focus on building resilience within the communities and generating sustainable livelihood opportunities. This includes formal mobilization of interventions within the LGBTQIA+ community, capacity building support, skill based training and reclaiming public (physical and online) spaces through dialogue and public events.
Founded: 1991
Headquarters: Indore, Madhya Pradesh
Geographical Focus: Madhya Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 223,500+
Organization Overview:
MSSN works with women from marginalized communities in the unorganized sector such as beedi workers, construction workers, domestic workers and others in villages and urban slums of Madhya Pradesh. It aims to provide stronger social security and improved quality of life to the community through leadership development, policy advocacy, livelihood trainings, building financial resilience and by facilitating access to rights and entitlements.
Founded: 2001
Headquarters: Sambalpur, Odisha
Geographical Focus: Odisha
Lives Impacted: 24,500+
Organization Overview:
Bhittibhumi works with Dalit, Other Backward Class (OBC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities, especially Gond, Kisan and Sabar tribes, in the Sambalpur and Bargarh districts of Odisha. They support smallholder farmers and children with accessing entitlements, diversifying agricultural practices, and reconnecting with their social-cultural heritage.
Founded: 2008
Headquarters: Kolkata, West Bengal
Geographical Focus: West Bengal
Lives Impacted: 69,400+
Organization Overview:
Talash works with girls, boys, youth and the queer community from minority religions, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities, in the Kolkata and Malda districts of West Bengal. They work to transform gender norms by enabling adolescent girls and young women to redefine their life-scripts, building awareness among men and boys and capacitating young people on sexual and reproductive rights.
Founded: 2007
Headquarters: Silchar, Assam
Geographical Focus: Assam
Lives Impacted: 40,000+
Organization Overview:
Sanatan Unnayan Sangstha (SUS) works with tea garden workers* in Southern Assam. By empowering the target communities through livelihood support, education, and healthcare interventions, the organization is building resilience against adversities such as floods, and challenges posed by discrimination, and economic hardships.
Founded: 1992
Headquarters: Delhi
Geographical Focus: Delhi
Lives Impacted: 8,225,000+
Organization Overview:
Kislay works with a participatory approach to empower urban poor in slums of Delhi. A large part of the target population is composed of migrant workers engaging in domestic work or construction work. 85% of the slum dwellers Kislay works with belong to the Dalit community. The organization has an overarching focus on women and children across all their interventions.
Founded: 1994
Headquarters: Delhi
Geographical Focus: Delhi
Lives Impacted: 150,000
Organization Overview:
Deepshikha Samiti started out under the as part of a collective of community-based organizations, and later became an independent organization with the aim of improving the socioeconomic status of women and the transgender community through policy advocacy, skill development, awareness raising, and community mobilization.
Founded: 1998
Headquarters: Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh
Geographical Focus: Uttar Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 90,000
Organization Overview:
In 1998, a group of 10-12 individuals from the Dalit community came together to collectively address the issues of discrimination and atrocities faced by the Dalits. They started working as a youth group to build awareness on caste-based discrimination through mobilization of women and youth in these communities. Since then, the organization has evolved to work with the Musahar, Dalit, and Nat community across multiple themes.
Founded: 1995
Headquarters: Churachandpur, Manipur
Geographical Focus: Manipur
Lives Impacted: 275,000
Organization Overview:
Rural Aid Service (RAS) was established during the period of Naga-Kuki ethnic conflict in the 1990s in Manipur to promote peace and provide relief and rehabilitation services in the conflict-ridden area. Since then, the organization has expanded its focus to development of sustainable natural resources and livelihoods for the local ethnic groups, primarily those within the Kuki tribe such as Thadou, Paite, Zou, Vaiphel Gangte, Mate, Hmar.
Founded: 2011
Headquarters: East Khasi Hills, Meghalaya
Geographical Focus: Assam and Meghalaya
Lives Impacted: 30,000+
Organization Overview:
Diya Foundation came out of the personal experiences of Martin Rabha around violence, tribal drudgery and discrimination faced as a migrant worker’s son. With capacity building as the base approach, it works with pottery makers, fishermen, tea tribes, Rabha and Garo tribals and minorities. Along with improving economics, Diya Foundation also work on health, gender equality and bridge education.
Founded: 1996
Headquarters: Latur, Maharashtra
Geographical Focus: Maharashtra
Lives Impacted: 57,400+
Organization Overview:
Grameen Mahila Vikas Sansthan works with women and girls from underserved communities in the drought prone district of Latur. GMVS works on addressing issues of gender-based violence, child marriage and farmer suicides amongst others. They work to build capacities within the communities they serve and harness the transformative potential of collective action.
Founded: 2006
Headquarters: Gariyaband, Chhattisgarh
Geographical Focus: Chhattisgarh
Lives Impacted: 3,800+
Organization Overview:
LASS was founded by four proximate leaders who were motivated to solve the issues confronting Chhattisgarh's Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) and other communities. Its mission is to empower indigenous people by raising knowledge about gender justice, their constitutional and fundamental rights.
Founded: 1984
Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra
Geographical Focus: Maharashtra
Lives Impacted: 50,000+
Organization Overview:
ASVSS works with Dalits and Vimukta Jati and Nomadic Tribe (VJNT) communities in the drought-prone region of Solapur. By fostering leadership among youth and women, the organization focuses on building interventions through community consultations and developmental processes based on equality, liberty, and social justice.
www.mahilajanadhikarsamiti.org
Founded: 2000
Headquarters: Ajmer, Rajasthan
Geographical Focus: Rajasthan
Lives Impacted: 100,000
Organization Overview:
Mahila Jan Adikar Samiti (MJAS) works towards uniting and empowering women in Ajmer, Rajasthan through collective action for social transformation to address the vicious cycle of poverty, patriarchy and ignorance that results in exclusion of women from social, political and economic spheres, by providing a space for everyone to come together and fight for gender equality and justice at a village and community level.
Founded: 1997
Headquarters: Kolkata, West Bengal
Geographical Focus: West Bengal
Lives Impacted: 120,000
Organization Overview:
DMSC aims to bring dignity to the lives of female sex workers (FSWs) and counter the social stigma associated with their profession. They work in 50 red light districts through their interventions focused on anti-trafficking and education access for children of sex workers. They also work with other vulnerable communities to facilitate access to social security benefits.
Founded: 1999
Headquarters: Kolkata, West Bengal
Geographical Focus: West Bengal
Lives Impacted: 196,000
Organization Overview:
Sappho strives to build a safe, gender affirmative society for members of the trans and queer community by enabling advocacy and dialogue around gender and sexuality. Sappho predominantly focusses on working with members of community assigned female at birth - (Lesbians, Bisexual women, Trans men, non-binary), through various support initiatives – peer support, capacity building, crisis helpline, counselling and shelter homes.
www.srishti.ngo
Founded: 2002
Headquarters: Gadchiroli, Maharashtra
Geographical Focus: Maharashtra
Lives Impacted: 75,000
Organization Overview:
The Society for Rural Initiatives in Sustainable and Holistic Themes in India (SRISHTI) works with youth, farmers and women from Koli and Gond tribes to raise community awareness and capacity to monitor government schemes and laws in education, livelihood, women empowerment, environmental sustainability, agroforestry, and natural resource management.
www.maarga.org.in
Founded: 2000
Headquarters: Bangalore, Karnataka
Geographical Focus: Karnataka
Lives Impacted: 85,000+
Organization Overview:
Maarga works with an ideology that the deteriorating situation and living conditions in urban slums is a matter of justice above anything else. Working majorly with Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and minority communities, they cover all development challenges that the community wants to focus on. Keeping community at the forefront, Maarga has been able to setup mature interventions around local governance, education, health, livelihoods and affiliated sectors.
http://www.kolkatarista.org/
Founded: 2004
Headquarters: Kolkata, West Bengal
Geographical Focus: West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand
Lives Impacted: 50,000+
Organization Overview:
Kolkata Rista works with the transgender, lesbian, gay, Hijra and Kothi communities with the aim of empowering these communities and working towards social inclusion and reducing stigma by raising awareness around their basic rights, health rights and capacitating the transgender community to advocate for the same.
Founded: 1985
Headquarters: Dhenkanal, Odisha
Geographical Focus: Odisha
Lives Impacted: 700,000+
Organization Overview:
Samajik Seva Sadan started as a non-formal school to teach the children of the Juang Tribe who faced challenges in accessing education as they live in remote areas in the aspirational district of Dhenkanal in Odisha. The organization works with a prime focus on women and children for education and builds financial security through microfinance schemes and self- help groups.
Founded: 2004
Headquarters: Jaipur, Rajasthan
Geographical Focus: Rajasthan
Lives Impacted: 200,000+
Organization Overview:
Dalit Manavadhikhar Kendra Samiti (DMKS) founded in 2004 in Jaipur focuses on addressing caste-based violence. The organization works institutionally to combat violence and customary practices prevailing in Rajasthan. DMKS works towards building awareness and agency within the community for impactful implementation of existing laws to bring about social justice and address the unique challenges of vulnerable communities.
Founded: 1993
Headquarters: Ballia, Uttar Pradesh
Geographical Focus: Uttar Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 600,000+
Organization Overview:
The organization was set up by Khalikun Nisha who basis her own lived experience of growing up restricted by patriarchal gender norms, was inspired to work on women's issues. In order to achieve this, NBNVS believes that it is best for women to identify and solve their own problems. NBVS promotes women groups at the panchayat level that are responsible to identify issues and find solutions on their own.
Founded: 2005
Headquarters: Bangalore, Karnataka
Geographical Focus: Karnataka
Lives Impacted: 4,500+
Organization Overview:
Voice of Needy Foundation (VNF) was founded to enable parents of children with disabilities (CWDs) to support their children. From a small informal rehabilitation center set up in a slum area, VNF today is working with persons with disabilities (PWDs) across districts in Karnataka focusing on early-stage intervention and education among children with development delays and livelihood skill development for PWDs. VNF also builds capacity through community-based rehabilitation programs to enable target communities to advocate for their rights and entitlements
http://www.bundelkhand.in/vanangana
Founded: 1993
Headquarters: Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh
Geographical Focus: Bundelkhand Region(M.P, U.P)
Lives Impacted: 31,000+
Organization Overview:
Vanangana was founded in 1993 by Madhavi Kukreja with the focus to work with women coming from SC (chamaar,valmiki), ST (Kol) and religious minority communities who face violence within their families, community and beyond. Owing to geographical location and condition, livelihood has been impacted, high level of migration is observed and lack of access towards basic amenities is a common struggle.
Founded: 2009
Headquarters: Belgaum, Karnataka
Geographical Focus: Karnataka
Lives Impacted: 1,00,000
Organization Overview:
SEVAK was founded in 2009 by Anand Lobo. The organization works with the rural and urban communities (STs and OBCs) for forming and strengthening community-based organizations, promoting livelihood opportunities, management and development of natural resources, improving health and education status of the community, protecting and promoting rights of the children (Devdasi girls) and empowerment of women.
Founded: 2004
Headquarters: Mangalore, Karnataka
Geographical Focus: Karnataka
Lives Impacted: 8,000+
Organization Overview:
Sevabharathi aims provide support to persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) by raising awareness of the degree of injury, access to rehabilitative interventions. They aim to set up an institutional rehabilitation center that can support eight paraplegic and two quadriplegic patients from low socioeconomic backgrounds to optimize recovery, adapt to a new way of life and support them to rebuild their independency and re-enter the communities.
Founded: 2002
Headquarters: Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh
Geographical Focus: Uttar Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 1,500+
Organization Overview:
Sahjani Shiksha Kendra (SSK) is a feminist organization that works towards empowering women and adolescent girls through education and literacy-based programming. The women from the target communities belong to Scheduled Castes (Dalits- Bankar and Pal), Scheduled Tribes (Sahariya), and Backward Classes. The organization also works on different social issues such as- employment, food security and leadership.
Founded: 2002
Headquarters: Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Lives Impacted: 5,500 +
Organization Overview:
Rural Development Council (RDC) was founded and run by a tribal leader (Mrs. Gowri K) to work towards the upliftment and betterment of the Irula Adivasi and Dalit community. The community has no access to amenities which have further distanced them from society. Its focus is on enabling women and children from these communities as they are at risk of being exploited of their basic human rights.
Founded: 2014
Headquarters: Hyderabad, Telangana
Geographical Focus: Telangana
Lives Impacted: 1,000 +
Organization Overview:
Rubaroo aims to be an organization where adolescents and young people are empowered to co-create a space to understand their 'Self' better, understand issues in society and take action. Their programs, campaigns, exposures, internships, camps, workshops, youth-led change initiatives, are all designed to challenge norms, stereotypes, social patterns by pushing some comfort zones through their activity-based curricula.
Founded: 1989
Headquarters: Gariaband, Chhattisgarh
Geographical Focus: Chhattisgarh
Lives Impacted: 390,000+
Organization Overview:
PRERAK was founded to serve communities that continue to be at risk of displacement due to the construction of a dam in Gariaband. Its work has evolved to also focus on tribals displaced due to coal mining and those who have been displaced from the Barnavapara forest. PRERAK works mainly with 7 primitive tribes – Baiga, Bhujia, Kawar, Abuj, Maria, Pahadi, Korba – and Gond, Halba and Dhurvaa Adivasis whose population is declining.
Founded: 1995
Headquarters: Bishnupur, Manipur
Geographical Focus: Manipur
Lives Impacted: 15,000+
Organization Overview:
People’s Resource Development Association (PRDA) was founded as a youth group to support with re-settlement of people impacted by flood that was triggered by the construction of the Ithai dam in Manipur in 1990. Since then, the organization has evolved to work on livelihood promotion, protection of women & child rights, access to rights & entitlements and natural resource management for the Scheduled Tribes (Naga, Meitei, Chiru, Kuki) that reside in the Bishnupur district of Manipur.
http://mahiti-gujarat.org/index.php
Founded: 1994
Headquarters: Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Geographical Focus: Gujarat
Lives Impacted: 7,15,000+
Organization Overview:
People’s Resource Development Association (PRDA) was founded as a youth group to support with re-settlement of people impacted by flood that was triggered by the construction of the Ithai dam in Manipur in 1990. Since then, the organization has evolved to work on livelihood promotion, protection of women & child rights, access to rights & entitlements and natural resource management for the Scheduled Tribes (Naga, Meitei, Chiru, Kuki) that reside in the Bishnupur district of Manipur.
Founded: 2006
Headquarters: Sonitpur, Assam
Geographical Focus: Assam
Lives Impacted: 15,000+
Organization Overview:
MASK, a federation of 100+ SHGs was founded for socio-economic empowerment of women from Scheduled Tribes (Boro, Garo, Mishing, Nyishi, Rabha, Tea tribes) and Other Backward Caste (Nepali) of Assam. MASK envisions to transform the tribal communities through interventions across inclusive livelihood opportunities, natural resource management and climate mitigation, education and SHG strengthening.
Founded: 1994
Headquarters: Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
Geographical Focus: Uttar Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 500,000+
Organization Overview:
Lok Chetana Samiti was started in 1994 with the mission to build a movement of people who can effectively contribute to changing society in favour of the poor and marginalized. It works with the Youth and Women from Dalit (Maha Dalits and Nat community), Musahar communities, minorities and children with disability.
Founded: 2004
Headquarters: Davnagree, Karnataka
Geographical Focus: Karnataka
Lives Impacted: 1,000+
Organization Overview:
The organization aims to support people with Hemophilia and other blood disorders. It envisions building a society where hemophilia is not a burden for people and the children are free of pain by providing medical and psycho-social support to the patients and their families. Along with working with all the hemophilic patients, they mainly focus on patients from the below poverty-line families.
Founded: 2004
Headquarters: Daringbadi, Odisha
Geographical Focus: Odisha
Lives Impacted: 125,000
Organization Overview:
KZSVS aims to empower the historically, socially and geographically marginalized Gond, Galde and Kutia Kondh tribal communities from hilly, inaccessible regions of Odisha. It endeavors to enable dignified lives for these communities through interventions across livelihoods, education, biodiversity conservation, disaster preparedness, use of plant-based medicines and tribal development.
Founded: 1983
Headquarters: Madurai, Tamil Nadu
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Lives Impacted: 50,000+
Organization Overview:
Institute of Self Management (ISM) aims to facilitate social and gender justice. They work in urban and rural districts of Madurai, Theni, Kodaikanal and Dindigul in Tamil Nadu with Paraiyar, Arunthathiyar, Paliyar, Pulaiyar and Narikuravar communities by mobilizing informal and unorganized workers and underserved women from the community to enable agency while building leadership within the communities.
Founded: 2002
Headquarters: Tikamgarh, Madhya Pradesh
Geographical Focus: Madhya Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 100,000+
Organization Overview:
Gramin Swavlamban Samiti, founded by Rajkumar Ahirwar, works with migrant workers, bonded labours, women and children from various Dalit communities (Valmiki, Banskar and Chamar) across Bundelkhand region. They aim to empower the communities to become self-reliant by intervening in safe migration practices, education and reducing violence against women.
Founded: 2006
Headquarters: Chandel, Manipur
Geographical Focus: Manipur
Lives Impacted: 35,000+
Organization Overview:
Centre for Women and Girls (CWG) was founded in 2006 by Hechin Haokip in Chandel district of Manipur and works with 2 districts along the Indo-Myanmar Border. The organization endeavors to empower women and youth by providing need-based capacity building on sustainable livelihood, human rights, and governance. They strive to promote justice through quality education with the involvement of the community.
Founded: 1992
Headquarters: Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Lives Impacted: 18,000
Organization Overview:
VSEDT started off as a students’ movement to prevent and eradicate caste based violence, manual scavenging and bonded labor in Tirrupur, Erode and Coimbatore, where a large portion of the Dalit population belongs to the Dalit Arunthathiyar community. The organization works with women and children from the community across the themes of education, livelihoods, rights based awareness and agency building.
Founded: 1999
Headquarters: Bellary, Karnataka
Geographical Focus: Karnataka
Lives Impacted: 1,300+
Organization Overview:
Vimukthi Ballari was set up by rural sex workers to address the stigma and discrimination against female sex workers (FSW) by focusing on issues related to health, livelihoods and social status of FSW in Bellary, Karnataka. The organization works with FSW, up to 45 years of age, from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Class communities including widows, women deserted by their husbands and Devadasis.
Founded: 2001
Headquarters: Banda, Uttar Pradesh
Geographical Focus: Uttar Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 15,000
Organization Overview:
Vidhya Dham Samiti (VDS), primarily works with bonded and farm laborers and economically poor communities of Dalits, Other Backward Classes, Muslims & small percentage of Scheduled Tribes in the drought-prone, remote and rural regions of Bundelkhand. Its mission is to empower people through education, health care, livelihood creation and access to social justice.
Founded: 2005
Headquarters: Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Lives Impacted: 20,000+
Organization Overview:
Vanavil Trust was started in 2005 in the aftermath of Asian Tsunami of 2004 to support children of two Nomadic communities, Boom Boom Mattikarars and Narikuravars, in Tamil Nadu. After 17 years of working with the communities, Vanavil now has grown into an organization with multiple projects that are aimed to support the education of the children from the nomadic tribal communities.
Founded: 2006
Headquarters: Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Lives Impacted: 89,000+
Organization Overview:
Thozhamai was established as a resource centre for human rights and a study of the state of relocation sites in the Semmencherry neighborhood of Chennai resulted in the organization’s focus on serving the urban poor. Thozhamai works with women, children and youth belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities residing in two resettlement colonies (Semmanchery, Perumbakkam) on the outskirts of Chennai.
https://www.spandan4change.in/
Founded: 2002
Headquarters: Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh
Geographical Focus: Madhya Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 51,000+
Organization Overview:
Spandan Samaj Seva Samiti was set up to work with the Langoti Korku tribe in the rural, remote and hilly villages of Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh. 35.05% of the district’s population is from the Scheduled Tribes, and about 9.7% of the district is likely to be Korku. The organization works on nutrition, livelihoods and cultural preservation with the Korkus, with a focus on women and children.
Founded: 2014
Headquarters: Viluppuram, Pondicherry
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Lives Impacted: 250 CWSN
Organization Overview:
Sristi Foundation works towards creating an inclusive society for children and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in rural areas. Through a unique approach of education, life skills training, and agriculture built on a foundation of love and support, Sristi provides people with intellectual disabilities economic and social empowerment to enable them to live as independently and as confidently as possible.
www.hamarimuskansouthkolkata.org/
Founded: 2009
Headquarters: Kolkata, West Bengal
Geographical Focus: West Bengal
Lives Impacted: 3900
Organization Overview:
SKHM works with women forced into prostitution from Scheduled Caste community – Bauri, Muchi, Dhoba, Pod, Namasudra, their children, and their ‘fixed’ men (temporary father figures who provide familial support) in the red-light areas of Bowbazaar and Sonagachi in Kolkata. They focus on rehabilitation and mental health along with education, and livelihoods towards enabling the communities to lead a life of dignity.
Founded: 1994
Headquarters: Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Geographical Focus: Gujarat
Lives Impacted: 250,000
Organization Overview:
SWATI was set up with the aim to support the socio-economic empowerment of women in Surendranagar (erstwhile Patdi) and eventually started focusing on violence against women (VAW) as a public health concern which acts as one of the biggest barriers to women’s development. The organization works with girls and women (>14 years) , and young men (14-25 years) from Scheduled Tribe, Dalit, Minority and Other Backward Classes communities.
Founded: 1993
Headquarters: Ongole, Andhra Pradesh
Geographical Focus: Andhra Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 16,300+
Organization Overview:
HELP works in five districts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana focusing on sex workers, survivors of sex trafficking and children of sex workers of school-going age (3 to 18 years). They work across the trafficking cycle which includes rescue of trafficking survivors from hotspots, community-based and institutional rehabilitation, policy advocacy and capacity building of relevant stakeholders.
Founded: 1993
Headquarters: Rangareddy, Telangana
Geographical Focus: Telangana
Lives Impacted: 2,00,000
Organization Overview:
Society for Environment Protection & Education Development (SEED) works with farmers, divorced and single women and children from Scheduled Tribe (ST)- Chenchu, Erukala and Banjara and Scheduled Caste (SC)- Mala, Madiga Dalit communities from geographically isolated areas in Telangana. It aims to eradicate poverty by ensuring food security, ecological balance and quality access to health and education.
Founded: 1980
Headquarters: Mahisagar, Gujarat
Geographical Focus: Gujarat
Lives Impacted: 250,000
Organization Overview:
SARTHI was established as a branch of Social Work and Research Centre (SWRC), Tilonia with the aim to empower underserved communities in rural and tribal pockets of the district with a focus on women’s development. The organization primarily works with women and other members of Bhil families and some from Scheduled Caste (Chamar and Harijan) communities.
Founded: 2003
Headquarters: Puducherry
Geographical Focus: Puducherry
Lives Impacted: 12,000+
Organization Overview:
Satya Special School aims to empower people with special needs and lead the way toward inclusion in education, employment, and society at large by specialized intervention, rehabilitation, capacity building, and public policy advocacy. One of their objectives is to support mothers of children with special needs (CWSN) to facilitate the holistic development of their children to lead a life with dignity.
Founded: 2005
Headquarters: East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh
Geographical Focus: Andhra Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 1,300+
Organization Overview:
Santhivardhana Ministries aims to build self-reliance in person and children with disabilities (PWDs and CWDs) from flood-prone East Godavari district of Tamil Nadu. SM believes the quality of life for PWDs can be improved through meaningful education, skilling and community sensitivity and support. They focus on building self-reliance through residential schools, livelihoods programs, micro-enterprises and access to rights and entitlements.
skvs.org
Founded: 2004
Headquarters: Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh
Geographical Focus: Uttar Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 48,000+
Organization Overview:
SKVS aims for justice & equity of the Musahar (‘rat eater’, Dalit) communities in Kushinagar district at the Indo-Nepal Border. These communities were traditional rat-hunters and historic social exclusion and stigma has retained them in undignified living and work conditions. SKVS believes that providing access to land rights, political agency, education and skilling can empower these communities for a self-reliant & dignified life.
salempeopletrust.1ngo.in
Founded: 2007
Headquarters: Salem, Tamil Nadu
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Lives Impacted: 17,000+
Organization Overview:
SPT focuses on action against bonded labor and child rights in Salem district of Tamil Nadu. It was set up by Dalit families in response to the historic caste based discrimination that still retains many families in bonded labor. SPT focuses on rescue and rehabilitation of bonded families and children, informal schooling, livelihoods, advocacy and action against female infanticide, child marriage, child labor.
Founded: 2005
Headquarters: Salem, Tamil Nadu
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Lives Impacted: 35,000+
Organization Overview:
Rural Women Development Trust (RWDT) was set up to work with Dalit Arunthathiyar communities in rural remote villages in the western Salem district of Tamil Nadu. 16.67% of the district’s population is from the Scheduled Castes. The organization works on the rescue and rehabilitation of women and children especially, who are Dalit Arunthathiyar and debt-bonded laborers, an exploited social class that is often treated as slaves.
Founded: 2001
Headquarters: Erode, Tamil Nadu
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Lives Impacted: 16,300+
Organization Overview:
Registered in 2001, READ works in the districts of Erode & Tirupur focussing on communities marginalized on the basis of caste - Dalits and tribals. Amongst Dalits, they focus on a community that has historically been engaged in manual scavenging - the Arunthathiyars. They also work with Urali and Irula tribal communities. Interventions include rescue and rehabilitation of children engaged in bonded labor and manual scavenging.
Founded: 2009
Headquarters: Bengaluru, Karnataka
Geographical Focus: Karnataka
Lives Impacted: 5000+
Organization Overview:
Payana was established by leaders from the LGBTQIA++ community with the aim to build a community owned and managed organization to address the many challenges of their community. Payana works with different identities within the LGBTQIA++ community – Male to Female (MTF), Female to Male (FTM), Kothi*, Double Decker*, Bisexuals, Jogappa*, Manglamukhi* – from poor socio-economic backgrounds.
Founded: 1996
Headquarters: Lucknow, UP
Geographical Focus: Indo-Nepal border districts of Uttar Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 160,000
Organization Overview:
Nalanda works with children of religious minority communities in the flood and drought prone districts of Indo-Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh. Their approach is to impart inclusive education in faith-based schools irrespective of caste and socio-economic conditions. Nalanda’s model is a combination of direct intervention via education and in-direct support to government bodies for knowledge based inputs via research.
Founded: 2002
Headquarters: Kalaburagi, Karnataka
Geographical Focus: Karnataka
Lives Impacted: 8,000+
Organization Overview:
Margadarshi Society was set up to protect and promote children’s rights in the Kalaburagi district of Karnataka, which is considered to be among the most backward regions in the state. 25% of the district’s population belongs to Scheduled Castes. The organization works with runaway Dalit children from the ages of 9-14 years via rescue and rehabilitation, and in the allied themes of education, malnutrition and disability.
bikashngo.org
Founded: 1996
Headquarters: Bankura, West Bengal
Geographical Focus: West Bengal
Lives Impacted: 20,000
Organization Overview:
Kenduadihi Bikash Society was set up to address the issue of childhood disability in the Bankura district of West Bengal. The district has poor indicators in Health, Education, and Income (below the state’s average*). The organization works with children with disabilities from Scheduled Tribe (Santhal, Sabar, Kheria) and Scheduled Caste (Bauri, Lohar, Mal) communities across the themes of special education, child protection, health and nutrition and livelihoods.
Founded: 2004
Headquarters: Hazaribagh, Jharkhand
Geographical Focus: Jharkhand
Lives Impacted: 232,858
Organization Overview:
JSK was founded and is run by tribal leaders in Kotra block which is a hilly region at the border of Rajasthan and Gujarat and has a tribal population of 95%, primarily Bhils and Garasiyas. It works to empower migrant laborers, youth and women by investing in education, livelihoods, forest rights and health.
Founded: 1997
Headquarters: Giridih, Jharkhand
Geographical Focus: Jharkhand
Lives Impacted: 37,000+
Organization Overview:
Jago Foundation primarily works with children from economically poor communities of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and others residing in mica-mining, forest & Naxal-affected rural regions of Jharkhand. It works to prevent child labor, child marriage, child abuse and trafficking by primarily investing in education along with health and other government services.
Founded: 2000
Headquarters: Kalimpong, West Bengal
Geographical Focus: West Bengal
Lives Impacted: 10,000+
Organization Overview:
Registered in 2000, HSHW works in the districts of Darjeeling & Kalimpong focusing on marginalized communities such as semi-literates, migrants, slum and pavement dwellers, sex workers, women farmers and indigenous tribes like Tamang, Bhutias, Dukpa Subba, Lepcha and Sherpas. HSHW works on several social issues based on community demand and works across the sectors of health, education, social and economic development.
Founded: 2008
Headquarters: New Delhi
Geographical Focus: Jammu & Kashmir
Lives Impacted: 90,000+
Organization Overview:
HOPE works to improve livelihoods and combat gender-based violence prevalent in the Scheduled Tribe Gujjar communities and especially the Bakarwal communities in J&K. Beyond the remoteness of location, national and local political agendas adversely impact the existing uncertainties in the area. HOPE identified agriculture as a core theme during its inception but has since evolved basis community needs.
Founded: 1990
Headquarters: Sirohi, Rajasthan
Geographical Focus: Rajasthan
Lives Impacted: 350 villages
Organization Overview:
JCS works in 5 blocks in the districts of Sirohi focusing on communities marginalized based on caste & economic status including Dalits (Meghwal, Koli, Bhaiwal), Religious minorities, and Tribals (Garasiya, Bhils, and Gameti). Interventions include the formation and capacity building of Sangathans at the grassroots for the implementation of various government social security schemes and micro-finance initiatives.
Founded: 1987
Headquarters: South 24 Parganas
Geographical Focus: West Bengal
Lives Impacted: 50,000
Organization Overview:
GGBK was started as a post cyclone relief organization in the Sundarbans and has evolved over the years to create opportunities for socially vulnerable groups – especially women and children from Dalit families and tribes such as Munda, Santhal and Oraon, to end discrimination against them and enable them to live a life of dignity. GGBK emphasizes on developing leadership among women, youth and children to address violence, mental health and livelihoods issues by keeping the agency of the community at the core.
Founded: 2013
Headquarters: Shillong, Meghalaya
Geographical Focus: Meghalaya
Lives Impacted: 13,400+
Organization Overview:
Faith Foundation is an indigenous child rights organization working to create safe growth environment for children and adolescents from Khasi tribes (Scheduled Tribes) in Shillong (Meghalaya). It aims to empower them by focusing on teaching them gender-equitable values and prevention strategies in diverse educational institutions to reduce the risk to abuse and exploitation (sexual, physical as well as emotional).
Founded: 1986
Headquarters: Khordha, Odisha
Geographical Focus: Odisha
Lives Impacted: 63,000
Organization Overview:
Darbar Sahitya Sansad works in rural Odisha with farmers and migrant workers from tribal communities (Kondh, Lodha and Juang tribes), Dalit, and OBC (Pradhan, Behera, Barik, Ojha, Maharana, Sahoo) communities, with the mission to build their confidence as well as capacity to enhance their socio-economic condition and agency.
Founded: 2019
Headquarters: Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
Geographical Focus: Madhya Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 90+
Organization Overview:
The Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project (CPA Project) was founded in 2019 as a research and capacity-building intervention. CPA aims to create a society the voices of Bahujan communities are represented and treated with dignity through India's legal justice system.
Founded: 2014
Headquarters: Bagalkote, Karnataka
Geographical Focus: Karnataka
Lives Impacted: 48,887
Organization Overview:
Ashadeepa was founded and is run by Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in the remote district of Bagalkote in Bangalore. It works to address challenges and empower PWDs and their families; underserved women and children through community-based rehabilitation programs. It aims to provide support to PWDs through all stages of their lives with effective delivery of interventions across education, health and livelihood.
Founded: 1996
Headquarters: Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand
Geographical Focus: Uttarakhand
Lives Impacted: 2,500+
Organization Overview:
ARPAN works in Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand at the trijunction of Nepal, Tibet and China Border. This is an earthquake prone, hilly region with most tribal communities displaced from their forest lands. Arpan focuses on women from tribal communities who are at the intersection of ethnicity and gender based oppression. Their key interventions are: land rights for women, livelihoods, education and women and child protection.
Founded: 1986
Headquarters: Gudalur, Tamil Nadu
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Lives Impacted: 12,000+
Organization Overview:
Action for Community Organisation, Rehabilitation and Development (ACCORD) aims to empower the Paniyas, Bettakurumbas, Mullakurumbas and Kattunayakans tribal communities in the Gudalur valley of the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu through diverse initiatives including promoting savings among the community, facilitating access to government schemes, promoting Just Change an Adivasi led Producer Company selling tea, spices and a range of products. ACCORD's mission since the 1980s has been to enable the community living in the area to regain their fast-losing identity, to make them self reliant, and to enable them to participate in the mainstream society as equal partners with dignity and pride and not as a disadvantaged community.
Founded: 2009
Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra
Geographical Focus: Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 106,000+
Organization Overview:
UTMT Society promotes beekeeping with indigenous bees to increase agricultural productivity, adapt to climate change, and enhance the biodiversity & incomes of marginal farmers in dry, semi-arid regions. It works with tribal communities including Wagdi, Bhil, Kopna, and Gond tribes in backward and remote villages of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat.
Founded: 2002
Headquarters: Chhaygaon, Assam
Geographical Focus: Assam, Meghalaya
Lives Impacted: 50,000+
Organization Overview:
Grameen Sahara was set up to respond to the unique development challenges of the North-Eastern states. They work with farmers, weavers, and artisans from families from Other Backward Caste (OBC) communities below the poverty line, living in remote villages of Assam and Meghalaya, and focus on promoting livelihoods through financial services, agri-tech innovations, and community integration.
Founded: 1992
Headquarters: Bhavnagar, Gujarat
Geographical Focus: Gujarat
Lives Impacted: 200,000+ (children)
Organization Overview:
Shaishav aims to fight child developmental issues such as child labour and education in small, remote, underdeveloped, and aspirational districts of Gujarat. It works on the holistic development of children of migrant labourers from the Dadvi, Vasava, and Tadvi tribes, through a rights-based approach and innovative teaching methods to enable awareness, learning, and leadership building of these children.
Founded: 1989
Headquarters: Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh
Geographical Focus: Uttar Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 200,000
Organization Overview:
Development Association for Human Advancement (DEHAT) aims to ensure the right to survival, development, protection, and participation of children and their families in underdeveloped districts of Uttar Pradesh, near the Indo-Nepal border, that are human trafficking hotspots. It works on the thematic areas of child protection, livelihoods, education, and health services, with Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and minority communities in the region.
Founded: 2005
Headquarters: Hyderabad, Telangana
Geographical Focus: Andhra Pradesh, Telangana
Lives Impacted: 405 (weavers)
Organization Overview:
Chitrika Foundation supports perishing weaving communities by mobilization, capacitation, and support with tech-based management systems, marketing, and financial services with the aim of enhancing ownership, economic returns, and market procurement.
Founded: 1993
Headquarters: Gudalur, Tamil Nadu
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Lives Impacted: 3,000+ (children)
Organization Overview:
VBVT was set up as a school based on alternate pedagogy for the tribal communities of Gudalur, primarily the Paniyas, Bettakurumbas, Mullakurumbas and Kattunayakans. Their aim is to improve the quality of education received by children of tribal communities and to establish a culturally appropriate learning system with the active participation of the community.
prabhateducationfoundation.org
Founded: 2003
Headquarters: Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Geographical Focus: Gujarat
Lives Impacted: 3,000+
Organization Overview:
Prabhat supports children with special needs and their families through education, rehabilitation, capacity building, and advocacy with the aim that these children achieve their full potential. It functions through community centres run by local leaders and focuses on children from Dalit and minority communities in the urban slums of Ahmedabad.
Founded: 2006
Headquarters: Harda, Madhya Pradesh
Geographical Focus: Madhya Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 55,000+
Organization Overview:
Synergy Sansthan is a community-based youth-led organization focusing on developing life skills and leadership capacities of children, adolescents, and youth from tribal (Gond and Korku) and rural communities in Madhya Pradesh. They empower these communities through immersive learning programs and campaign building from the local to national level.
Founded: 1985
Headquarters: Solan, Himachal Pradesh
Geographical Focus: Himachal Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 20,000+
Organization Overview:
Established with support from the Social Work Resource Centre (SWRC), Tilonia, SUTRA is a community-based organization focusing on post-development issues identified by the marginalized living in Himachal Pradesh. Since its inception, SUTRA has worked on various issues- alcoholism, domestic and social violence, child marriages, and declining sex ratios. Currently, they focus on supporting single women in difficult circumstances (single, divorced, widowed) and children of migrant labor.
Founded: 1990
Headquarters: Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
Geographical Focus: Uttar Pradesh
Lives Impacted: 15,000 (since 2009)
Organization Overview:
Sadbhavana Trust aims to build strong gender-based identities through youth empowerment leadership, awareness, and skills). Sadbhavna Trust works with women in difficult circumstances, survivors of domestic violence, widows, single mothers, and adolescent girls. Most come from marginalized communities living in poor socio-economic conditions in and around old Lucknow.
Founded: 2016
Headquarters: Delhi
Geographical Focus: Delhi, Haryana
Lives Impacted: 65,000+
Organization Overview:
MFF aims to create a gender-just society. It works with women (primarily domestic workers), children, and adolescents in Haryana and Delhi-NCR, to collectivize, capacitate, and educate them to take action against injustice. They also work on enabling safe and dignified workplaces as per the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act, 2013 through a multi-stakeholder approach.
Founded: 1990
Headquarters: Madurai, Tamil Nadu
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Lives Impacted: 17,000+
Organization Overview:
Established as a resource centre in 1990, EKTA focuses on building awareness, capacity and promoting consultative, participatory, and inclusive practices to achieve a gender just society. It works with children and adolescents, youth, women, and men in rural and urban areas from Dalit, minority, tribal, and Backward Caste (BC) communities that are vulnerable to patriarchal norms. They focus on behaviour change in communities through training and facilitating participatory action.
Founded: 1985
Headquarters: Deoghar, Jharkhand
Geographical Focus: Jharkhand
Lives Impacted: 374,000+
Organization Overview:
Chetna Vikas was set up by a young team of social activists on the Gandhian principles of Swaraj (Self-Rule). It works with women, children with disabilities and school dropouts, as well as informal labour from tribal communities - Santhal, Birhor, and Kol tribes in the Dumka, Deogarh, and Banka districts of Jharkhand and Bihar. Key focus areas for the organization are livelihood & income generation, youth empowerment, inclusive education and community rehabilitation centres, and resilient child protection governance systems support.
Founded: 1981
Headquarters: Kashipur, Odisha
Geographical Focus: Odisha
Lives Impacted: 16,000+
Organization Overview:
Based in drought-prone tribal regions of Odisha, Agragamee aims to bring self-reliance through livelihoods and income generation, education, women & youth leadership and institution building. It works with Scheduled Tribe communities including the Khond, Paraja, and Jhodia tribes in Odisha across 6 aspirational districts. These are some of India’s most chronically poor and remote districts with historic gaps in development.
Founded: 1996
Headquarters: Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu
Geographical Focus: Tamil Nadu
Lives Impacted: 20,000+
Organization Overview:
Vaan Muhil is a rights-based organization that was set up to empower marginalized communities in Tamil Nadu. It works with Dalit communities on youth leadership programs, livelihood support for women, and advocacy for women & children, and labor rights for informal workers.
Founded: 2008
Headquarters: Beed, Maharashtra
Geographical Focus: Maharashtra
Lives Impacted: 70,000+
Organization Overview:
Navchetna Sarvangin Vikas Kendra was founded by Manisha Sitaram Ghule, a survivor of gender-based violence in Marathwada, Maharashtra. They operate in the drought-prone Beed district and focus on advocacy for land rights, and menstrual health for NT-DNT and Dalit communities. They support single women through microfinance and livelihoods.
Founded: 1979
Headquarters: Kolkata, West Bengal
Geographical Focus: West Bengal
Lives Impacted: 547,000+
Organization Overview:
NOSKK is formed and governed by aspirational women from disadvantaged groups who envision a self-reliant, sustainable society. In West Bengal, it works to empower women and children, migrant workers, and minority groups who are vulnerable to trafficking, exploitative work conditions, and gender-based challenges.
Founded: 1997
Headquarters: Belgaum, Karnataka
Geographical Focus: Karnataka
Lives Impacted: 6,000+
Organization Overview:
Mahila Abhivruddhi Mattu Samrakshna Samsthe (MASS), a membership association of ex-Devadasi* women, was set up with a mission to end the Devadasi practice in the Belgaum district of Karnataka. MASS works with ex-Devadasis from the Dalit community, their children, and other Dalit women and children at risk to secure citizen rights and access to education, livelihoods, and healthcare.
*Devadasi- a social practice, where a young girl is devoted and married to a deity, before she reaches puberty, to act as a caretaker. Recently, this practice has been used to push girls into prostitution.
Founded: 1998
Headquarters: Kotra, Rajasthan
Geographical Focus: Rajasthan
Lives Impacted: 232,900+
Organization Overview:
KAS was founded and is run by tribal leaders in Kotra block which is a hilly region at the border of Rajasthan and Gujarat and has a tribal population of 95%, primarily Bhils and Garasiyas. It works to empower migrant labourers, youth, and women by investing in education, livelihoods, forest rights, and health.
Founded: 2016
Headquarters: Thane, Maharashtra
Geographical Focus: Maharashtra
Lives Impacted: 232,500+
Organization Overview:
Anubhuti Trust empowers youth through leadership development and sensitization on issues of gender, caste, class, ethnicity and language. It primarily works with NT-DNT (Nomadic and De-Notified Tribes), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Scheduled Caste (SC) communities in Maharashtra.
Founded: 1993
Headquarters: Pune, Maharashtra
Geographical Focus: Maharashtra
Lives Impacted: 98,000+
Organization Overview:
Econet was started as a program under Jan Vikas until 1993 when the organization was registered as an independent entity. They work with Gond, Kolam, Thakar, Mahadev Koli, Korku, and Pawra tribes and NT-DNT Phase Pardhi tribe communities on tribal development and participatory research on issues of environment sustainability. Econet also promotes the use of bioenergy in villages and leadership development in these communities.
Founded: 1993
Headquarters: Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir
Geographical Focus: Jammu and Kashmir
Lives Impacted: 3,000+ (children)
Organization Overview
VMS is a medico-social voluntary organization that provides medical treatment, care, and rehabilitation to mentally and physically challenged persons in the politically conflicted region of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). It also offers education, sports, recreation, and counselling services for Persons with Disabilities (PWD).
