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: 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.
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: 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.
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.
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.
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: 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: 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.
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: 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: 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.
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.