Our Impact
PRADAN is making a measurable impact on India.
People
We have more trained professionals working in villages in the field of rural development than any other organisation except for the government. Our pioneering contribution has been in inducting educated and socially inspired youth, grooming them through a structured programme and placing them directly in villages to facilitate change. Over 80% of the more than 2,000 development professionals we have trained continue to be engaged in eradicating poverty.
Models
Our innovations are adopted by government and civil society organisations at the national, state and local levels. Using our field experience, we have helped create appropriate policies and programmes that bring opportunity for the rural poor. Our work on self-help groups (SHGs), Natural Resource Management and tasar silk are now mainstream programmes.
Scaling Up
PRADAN works directly with more than 848,408 families across seven of India’s poorest states today, and we support 70 NGOs. The livelihoods we have directly promoted with women and communities today generate a gross yearly output of $80 million. Our work in sectors such as tasar silk, vegetables, fruit and poultry have helped community organisations become leading players in these business sectors.
Women
In 1987, PRADAN pioneered the model of organizing women into self-help groups (SHG) as an approach to mobilize poor communities and improve their livelihoods. Today, our program to link SHGs with banks is the world’s largest microfinance movement, with more than 70 million women having their bank accounts for their businesses. It is also now the central strategy of many grass-roots NGOs and public programs.
We engage with more than 848,000 women organized into 70,614 SHGs, making it one of the largest civil society efforts in the world.
These SHGs have cumulatively disbursed credit of nearly Rs 4.5 billion (~US$60m). PRADAN supports 98 Women Federations, an associative tier of self-help groups. These Federations give strength to their members to raising their voices against exploitation and violence.
848,408 WOMEN ORGANIZED INTO 70,614 SHGSFood Security
PRADAN has assisted nearly 411,908 rural families with crop selection and access to modern markets, enhancing their productivity by three to four times and ensuring year-round food security. Some 15,000 farmers are organized into 50 Agriculture Production Clusters to better participate in markets. Nearly 150,000 families grow cash crops, such as tomatoes, cabbages, cauliflowers, broccolis, chillies that not only add to their incomes but also help the participating farmers augment nutritional benefits from.
474,559 FAMILIES FOOD-SECURE YEAR ROUNDWater
PRADAN has worked with more than 45,700 families to assure irrigation in 10,174 hectare (ha) and has improved soil-moisture availability in an additional 8,462 hectare (ha).
Every year, PRADAN directly supports these families in adopting the models of water conservation, which increase household incomes by 75-100%
45,788 FAMILIES SUPPORTED EVERY YEAR IN WATER CONSERVATIONManaging Natural Resources
PRADAN supports more than 54,000 small-holding farmers with integrated natural resource management to build resilience to water variability caused by climate change. We have designed methods ranging from small-scale on-farm water control measures to selecting crops that utilise residual moisture and are more adaptive to water stress and water surplus conditions.
Farmers adopt eco-friendly technologies and use weather prediction tools made available by PRADAN to diversify production risks and adapt crop choices.
61,040 FAMILIES SUPPORTED IN BUILDING RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE CHANGEIncome
PRADAN optimises the resources available to the poor by helping them access funds and build their assets and capabilities so they can earn a decent living.
PRADAN has helped nearly 412,000 people participate in income generation activities like agriculture, fruit orchards, tasar silk and poultry. For example, our home-grown chicken initiative is the largest of its kind in India. We promoted National Smallholder Poultry Development Trust (NSPDT) which supports 11, 351 women poultry farmers, across 23 cooperatives, reaching a cumulative turnover of Rs. Rs.3.9 billion (~US$ 53 m). We have also developed one of the largest organised tasar silk productions in India. Tasar Development Foundation worked with 20, 000 farmers rearing the seed cocoons needed to make in Tasar silk. At par in quality with the Central Silk Board’s standards, the seed cocoons produced by these farmers were enough to cover the entire year’s requirement at their local levels. This helped the rearers earn an income of Rs. 430 million (~US$ 6 m) during the last year.
411,908 FAMILIES PARTICIPATED IN INCOME GENERATION INTERVETNIONSGrassroots Governance
PRADAN enables isolated and excluded women to build their skills on grassroots governance by mobilizing, motivating and training them. This builds their capacities for accessing entitlements and participating in different institutions like Gram Sabha (village council), block level and district level forums. Community engagement ensures relevant public investments and efficient delivery of public services.
In 37 of India’s poorest districts, communities have started accessing their rights and entitlements, making claims on constitutionally guaranteed provisions, and holding local village councils accountable. .
COMMUNITIES IN 36 DISTRICTS ACCESSING RIGHTS AND ENTITLEMENTSPRADAN by the Numbers
Individuals Reached 04 million
Socio-economic Profile 65% of the individuals we work with belong to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) from the economically weakest sections in rural and tribal India.
Households (direct reach) 862,360
Revenue Villages 8,648
States 7 (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan & West Bengal)
Districts 36 (Among the poorest 100 districts in the country)
Administrative blocks 117
*As of March 31, 2020
Women’s Self-help Groups (SHGs) 65,698
Village Organizations 4,755
Federations of SHGs and other collectives 98
Highlight
Across seven states, village communities led by their women’s SHGs mobilized more than INR 634 million ($9 m) under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGS) to create infrastructure for themselves as well as for their villages.
Total Staff 570
Development Apprentices 40
Partners
Foundations & Multilaterals 25
Corporates 8
Government Departments (Central & State) 19
Research Institutes 5
Civil Society Organizations 61
Milestones
2018
Business Standard Social Enterprise Award 2017 for Women Empowerment2017
Spirit of Humanity Award for Women Empowerment2016
Process Excellence Award for grass-roots work by Axis Bank Foundation2015
Times Social Impact Award for livelihoods promotion2013
Microfinance India Award as the Self-help Group Promoting Institution of the Year 2013 by ACCESS Development Services and HSBC
Appointed National Support Organisation for National Rural Livelihoods Mission to support development work in Extremist affected areas2011
M. Phil in development practice in collaboration with Ambedkar University, Delhi2010
Ranked 1st in NGO category and 47th in over all India's best companies to work for 2010 by Great Place to work institute and the Economic Times
Rozgar Jagrookta Puraskar by Ministry of Rural Development for efforts in generating awareness about implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act2009
Deep Joshi received the Ramon Magsaysay award for nurturing the idea of PRADAN2006
First NGO to received ‘NGO of the year’ award by Jeet and Khemka Foundation and Resource Alliance Group2003
Started first System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in eastern India1995
Awarded K P Goenka award for innovative work on Natural Resource Management (NRM)1991
Launched one-year Development Apprenticeship programme to train professionals1987
Among the first to pioneer self-help groups1983
Founded by Vijay Mahajan and Deep Joshi
We are currently working with nearly 770,000 poor households in more than 8,000 villages across 7 states.
Partners
Acknowledgements
Institutional Donors for Corpus
- HDFC Bank Limited
- ICICI Bank Limited
- IDBI Bank Limited
- IFCI Limited
- Inter-church Organisation for Development Co-operation
- Jamsetji Tata Trust
- L&T Finance Ltd.
- Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust
- RBS Foundation
- Sir Dorabji Tata Trust
- Sir Ratan Tata Trust
- The Ford Foundation
Indian Donors
Philanthropies
- Axis Bank Foundation
- Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives Pvt. Ltd.
- Centre for microFinance (CmF)
- Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI)
- Ernst & Young (E&Y) Foundation
- Give India
- HT Parekh Foundation
- Jamsetji Tata Trust
- Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust
- Sir Dorabji Tata Trust
- Sir Ratan Tata Trust
Departments of Government of India
- Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation (BRLF)
- Central Silk Board, Ministry of Textiles
Departments of State Governments
- Department of Agriculture and Food Production, Government of Odisha
- Mitigating Poverty in Western Rajasthan (MPOWER), Government of Rajasthan
- Panchayati Raj Department, Government of West Bengal
- Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), Government of Jharkhand
- Rajasthan Grameen Ajeevika Vikas Parishad, Government of Rajasthan
- The Rural Development Department, Government of Jharkhand
District Level Agencies
- Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC)
- Watershed Cell cum Data Centre (WCDC), Government of West Bengal
- Zila Panchayats
Externally Aided Projects
- Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society (BRLPS)
- Chhattisgarh Grameen Aajeevika Samvardhan Samiti (CGSRLM)
- Jharkhand State Livelihoods Promotion Society (JSLPS)
- Madhya Pradesh Mahila Vitta Evam Vikas Nigam, Bhopal
- Odisha State Rural Livelihood Mission (OLM)
- Odisha Tribal Empowerment and Livelihood Project (OTELP)
- West Bengal State Rural Livelihood Mission (WBSRLM)
Development Finance Institutions
- National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)
Corporate Donors
- InterGlobe Aviation Limited (IndiGo)
- L&T Finance Limited
- Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.
- NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Ltd.
International Agencies
Philanthropies
- Bank of America
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)
- Catholic Relief Services
- Give Foundation
- Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUF)
- IKEA Foundation
- L2O - Learn for Life
- Lutheran World Relief (LWR)
- Paul Hamlyn Foundation (PHF)
- RBS Foundation
- Share and Care Foundation
- Syngenta Foundation
- The Ford Foundation
Multilateral Agencies
- European Union
Research and Academic Institutions
- Ambedkar University, Delhi (AUD)
- Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)
- International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
- London School of Economics and Political Science
- The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)
Individual Donors
- Asutosh Satpathy
- Bitu Sinojia
- Chandan Sarma
- David Kiel
- Deep Joshi
- Manish Khanna
- Manoj Pandey
- Mayank Singhal
- Prava Rai
- Pravin Kumar
- Sameer Kumar
- Sudhir Sahni