Social Entrepreneurs

hip Heroes of

India

Ela BhattShe is a cooperative organiser, activist and Gandhian, who founded the Self-Employed Women's Association of India in 1972,  a trade union for poor, self-employed women workers in India.. A lawyer by training, Bhatt is a part of the international labor, cooperative, women, and micro-finance movements and has won several national and international awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award , Right Livelihood Award and the Padma Bhushan.

Nand Kishore ChaudharyHe established the social business model of Jaipur Rugs, connecting the poor weavers with the global markets by building a global supply chain focused on developing human capability and skills at the grassroots level, providing steady income for rural men and women in the most depressed parts of India and connecting them with markets in the US. He is regarded as the Gandhi of the carpet industry  due to his commitment to uplifting society through the art of carpet weaving.

Thinlas ChorolChorol co-founded the society Ladakhi Women's Welfare Network to work for the welfare of women, to support the victims of crimes directed towards women and educate them on their legal rights.

She also founded the Ladakhi Women's Travel Company which uses Homestays, a way to help women in the villages generate income for themselves. She has written articles on tourism in Ladakh and other issues and has won Sanjoy Ghosse Ladakh Women Writers' Award.

Abraham GeorgeAn Indian-American businessman, academic, and philanthropist, is the founder of The George Foundation, dedicated to the welfare and empowerment of economically and socially disadvantaged in India. His foundation has initiated numerous projects in poverty alleviation, education, healthcare, lead poisoning prevention, women's empowerment, and press freedom.

He also pioneered the successful effort to remove lead content from gasoline throughout India in April 2000 and was instrumental in the creation of the National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning in India.

Bunker RoyAn Indian social activist and educator who founded the barefoot college, a voluntary organisation working in the fields of education, skill development, health, drinking water, women empowerment and electrification through solar power for the upliftment of rural people. It has trained more than 3 million people for jobs. He was selected as one of TIME’s 100 most influential personalities in 2010 for his work in educating illiterate and semi-literate rural Indians.

Anshu GuptaHe founded Goonj, a NGO that positions the under-utilised urban material as a development resource for the rural parts of India. He started Goonj in 1999 to work on the basic need of clothing, an issue that does not have a place in the development agenda. Goonj has taken the growing urban waste and used it as a tool to trigger development work on diverse issues; roads, water, environment, education, health etc. in backward and remote pockets of India. He won the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2015.

Hanumappa Sudarshan

An Indian social worker and tribal rights activist. He is well known for his contributions to the upliftment of the forest dwelling tribes in Karnataka. He is also the founder and Honorary Secretary of the Karuna Trust, which is dedicated to rural development in the states of Karnataka and Arunachal Pradesh. He claims inspiration from the man-making and nation-building ideals of Swami Vivekananda. He advocates Gandhian ideals for rural development. He is also a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award and the Padma Shri.