Baldev Rajne

Baldev has always been an active leader of the youth group in his area. From an early age itself, he would herd goats, work on farmland, or take up other manual work for his family’s livelihood. He continued his education alongside, and also completed his college graduation. Starting from his college days, he would leverage the support of local NGOs for various development initiatives in his village and region. This included building a village water tank and securing legal fishing rights for the community at the local pond. While working for his village, he had occasion to uncover and highlight corruption happening in the local administration. He has been leading and encouraging his fellow villagers to directly approach local & state administration with their concerns. Including raising local issues directly with the state chief minister, during the latter’s visits to the region. He had himself contested the local Panchayat elections for the Sarpanch post, losing by just 32 votes.

Baldev has long worked on the issue of malnutrition, with the NGO Khoj. His dream mission is to continue working towards eliminating infant mortality and correcting child nutrition levels, starting with his own region. He also plans to work towards supporting women to realise their leadership potential.

Dubeshwar Bediya

Dubeshwar has been a changemaker for his village and community. He started working in his senior school days itself, growing tomatoes on his farm. This helped in funding his further studies and paying off family debts. Following visits to Ralegaon Siddhi and Hivre Bazar in Maharashtra in 2016, Dubeshwar began his efforts for transforming his own area into a model village. He and twenty other youth worked to stop alcoholism, deforestation, and excessive tree felling. They undertook water conservation work; got the practice of dowry banned; controlled open grazing and promoted the usage of toilets, ending the practice of open defecation. His work for his village continues, now focussing on strengthening the Gram Sabhas.

He worked with Sanjeevani, an NGO, helping construct 10 cow sheds and 74 goat sheds under the MNREGA scheme. He also worked with JSLPS, another NGO, for various livelihood interventions. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dubeshwar mobilised a village-wide shramdaan drive to construct a loose-boulder check-dam for capturing rainwater. His dream-mission now is to enhance people’s awareness on education, health, and employment through the Gram Sabhas. He envisions achieving all this through practising the form of leadership that listens to the voice of every last person.

Krishna Soy

Krishna, an onground political worker, has been a member and office-bearer of the BJP since 2004. He moved up the party ranks over the years, never lobbying for any post. Currently he is a District Working Committee Member of the party’s Anusuchit Jan Jaati Morcha. He has also contested the Zila Parishad election, where he stood third. Son of a government teacher, Krishna was sent away at an early age to his uncle’s village, where he had to work along with attending school. He completed his graduation in B.Com; and is now ensuring that both his children get a good education without struggling. Krishna has continued to help people in his area with guidance and support on availing various government schemes and benefits, other documentation work and with various needs during any medical or other emergencies.

Krishna’s dream mission now is to further extend his social work in his area and beyond, to ensure the sustainable development of the entire region, before re-entering electoral politics. He wishes to lead people towards a change for the better , all while continuing to walk the straight and narrow path.

Mahadevi Hiremath

Mahadevi works with and for women and children. She had a very sheltered early life, and her worldview had been rather limited even after her graduation. Getting married at an early age led to struggles, which increased after her daughter was born. She subsequently moved back with her parents, to work and raise her child at her maternal home. Working with the NGO Jagruti led to further self-development, and also provided her with valuable learnings on diverse matters. She has worked on various issues impacting women, including addressing discrimination and violence against them. Working onground provided her with multiple insights and perspectives about various concerns of women and children. She has also worked as a panchayat social auditor in her area. Mahadevi’s dream mission is to start a social venture for furthering women empowerment. And to continue working towards just and rightful development within society.

Ranjeet Mhaske

Ranjeet is a proponent and practitioner of sustainable, alternative living. He holds a diploma in mechanical engineering, but working in industry or in the corporate sector was not for him. While exploring alternatives for sustainable living, he worked at a hotel; a hospital; and in a photography studio. At Gokhale Institute, he worked on the health and nutrition levels of the urban poor. He lived for many years in a village working with an architect who practiced his vocation for the benefit of the village community. From digging a well to constructing a mud house, Ranjeet learnt and worked on various local constructions there. He also undertook various other manual work, including growing crops on a small piece of land, while he lived in other villages for some time period. Ranjeet envisions establishing the decentralised ‘Gram Swaraj’ system for self-sustainability of villages. His dream mission is to work for sustainable, self-reliant village communities.

Saurav Kumar

Saurav has been a local youth leader empowering other aspiring leaders from underprivileged communities. With his family also hailing from a highly marginalised background, he had to leave senior secondary school after his father’s death to take up manual work for livelihood. He did complete his own education and then started working to ensure basic education for other under-privileged students and school drop-outs.

Saurav was a member of the state executive of Bihar Ambedkar State Forum, from 2015 to 2020. He has also been associated with the Centre for Social Equity and Inclusion for several years. With support of his mentors and co-workers, Saurav founded an organization named “Community Leadership And Youth” (CLAY), to support the youth and children from his community in integrating with mainstream society. Many of these youth continue to become college graduates. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, he started Loknayak, an initiative to ensure clean political participation of youth from various highly deprived communities. Here too, the supported youth are contesting and winning local elections in ever-increasing numbers. He wishes to continue his mission of promoting leadership among marginalised communities. So that folks from these communities can determine the course of their own lives as well as the local development needed.

Srinu Sode

Srinu is already much respected in his community, for all his work for local development as well as efforts to preserve indigenous culture and ways of living. He belongs to a farming community from a remote village surrounded by forest lands. All now threatened by the inevitability of a huge dam. He was part of the local tribal students’ union and was a student leader during his college days. He painted outdoor wall advertisements to fund his studies; and distributed milk, set up electric poles, all to earn money to run his social venture.
Srinu worked with an NGO in education, where he looked after school operations in forest areas. He simultaneously also facilitated development work in his area, and organised community celebrations and cultural activities. He established a ‘Gotul’ with a difference. Traditionally a living and learning space for tribal adolescents and youth, it is now used for promoting education, good health & hygiene, leadership and also for documenting their heritage. He also set up water treatment facilities to address impurities in the local water supply, which had been causing numerous kidney-related ailments. Srinu’s dream & life mission is to become a leader who ensures humane, equitable and sustainable development everywhere. He continues to work for preserving the indigenous cultures of tribal communities, while supporting them to learn best practices from model self-reliant communities and villages.

Sunil Ahire

Sunil is recognised throughout his area and beyond, as a social and cultural activist. He had created and led a student organisation in secondary school itself. After his schooldays, his family moved to a major metropolis, where his parents worked as construction labourers. He completed his post-graduation in both Sociology and Social Work, along with undertaking manual labour work himself. From 2000 till 2013 he worked at an NGO named Salah, and from 2015 to 2022 as a regional coordinator for CORO, another NGO. During this time, he facilitated the administrative setup of 12 other non-profit ventures, working on the processes of registration, bank account opening, drafting proposals, getting 80-G certifications for those organisations.

Sunil has been instrumental in establishing a formal association for unorganized manual workers: the ‘Asanghatith Kashtkaari Kaamgaar Sanghatan’, which now has over 4500 members. He and his organisation continue to engage extensively for the welfare of local construction and domestic workers. His dream mission is to ensure the social, economic and political empowerment of all manual worker folks everywhere. He looks to contest local elections also, after completing further good work onground.

Vandana Yadav

Vandana has experience and association with the social sector, the domain that she started working in soon after completing her MSW and B.Ed. degrees. She worked on youth issues with Sahyog, an NGO, where she also gained an understanding about issues of gender discrimination. She has also worked with the NGO Vigyaan, learning about the rights and living wages of domestic workers and construction workers. She set up an organisation for domestic workers: Gharelu Kaamgaar Sanghatan, which is now a registered body. She further worked with Humsafar, on gender diversity and domestic violence issues. Vandana has extensive work experience in addressing various issues impacting women, and on creating awareness among them. Her dream mission is to work towards a truly equitable society, where there is no discrimination based on gender, caste, creed, religion, language or any other man-made division. And to continue her work by leveraging and promoting feminist principles, and constitutional values.