As India’s startup ecosystem continues to flourish, women in large numbers continue to establish path-breaking social ventures across the country. Driven by a strong desire to make a change in people’s lives, these women take matters in their own hands and solve pertinent social issues. Among the many that are doing impactful entrepreneurial work across the country, we look at ten promising women social entrepreneurs.
1. Aditi Gupta, Menstrupedia
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Menstruation may be a taboo subject in India, but Aditi Gupta isn’t bothered by it. She’s driven by the desire to educate young girls and women on this “taboo” subject, hoping to help them separate fact from fiction and have healthy periods. Co-founded with her husband Tuhin Paul in 2012, Menstrupedia.com is arguably India’s first website with a clear aim of dissemination all knowledge relating to menstruation.
2. Sheetal Mehta Walsh, Shanti Life
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The poor often get trapped in the tedious process of taking a loan. Financial institutions often give out loans at such high rates that the poor find it nearly impossible to pay it all back. With the aim to release the poor from this vicious loan process and help them achieve sustainable living through access to necessary resources, Sheetal Mehta Walsh co-founded Shanti Life with her husband Paul Walsh. The venture helps the poor take microfinance loans at low interest, and trains them.
3. Gloria Benny, Make a Difference
Image Source: India Today
Close to one-third of the children in India are in an urgent need for care and protection. Make a Difference (MAD) helps these children in several ways, including mentoring and training. While the experience of two individuals Jithin and Sujith at a shelter home in Kochi created the spark for this project, Gloria Benny turned this idea into a fully fledged youth volunteer network. A particularly proud moment for MAD was when United States’ First Lady Michelle Obama visited the center in 2010 and commended the initiative.
4. Anu Sridharan, NextDrop
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Anu Sridharan started NextDrop with a simple vision — “we want to rid the world of its water problems.” Anu saw how technology was being integrated into people’s lives and decided to extend it to urban systems. So, the company began using real-time data to inform people about the status of the water services, like if the pipeline was broken or the exact time of supply on a given day. And all this through a simple SMS, which shows the effectiveness of this simple venture.
5. Priya Naik, Samhita Social Ventures
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Several individuals in India are helping make a positive change in the lives of people across the country. But these individuals are scattered and, therefore, don’t have the opportunity to make a large-scale impact. This is where Priya Naik’s venture, Samhita Social Ventures, jumps in. It helps individuals, corporations, NGOs, donor agencies, and others create a social impact on a big scale. The Sanskrit word ‘Samhita’ translates to “collective good,” something that this venture is definitely on its way to achieving.
6. Naiyya Saggi, BabyChakra
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When many of this Harvard business graduate’s friends started getting married, Naiyya began to see how the experience of new parenting was confounding all her friends. She saw popular Q&A threads and Facebook groups swarming with questions about parenting and other relevant aspects. Identifying a problem that needed to be solved, Naiyya began BabyChakra — a platform that helps parents access local services relating to parenting, maternity, and childcare. Parenting is a tough journey, but BabyChakra is helping new parents breathe a little easier.
7. Aditi Avasthi, Embibe
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Competitive exams in India are the lifeblood for young students. They hold the coveted tickets for young high school and college graduates to enter prestigious educational institutes across the country. But the preparation for these exams has always been daunting. Out of her own experience in trying to prepare for an exam, Aditi decided to start Embibe, where the combination of data and technology helps create powerful personalized preparation routines for students so they can prepare better and ace their exams.
8. Meena Ganesh, Portea Medical
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An entrepreneurial champion who has been an integral part of many successful businesses, Meena Ganesh acquired Portea Medical along with her husband in 2013 and soon took over the reigns as the CEO. Today, Portea helps provide hospital-quality healthcare services to people in the comfort of their own homes. This is especially beneficial to the elderly who don’t always have the strength and energy to run around hospital corridors in search of doctors and nurses.
9. Prukalpa Sankar, SocialCops
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Prukalpa learned early in her life that there wasn’t enough data to support the kind of decisions that were constantly being made in public life. The desire to help mine this data and encourage both the public institutions and the citizenry become key decision makers drove Prukalpa to start SocialCops. It’s a technology company that helps build precise data on important societal parameters like income and savings, access to healthcare, and the quality of infrastructure, and thus, enabling better decisions.
10. Sairee Chahal, Sheroes.in
Image Source: Techstory
Through her important venture Sheroes.in, Sairee Chahal is combining the two important causes of our time — women empowerment and employment. Sheroes is essentially a platform for women professionals who are committed to finding success at work. It helps working women get access to relevant resources and new opportunities, as well as provides a platform for fruitful conversations to occur on this matter.