Meenal Patel

Vacha Charitable Trust

Vacha was established as a trust in 1990, growing out of a 1980s women's rights group, and works from Andheri West in Mumbai to equip adolescents — with a particular focus on girls from marginalised communities — with life skills, leadership training and gender-equality education to navigate the transition to adulthood.

Vacha Charitable Trust reports the following, on its own site:

• Directly impacted over 97,000 individuals through focused outreach in the last 10 years
• Extended reach to 430,000+ people via community programmes in schools, colleges and beyond over the last 10 years
• Equipped around 10,000 girls and boys with 21st-century life skills over the last 10 years
• Formed 10 community-based feminist youth groups