Shouvik Mitra

Founder

Shouvik Mitra is the founder of Manjari Foundation (2015)[1], an Indian non-profit working on women & children, livelihood, rural & agriculture and education from Bhilwara.

Shouvik Mitra is an Indian rural development practitioner and a co-founder of the Manjari Foundation, a non-profit organisation registered in May 2015 and based in Rajasthan that builds women's collectives and works on livelihoods, gender, health, education and natural resource management in rural India. He was the foundation's first director and gave the organisation its name.

His work has concentrated on livelihood value chains, social inclusion and inclusive finance.

Career

Mitra has more than two decades of experience in rural development. He worked as staff with PRADAN and with Freedom from Hunger, and has been a consultant to the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the UK Department for International Development. He has also worked with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and with the Xavier Institute of Management. His field experience covers Rajasthan, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, as well as Nepal, Kenya and Pakistan.

The Manjari Foundation was established in 2015 by alumni of PRADAN; Mitra founded it with Sanjay Kumar (Sanjay Sharma) and Yatesh Yadav. He is also a co-founder of OUTLIERS Development Services Pvt Ltd, which provides techno-managerial services to the development sector, and mentors the SDS trust and the agricultural start-up Ayanat Pvt Ltd in north-east India. He serves on the Manjari Foundation's governing body as an advisory member.

Recognition

Mitra received the Fulbright–Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship in 2009, a mid-career professional development programme supported by the United States Department of State.[2][3][4]

Manjari Foundation

Manjari Foundation was set up in May 2015 by alumni of PRADAN and works on building women's institutions - self-help groups, village organisations and federations - as the base for rural development. Its programmes cover livelihoods, agriculture, education, health and nutrition, WASH, renewable energy and women-owned social enterprises. It publishes annual reports, financial reports and FCRA returns on its website.

Manjari Foundation reports the following, on its own site:

Manjari Foundation's programmes have empowered over 12.44 lakh people, mainly women, through 8,567 self-help groups, 895 village organisations and 23 federations.
Manjari Foundation has supported over 18,000 families in enhancing their incomes through sustainable livelihood programmes.
Manjari Foundation has trained and built the capacities of 1,466 school teachers and over 50,000 students.