Chaitanya
Chaitanya is a registered non-profit organization (Trust under Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950) headquartered at Rajgurunagar, Khed, Pune, Maharashtra. Founded in 1993 by Dr. Sudha Kothari and Ms. Surekha Shrotriya, Chaitanya began with a simple idea encourage rural women to save ₹1 per week. Within a year, 700 women across 14 Self-Help Groups (SHGs) had collectively saved over ₹1,00,000, proving that small steps could lead to lasting change.
From those early beginnings in villages around Khed, Chaitanya grew into one of Maharashtra's most significant grassroots organizations. It facilitated the formation of Grameen Mahila Swayamsiddha Sangha (GMSS) the first SHG federation in Maharashtra and has since catalyzed the SHG movement across the state and beyond.
Chaitanya's work is organized around four dimensions of women's empowerment:
- Sociocultural Empowerment: Building community-based institutions at village, block, and state levels so women come together, learn, and create opportunities for themselves. This covers access to social spaces, freedom of mobility, and addressing social norms like purdah.
- Economic Empowerment: Chaitanya runs a microfinance programme across 21 districts in two states, governed and managed by the women themselves. The three-tier institution structure Self-Help Groups → Village Organisations → Block-level Federations ensures financial services reach the last mile. A super federation (MahaSangh/Saarthi) governs and monitors all member federations for long-term sustainability.
- Legal Empowerment: A network of trained community resource persons called Legal Jankars (women with legal expertise) and community counselling centres prevent domestic violence, build awareness of women's rights, and help women access entitlements. They work in alignment with legislation like the Domestic Violence Act 2005 and the Criminal Law Amendment Act 2013.
- Political Empowerment: Federations help members access government schemes like Aadhaar, PM Awaas Yojana, and Janani Suraksha Yojana, and encourage women's participation in local governance.
Beyond grassroots work, Chaitanya is one of the few organizations in India that provides training and resource services to other organizations based on experiential learning. It is a national resource organization for NRLM and a member of national networks ENABLE and Livelihood Manthan.
In 2017, NABARD felicitated Chaitanya for 25 years of significant contribution to the SHG programme in India during the SHG-Bank Linkage Programme's Silver Jubilee.
In 2016, Chaitanya promoted WISE (Women's Integrated and Synergistic Empowerment) supported by SIDBI under the PSIG programme to capture and share 25+ years of Chaitanya's expertise through capacity building, field research, and technology-led pilots. Trainings offered include financial literacy, women's legal knowledge, livelihood enhancement, and organizational development.
Chaitanya has promoted, nurtured, and supported over 50 organizations over 26+ years. The three primary institutions that continue as its support arms are:
- GMSS (Grameen Mahila Swayamsiddha Sangha): the first SHG federation in Maharashtra, functioning since 1991.
- Saarthi: a super federation formed by representatives of all Chaitanya-promoted federations; governs and monitors member federations.
- WISE: the knowledge and capacity-building arm, networking with other institutions to advance the sector.
Chaitanya welcomes professionals, volunteers, and interns passionate about grassroots development, women's rights, and microfinance
