Mann Deshi Foundation, a NGO supported by The British Asian Trust, won the EdelGive Social Innovation Honours 2010 for its Business School for illiterate rural women in Maharashtra. The award was presented at a ceremony hosted by EdelGive Foundation in Mumbai on 4th March 2010 where Mrs. Rajashree Birla, Chairperson of the Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development and Honourable Member of Parliament, Supriya Sule were present. This successful event witnessed a gathering of more than 200 people from the corporate, development and media sectors.
The EdelGive Social Innovation Honours were started in 2009 to identify and honour organisations that are innovating to empower women and girls in India. The awards focus on innovation as EdelGive Foundation believe that there has been significant under-investment in innovations that benefit the poor. The awards highlight organisations that have worked to create an innovative model for delivery of essential services to women and girls. EdelGive considered innovations that were cost-effective, with the potential to deliver long term benefits.
Mann Deshi was selected from over 250 applicants across India. The selection involved a stringent evaluation process, supported by Ernst and Young as official tabulators and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) as field assessors. The final jury members were Amrita Patel, Chairperson, National Dairy Development Board, Deep Joshi, Founder, PRADAN, Surinder Jaswal, Dean, School of Social Work at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Venkat Ramaswamy, Co-Founder, Edelweiss, Vineet Rai, Founder, Aavishkaar and Zia Mody, Founding Partner, AZB & Partners.
