New Delhi, May 13 -- The occasion was an event organised by the Pune City Chapter of Nexus of Good. The objective of the City Chapter was to provide a platform to present the inspiring work being done by entities in the region. One of the three organisations that gave presentations to showcase the good work they are doing in the field was Chaitanya. They demonstrated how they were transforming the lives of women in rural areas by empowering them. There are many such organisations in the country engaged in this sort of activity, but Chaitanya was a bit different.
Chaitanya is a not-for-profit organisation established in 1993, working extensively in rural Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to empower women through Self-Help Groups (SHGs), federations, and community-led development processes. Over three decades, Chaitanya has built a strong grassroots presence, reaching over 1.4 lakh women through more than 14,000 SHGs and promoting 46 federations that are largely self-managed and financially sustainable.
It partnered with both public sector commercial banks and foreign banks to enable access to finance for 1.4 lakh women across 18 districts in the two states. Chaitanya has also trained over 100 Self-Help Promoting Institutions and partnered with government programmes such as IFAD-supported Tejaswini and NRLM across multiple states.
In recognition of its contributions to SHG federations, NABARD, on the occasion of the silver jubilee celebration marking 25 years of the SHG programme, felicitated Chaitanya through the then Finance Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, in 2017. That same year, in December, Chaitanya was honoured as the Best Self-Help Promoting Institution at the Inclusive Finance India Summit, an event organised by ACCESS and HSBC, and awarded by NITI Aayog, DFID, banks, and NABARD. In 2025, Chaitanya received the Elaben Memorial Award for the most gender-inclusive SHG Promoting Institution from Sadhan.
To strengthen its organisational capacity, Chaitanya focused on advocacy, bringing its learnings to the attention of state and national governments for implementation. Building consensus for development and change at the government level required greater investment in time and human resources. Integration of technology into community-based people's institutions has been at the core of the Chaitanya programme for the last seven years, with the development of the Microlekha software, currently handling the financial transactions of 1.4 million SHG members; the Astitva application to record cases of gender-based violence (GBV); as well as an e-learning course on SHG and federation management.
Chaitanya's integrated approach-combining institution building, livelihoods, financial inclusion, and gender justice-has made it a recognised resource organisation for sustainable, women-led rural development.
It partnered with both public sector commercial banks - Bank of Maharashtra has given a cash credit limit of Rs 1.5 crore to federations promoted by Chaitanya - ICICI Bank, and foreign bank Rabobank to enable access to finance for 1.4 lakh women across 18 districts in the two states. Chaitanya has also trained over 100 Self-Help Promoting Institutions and partnered with government programmes such as IFAD-supported Tejaswini and NRLM across multiple states.
Chaitanya was a resource partner of MAVIM from 2010 to 2015 for the Tejaswini programme, and the technical agency promoted by Chaitanya is currently a partner of IFAD to support MAVIM-promoted federations in entering all financial data into the Microlekha software developed by it.
Chaitanya strengthened the financial management systems and processes of 16 federations located in the tribal districts of Barwani and Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh in partnership with the Madhya Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission. The Executive Director of Chaitanya developed the standard operating manual on financial management of SHG federations for the National Rural Livelihood Mission. It also developed a digitised e-learning course on the management of SHGs and federations in collaboration with the Jharkhand SRLM and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). More than 150 students were trained in Jharkhand. A total of four courses have been launched by Chaitanya in partnership with TISS.
With the support of IWWAGE and subsequently the Gates Foundation (BMGF), Chaitanya initiated work to address gender-based violence in Chhattisgarh in partnership with Bihaan (CGSRLM). It trained over 1,750 community women leaders (Jaankars) to provide counselling and support services, while also establishing Gender Resource Centres in partnership with state governments. It is currently leading the work on Gender Resource Centres in the state and is directly supporting 16 GRCs across seven districts. The gender Jaankars are also providing counselling services in 25 police stations across the three states. Police headquarters in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have issued orders to district police superintendents to seek the help of Jaankar women trained by Chaitanya to support women facing domestic violence.
Integration of technology into community-based people's institutions has been at the core of the Chaitanya programme for the last seven years, with the development of the Microlekha software, currently handling the financial transactions of 1.4 million SHG members, including MAVIM and Hindustan Zinc Limited.
The Astitva application has been developed to record cases of GBV. The e-learning course on SHG and federation management, developed jointly with TISS, was supported by the Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society, and a total of five batches have been completed. Dr Shalini Bhagat, Director, TISS, distributed certificates during one of the convocations in Ranchi.
Chaitanya's integrated approach-combining institution building, livelihoods, financial inclusion, and gender justice-has made it a recognised resource organisation for sustainable, women-led rural development. It presents a wonderful example of Nexus of Good, a model that can be replicated and scaled through public-private partnerships. They have already demonstrated that it can happen despite an adverse set of circumstances. Chaitanya is already scaling up what it has achieved, but it is now for others to learn from what has already been accomplished and take it forward.
Views expressed are personal. The writer is an author and a former civil servant
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.