Chetna Gala Sinha—MDM
The Impact
Mann Deshi, advocating property rights for women. Photograph by Cyrill Ardin
Since 1997, MDM has directly reached 164,251 women and indirectly benefited 300,000 families. Its business development services has seeded and sustained 17,051 rural women entrepreneurs. In an impact study conducted in 2006, 100% of MDM’s clients reported an average 80% increase in daily income (with 50% reporting 100–200% increases in family income). 61% reported a substantial increase in meal quality. More than 60% reported substantial increase in their confidence levels for being able to navigate through the commercial banking sector. A combination of these factors has led to a 40% drop in migration in Mahaswad and a proportionate decrease in drop out rates of girls going to school. Mann Deshi Mahila Bank plans to move operations to six new states in the near future.
The Entrepreneur
“The women of Mann Deshi have aligned Lakshmi and Saraswati (the Goddesses of knowledge and wealth) to create dignified spaces for themselves in the banking business and the stock market.”
Chetna Gala Sinha
An economist, farmer and activist, Chetna Gala Sinha was born in Mumbai. In the 1970s she was active in the Jayprakash Narayan student movement through which
she worked intensively with rural and marginalized communities. After her marriage to a farmer and rights activist in the Mahaswad area, she decided to pursue a career in farming. This was when Chetna experienced, firsthand, the challenges of ruralwomen—lack of access to financial services leading to debt. The design and development of the MDM idea has emerged organically from her personal life trajectories. Chetna was awarded the 2005 Janakidevi Bajaj
Puruskar for rural entrepreneurs and was selected for the first class of Yale University’s World Fellows Program in 2002–03. In addition, she and Mann Deshi have received a clutch of awards like the Ashoka-Changemakers Social Innovations award.
