Dr Urvashi Sahni is a number one knowledgeable at school governance, curriculum reform and instructor coaching, with a particular give attention to ladies’ training and the usage of expertise in training. 

An activist and educator for the final 30 years, underneath the Examine Corridor Training Basis (SHEF), she has established three Okay-12 faculties together with the Prerna Women Faculty, offering inexpensive high-quality, rights-based training to over 1,000 ladies from city slums. SHEF instantly supplies training to over 4,000 college students, together with middle-class city kids, deprived ladies and boys from poor areas, out-of-school kids, and rural kids.

Dr Urvashi has been recognised by the Obama Basis World Women Alliance and the Clinton Basis as a changemaker, obtained Berkeley’s Haas Worldwide Award for her efforts to reform training in India and bolster training for ladies in 1994, and was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship in 2011. She additionally based Suraksha, a girls’s rights organisation, in 1983, and is the co-founder and director of the Digital Examine Corridor, which extends the pedagogical practices developed by the muse to rural and concrete faculties in Uttar Pradesh, reaching out to over 1,00,000 college students and academics. She has additionally arrange DiDis, a social enterprise producing sustainable livelihoods for ladies, during which she employs 65 Prerna graduates and their moms.

Eiha Dixit

An 11-12 months-Outdated Eco Warrior Planting The Seeds Of Change For A Brighter Future, Meerut

Tv and movies are sometimes credited with influencing our behaviour. Meerut resident Eiha Dixit skilled an identical constructive impression very early in life. Watching cartoons and listening to the Mann Ki Baat programme instilled a profound sense of environmental safety in her thoughts, which then led to her planting 1,008 and a pair of,500 saplings on her fifth birthday and sixth birthday respectively. 

In 2018, Eiha and different kids established the Inexperienced Eiha Smile Membership, which employs the progressive matka technique of planting. This method, needing minimal irrigation, yields a development price 20% greater than standard practices, leading to outstanding achievements.

For her dedication to the planet, Eiha was honoured with the Prime Minister’s Nationwide Youngsters’s Award in 2019, the Worldwide Eco Hero Award in 2023, and has been recognised internationally, together with in nations reminiscent of the USA of America, France, and Spain. 

Now 11, Eiha continues to be a logo of environmental activism, having established 20 mini forests and 25 medicinal gardens throughout the nation over 303 weeks of devoted tree planting each Sunday. She has additionally based the Eiha Plant Financial institution, which distributes crops freed from cost. Recognising her extraordinary dedication, the Uttar Pradesh Housing Improvement Division has supplied her with land at completely different locations for plantation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi affectionately refers to her as his ‘youngest good friend’, acknowledging her distinctive dedication to environmental conservation.

Kiran Kamdar

Parkinson’s Warrior Guaranteeing Hospital Sufferers Get Important Diet, Mumbai

Regardless that she battles Parkinson’s illness herself, 62-year-old Kiran Kamdar’s coronary heart overflows with compassion for others. For the previous three years, she has been selflessly offering free khichdi to sufferers and their households on the DM Petit Authorities Hospital in Palghar, Maharashtra. Regardless of the illness’s merciless grip on her physique, Kiran troopers on, caring not just for her personal son who has cerebral palsy, but additionally dedicating her spare moments to educating underprivileged kids. 

Kiran first felt her calling in 2021, amid the darkness of the COVID-19 pandemic, when she witnessed the overwhelming variety of sufferers in want. Since then, each morning at 5 AM, Kiran prepares nourishing meals; she has chosen khichdi for its well-known dietary stability. With shaking fingers however unwavering willpower, she ensures that over a 100 people all through the hospital obtain not only a meal, however the heat embrace of consolation and care – a real testomony to her dedication to their wellbeing.

Nirvaan

Founder Of Challenge Denims, Delhi

Delhi schoolboy Nirvaan thought he was aware of his water consumption till, in the future in 2019, he got here throughout a social media put up on the United Nations web page stating that 10,000 litres of water are required to make a single pair of denims. This shocked him, and the determine caught with him lengthy afterward – it meant that, with 5 pairs of denims, he had 50,000 litres value of water in his wardrobe. With the intention of minimising the impression of this consumption, he did additional analysis, and discovered in regards to the power, sturdiness and insulating properties of denim. He determined to place these to good use by making sleeping baggage for the underprivileged. Thus was born Challenge Denims, a social entrepreneurial try aimed toward mitigating the environmental penalties of denim by changing discarded denim into sleeping baggage. To date, by means of his initiative, 8,000 pairs of denims have been collected and 1,000+ sleeping baggage distributed primarily in Delhi, in addition to in Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune. Final yr, Challenge Denims additionally despatched sleeping baggage to Turkey and Syria as a part of earthquake reduction. Nirvaan has been awarded the Diana Award and the 2023 Worldwide Younger Eco-Hero award for his contributions.

Prasiddhi

Youngster Environmentalist & Social Entrepreneur, Chennai

Prasiddhi Singh, an 11-year-old environmentalist and social entrepreneur primarily based in Tamil Nadu, is the founding father of the Prasiddhi Forest Basis. With a profound love for nature, she has planted over one lakh timber and carried out 600 consciousness periods, guaranteeing vital impression. After experiencing the after-effects of Cyclone Vardah on the age of 4, Prasiddhi launched into a mission to reinforce biodiversity and lift consciousness. Her motion, Prasiddhi Forests, includes various contributors worldwide, fostering a tradition of conservation. Drawing inspiration from nature, Prasiddhi’s imaginative and prescient extends to exploration and innovation, reflecting her dynamic dedication to environmental points. She has received a number of awards and has been recognised as one of many Younger Minds of Tomorrow by ET NOW and Occasions Community. She at present research on the Mahindra World Faculty in Chennai.

Sara Benjamin

Most cancers Warrior For Different Most cancers Warriors, Chennai

Herself a most cancers survivor, Sara Benjamin Cherian makes wigs freed from price for different most cancers warriors. An entrepreneur, philanthropist, and devoted mom, she is a trustee on The Cherian Basis’s board, channelling her ardour into impactful initiatives. Famend for spearheading the Reward Hair, Reward Confidence marketing campaign, Sara promotes hair donation to craft wigs for most cancers sufferers, enhancing their self-confidence throughout remedy. Impressed by private loss and a household custom of wig making, Sara collaborated with the Adyar Most cancers Institute in 2014, subsequently increasing this altruistic enterprise nationwide.

Sharad Sagar

Social Entrepreneur On A Mission To Empower Coming Generations, Bihar

Sharad Vivek Sagar wears a lot of hats that talk volumes about his dedication and keenness: social entrepreneur, thought chief, highly effective orator, and, above all, widely-revered youth icon. Sharad launched into his journey at a remarkably younger age, founding – at simply 16 years of age – the nationwide organisation Dexterity World, by means of which he has not solely facilitated entry to training however has additionally empowered numerous people to grasp their full potential. That is evident within the staggering sum of money in scholarships that college students educated with the Dexterity system have obtained from prestigious world universities. Moreover, these people have served as invaluable youth ambassadors to the United Nations, even bringing house numerous awards. From being invited by former US President Barack Obama to the White Home as a world youth icon in 2016, to changing into the primary Indian to carry the distinguished place of President of the Pupil Authorities at Harvard Graduate Faculty of Training in 2022, Sharad’s impression extends past borders – serving as an inspiration for all those that dare to dream and attempt for a greater tomorrow.

Manavi Rai 

Animal Activist & Stray Canine Shelter Supplier, Delhi

Manavi Rai’s journey in direction of animal rescue is a narrative of fortitude and empathy. Her dedication to serving to stray canine has not solely sparked reform and introduced consideration to the importance of small acts, but additionally led to an enormous private transformation, main her to rethink her priorities and pursue her true goal in life.

Up till 10 years in the past, Manavi lived in Toronto, Canada, having fun with a superb repute and life as a designer. Like many individuals of Indian origin, she discovered herself stranded in India in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that led to her determination to dedicate her life to the welfare of stray canine. In 2020, observing injured, weak and ravenous canines in the course of the lockdown, she began ‘Canine Langar’ to rescue homeless animals. She at present runs the Udgam Haveli shelter, and believes she is at just the start of her lengthy journey to provide one thing again to the atmosphere. Her life is dedicated to seva (service) and she or he is working in direction of establishing a 24-hour hospital for animals.

Manavi has not solely saved the lives of numerous animals, but additionally has impressed folks to be humbler and extra humane in direction of these harmless residing creatures who, she avers,  deserve love, care and hospitality – similar to some other residing being in our biodiverse society. 

Akshat Shah & Shubh Mehta

Co-Founders Of Change Is Us, Mumbai

Akshat and Shubh are co-founders of Change Is Us, a dynamic youth-led initiative dedicated to fostering constructive societal and environmental change. Embodying the idea that ‘change begins small, nevertheless it begins with you’, they spearhead weekly seashore clean-up drives at Girgaon Chowpatty seashore in Mumbai. Moreover, they orchestrate donation initiatives, offering necessities reminiscent of meals, sanitary napkins, sweets, and clothes to these in want. Their outreach additionally extends to ‘Happiness Drives’, the place they go to outdated age properties, orphanages, and people with disabilities, aiming to uplift spirits and convey pleasure to the neighborhood. Akshat and Shubh’s story speaks to the outstanding impression that may be achieved when ardour and proactive motion come collectively.