Dhan

A brilliant story from GoodNewsIndia about M.P.Vasimalai and the Dhan Foundatioin started by him. He grew up working in the fields, did a course in agriculture, and gave the CAT exam "in a fit of absent-mindedness" to qualify into IIM-A. But he did not take the normal route of going into the corporate world to chase high salaries. He instead applied the keen analysis skills the MBA programme helped him develop, and joined an NGO, ASSeFa (Association for Sarva SEva Farms).

When he visited his village, he realised that drilling wells and installing water pumps was not the answer to the water shortage problem, but rain water harvesting was needed to restore the depleting water levels. This required him to organize the people of the village, and that proved to be the turning point in his philosophy. When the people could be organized to think together, a lot more became possible. He started DHAN, a microfinance initiative, which has now grown across 6,000 villages and inspired many more NGOs to set up SHGs (Self Help Groups). Not only does DHAN look into water management and women empowerment, but it is trying to use the same philosophy of unified thinking to democratize the village Panchayats. So far, Panchayats have functioned only as implementors of the government schemes, but the DHAN clans belives that they need to do much more.