NIRMAN – Nurturing Young ChangeMakers

India has 26 crore young people in the age group of 18 – 28 years. How to help them flourish by finding a meaningful purpose for themselves?

India also struggles with myriad issues like poverty, inaccessible and unaffordable healthcare, addictions and mental illness, lack of quality education, unemployment, water scarcity, declining biodiversity, global warming, etc. which are waiting to be solved. How to nurture talented youth leadership in the country who can take on these developmental challenges? 

NIRMAN attempts to create a bridge between both the above needs. NIRMAN facilitates the search for purpose among Indian youth and nurtures them as social contributors.

NIRMAN sensitizes young minds to different burning social challenges and equips them for effective action while simultaneously investing in youth’s own flourishing.

Major Program Activities:

a.  NIRMAN Workshops to facilitate youth’s journey regarding their purpose and social contribution

b.  Kar Ke Dekho Fellowship to provide a unique & customized support for engaging in social action

c.  Continuous Flourishing Interventions to assist NIRMAN participants in their professional & personal growth and social action

d.  College Connect & Sensitization Modules to provide developmental inputs to students

e. Online Educational Resources made freely available for the larger youth community

f. Research & Knowledge Creation regarding psychology and positive development of youth in India

• 1500+ Participants trained from 21 states in India
• 500+ Full time social contributors
• 1800+ Cumulative person years of social contribution in the developmental sector so far
• 93% Net Promoter Score given by the participants
• 161% Increase in participants’ clarity about their purpose as compared to the baseline
• 85 lakh+ Views for the online educational resources
• 200+ Sensitization lectures in various colleges / institutes
• 4 Knowledge frameworks developed
• 500+ Articles, case stories published in various outlets including The Wire, Down To Earth, IDR, Times of India, Indian Express, Ideas for India, Sadhana, etc.

NIRMAN alumni are working on variety of social challenges across India through a wide array of approaches including changing the health policy, providing healthcare services in remote areas, public health research, building farmers’ cooperatives, livelihood generation, watershed development, afforestation and carbon credits, devising appropriate technology interventions for grassroots, strengthening village governance, improving learning outcomes for children, spreading a culture of reading, building financial & accounting capabilities of NGOs, etc. and have received honors like Ashden Award, Zayed Sustainability Prize, Global Citizenship Award, Rhodes Scholarship, etc.

Testimonials

“NIRMAN not only gave me amazing friends but also helped me to find the real me, and made me confident about my goal of social problem solving. Now I have a glorious purpose to live!”

– Dr. Akshay Wagh, MBBS, GSMC Mumbai, Medical Officer, Bhamaragad Rural Hospital

“NIRMAN process taught me to critically analyze various problems in our society and to initiate an 'Action' based thought process to tackle these problems. NIRMAN triggered me to decide the motto of my life. It gave me courage to break the mold and pursue my career/ life in much more meaningful manner towards my society.”

– Ashwin Pawade, M.Tech. IIT Bombay, Co-Founder S4S Technologies