What, in your view, are the next big frontiers for India’s gender equity movement?
India’s next leap in gender equity will not be measured only by more women entering the workforce, but by greater power for women in assets, leadership, and decision-making spaces. Despite some progress, women remain significantly underrepresented across sectors, with fewer than one in five participating in the labour force, less than 13 per cent owning land, and under 5 per cent holding CEO positions. Closing these gaps is not only a social imperative but also an economic opportunity, with the potential to add $770 billion to India’s GDP by 2030. Unlocking this requires moving beyond participation to structural transformation, including supporting women-led enterprises, investing in childcare and care infrastructure, and embedding women’s leadership across corporate and civic life. It also calls for changing narratives from welfare to competitiveness, and from token representation to systemic equity. Dasra’s role is to convene and align funders, grassroots leaders, and policymakers to build the ecosystems that enable women not only to contribute to India’s growth, but to lead it.
Adolescents often remain an overlooked segment in policies and philanthropy. Why do you think this gap exists, and how can it be bridged?
Adolescents account for nearly a quarter of India’s population, yet they remain the overlooked middle in both policy and philanthropy. Too often, programmes focus on children or adults, leaving systemic gaps in adolescent health, education, and agency. The lack of age-specific data further limits targeted interventions and masks disparities faced by rural youth, adolescent girls, and marginalised communities. The Covid-19 pandemic magnified these inequities, with significant learning losses, digital exclusion, and adolescent girls facing disproportionate setbacks. Philanthropy has often remained short-term and project-based, limiting scale and sustainability. Bridging this gap requires a shift in mindset to position adolescents as co-creators rather than passive beneficiaries. Dasra’s Youth Ke Bol demonstrates this approach by engaging thousands of young people in policy dialogues and advocacy. Building systemic solutions requires coalitions of funders, NGOs, and government aligning around shared outcomes, along with patient, flexible capital to strengthen institutions and evidence. With integrated approaches across education, digital literacy, and leadership, adolescents can emerge as active agents shaping India’s future.
How can research, data, and on-ground partnerships help create scalable, evidence-based solutions for philanthropy in India?
For philanthropy in India to shift from fragmented giving to systemic change, research, data, and partnerships on the ground are indispensable. Rigorous evidence helps identify underserved areas and guide funders towards high-impact priorities while de-risking investments. Dasra’s work demonstrates this approach, as field-building research on adolescent empowerment has mobilised more than $78 million, while participatory frameworks like Youth Ke Bol have ensured that young people’s voices shape programme design. Data also illuminates inequities such as the digital gender divide, enabling philanthropy to design targeted interventions that reach marginalised groups. Partnerships are equally critical, with NGOs bringing proximity and trust, governments offering scale and policy alignment, and funders enabling innovation and patient capital. Together, these ecosystems amplify outcomes far beyond individual projects. Technology further strengthens this work, with platforms like the POSHAN Tracker or Glific making programmes more adaptive and accountable. When combined, research, data, and partnerships allow philanthropy to shift from short-term projects to scalable, evidence-driven, and community-rooted solutions.
What role does grassroots leadership play in ensuring that community voices are represented in decision-making spaces?
Grassroots leaders bring lived experience and contextual knowledge that are critical for shaping programmes that are effective, equitable, and sustainable. Without their voices, interventions risk being top-down and disconnected from community realities. Evidence shows that inclusive governance leads to greater uptake of health, education, and sanitation programmes when local leaders are engaged. Dasra’s Youth Ke Bol illustrates this approach by training young policy champions who now actively shape national agendas on menstrual health, education, and civic participation. Grassroots leadership also builds trust, especially for women and marginalised communities, who are more likely to engage when they feel represented. For philanthropy, this means investing in leadership development, peer networks, and platforms for youth-led advocacy, rather than limiting support to service delivery. It also requires a shift from tokenistic consultation to genuine co-creation, where communities hold ownership of change. As digital tools and participatory data strengthen grassroots voices, their role becomes central to making systemic change inclusive and sustainable.
Looking ahead, what impact do you hope Dasra’s work will have over the next decade, and what would be your message to India’s business leaders and philanthropists?
Looking ahead, Dasra envisions a decade in which India’s social sector moves from fragmented interventions to coordinated, evidence-driven ecosystems that deliver systemic change. Our aspiration is to embed equity at the heart of India’s development story by centring adolescents, women, and communities as leaders rather than as passive beneficiaries. By convening philanthropy, business, government, and civil society, Dasra will continue to orchestrate field-building efforts that align capital with systemic priorities, de-risk innovation, and scale approaches that work. This will mean investing in resilient institutions instead of temporary projects, and shifting philanthropy from a model of charity to one of catalytic risk capital.
For business leaders and philanthropists, the call is to think long-term, to fund systemic solutions, and to trust grassroots leadership as the drivers of transformation. Dasra’s ultimate goal is to create a resilient, inclusive, and evidence-driven social sector that enables India to achieve its equity ambitions and deliver on the promise of India@2047.