When Injustice takes place in society, there are people who close their eyes and pretend nothing has happened but there are other people as well who work in every way possible to make sure that justice is done. Chetna Gala Sinha is one such activist who dedicated her life for women empowerment.
Chetna Gala Sinha is an activist, a banker and a farmer. She was still a student in Mumbai when she joined the Jayaprakash Narayan movement in the early s. During this movement she travelled through the country advocating land rights and other social issues.
In , Chetna founded the Mann Deshi Foundation in Mhaswad. Mhaswad is a drought-stricken area of Maharashtra. Her aim was to economically and socially empower rural women.
In , she established the Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank. It is India’s first bank for and by rural women.
Today, the Mann Deshi Bank has more than 1 lakh account holders. Moreover it has loaned over $50 million. It regularly generates new financial products to support the needs of female micro-entrepreneurs.
It has received the Microfinance Process Excellence Award in , Best Eco-Tech Bank Award in by the Indian Bank Association and the &#;Best Bank Award&#;
Chetna Gala Sinha is the founder and chair of the Mann Deshi Bank, aimed at the needs of rural women micro-entrepreneurs in India.
Why you should listen
Chetna Gala Sinha is a passionate listener who respects risk-takers -- which makes her a powerful force in the banking world. A longtime activist and farmer, in she set up the Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank, India's first bank for and by rural women. Today, the Mann Deshi Bank has 90, account holders, manages business of more than Rs. crores (or 22 million dollars) and regularly creates new financial products to support the needs of female micro-entrepreneurs. In , Sinha founded the first business school for rural women in India, and in , she launched a toll-free helpline and the first Chambers of Commerce for women micro-entrepreneurs in the country. In , she set up a community empowerment program for farmers that supports water conservation; it has built ten check dams and impacted 50, people.
In January , Sinha served as a co-chair of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and in November , she was honored with a leadership award from Forbes India.
Courage is capital: Chetna Gala Sinha on her journey in transforming rural women’s financial independence
Chetna Gala Sinha, social entrepreneur, microfinance banker, and activist, gave a powerful start to SheSparks In her keynote address, she took the audience through her journey as a young student at Bombay University to the Founder and Chairperson of Mann Deshi Bank and Mann Deshi Foundation—organisations that provide financial services, business education, and digital literacy to women in underserved communities.
As the Founder of India’s first women-led rural bank, Sinha has empowered over one million women, proving that financial independence is first about finding ways to break systemic barriers with resolve, before having access to money.
Sinha’s journey began in when, as a young student at University of Mumbai, she was inspired by activist Jayaprakash Narayan's call for youth to work in India’s villages. Influnced by his work, she left city life behind and moved to drought-stricken regions in Maharashtra, where she saw women breaking stones in extreme heat—a scene that stayed with her.
During her keynote address, Sinha recalled how her defining moment came when she
Posted by Sharanya Menon and Smarinita Shetty
Chetna Gala Sinha, the founder of Mann Deshi Foundation, set up India’s first rural bank for women. The foundation has since grown to supplement the bank by providing access to financial education, skills, and a support network for rural women and their communities.
In this interview, Chetna highlights the challenges faced by women micro-entrepreneurs, the critical need for an enabling ecosystem, the role that the private sector can play, and the importance of family support for women.
Q: Over the years, Mann Deshi has worked extensively with small and micro women entrepreneurs. During this time, you have been talking about the need to build an enabling ecosystem for micro-entrepreneurship. What do you mean by this?
A: The World Economic Forum published a report that said if you want to close the gender gap, it will take years. Bloomberg said it would take years. When we look at all this data, the one question that keeps coming up in my head is—are we going to wait for that long?
Women entrepreneurs at the grassroots aren’t willing to wait. They want to build their businesses now and they
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