Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN)

About the organisation

PRADAN was created in 1983 by two young professionals, Deep Joshi and Vijay Mahajan, who were convinced that even the stubborn, endemic poverty of rural India can be solved. It works in the poorest regions of India to help vulnerable communities organize collectives that help people, especially women, earn a decent living and support their families. It also helps them access government programs and other entitlements as citizens. It focuses primarily on women. To achieve this, it recruits well-educated young professionals to work alongside people in the poorest villages. They come from many fields – such as management, engineering, agriculture, and the social sciences - and they are chosen as much for their empathy as for their technical expertise.

Special features

It organizes its grassroots operations into 11 Development Clusters. Each cluster, or region, is a collection of districts that groups together people and villages with a shared history, culture, agricultural climate and institutional landscape. This strategy reinforces the connectedness among communities, enabling development to multiply and accelerate. Each Development Cluster includes multiple teams of professionals who are supported by PRADAN’s corporate circle at all levels.

Why partner with them

More than 400 young professionals are working in 8,641 remote villages of India, immersing themselves directly with target communities across seven of the poorest states. They are recruited from universities and hold degrees in subjects like management, engineering, agriculture, and the social sciences.