Subhash Mendhapurkar (Founder & Director)

MR. SUBHASH MENDHAPURKAR – FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR

“SUTRA was founded to act as a ‘conscious keeper’ of society. In order to achieve that, we needed to establish our credibility first which was done through service provision model, and then we started acting as Conscious Keepers by raising number of issues that affect Gender Equity”.

Subhash Mendharpurkar grew up in the slums of Pune in an asset-less family. He later studied at university where he obtained a Postgraduate certificate in Community Development. After working as a free-lance journalist and lecturer in undergraduate colleges, he founded SUTRA with the support of other NGOs in 1977.

A SHORT HISTORY OF SUTRA

SUTRA first began its activities in providing the community with direct development help but was soon to notice that it was not sustainable on the long-term. It then decided to itself train professionals in the area of community service.
Through its activities SUTRA started to raise the issues affecting the marginal section of the society – especially women. Domestic and social violence against women became its first priority.

As well as seeking to empower women, SUTRA also initiated addressing teenage boys and girls and sensitise them on gender discrimination. Furthermore, new projects were developed in order to address gender issues through different approaches. An example of this are micro-credits.

SUTRA is also aiming at raising participation in local governance and insuring its transparency. This is a key issue for the further development and empowerment of women.

Recently SUTRA has decided to thoroughly tackle the issue of invisible violence such as coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty.