For the third yr in a row, we’re proud to rejoice the great thing about goodness. Beautiful Indians, offered by Femina – India’s outstanding thought chief in magnificence and trend – and Mamaearth – one among India’s largest purpose-driven magnificence and private care manufacturers – is again with its third season to recognise the nice actions that make us actually stunning.
We’re placing the highlight on goodness ambassadors amongst us. Here are a number of the nominations for the goodness ambassadors. Read their tales and vote to your favorite one.
Chandra Mishra
Educator Transforming Lives Across Generations, West Bengal
Chandra Mishra, a 59-year-old journalist-turned-social employee from Odisha, has launched into a transformative journey in Varanasi. In 2021, he based the Beggars Corporation, difficult the established order by empowering beggars to turn out to be entrepreneurs. Through ability improvement, 12 households transitioned from begging to crafting convention and laptop computer baggage, producing a enterprise value Rs 57 lakh in 2022-2023. Chandra champions a shift in mindset, emphasising funding over donations to supply dignity and sustainable livelihoods. Going past his Odisha roots, he embraced a brand new mission, proving that unconventional paths result in impactful change.
Deep Narayan Nayak
Educator Transforming Lives Across Generations, West Bengal
This 36-year-old, affectionately referred to as ‘Raster Master’ (instructor of the streets) has turn out to be a beacon of training for 3 generations, educating not simply the kids but additionally their mother and father and grandparents. Starting with simply two youngsters in West Bengal, Deep’s journey started by remodeling the partitions of houses into vibrant blackboards. His efforts have now touched the lives of over 10,000 college students, reaching so far as Bangladesh. The visionary behind the Raster Master Research Centre, devoted to addressing numerous societal challenges, additionally achieved recognition as one of many high 10 finalists for the USD 1 million Global Teacher Prize 2023. From providing free teaching and making certain entry to nutritious meals, to actively combating little one marriages to spearheading electrical energy initiatives and empowering girls by way of soccer, Deep is all about making a significant distinction within the lives of others.
Devanshi Yadav
Crusader For Victims Of Sexual Assault And Domestic Violence, Noida
At simply 14, Devanshi Yadav confronted the horror of an acid assault, adopted by abuse from a household buddy at 18. At the age of 26, she based the Shaheed Ramashray Welfare Society in Noida, honouring the reminiscence of her father, who was martyred in a bomb blast. Devanshi’s NGO extends a compassionate hand to those that have endured related ache and trauma, providing free authorized support and counselling to victims of sexual assault and home violence. Through her tireless efforts, she has touched the lives of over 1,000 survivors, offering them with the help they should heal and search justice, empowering them to guide higher and more healthy lives.
Divaa Uthkarsha
Champion Against Type 1 (Juvenile) Diabetes, Bengaluru
After her nine-year-old brother, Surya, was identified with Type 1 diabetes in 2020 through the lockdown, Divaa Uthkarsha, then 12, began Project Surya after enrolling within the One Million for One Billion Future Leaders programme. Project Surya goals to enhance the standard of life for underprivileged Type 1 diabetic youngsters residing in Karnataka and to boost consciousness in regards to the distinction between Type 1 diabetes and the extra frequent Type 2. Through this initiative, the now 15-year-old 2023 Diana Awardee raises funds to sponsor insulin and diabetes administration sources equivalent to glucose strips and syringes, working with Samatvam Endocrinology For Science and Welfare Trust to disseminate these sources. Although Divaa has confronted challenges associated to folks not taking her significantly due to her age and with fundraising, Project Surya has targeted on one-on-one interactions and concentrating on a smaller help group of 100 diabetic households over the past two years. The initiative has efficiently reached 3,50,000 people, raised INR 1 million, and sponsored 5,000 insulin vials by way of organized rallies, college classes, and fascinating with ASHA staff. As a passionate UNSDG advocate, Divaa additionally offered Project Surya on the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Dr Urvashi Sahni
Founder & CEO Of The Study Hall Education Foundation (SHEF), Lucknow
Dr Urvashi Sahni is a number one skilled at school governance, curriculum reform and instructor coaching, with a particular deal with ladies’ training and using expertise in training.
An activist and educator for the final 30 years, beneath the Study Hall Education Foundation (SHEF), she has established three Ok-12 faculties together with the Prerna Girls School, offering reasonably priced high-quality, rights-based training to over 1,000 ladies from city slums. SHEF immediately supplies training to over 4,000 college students, together with middle-class city youngsters, deprived ladies and boys from poor areas, out-of-school youngsters, and rural youngsters.
Dr Urvashi has been recognised by the Obama Foundation Global Girls Alliance and the Clinton Foundation as a changemaker, obtained Berkeley’s Haas International Award for her efforts to reform training in India and bolster training for women in 1994, and was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship in 2011. She additionally based Suraksha, a girls’s rights organisation, in 1983, and is the co-founder and director of the Digital Study Hall, which extends the pedagogical practices developed by the inspiration to rural and concrete faculties in Uttar Pradesh, reaching out to over 1,00,000 college students and academics. She has additionally arrange DiDis, a social enterprise producing sustainable livelihoods for girls, by which she employs 65 Prerna graduates and their moms.
Eiha Dixit
An 11-Year-Old Eco Warrior Planting The Seeds Of Change For A Brighter Future, Meerut
Television and movies are sometimes credited with influencing our behaviour. Meerut resident Eiha Dixit skilled an identical optimistic affect very early in life. Watching cartoons and listening to the Mann Ki Baat programme instilled a profound sense of environmental safety in her thoughts, which then led to her planting 1,008 and a couple of,500 saplings on her fifth birthday and sixth birthday respectively.
In 2018, Eiha and different youngsters established the Green Eiha Smile Club, which employs the revolutionary matka methodology of planting. This method, needing minimal irrigation, yields a progress price 20% greater than standard practices, leading to exceptional achievements.
For her dedication to the planet, Eiha was honoured with the Prime Minister’s National Children’s Award in 2019, the International Eco Hero Award in 2023, and has been recognised internationally, together with in international locations such because the United States of America, France, and Spain.
Now 11, Eiha continues to be an emblem of environmental activism, having established 20 mini forests and 25 medicinal gardens throughout the nation over 303 weeks of devoted tree planting each Sunday. She has additionally based the Eiha Plant Bank, which distributes vegetation freed from cost. Recognising her extraordinary dedication, the Uttar Pradesh Housing Development Department has supplied her with land at completely different locations for plantation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi affectionately refers to her as his ‘youngest friend’, acknowledging her distinctive dedication to environmental conservation.
Kiran Kamdar
Parkinson’s Warrior Ensuring Hospital Patients Get Essential Nutrition, Mumbai
Even although she battles Parkinson’s illness herself, 62-year-old Kiran Kamdar’s coronary heart overflows with compassion for others. For the previous three years, she has been selflessly offering free khichdi to sufferers and their households on the DM Petit Government Hospital in Palghar, Maharashtra. Despite the illness’s merciless grip on her physique, Kiran troopers on, caring not just for her personal son who has cerebral palsy, but additionally dedicating her spare moments to educating underprivileged youngsters.
Kiran first felt her calling in 2021, amid the darkness of the COVID-19 pandemic, when she witnessed the overwhelming variety of sufferers in want. Since then, each morning at 5 AM, Kiran prepares nourishing meals; she has chosen khichdi for its well-known dietary stability. With shaking fingers however unwavering dedication, she ensures that over a 100 people all through the hospital obtain not only a meal, however the heat embrace of consolation and care – a real testomony to her dedication to their wellbeing.
Nirvaan
Founder Of Project Jeans, Delhi
Delhi schoolboy Nirvaan thought he was acutely aware of his water consumption till, in the future in 2019, he got here throughout a social media submit on the United Nations web page stating that 10,000 litres of water are required to make a single pair of denims. This shocked him, and the determine caught with him lengthy afterward – it meant that, with 5 pairs of denims, he had 50,000 litres value of water in his wardrobe. With the purpose of minimising the affect of this consumption, he did additional analysis, and discovered in regards to the power, sturdiness and insulating properties of denim. He determined to place these to good use by making sleeping baggage for the underprivileged. Thus was born Project Jeans, a social entrepreneurial try aimed toward mitigating the environmental penalties of denim by changing discarded denim into sleeping baggage. So far, by way of his initiative, 8,000 pairs of denims have been collected and 1,000+ sleeping baggage distributed primarily in Delhi, in addition to in Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune. Last yr, Project Jeans additionally despatched sleeping baggage to Turkey and Syria as a part of earthquake aid. Nirvaan has been awarded the Diana Award and the 2023 International Young Eco-Hero award for his contributions.
Prasiddhi
Child Environmentalist & Social Entrepreneur, Chennai
Prasiddhi Singh, an 11-year-old environmentalist and social entrepreneur based mostly in Tamil Nadu, is the founding father of the Prasiddhi Forest Foundation. With a profound love for nature, she has planted over one lakh timber and carried out 600 consciousness classes, making certain vital affect. After experiencing the after-effects of Cyclone Vardah on the age of 4, Prasiddhi launched into a mission to reinforce biodiversity and lift consciousness. Her motion, Prasiddhi Forests, includes various contributors worldwide, fostering a tradition of conservation. Drawing inspiration from nature, Prasiddhi’s imaginative and prescient extends to exploration and innovation, reflecting her dynamic dedication to environmental points. She has gained a number of awards and has been recognised as one of many Young Minds of Tomorrow by ET NOW and Times Network. She presently research on the Mahindra World School in Chennai.
Sara Benjamin
Cancer Warrior For Other Cancer Warriors, Chennai
Herself a most cancers survivor, Sara Benjamin Cherian makes wigs freed from value for different most cancers warriors. An entrepreneur, philanthropist, and devoted mom, she is a trustee on The Cherian Foundation’s board, channelling her ardour into impactful initiatives. Renowned for spearheading the Gift Hair, Gift Confidence marketing campaign, Sara promotes hair donation to craft wigs for most cancers sufferers, enhancing their self-confidence throughout therapy. Inspired by private loss and a household custom of wig making, Sara collaborated with the Adyar Cancer Institute in 2014, subsequently increasing this altruistic enterprise nationwide.
Sharad Sagar
Social Entrepreneur On A Mission To Empower Coming Generations, Bihar
Sharad Vivek Sagar wears a lot of hats that talk volumes about his dedication and keenness: social entrepreneur, thought chief, highly effective orator, and, above all, widely-revered youth icon. Sharad launched into his journey at a remarkably younger age, founding – at simply 16 years of age – the nationwide organisation Dexterity Global, by way of which he has not solely facilitated entry to training however has additionally empowered numerous people to understand their full potential. This is obvious within the staggering amount of cash in scholarships that college students skilled with the Dexterity system have obtained from prestigious world universities. Furthermore, these people have served as invaluable youth ambassadors to the United Nations, even bringing residence numerous awards. From being invited by former US President Barack Obama to the White House as a worldwide youth icon in 2016, to turning into the primary Indian to carry the celebrated place of President of the Student Government at Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2022, Sharad’s affect extends past borders – serving as an inspiration for all those that dare to dream and try for a greater tomorrow.
Manavi Rai
Animal Activist & Stray Dog Shelter Provider, Delhi
Manavi Rai’s journey in the direction of animal rescue is a narrative of fortitude and empathy. Her dedication to serving to stray canines has not solely sparked reform and introduced consideration to the importance of small acts, but additionally led to an enormous private transformation, main her to rethink her priorities and pursue her true goal in life.
Up till 10 years in the past, Manavi lived in Toronto, Canada, having fun with popularity and life as a dressmaker. Like many individuals of Indian origin, she discovered herself stranded in India through the COVID-19 pandemic, and that led to her resolution to dedicate her life to the welfare of stray canines. In 2020, observing injured, weak and ravenous canines through the lockdown, she began ‘Dog Langar’ to rescue homeless animals. She presently runs the Udgam Haveli shelter, and believes she is at only the start of her lengthy journey to offer one thing again to the atmosphere. Her life is dedicated to seva (service) and he or she is working in the direction of establishing a 24-hour hospital for animals.
Manavi has not solely saved the lives of numerous animals, but additionally has impressed folks to be humbler and extra humane in the direction of these harmless dwelling creatures who, she avers, deserve love, care and hospitality – identical to every other dwelling being in our biodiverse society.
Akshat Shah & Shubh Mehta
Co-Founders Of Change Is Us, Mumbai
Akshat and Shubh are co-founders of Change Is Us, a dynamic youth-led initiative dedicated to fostering optimistic societal and environmental change. Embodying the idea that ‘change begins small, but it begins with you’, they spearhead weekly seashore clean-up drives at Girgaon Chowpatty seashore in Mumbai. Additionally, they orchestrate donation initiatives, offering necessities equivalent to meals, sanitary napkins, candies, and clothes to these in want. Their outreach additionally extends to ‘Happiness Drives’, the place they go to previous age houses, orphanages, and people with disabilities, aiming to uplift spirits and produce pleasure to the neighborhood. Akshat and Shubh’s story speaks to the exceptional affect that may be achieved when ardour and proactive motion come collectively.