4th EdelGive Social Innovation Honours 2012

About EdelGive Foundation

EdelGive Foundation is an initiative of Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd., one of India’s leading financial services firms. It provides strategic direction to the philanthropic activities of Edelweiss, its employees, clients and associates.

Its key priority is to focus on the areas of education, livelihoods and supporting women’s empowerment. It achieves this by bringing an investment banking and venture capital approach to the social sector. By using the human, financial and intellectual resources from its parent company, Edelweiss, it seeks to enrich and broaden the impact of entrepreneurial activities of non-profits in India.

4th EdelGive Social Innovation Honours 2012

The 4th EdelGive Social Innovation Honours 2012, is a national awards programme instituted by the EdelGive Foundation, to reward innovative work in the social sector in India.

The objective for the EdelGive Social Innovation Honours is to identify and reward organisations that are innovating to empower women in India.

In India statistics continue to highlight the ways women and girls remain marginalised and disempowered:

• Over 50% of girls in India still fail to enroll in schools In rural areas,
• 1 in 7 is married before the age of 13
• Lack of access to maternal health care in India still claims the lives of 1 in 70 women
• Female labourers get paid only 40 to 60 per cent of wages compared to a male labourer

Such figures reveal a pressing need for progress, and that’s why we choose to focus on funding and showcasing for innovative work that helps to empower women in five four different categories: Education, Health and Well-Being, Livelihoods and Rights and Representation.

Honours Vision

Edelweiss Group launched a national awards programme in 2008, managed by EdelGive Foundation, with a vision to recognize, promote and support outstanding innovations that are catalysing positive social change across India. 

Through the awards we seek to raise awareness of issues surrounding girl children, support organisations working on innovative projects and promote sharing and learning of these ideas amongst the private and public sectors.

Partners

Tata Institute of Social Sciences: Established in 1936, TISS is the first school of social work in India. It is known to promote sustainable equitable and participatory development through professional education, social research and social intervention.

Ernst and Young Pvt. Ltd.: Ernst & Young is a global leader in assurance, tax, transactions and advisory services.

What are we looking for?

We are looking for organizations that have

• Innovated either in idea and/or action to impact the lives of women in India
• Direct social impact and
• Sustainability of the innovation

Award Categories

• Health and well being: Awarding an innovation which promotes women’s health and overall well-being
• Education: Awarding an innovation which provides women with access to education and/or improved quality of education
• Economic Security & Livelihoods: Awarding an innovation which helps women increase their income, and / or provides them with employment opportunities
• Rights and Representation: Awarding an innovation which helps women overcome social and cultural challenges and also those which empower women to participate in available legislative positions

Eligibility

You are eligible to apply in the corresponding categories if you work on the above issues.

Applicants applying for the Awards should satisfy the following criteria:

• The Applicant should not be barred from conducting any activities by any court of India.
• The Applicant should not propagate political or religious doctrines.
• The Applicant should be a registered organization in India, under the Trusts, Societies, or u/s 25 of the Companies Act.
• The previous three years’ winners and runners-up will not be able to participate in the award process.

Process

The window for applications will close on September 23, 2011. Short listing for each category will be based on scores assigned by the internal jury and verification conducted by an Independent Agency. The Award Management’s decision on the short listed entities will be final and binding.

For verification of the application forms, an Independent Agency will be appointed to conduct field visits to the locations of the Short Listed Entities.

After field visits, the nominees for the final round will be invited for an interaction with the Final Jury. The Final Jury will score the nominees and one winner will be selected from each category.

Click here to apply online

Timelines

The Awards will follow the following timelines:

[Top]

Jury for ESIH 2011

• Ashu Suyash - Country Head, Fidelity International's Indian business
• Chandra Iyengar- Ex-IAS officer
• Kalpana Sharma - Journalist
• Mala Ramadorai - Vocalist
• Roopa Kudva - Executive Director & Chief Rating Officer, CRISIL
• Shobha Narayan - Author, food and travel writer
• Varun Sahni - Director, Impact Investment Partners
• Venkat Ramaswamy - Executive Director, Edelweiss Capital Limited
• Zia Mody - Senior Partner, AZB & Partners

Winners for ESIH 2011

In 2011 edition of the Awards, we received 237 applications, and the pool of applicants was shortlisted to 25 organizations by an internal jury, consisting of faculty from College of Social Work, Nirmala Niketan, Sir Ratan Tata Trust, Samhita, Mann Deshi Foundation, Edelweiss and EdelGive Foundation. Interviews and discussions with staff, beneficiaries and other stakeholders were undertaken during field visits by faculty from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). They were rigorously assessed and scored on innovation, its impact and sustainability of that innovation.

A final shortlist of 15 were arrived at by TISS faculty and invited to present in front of the Jury. The jury, consisting of prominent members from the social sector, media, government and the corporate sector then made their final decision.

The entire process was partnered by Ernst & Young Pvt. Ltd. as the official tabulators and process advisors and faculty from TISS were field assessors and process consultants.

2011 Winners

Jan Chetna Manch (JCM), Jharkhand which seeks to empower and improve the lives of the weakest and poorest women in the villages of Bokaro district of Jharkhand to improve their overall health was the winner under the ‘Health and Well Being’ category. For the last 15 years, JCM has been providing accessible, affordable and effective health care facilities for women during pregnancy and childbirth. In its model, JCM utilises the existing resources, knowledge and skills. Community based village women –Swasthya Sakhis- act as the link between the health centre and the community who are trained in child birth.

Educate Girls, Rajasthan was the winner under the ‘Education Category’. Their model reforms Government schools through community ownership to attain 100% enrolment, higher attendance and learning outcomes for all girls. Educate Girls engages girl students, teachers, schools, communities and the Government to create a sustainable, scalable and holistic platform.

STEPS Women’s Development, Tamil Nadu addresses issues related domestic violence and women’s right with special focus on the rights of Muslim women was the winner under ‘Socio-Cultural Rights’ category. It mobilises Muslim women on the rights granted to them by their custom and faith enabling them evolve their own democratic decision making bodies. It offers free legal aid and counselling services.

Prajwala, Andhra Pradesh, an anti-trafficking organisation was the winner under the ‘Economic Security and Livelihoods’ category. It rescues women and children from commercial sex workers and rehabilitates these survivors through economic and social empowerment program. In this process, corporate partnerships, establishment of small-scale industries and entrepreneurship development were explored by Prajwala.

The Hunger Project, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan was the winner in the 'Governance’ category. It works towards gender equality and women’s empowerment through their participation in the political process. The Hunger Project designed a pre-election campaign SWEEP with an objective to increase women’s participation in the election process as informed voters, potential leaders, polling agents and responsible citizens.

Runners up were selected in each category. They were:

• Health Category: Amhi Amchya Arogyasathi and Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP)
• Education Category: Human Capital for Third Sector- Katalyst
• Livelihoods Category: Arugulam and SAATH Charitable Trust
• Social and Cultural Rights Category: Positive Women Network (PWN+) and Pahal Jan Sahayog Vikas Sansthan
• Governance Category: Centre for Community Economics and Development Consultants Society (CECOEDECON), Bombay Urban Industrial League for Development and Mahila Chetna Manch