The Problem

The problem being addressed here is of poor sanitation. Pradeep, Dharmendra and the team are trying to stop open defecation in their village by educating people and spreading awareness about the health implications of open defecation. The goal is to ensure that everyone uses a toilet always.

The Venture

Pradeep, Dharmendra and his gang wake up early in the morning to trouble those going out to defecate in the open. They spill the water in the bottles or vessels the villagers carry with them so that they abandon the idea since they cannot wash up afterwards and so make the people use toilets because they become helpless towards the actions of Dhabba Dhol. 

The Problem

The problem tackled is wastage of items at large. In our day to day life, a lot of physical items are being heedlessly squandered by people who don’t need them while they may be useful to others.

The Solution

Go Donate helps to re-utilize the resources that are deemed to be waste. This not only prevents wastage of resources but it also helps the needy by faciltating their use of the resources.

The Venture

Go Donate is a platform that helps donors get connected with charities and NGO’s nearby to the donor so that he or she could share their item with the receiver. This helps prevent material waste and also succours the needy. It is a simple way of connecting thousands of charities and donors together thereby preventing the wastage of resources. Another unique thing about our initiative is that charities or NGO’s can easily tie up with us and can easily see items, which donors have shared around their area. Such an app has never been implemented.

The Problem

Women in the village had been resorting to using dirty pieces of cloth during their periods for years. And though these unsanitary pieces of cloth were a serious cause of infections and diseases, most of the community could not afford pads as they were below the poverty line. And the pads given to the girls at school would not last them longer than three hours.

The Solution

The girls first set out to ‘Imagine’ various solutions to the problem. They tried and tested a variety of cloth to use as sanitary pads. After conducting market research, the children decided to stitch a piece of cotton flannel – a “maroon cloth” that was locally available in the village market – to two pieces of cotton cloth.

The Venture

In the ‘Do’ stage of their project, the girls used a regular pad to trace out the final design and created flaps that could be buttoned on to the underwear for ease of use. They took help from their teachers to stitch the layers of cloth together. The Panchayat Pradhan of Sallada village and the Legislative Assembly of the Block provided the girls with a sewing machine and Rs 3,000 to make their project a reality. The pads were then formally launched by the two governing bodies. Block Pradhan Sonali Meena, appealed to all the women in the village to use the product because “the cloth is good and absorbent”.

The Changemaker

Premi and Shivani, with their team, have taken up initiatives to go door to door to facilitate interaction with their community regarding Menstruation hygiene and have also trained more than 80 women and adolescents to make and use cloth made sanitary napkin.

The Problem

Incidences of violence linked to excessive consumption of alcohol in Surjeet’s family and the village is a major problem. The youth of these families are forced to buy liquor and are hence subject to direct exposure to alcohol consumption, which may trap them in addition to alcoholism. The affected families are drowning in deep debts causing huge economic losses and depleting resources to fund education or health to their family members. The spillover effect of consumption of alcohol can be seen in neighbouring non-tribal areas where similar incidences of domestic violence, retarded education opportunities, and poor economic health of families.

The Solution

Surjeet pushed for and led the awareness campaign rally on anti-alcohol in his village. He supported the CSWs to help screen a documentary in two villages (Bhilay and Sahwa – tribal dominated areas) where the problem is massive due to unlicensed alcohol shops. He aims to write an application to Block and District level officers of welfare to provide support with raid and closure of unlicensed shops in his village.

The Venture

The Children and women of families got hugely benefited being the victims of domestic violence. They are the forbearers of the impact laid by insufficient financial resources to meet their daily basic living requirements. The addicted male members of these families tend to spend their weekly income on the purchase of alcohol. I adopted a unique way of intervention wherein screenings of documentary and rallies had a positive effect on the mindset of families and addicted members of my community. The effect will inspire other children to stand up against the issues and ban consuming alcohol.

The Problem

Punjab in infamously known for its drug abuse problem and children are no less vulnerable to the issues than adults. Children are either exposed to drug abuse and addiction or have to face consequences of the addiction among their parents. If not monitored, children often get easily exposed to the drug culture and impact them for years. Due to the lack of financial support, the children get involved in criminal activities such as theft or robbery in order for them to buy drugs. In addition, drug addiction causes serious health concerns at a young age.

The Solution

To solve the problem, the team is taking three key steps for preventing children from the drug abuse problem; (1) advocating with the village officials for ensuring police protection against the drug dealers in village, (2) creating awareness campaigns such as posters that educate the community about the hazards of addiction, and (3) conducting counselling sessions with children who are out of school that may fall into the addiction trap.

The Venture

Fight Against Addiction is leading an awareness drive against addiction in their village with the determination to protect each and every child in the village from the drugs threat.

The Problem

The problem tackled is wastage of items at large. In our day to day life, a lot of physical items are being heedlessly squandered by people who don’t need them while they may be useful to others.

The Solution

Go Donate helps to re-utilize the resources that are deemed to be waste. This not only prevents wastage of resources but it also helps the needy by faciltating their use of the resources.

The Venture

Go Donate is a platform that helps donors get connected with charities and NGO’s nearby to the donor so that he or she could share their item with the receiver. This helps prevent material waste and also succours the needy. It is a simple way of connecting thousands of charities and donors together thereby preventing the wastage of resources. Another unique thing about our initiative is that charities or NGO’s can easily tie up with us and can easily see items, which donors have shared around their area. Such an app has never been implemented.

The Problem

More than 64 Million Indians are suffering from Diabetes. 1 out of 3 Indian has Diabetes and doesn’t even knows that he/she is a Diabetic. Diabetes is also leading to many other health issues. Hitarth aims to solve this problem with the help of Algorithms. Hitarth and his app are making people aware of Diabetes Symptoms and how to avoid Diabetes.

The Solution

With the advanced algorithm, Hitarth has made about 10-15 questions based on the person’s age range. After answering the questions, an instant result is generated. The result indicates his/her’s chances of being a Diabetic and what should he/she do per their result. This makes people more aware of Diabetes. Helping people realize the Health issue they have is a mark of success for Hitarth Seth.

The Venture

Diabetes Doctor is the first type of application for checking Diabetes Symptoms. Diabetes symptoms usually don't occur on your body quickly and it is also one of the diseases - people know it by name but don't know what could happen with it and how can they avoid it. Diabetes Doctor app has crossed about 1`000 downloads till date and has successfully helped a few people detected that they are diabetic.

The Problem

The problem being addressed here is of poor sanitation. Pradeep, Dharmendra and the team are trying to stop open defecation in their village by educating people and spreading awareness about the health implications of open defecation. The goal is to ensure that everyone uses a toilet always.

The Venture

Pradeep, Dharmendra and his gang wake up early in the morning to trouble those going out to defecate in the open. They spill the water in the bottles or vessels the villagers carry with them so that they abandon the idea since they cannot wash up afterwards and so make the people use toilets because they become helpless towards the actions of Dhabba Dhol.

The Problem

Due to globalisation, rapid transformation in society, and an increase in both life expectancy and population around the world, the question of how to engage senior citizens - who cannot look after themselves due to economic or physical limitations - in society have become both important and urgent. Today, senior citizens are
often left alone or left in elderly homes with no access to the needed and required care as the old “joint family“ system has been broken.
In addition, people today have fewer or no children, even the ones that do have kids, experience reduced care by their children because of demanding jobs, career and changing lifestyle. This shift has affected the physical and psychological well-being of senior citizens and made them socially alienated.

The Venture

SPEE works for the psychological well-being of elderly people. The venture works today with 9 elderly homes in Punjab where senior citizens feel neglected by their children and society at large or were abandoned by their families.
SPEE initially spoke to these people to look for solutions based on their need. After some pursuing, a community-driven solution came up. Inderpreet arranged a meeting of children from underprivileged schools with these old age homes. This served a dual purpose of improving the negative atmosphere of the existing elderly homes while engaging them with the youth and strengthens their morals. With the motto of the elderly should be “LIVE THEIR DAYS “Inderpreet feels that the best way to re-integrate them in society is to engage them in some sort of community work. That is to make them feel wanted again and give them a feeling of being needed. After success with elderly homes, Inderpreet wants to increase his impact by moving on to age at home. His latest venture is to create a resource centre for the elderly. A sort of platform for the aged where they can always do the things that they wanted eg art. It will also be a platform for the old to come together. Another important feature of this resource centre would be to help the economically weak old people. Old people with a small business can avail the help of students on an internship basis and the platform will help facilitate this. The resource centre will also push the elderly to engage in any social or economic activities. Eg selling or cultivating vegetables, etc. Inderpreet has put many such initiatives in place in the “Sub-urban areas “Combing vigour
of the young with the wisdom of the elderly not only improves the atmosphere but also provides some learning opportunities to the young.

The Changemaker

Inderpreet has developed a passion to work in the social sector in his young age. The project SPEEE, which he started at the age of 22 got featured among 100 Faces of Impact under age 25 by Impact Squared and selected as Young Social Innovator to ChangemakerXchange summit 2017 happened in the Philippines among other 20 changemakers from 13 countries across Asia. He also got ‘Social Startup Fellowship’ by School of Social Entrepreneurs India and has experience and knowledge to start and develop a sustainable project. Enhancing his skill in leadership to excel in the dynamic social sector career he joined Development leadership course at Indian School of Development Management. Being a student of Social Sciences, He has always been inquisitive about society, and involved himself in different surveys conducted by Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Annual Status for Education Report (ASER) 2014-2015 and other research projects that nurtured him to a grounded personality. He also worked as an Intern with three different NGO’s (Pratham, Vision India Foundation and Swaraj Abhiyan) where he got a good sense about project management, team working and community engagement. Significant Life Experiences: Inderpreet founded a student community named ‘I Responsible Amritsar” during his graduation. He started his venture to mobilize youth to public policy and civic issues with 5 fiends only. Lacking both, social and economic support community eventually has grown to have more than 50 volunteers within a year. Responsible is successfully functioning under the third line of leadership till today with a new chapter outside Punjab as “I Responsible Gurgaon”.

The Problem

Women in the village had been resorting to using dirty pieces of cloth during their periods for years. And though these unsanitary pieces of cloth were a serious cause of infections and diseases, most of the community could not afford pads as they were below the poverty line. And the pads given to the girls at school would not last them longer than three hours.

The Solution

The girls first set out to ‘Imagine’ various solutions to the problem. They tried and tested a variety of cloth to use as sanitary pads. After conducting market research, the children decided to stitch a piece of cotton flannel – a “maroon cloth” that was locally available in the village market – to two pieces of cotton cloth.

The Venture

In the ‘Do’ stage of their project, the girls used a regular pad to trace out the final design and created flaps that could be buttoned on to the underwear for ease of use. They took help from their teachers to stitch the layers of cloth together. The Panchayat Pradhan of Sallada village and the Legislative Assembly of the Block provided the girls with a sewing machine and Rs 3,000 to make their project a reality. The pads were then formally launched by the two governing bodies. Block Pradhan Sonali Meena, appealed to all the women in the village to use the product because “the cloth is good and absorbent”.

The Changemaker

Premi and Shivani, with their team, have taken up initiatives to go door to door to facilitate interaction with their community regarding Menstruation hygiene and have also trained more than 80 women and adolescents to make and use cloth made sanitary napkin.

The Problem

Adolescence is a period of physical, psychological development from puberty to adulthood. Lack of information on adolescent health results in the prevalence of behavioural and physical problems among teenage girls.

The Solution

Ashiwni learns about adolescence related topics at school and educates the adolescents and women in her community. She creates forums for adolescent girls where they discuss their problems and come up with solutions.

The Venture

Unlike traditional approaches, it is a peer-to-peer initiative that has a direct positive impact on comforts levels, openness, sharing of ideas and participation. She understands various practices and the problems associated with it. She educates adolescents resulting in improved healthcare in her community.

The Changemaker

Ashiwini’s initiative has impacted 4 villages of Renigunta Mandal, Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh. The awareness sessions held, addresses the gap in mindsets by providing information and busting myths and taboos on adolescent health care.

The Problem

In the operation of manufacturing firecrackers, fire workers suffer from minor burns before the arrival of the fire engine.

The Solution

Ceilings are modified to contain holes through which water could sprinkle down to extinguish a fire.

The Venture

Water is filled just above the ceiling that has holes on it. The holes are sealed with wax. During fire accidents, the wax melts, allowing water to pass through it, thus, putting off the fire.

The Changemaker

Devasena has implemented the project in various small-scale firework factories in Sivakasi. She currently studies in Grade 9 In Pondicherry.

The Problem

Counterfeit drugs pose a great threat in India. One doesn’t know if the drug they are consuming is original or not since it looks very similar to the original drug. If there is an epidemic outbreak in India, hospitals and community can’t upscale their operations to make sure that they can battle the crisis situation.

The Solution

Drugsafe ensures the legitimateness of drugs.  The users get to verify that the drugs they consume are not counterfeit drugs.

The Venture

Extensive technologies like artificial intelligence, cloud and machine learning are used to predict an outbreak of a disease in communities. Not only has the technology being used proved its usefulness, but it is also very economical as most of It is hosted on the cloud.

The Changemaker

Pratik is pursuing engineering in RV college of engineering. Along with his team of 3, he has identified one of the most pressing problems in India. Their innovation has impacted places in Bangalore.

The Problem

Many people find themselves having heart attacks. Silent/Asymptomatic heart attacks could be detected 6 hours prior to an unlikely event, thereby saving many lives and a device that could evade high costs of surgeries after an attack. Today, most people don’t have access to an affordable device.

The Solution

 Silent /Asymptomatic heart attacks could be detected 6 hours prior to an unlikely event, thereby saving many lives and a device that could evade high costs of surgeries after an attack. The device serves people in rural areas who aren't affordable for costly healthcare facilities.

The Venture

Akash developed a cost-effective wearable device @Rs.900 which solves the problem stated above by using the principle of electric protein mass differentiation by alerting the at-risk patient six hours prior to the increase in the concentration of FABP3 proteins in the blood. The unique technique is in the process of being patented. The technique is novel in detecting asymptomatic heart attacks, which are currently impossible to be diagnosed by doctors as the unlikely event occurs suddenly without prior symptoms. The device aims to serve people in rural areas who aren’t affordable for costly healthcare facilities. It has reached the human trials for 40 people were done at AIIMS, New Delhi and the results are 95% positive. We have few limitations on the wearability and the standard model of the prototype. I'm now in the process of R&D.

The Problem

Amblyopia, the most common eyesight condition in children, affects approximately 12 million children worldwide. It is fully treatable if detected early between ages 0-4 (preverbal stage) but current visual acuity tests are not accessible and affordable due to lack of professionals in rural areas, requirement of special hardware, and stringent testing conditions. The ophthalmologist to patient ratio in India is almost 1:10,000 and 76% of India’s population (712 million people) resides in rural areas. If left untreated or undetected in the advanced stage, refractive error conditions can lead to severe visual impairment/blindness. Thus, millions of children currently suffer in silence.

The Solution

Ishita developed digiTAC, a fully automated Teller Acuity Test - the most popular eye test for preverbal children - using machine learning. It does not require special hardware or a trained medical expert to operate and can be used without an internet connection. It simply runs as a laptop application and provides on-the-spot diagnosis of visual acuity conditions. Thus, it solves all barriers faced in testing in low-resource settings. It was approved for and has successfully undergone the first round of clinical trials at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi (second round currently ongoing). She also founded Sunain, a health camp program that screens for visual impairments in children in rural areas using this software.

The Venture

Ishita has worked with AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) in collaboration with the Head of Pediatric Ophthalmology and the hospital’s data analyst for the clinical trials. She also worked with a team of eight volunteers responsible for assisting in the organisation and implementation of health camps in Delhi. She has also had invaluable support from Barefoot College in implementing Sunain in 18 villages across Rajasthan.

The Problem

Many women lack the necessary means of disposing used menstrual products in a way that is not environmentally harmful. Most sanitary napkins contain plastic and are therefore not biodegradable.

The Solution

The team has made an innovative and eco-friendly device, Lunatrat, made with low-cost and easily accessible materials: a mud pot, a convex lens and caustic soda. The device uses sunlight to incinerate sanitary waste in a hygienic way without causing pollution (no smoke is released out into the environment).

The Venture

The team of two have introduced their device into their school and a few other schools in Hyderabad. They want to scale up production of the device so it can be used widely, especially in rural areas.

The Changemaker

Namita and Deveshi are 12th standard students at the DDMS (AMS) P.Obul Reddy Public School in Hyderabad. They are keen students of science, their interest in which encouraged them to come up with a solution to menstrual waste issues.

The Problem

Many women lack the necessary means of disposing used menstrual products in a way that is not environmentally harmful. Most sanitary napkins contain plastic and are therefore not biodegradable.

The Solution

The team has made an innovative and eco-friendly device, Lunatrat, made with low-cost and easily accessible materials: a mud pot, a convex lens and caustic soda. The device uses sunlight to incinerate sanitary waste in a hygienic way without causing pollution (no smoke is released out into the environment).

The Venture

The team of two have introduced their device into their school and a few other schools in Hyderabad. They want to scale up production of the device so it can be used widely, especially in rural areas.

The Changemaker

Namita and Deveshi are 12th standard students at the DDMS (AMS) P.Obul Reddy Public School in Hyderabad. They are keen students of science, their interest in which encouraged them to come up with a solution to menstrual waste issues.

The Problem

Every teenager should deal with problems like bullying, self-loathing, peer pressure and general stress. However, due to the stigma associated with these problems, many teens find it difficult to talk openly about these problems with family and friends.

The Solution

The project aims to connect distressed teens with young adults who have suffered from similar problems of bullying, self-loathing, peer pressure and stress. The goals of the project are threefold: to enable a safe and stress-free environment for teenagers, to empower teens through a cycle of mutual sharing and help, and to reduce instances of cyberbullying by making social media a platform for positive reinforcement and sharing.

The Venture

The team, acting as an ally support system, consists of students from Pritish’s school who are in constant contact with trained counsellors that can deal with situations that are beyond the control of the young team members. On an interpersonal level, ACFH has intervened in social situations by providing conflict mediation between bully and victim. On a larger scale, the project has conducted five flash mobs, ten workshops and two street plays in schools and public places all over Gurgaon to raise awareness about the stigma surrounding mental health and bullying. Pritish's plans to expand ACFH in schools across Delhi.

The Problem

In Vennila’s community, the government has built public toilets because of people in that community still, believe that building a toilet inside their houses is offensive to god. They know that the government wants them to build the toilets but they are not willing to do so.

The Solution

It works by using the following activities:

(1) By street plays and songs spreading knowledge of the issue
(2) Working with the local panchayat, and
(3) Forming a team of like-minded people and campaigning about the issue in schools Stop Outside aims to improve the cleanliness of the village and promotes awareness of this issue to the people of Koppal.

The Venture

Stop Outside is a platform that uses plays and songs to spread awareness about the benefits of having a toilet at home. Cleanliness programs is a new thing for the people of Koppal.

The Problem

In India, sewers are cleaned by men who go 20-40 feet down in manholes to be unclogged. The working environment is filled with poisonous gases, low oxygen levels, disease-causing pathogens and darkness. Many workers faint or even die during the job. Most workers get Tuberculosis (TB). The average age of workers is less than 60 and they risk their lives every time they go down. The Supreme Court of India banned the practice in 2015 but this job cannot be done without manpower. Hence, there has been no stop to this fatal practice to date.

The Solution

Sewer Assistant was initially designed as a robot to clean the sewers, but the task is too complicated for a robot to do and Kevin did not have the required resources. Therefore, Kevin built a heavy-duty gasoline engine powered motor that pumps in fresh air from the outside into the sewers. It has a solar-powered LED lighting system and a toxic gas sensor and oxygen level sensor.

The Venture

The initiative ensures that the workers have a safe work environment. As for solving the problem of TB, Kevin has organized free of cost TB check-ups for the workers and their family members to ensure their good health. To solve the problem of TB, Kevin has organized free of cost TB check-ups for the workers and their family members to ensure good health.

The Problem

India faces a great shortage of blood donations, a shortage estimated at 1.1 million units. This results in many deaths each year, as people have no access to blood donations.

The Solution

The Dream team would send the complaints themselves to the MLA as the poor people didn’t have the knowledge and awareness to reach him. If the MLA does not take any specified action, then the problem would be sent to a concerned NGO. Moreover, Chethan was in charge of a local orphanage. He used to collect various items for these underprivileged kids and provided them with it.

Chethan also started an app, Khoon, that also allows people to contact Dream Teams if they want to organise an awareness session or a blood donation camp. Dream Teams has itself organised blood donation camps at various places and collected over 300 pints of blood, enough to save 900 people’s lives. Through the app, Chethan has impacted thousands of people in need of blood donations. Chethan wanted to do something about the blood donation problem from his early childhood. There was a setback in his life at an early age as he lost his teacher due to unavailability of blood. This incident has always motivated him to go ahead with this venture and he hopes to cure the problem of blood donation as soon as possible.

The Venture

Dream Team:
Chethan launched the Dream Teams NGO with a wide range of projects aimed at the development of India, working with around 50 others. He and his team would look for potential people and registered their complaints about their neighbourhood like the poor conditions of roads in the nearby villages. 

Khoon:
Chethan recently launched Khoon, an app that allows blood donors to register, and allows people to make requests. Cooperating with Bloodconnect, Chethan works with blood banks and voluntary donors to ensure that people can access the blood they need.

Technology is a huge aspect of this modern world. Using this technology Sujoy has developed the prototype of a biomedical device which can track and detect a person’s heartbeat. So if anyone faces any cardiac problems or is stroke-prone, then the device can provide them with medical assistance. The device will collect the data of the person’s whole cardiac system and send them an early message to make them aware of an oncoming stroke. Besides this device, another device to help those with cerebral palsy is also being developed. The communication device will help the people affected with cerebral palsy to move their hands and fingers and talk to others easily so that they can express themselves. To develop this device they are working with CRP (Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed). 

Change Scope App is such an app which works to control the mental problems or depression of people especially teenagers. Firstly, the app will identify the problem of the troubled person. The app will act as a guideline for them. To help the person, the app will work in three steps. The first move will be to move the troubled person towards any kind of music, games, anything that can divert them to a positive side. It will start this step after the problem based assessment of the children. The second step involves an AI chatbot which will ask the person questions about his problems, life, talk about positive moral things etc. After completion of the first two steps, if the troubled person feels he/she needs more help, then in the final stage the app will suggest the person to a nearby doctor or therapist.

Problem being addressed

Children on the streets of Mumbai do not have access to health education and often live in unsafe conditions that are hazardous to their health. Latifa is working on making sure these students have access to basic knowledge about health and are leading safe lives.

Venture Brief

Haji Ali Health Alliance (HAHA) does this by conducting community awareness programmes on various health hazards through continuous visits to the households and engage children in the awareness generation process. They are also inculcating leadership qualities and build capacity through skills development amongst children so that the immediate actions can be provided during any illness. Since the initiative is community based, it helps the entire community take responsibility. By formation of child collectives, community based intervention can be established which could run on its own. Latifa is trying to establish similar model in two locations in Mumbai. Through child collectives, street child from each location will be trained on how to do first aid and also where to refer their peers if someone is sick.

Impact

Latifa and her team of 25 has able to provide support to 75 street children with her first aid services. They have reached out to 250 community members with Health Awareness sessions, resulting 25 referrals from their community to the nearest Government Hospitals.