09/05/2026
Saksham originated because "कोणी विचारत नाही"
A year ago, I sat with a frontline worker in a small village in Maharashtra.
She had been working for her NGO for nearly four years. She knew every family in her cluster by name. She knew which household had a pregnant woman, which child had dropped out of school, and which family was in debt. She carried her organisation's mission more intimately than anyone sitting in the head office ever could.
I asked her — What do you need most?
I expected something similar, I heard in companies and from Individuals about a salary hike, a promotion. She didn't say either. And she didn't even say more resources.
She looked at me and said, quietly:
"कोणी विचारत नाही." Nobody asks.
Not that nobody gives them the things. Nobody asks.
Nobody asks how she is managing. Nobody asks what is hard. Nobody asks whether she feels capable of what is being asked of her. Nobody asks what she has learned, what she has noticed, what she thinks should change.
I must be clear here that she was not complaining. She was just stating a fact about her professional life. A fact that, I realised that day, was true for most frontline workers across the sector.
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I have carried that conversation while I worked for individual and group transformation and productivity programs.
It shaped the way I think about organisational investment. About whose growth we fund and whose we don't. About the gap between what we say about frontline workers — "they are the backbone of our work" — and what we actually build for them.
सक्षम is, in many ways, what came as my answer to that conversation.
A structured 30-day program — not motivation, not generic soft skills — but a real, grounded, Marathi-language space where frontline NGO workers can build confidence, develop leadership habits, and, perhaps for the first time, be genuinely asked: what is hard for you, and what do you need?
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The second Cohort just got completed.
Two participants — a field worker from Babare and a teacher from Shahapur, Thane — gave it a 10 out of 10. Both described specific behavioural changes. Both said the impact reached their home lives too.
One of them told us she will now tell every colleague to join. Because, she said: "प्रत्येक माणसामध्ये क्षमता आहे — ती समजून घ्यायची असेल तर हा कोर्स अवश्य करावा."
(Every person has capability. If you want to understand yours — do this program.)
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The July 2026 cohort is now open.
If you lead an NGO, run field programs, or fund grassroots work in Maharashtra — I want you to know about it and enrol atleast one from in the this program.
Because somewhere in your team, there is a worker who is doing extraordinary things quietly.
And nobody is asking.
DM me, or drop a comment below. Let's change that. 👇
Link to apply
https://forms.gle/pr5uq4pt7i8rME326
#सक्षम
