The article provides an overview of various initiatives and programs aimed at improving social, medical, educational, and environmental indicators in India and Africa, including projects related to sustainable development and the circular economy.
One program focuses on improving maternal and child health by providing women direct access to vital medical information and training medical personnel, including Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs). To date, over 17,000 nurses, more than 4,500 medical officers, and 790 specialists have been trained across the country. An LLM-based assistant on WhatsApp supports over 8,500 ANMs in four states.
Another initiative focuses on mental health, offering awareness, counseling support, and psychiatric intervention. This program has reached over 7.1 million people in 17 states, and its awareness campaigns have covered more than 180 million people. The Oorja program in 1,050 Mumbai schools (with 280,000 students) contributed to a 21% increase in help-seeking and a 12% reduction in suicide attempts, and it also includes the Mann project (for 75,000 CISF employees) and the Masoom project (for 121 childcare institutions).
Another foundation strengthens rural primary healthcare by integrating telemedicine into existing public Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat. During the 2025-26 period, 90,034 teleconsultations were conducted, including 43,382 specialist consultations, in 15 PHC centers serving the rural population of these four states. Furthermore, emphasis is placed on chronic disease management, maternal health, anemia, preventive screening, and sanitation education.
Early childhood education programs for children aged 0 to 6 use technologies such as phone audio lessons, a story-telling bot on WhatsApp, Anganwadi worker training, and community circles involving fathers. This content, created in five regional languages, has reached over 550,000 caregivers and 1.1 million children. Over 35,000 Anganwadi workers and senior educators have been trained at a steady rate of 9,000–12,000 annually from the fiscal year 2023 to 2025. In 2024, Dost became an official partner of the Women and Child Affairs departments of Uttarakhand and Jharkhand for implementing the Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi program, and this year the Uttar Pradesh government invited Dost to expand its activities to 10 districts.
The literacy program has covered 2.85 million students through more than 241,000 facilitators in 21 states and union territories of India, as well as in Africa since its launch in 2000. In the fiscal year 2025, the coverage exceeded 412,000. The program, which includes the 'Every One Supports One' volunteer initiative, provides personalized, native-language, and device-independent learning modules to improve adult literacy among 180 million illiterate residents of India, covering reading, writing, arithmetic, financial, and digital literacy.
Interventions have been developed to promote student self-reliance through collaborative learning spaces, equal opportunities, co-creation of knowledge, personalized learning, and a joyful and holistic learning environment. Nearly 1 million students in over 7,000 government schools across 6 states have been impacted through the training of 13,452 teachers and 48,907 school principals. Foundational literacy and numeracy improved by up to 30% with a six-month knowledge gain.
Initiatives include gender inclusion and employment programs to engage women, communities, employers, and local stakeholders. Over 85 vocational training and upskilling courses are offered across India to empower youth, women, and marginalized communities. These programs address intersecting barriers based on gender, caste, and class for women's participation in the workforce in non-traditional manufacturing/green sectors, waste picker earnings, and beauty entrepreneurship. Results include training 2,500 women (of whom 1,750 found employment) in manufacturing/green sectors, reaching nearly 12,000 women through the Saamuhika Shakti initiative for waste pickers, and impacting over 1,500 women in beauty training.
A program operating since 2002 has impacted 20,300 at-risk adolescent girls from disadvantaged groups in 38 locations across 15 states, leading to increased household incomes and the emergence of role models in the community. Girls receive mentorship, life skills, career counseling, and financial assistance for higher education and leadership roles, with up to 65% of these young women citing the mentorship as key.
The approach to gender equality empowers women and girls through sustainable social investments, covering financial access, nutrition, education, and rural ophthalmological care. Key outcomes include 28% female representation in the workforce, reaching approximately 2.5 million women, feeding over 13,000 children under the morning nutrition program, and conducting 8,626 eye check-ups.
A technology firm incubated at IIT Madras addresses water loss and sanitation worker safety issues using robotics and artificial intelligence for modern inspection, cleaning, and digitization, making the operation and maintenance of water supply, sewage systems, storm drains, wells, and septic tanks more intelligent and safer. In Lucknow, a 5.1 km pipeline inspection identified 34 critical defects (28 of which were repaired), saving approximately 0.9 million liters of water daily for about 1,750 households.
The organization works on the education, employment, and rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities (PwD). It has created a large citizen-generated accessibility repository supported by an agreement between the government and the participation of persons with disabilities' communities. The Yes to Access (YTA) application allows citizens, volunteers, and governments to assess the accessibility of public places using photos, employing AI to verify 29 parameters according to India's Universal Accessibility Guidelines. Each geotagged assessment enters a public accessibility map, providing people with disabilities with real-time navigation data and governments with evidence for reconstruction planning.
The driver's license licensing system has been improved through automated testing tracks. License applicants undergo driving skill checks on these tracks using video analytics technology without human intervention, all within a 10-minute cycle. Centers are equipped with specially designed tracks for driving tests, high-resolution cameras for real-time video recording, data-driven assessment tools, and biometrics. At least 89% of applicants reported that these tracks increased transparency and trust in the testing process.
Saahas, established in 2001 to promote solid waste management with a focus on resource recovery, implements, incubates, and disseminates best practices in solid waste based on circular economy principles. It has diverted over 1,450 tons of waste and achieved 90% segregation, 94% collection, and reduced emissions by 1,111 tCO2e (metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent) in three panchayats in the Bengaluru suburbs.
The WATER (Water Access Through Ecosystem Restoration) initiative addresses chronic water scarcity and climate vulnerability in 28 districts and 54 blocks of seven drought-prone central Indian states, utilizing state funding and women-led water resource management. Its results include the irrigation of 11,872 acres, construction of 1,352 ponds, 568 solar pumps, 422 wells, a convergence of 66.23 crore rupees, and 14,132 women managing assets.
HUL's flagship urban sanitation and environmental sustainability initiative, Suvidha, rethinks sanitation and hygiene infrastructure in communities using a climate-resilient approach. Working with BMC since 2016, it has transformed public toilets into climate-resilient hygiene centers using solar energy, greywater recycling, and decentralized wastewater treatment. 25 such centers serve over 600,000 users annually, recycling over 300 million liters and preventing 4 million kg of CO2e emissions annually, ensuring 100% sewerage connection.
The program aims to integrate vocational education—including skills in carpentry, engineering, food processing, and agriculture—as a core part of the curriculum in government and state schools. The program has covered over 2 million students in more than 20,000 schools, and a three-year follow-up monitoring showed stronger employment, self-employment, and technical education outcomes compared to control groups.
Since 2007, youth and women (91% from families with income less than 20,000 rupees per month) have been trained in in-demand skills in coding, AI, and professional development to help them escape poverty. The program operates in over 100 centers across 22 states with more than 450 hiring partners and has trained over 336,000 people, resulting in employment for about 70% of certified candidates and reporting a 240% increase in average household income.