A YOUNG and committed leader from India has responded to the formidable needs of millions of her poor countrymen.
She even made a promise to herself to not marry so that she could devote her whole life to help the needy Indians.
Such commitment and selflessness did not go unnoticed by givers of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards, Asia’s answer to the Nobel Prize.
Nileema Mishra, 39, was born to a middle-class family in the village of Bahadarpur, Maharashtra, India.
She earned a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Pune, Maharashtra, in 1995, three years after she graduated there with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology.
With such academic achievements, she could have lived comfortably as an urban professional.
Instead, she chose to embark on a mission of helping alleviate the lives of her countrymen, initially those in her village.
In 2000, Nileema returned to her village to organize Bhagini Nivedita Gramin Vigyan Niketan (BNGVN), or Sister Nivedita Rural Science Center.
It was named after an Anglo-Irish missionary who devoted her life to helping Indian women of all castes.
BNGVN did not begin with a development model in mind, except the conviction that the community’s problems must be addressed from within the community itself.
Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of a self-sufficient, prosperous village, Nileema decided that her group would not compete for government projects, but let people identify their own problems and find solutions to them.
In return, she only asked the villagers to not despair over their lot.
The first self-help group of 14 women was followed by more of such groups, all engaging in the microcredit and income-generation through production of food products and export-quality quilts.
BNGVN, at the same time, trained the women in production, marketing, accounting and computer operations.
Inspired by Nileema, the women went on to build a warehouse so they could procure supplies in bulk and at better prices and formed an association that now has outlets for its products in four districts of the state.
Traditionally confined to the home, they have become productive, articulate and confident in their ability to think for themselves.
But men in the village also have their own problems, too.
Driven by extreme economic distress, a shocking wave of farmers’ suicides struck Maharashtra.
Nileema and her group responded by helping create a village revolving fund that provided loans for farm inputs and emergency needs, addressing health problems by building over 300 private and communal toilets and activating the village assembly to resolve and discuss local needs.
The success of Bahadarpur encouraged Nileema to expand her work.
Within 10 years, BNGVN was able to form 1,800 self-help groups in 200 villages across Maharashtra.
Its microcredit program has distributed the equivalent of $5 million, with one-hundred percent recovery rate.
For Nileema, the way has not been easy because she had to battle frustration and failure.
“I am very thankful to them (villagers). They are ready to improve themselves,” she said in a statement.
Nileema Nishra was chosen as the recipient of the 2011 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership because the Board of Trustees recognized her purpose-driven seal to live and work tirelessly with the villagers of Maharashtra and organizing them to successfully address both their aspirations and adversities through collective action and heightened confidence in their potential to improve their own lives.
