The Mann Deshi Foundation is an Indian Charitable Society and Public Trust (NGO) dedicated to the economic empowerment of rural women and their communities. It was founded in 1996 by Chetna Gala Sinha in Mhaswad, a drought-prone region of Satara district, Maharashtra. The foundation's origin is rooted in the problem of rural women being denied access to formal financial institutions, a challenge highlighted by a local welder named Kantabai.
The Foundation works in tandem with the Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank, which was established in 1997 and was India's first rural financial institution to receive a cooperative license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). While the Bank provides credit and savings, the Foundation focuses on non-financial services.
Its mechanism involves providing skills training through Business Schools and Mobile Business Schools that travel to remote locations. To facilitate market access and business scaling, it established Chambers of Commerce starting in 2014. A key recent development is the focus on digital inclusion, including the Mann Deshi Wallet App, which helps women access formal credit by digitizing their "soft collateral" and integrating with digital public infrastructure like DigiLocker. The Foundation also connects to the concept of microfinance and has a partnership with UTI Mutual Fund to offer a pension program for rural women. It currently operates in Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Karnataka, with a goal to reach one million women by 2024.