Nivedita Banerji is a core leader at SPS and heads its Women's Empowerment Programme. A postgraduate from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, she has spent over three decades living and working among the tribal communities of the Narmada Valley in Central India, championing women's empowerment, sustainable livelihoods, and grassroots institution building.
As Secretary of SPS from 2008 to 2014, Nivedita played a pivotal role in shaping the organisation's vision of building powerful local institutions led by women. Her work has been guided by the belief that empowered women's collectives are fundamental to strengthening the voice of marginalized communities in mainstream development and deepening democracy at the grassroots.
Long over two decades, a transformative encounter with tribal women in Neemkheda village inspired her to create Kumbaya, a social enterprise that provides dignified and creative livelihood opportunities for women and persons with disabilities. Starting with three borrowed sewing machines and a box of fabric scraps, Kumbaya has evolved into a renowned producer company and ethical lifestyle brand that manufactures contemporary garments, home furnishings, and accessories for urban markets.
Nivedita's design philosophy is rooted in the principles of achieving maximum impact with minimum means, reducing physical drudgery while enhancing capabilities, and ensuring affordability through zero-waste production. Rejecting conventional models that undervalue artisans, she established a producer-centric enterprise that prioritizes fair wages, year-round employment, skill development, and uncompromising quality standards.
Her exceptional aesthetic sensibility is deeply embedded in the identity of SPS. From the creation of distinctive Kachwa fabrics and nationally acclaimed illustrated watershed training manuals, translated into several Indian languages, to the innovative architecture of the Baba Amte Centre for People's Empowerment, her creative vision has shaped both the physical and intellectual landscape of the organisation.
Under her leadership, Kumbaya has built strong market linkages with national retail networks, including TRIFED's Tribes India outlets and several ethical retail platforms across India. She has also nurtured collaborative teams managed entirely by trained rural women, demonstrating how design-led social entrepreneurship can transform resource-constrained regions into vibrant centres of creativity and economic opportunity.
In recognition of her expertise, the Government of India invited her to serve on the Working Group on Minor Irrigation and Watershed Management for the Twelfth Five-Year Plan. She is also an accomplished author, having contributed the West Bengal chapter to Saris of India: Bihar & West Bengal and co-authored scholarly work on rural labour and development policy.
Shobhit Jain has been part of Samaj Pragati Sahayog since its early years and has spent over three decades working in the tribal and rural regions of central India. Trained as a film editor at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, he began as an independent documentary filmmaker before fully immersing himself in grassroots development work with SPS.
Over the years, his work has spanned watershed development, agriculture, livelihoods, community institutions and media, always with a deep engagement with people and place. At SPS, he has helped shape programmes rooted in ecological regeneration, equity and community participation.
Along with Pinky Brahma Choudhury, he co-founded SPS Community Media, a filmmaking initiative that grew from the need to communicate rural realities from within the community itself. Over the period, it evolved into a unique experiment in participatory filmmaking and people's media. Young people from Adivasi and rural communities were trained in camera, sound, editing and storytelling, many of whom went on to become filmmakers.
The films emerging from this process have travelled widely across India and the world. SPS Community Media films have been screened at more than 100 national and international film festivals and have received several awards, including the National Film Award for Best Location Sound. Yet the primary audience for these films remains the villages where they are made and screened through the People's Mobile Cinema initiative across hundreds of villages in central India.
At the heart of Shobhit's work is a belief in deep documentation, the slow, careful recording of changes that unfold on the ground over years and sometimes decades. Whether through film or development practice, his interest has been in understanding how communities transform themselves, how landscapes recover, and how memory, culture and lived experience shape social change. His filmmaking process grows out of long relationships and trust rather than observation from a distance.
Ms. Sini Jolly is an Experienced finance and accounts professional with 31 years of experience. Since 2005, she has been dedicated service at Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS), where she currently serves as the Chief Accounts Officer and also holds the position of Treasurer. She has a strong academic background in commerce, having completed her Bachelor of Commerce from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala. Ms. Sini has extensive experience in managing FCRA and non-FCRA project accounts, grant utilization tracking, statutory compliance (including IT and TDS returns), audit processes and donor financial reporting. Ms. Sini Jolly is an Experienced finance and accounts professional with 31 years of experience. Since 2005, she has been dedicated service at Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS), where she currently serves as the Chief Accounts Officer and also holds the position of Treasurer. She has a strong academic background in commerce, having completed her Bachelor of Commerce from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala. Ms. Sini has extensive experience in managing FCRA and non-FCRA project accounts, grant utilization tracking, statutory compliance (including IT and TDS returns), audit processes and donor financial reporting.
For over 26 years, Murli Kharadia has been working as a development professional in different capacities, with Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS), one of India’s largest grassroots initiatives for water and livelihood security. He continues to spearhead programmes concerning watershed development and natural resource management. Currently, he’s the programme head and in-charge of the Watershed Development Team at SPS. He has been a master trainer and trainer for over 20+ years for Watershed Development and NREGA Programmes at Baba Amte Centre for People's Empowerment, Madhya Pradesh, NIRD Hyderabad and SIRD Lucknow. Mr. Kharadia has played a pivotal role in preparing the Watershed Manual and training material for barefoot technicians.
Animesh Mondal is a seasoned development professional and alumnus of the Delhi School of Social Work, with over 24 years of experience in rural livelihoods, sustainable agriculture, natural resource management (NRM), women’s empowerment, livestock development, and community institution building across Central India. He currently serves as Programme In-Charge (Livelihood Programme) at Samaj Pragati Sahayog, where he leads large-scale livelihood and agriculture initiatives with women farmers across Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. His work focuses on Nature Positive Management (NPM), climate-resilient agriculture, women’s land and institutional rights, livestock management, market linkages, and convergence with government programmes to strengthen sustainable livelihoods for rural and tribal communities. Over the years, he has held several leadership roles within SPS, contributing significantly to the strengthening of Self-Help Groups (SHGs), women’s federations, sustainable agriculture systems, and women-led community institutions. He also played a key role in establishing Ram Rahim Pragati Producer Company Limited from the ground up, focusing on aggregation, financial inclusion, and market access for smallholder farmers, and later served as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO). In addition, he has played a pivotal role in strengthening organisational training programmes, supporting volunteer organisations (SVOs), donor and stakeholder engagement, and institutional networking. His core expertise includes programme management, strategic planning, donor coordination, budgeting, livelihood promotion, institutional strengthening,and capacity building. He is widely recognised for his strong commitment to ecological sustainability, participatory development, and women institution-led community empowerment.
Mr. Shirish Yogi currently serves as the Secretary Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS) and is a member of its Executive Committee. He provides leadership in organisational governance, donor engagement, and community-led development initiatives. He also served as the Treasurer of SPS from 2020 to 2025, contributed to strengthening financial systems, compliance, and transparency within the organisation. A development professional with more than two decades of experience in community development, women's empowerment, rural livelihoods, and institution building, Mr. Yogi has been associated with the organisation since 2006, shortly after completing his post-graduation in Social Work (Urban & Rural Community Development) from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore. He joined SPS as a Programme Officer to strengthen the Self-Help Group (SHG) programme, leading initiatives focused on financial inclusion, livelihood promotion, and grassroots institution building. In 2014, he was appointed as the Programme In-Charge for the SHG programme where he played a key role in expanding the programme's outreach and transitioning data collection systems from manual processes to digital platforms. He led the development of an innovative accounting software for SHGs called Pragati Mitra and Pragati Vistaar which has enabled real-time data capture for the SHG programme since 2014, including financial transactions, loan disbursements, savings records, and member-level credit tracking. Known for his commitment to learning and innovation, Mr. Yogi is deeply passionate about translating new ideas into impactful programmes that strengthen institutions and improve rural livelihoods.
