Our Story
"If you can motivate or inspire one other person, that's good enough. And hoping that that person will do the same."
- Juthica Stangl, Shadhika Founder
It has been 30 years since Juthica Stangl embarked on a mission to fight for gender justice in India. 30 years of building a movement - a groundswell of change.
Juthica Stangl was born and raised in Kolkata, India. She founded Shadhika in 1992 to create a transition home for women who had been wrongly imprisoned as a result of insufficient dowry or failure to produce a male child.
In Bengali, Shadhika means ‘a girl with aspirations’ and reflects one of the founding principles of the organization: the belief that investing in the individual girl and holding space for her dreams to come true can unleash a transformative power that can change the world.
Another core principle of Shadhika’s work is to address gender injustices by supporting women-led, grassroots organizations to develop hyperlocalized solutions tailored to the communities they serve.
Then, in response to the gruesome incidences of gender-based violence in India in 2013, Shadhika sharpened its focus on education as a means to increase young women’s access to economic empowerment and control over other critical aspects of their lives, such as body autonomy and family planning.
Today, Shadhika is present in 10 states, working with girls and women from the most underserved communities and supporting feminist leaders who are creating a groundswell of change towards gender justice.