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 8 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.