Our Founder

A renowned social entrepreneur and strategic philanthropist, touched millions of lives through his remarkable work in community development, educational quality improvement, and disaster-response.

Shri. Shantilal Muttha

Founder & Chairman

Shri. Shantilal Muttha, a renowned social entrepreneur and strategic philanthropist, has touched millions of lives through his remarkable work in community development, educational quality improvement, water conservation, and disaster response.

His relentless pursuit of social impact over a journey spanning four eventful decades firmly has established him as a change agent par excellence. He founded three non-profit organisations — Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana, Shantilal Muttha Foundation, and Medhakshar Foundation — which implement his visionary initiatives.

His early work led to a strong people’s movement in Maharashtra against dowry, female foeticide, and exorbitant marriage expenses — burning issues of that time — resulting in thousands of mass marriages taking place with incredible public support and social acceptance.

He successfully demonstrated the ability of civil society to rapidly organise relief and rehabilitation assistance in the aftermath of disasters. He established the first-of-its-kind educational rehabilitation centre for children orphaned by disasters, which, to this day, provides quality residential education along with emotional care and support to hundreds of orphaned and destitute children.

His pioneering initiatives in educational quality improvement resulted in transformational impact in Maharashtra and Goa. Mulyavardhan, an extraordinarily successful values education programme, has reached more than 10 million children and 400,000 teachers, making it the largest such programme to be scaled in public schools in the country since Independence.

His commitment to the environment led to a people’s model for rejuvenating waterbodies, helping mitigate the severe impact of drought on rural communities in more than 3,500 villages across seven states.

Shri. Shantilal Muttha is a recipient of the National Water Award 2022, Ahimsa Award 2018, Rajiv Gandhi Manav Seva Award 2017, Jeevan Sadhna Gaurav Puraskar 2016, Giants International Award 2004, National Citizen’s Award 2001, and several other national and international recognitions.