RightWalk Foundation

We are Policy Entrepreneurs driving Equity, Inclusion & Justice by co-shaping Public Policies and translating them into action.

[RightWalk Foundation @RightWalkIndia]

MahaChatur AI is now officially live.

Launched today in Mumbai by Shri. Devendra Fadnavis, the Hon’ble @CMOMaharashtra and @GoM_SEEID, it cuts apprenticeship registration from days to minutes and makes schemes easier to access for every young person in Maharashtra.

Built with the state and RightWalk Foundation, MahaChatur AI is here to turn policy into real opportunities.

@MPLodha @MSDESkillIndia @saminabano
#ArtificialIntelligence #Impact #DigitalIndia #TechForGood #CitizenAI #ChaturAI #RightWalk #MahaChaturAI

[RightWalk Foundation @RightWalkIndia]

On 15 May 2025, at Panhala Fort, in Kolhapur, Maharashtra a plumbing instructor spent his day going door to door, fixing water leaks and servicing meters for free. No fee, no fuss, just a teacher showing his students what service looks like in practice.

Meet Naeem Adam Nadaf, our latest RightWalk Champion. He teaches the Plumbing trade at Veer Shiva Kashid Government ITI, Panhala, and has spent eleven years turning a technical trade into a lesson in dignity and self-reliance.

His work with water goes back years. A rainwater harvesting filter in 2016. A "Pit System" project in 2019 that helped save around 1.5 million litres of drinking water a year at ITI Solapur. Trenches built with the Aamir Khan Water Foundation that now hold over a lakh litres in rural areas.

But his real legacy is in his students. Of the 220-plus he has trained, 120 went into apprenticeships, over 100 work at established companies, and over 100 run their own plumbing businesses today. One now ranks second in Maharashtra and serves as a Plumber Technician with the state health department. Another is heading to Germany for an international plumbing role.

As he puts it: "A person who acquires skills can never remain unemployed, and when those skills are combined with social responsibility, they become a powerful force for positive social change."

Who is the teacher who shaped the way you see your own work?

#SkillIndia #inclusion #apprenticeships #ITI #SkillDevelopment #vikshitbharat #rightwalk

[RightWalk Foundation @RightWalkIndia]

16 candidates got ready for a job on 30 July 2026. Their disability was never the problem. The real question is whether an employer will look past it and give them a chance.

At the Centre for Life Skills Learning (CLSL) in Kochi, Adithyasree M T from RightWalk Foundation Kerala held a NAPS registration session for these 16 PwD candidates from the Retail Management batch. They have hearing loss, low vision, intellectual disability and lower body disability. This was the second consecutive session at CLSL. The first visit was at a similar time last year.

NAPS lets companies hire apprentices with government support behind them. Many companies already use this scheme. Very few think to look at a candidate with a disability when they do.

A billing counter does not need perfect hearing. Managing stock does not need perfect eyesight. Disability does not mean inability. It just means doing the same job in a different way.

To every company hiring apprentices this year: sixteen candidates in Kochi are ready to work hard and learn fast. All they are waiting for is one employer willing to say yes. Will it be you? #skill #skillindia #apprenticeship

[RightWalk Foundation @RightWalkIndia]

Registering as an apprenticeship establishment is free and it only takes a few steps online.
But most small business owners have never tried it. Many don't even know it applies to a business like theirs, not just manufacturing units or factories.

That is the gap we try to close with our awareness sessions.

A month back, we held one such session in Pune, for more than 30 women entrepreneurs at MCCIA (Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture). One of them, Smt. Shruti Joshi ji, runs an export-import advisory firm in Kothrud an upmarket residential and commercial hub in west central Pune. Before that morning, she had never even heard of the scheme.

Forty one days and two conversations later, her company, EximTrade Consulting Services Private Limited, was registered on the NAPS portal, with four positions open for apprentices.

What changed wasn't the scheme. The scheme already existed. What changed was that someone sat down with her HR team, led by Smt. Aditi Pavtekar ji, explained the process in plain words and answered the questions the portals take time. That, we think, is where most schemes lose people. Not in the policy, but in the everyday confusion around using it.

Four positions from one business is a small number on its own. But repeat this conversation enough times and it stops being small.

If a simple conversation is often the missing piece, not the policy, what would it take to have more of these conversations happen?

#skillindia #apprenticeship #HR #NAPS #rightwalk

[RightWalk Foundation @RightWalkIndia]

The talent was never missing. The access was.

Every World Youth Skills Day, we talk about preparing young people for jobs. Maybe the real work is the opposite: preparing jobs to reach young people. India already has the frameworks, the schemes, and the will. The last mile is where most journeys quietly end, and that is exactly where the work matters most.

We have spent years on that last mile, walking alongside government to connect youth with apprenticeships. Around 4,50,000 young people have started earning and learning through these pathways so far. This short film is our tribute to every one of them.

The seats exist. The talent exists. Our job is simply to help them find each other.

So tell us: who opened the first door for you?

#WorldYouthSkillsDay #SkillIndia #Apprenticeships #YouthSkills #RightWalk

[RightWalk Foundation @RightWalkIndia]

Pramod from Nanded, has never filled a government form online before in his life.

Not because his English was weak. But because nobody had told him that if the login fails, he doesn't lose his one shot at an apprenticeship.

That's the real barrier. Not the technology.

On 27th April, we partnered with the Maharashtra Government to launch MahaChatur AI. Not just to make a registration easier, but to close the gap between a government welfare scheme and the students it was actually meant for. Because a good scheme sitting on a portal means nothing if the right student never reaches it.

So our Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar team did what most tech rollouts skip. They went and sat with people, in person.

Krishna Sobha Dnyaneshwar Tandale, our Divisional Coordinator, trained every newly appointed taluka coordinator across Latur and Nanded with support of Pravin Autade ji, District Vocational Education & Training Officer, Latur and Sachin Suryavanshi ji, DVETO, Nanded. Then went to the ITIs himself. Sat with students. Cleared their doubts. Stood next to them for their first login.

In just two districts, 748 students got registered on the NAPS Portal. 329 from Latur and 419 from Nanded.

But the number we are prouder of, the taluka coordinators can now do this on their own. We don't need to be in the room anymore. That's the difference between a pilot and a system that stays.

Krishna said it best: "𝘔𝘢𝘩𝘢 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳 𝘈𝘐 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘣𝘰𝘵, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘢 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘐𝘛𝘐 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘫𝘰𝘣𝘴."

We are taking this to every district in Maharashtra now.

We think most government schemes don't fail on paper, they fail at the last mile, where no one stood next to the citizen to explain it. Agree or disagree? Would love to hear from anyone who has run a tech rollout in the field.

#SkillIndia #socialimpact #vikshitbharat #MahaChaturAI #AIforGood #LastMileDelivery #rightwalk

[RightWalk Foundation @RightWalkIndia]

"This isn't for us."

That's what Kiran Kashyap from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh thought when she was told about the Right to Education Act. She would have heard big promises before. None of them ever reached her door.

Then one day her son walked into a classroom she always thought was meant for other people's kids.

And what she did after that is the part we can't stop thinking about...

Read her full story in our RightWalk Champions series here:

https://t.co/hjs1nuvg3U

#socialimpact #inclusive #RightToEducation #RTE #publicpolicy #rightwalkchampion #rightwalk

[RightWalk Foundation @RightWalkIndia]

A farmer's son in Gadchiroli wanted to work in IT. His family earned ₹6,000 a month.

He got the skill. He got the certificate. Then nothing happened, because a certificate isn't a job.

What changed everything? One connection.

His story 👇
https://t.co/KCSZp94hzu

#SkillIndia #Apprenticeship #NAPS

[RightWalk Foundation @RightWalkIndia]

A career tool doesn't get to choose what people bring to it.

One conversation on Chatur Career moved from a job question to something far heavier. So instead of quietly patching it, our CEO @saminabano put the full dilemma in the open and asked for help thinking it through.

Worth reading 👇
https://t.co/bLTIUCTSyW

[RightWalk Foundation @RightWalkIndia]

713 people showed up that morning. For many of them, it was the first time anyone had offered them an opportunity.

This was in second week of June, at the Pradhan Mantri National Apprenticeship Mela in Palakkad and Alappuzha dist. of Kerala.

Picture being one of them. You have finished your training at an ITI. You can and want to work. But nobody has given you the chance to show your skill. And then you walk into a hall where 45 employers are right there, waiting to meet you.

That's the quiet thing a mela does. The long wait for a first job becomes a conversation you can have today.

And to bridge the exact gap we as partners work alongside the Government of Kerala, helping the youth get the right opportunity:

→ 713 candidates across both venues
→ 45 employers came to hire
→ 495 apprenticeship openings on the table
→ Chatur Career played it's role by registering them on the NAPS portal
→ And the matchmaking, connecting the right candidate to the right employer

That last part is really our job. The government gets everyone into the room. We make sure no candidate walks out without a connection, and no opening goes unnoticed.

At Government ITI, Malampuzha, the mela was inaugurated by Shri. Sreejith, President, Malampuzha Panchayat, in the presence of Shri. Yuvaraj C, Regional Director, RDSDE, Shri. M. Nitish Kumar, Assistant Director, RDSDE, ITI and RI Centre officers, establishments, and RightWalk's Prabeen C.

At Jubilee Memorial Private ITI, Alappuzha, the event was attended by Shri. A. M. Noufal, Standing Committee Chairperson for Health, Alappuzha Municipal Corporation, Shri. Rajesh A V, Training Officer, Shri. K Santhoshkumar, Inspector of Training, Kottayam, ITI and RI Centre officials, establishments, and RightWalk's Adityasree M T.

It's easy to see a day like this as just numbers. But for a lot of these 713 people, it was the first time work felt close enough to reach, instead of something behind a closed door. That's the part we keep coming back to. Not the count.

#skillindia #socialimpact #apprenticeship #kerala #vikshitbharat #PMNAM

[RightWalk Foundation @RightWalkIndia]

Recently, we came together to celebrate our Foundation Day through our 4th Town Hall.

And the people who made it memorable were not the ones sitting at the front of the room. They were our on-ground teams. The ones who travel hours to reach a community, who sit with families in difficult moments, who rarely see the inside of a townhall. When they took the floor, there were no long lists of what isn't working. Just stories of empowerment and motivation. A parent that kept calling to say thank you months after their child got admission. An ITI student from Uttar Pradesh who said "𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 feel 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘥". A quiet admission that they feel grateful every morning to be in a position where they can be useful to someone who has very little.

That kind of sharing doesn't happen in a status update or a report. It shows up when you give people a room to talk. The leadership team listened and walked out more motivated than they had walked in. One year of regular townhalls has changed how RightWalk communicates internally. More openness. More trust. And the people doing the hardest work feeling like they belong to the same organisation as the people making decisions.

If you lead an organisation, especially in the social impact space and you haven't started townhalls yet, start. Don't wait for the perfect format or the right moment. Just create the room and open the doors. The rest follows. Grateful to be a decade plus into this journey and even more grateful for the people who make it real every single day.

#foundationday #townhall #socialimpact #NGO #ongroundteams #leadership #rightwalk

[RightWalk Foundation @RightWalkIndia]

A hallucination in ChatGPT = mildly annoying. A hallucination in government AI = a citizen denied their rights.

There's no margin for error when the stakes are someone's livelihood.

At MahaChaturAI, when the AI doesn't know, it says so and hands off to a human. Every single time.

That's not a fallback. That's the design.
@saminabano
#GovTech #ResponsibleAI #CivicTech

[RightWalk Foundation @RightWalkIndia]

We are hiring across senior leadership roles at @RightWalkIndia

If you want a clear mission, serious impact, and deeply invested leadership, join us. We need strong leaders to grow with us.

💼 Open Roles:
• Head - Data, M&E & Institutional Intelligence
• Head - Policy, Systems & Program Architecture
• Managing Director - Institutional Leadership & Programs
• Director - Founders' Office
• COO / Director - State Programs

These are high-accountability, L0-layer senior positions.

Apply directly here: https://t.co/dX8w8CiDYX

Know a great fit? Please share!

#HiringNow #SocialSector #LeadershipJobs #FutureOfWork #NonProfitJobs

[RightWalk Foundation @RightWalkIndia]

She’s not a government official.
She’s not on a payroll.

Yet in Behrampur, Ahmedabad, parents trust Firozaben Vohra with one of the most important things in their lives: their child’s future.

For 3 years, she has quietly helped families navigate the RTE admission process.. forms, documents, deadlines, everything.

No spotlight. Just service.

Today, as a RightWalk Champion, she also supports families through Chatur RTE under our CitizenAI initiative.

In her community, people say:

“If Firozaben has filled the form, the child will likely get admission.”

That’s not influence.
That’s trust earned over years.

#RightWalkChampions #RTE #EducationForAll #Ahmedabad

[RightWalk Foundation @RightWalkIndia]

"We had no idea this scheme existed." That's what 30 women entrepreneurs said when we introduced them to #NAPS and #MAPS last week in Pune.

Schemes that let MSMEs hire apprentices, train them for a year, and get government support for it.

The last question in the room by Marathi Manus? "How do I sign up?"

That's the whole win.

#WomenEntrepreneurs #MSME #Pune #maharashtra #skillindia #bharat #msme #MarathiManus

[IIM Bangalore @iimb_official]

CM Devendra Fadnavis launched MahaChatur AI in partnership with RightWalk Foundation, an NGO founded by PGP'10 alumna Samina Bano. The initiative aims to make skilling and jobs accessible to first-generation learners, rural youth, women, and persons with disabilities.