Vaidhei Pagaria spent over a decade in the structured world of Chartered Accountancy. She built and ran her own firm with precision. But even in the rhythm of financial statements, a deeper calling stirred one rooted in purpose beyond numbers.

That calling took shape in 2019 as the Pagaria Welfare Foundation. Born in Navi Mumbai, it has since grown into a grassroots movement reaching remote villages across ten Indian states.

The spark came during a visit to a rural village. Vaidhei met young girls who missed school every month not for lack of will, but for lack of sanitary pads. “I saw children with bright eyes but no books, no toys, no room to dream. That moment stayed with me”, she recalls.

Instead of staying in boardrooms, she chose to walk alongside rural communities not ahead, but beside them. The Foundation emerged from that intent not to give, but to enable.

It now runs five core projects. Project Shiksha creates learning centers filled with books, digital tools, and life skills. Project Khilona sets up toy libraries, using play as a tool for development. Project Pustak offers multilingual libraries that spark imagination. Project Computer Shiksha introduces first-time users to digital literacy.

Then there's Project Laadli, perhaps its most powerful. It blends menstrual health awareness with empowerment and skill training, creating real access and agency for rural girls and women.

What makes the Foundation different is its laser focus on rural India areas often overlooked in CSR plans and NGO programs, Vaidhei explains. “These are communities with deep need and untapped potential”.

Here, programs aren't just run but ecosystems are built. Local women are trained as educators. Spaces are created and sustained by the community itself. “It’s about dignity, not dependence,” Vaidhei says.

The journey hasn’t been smooth. Earning trust in unfamiliar villages took time. Skepticism was real — especially toward a young woman leading change in male-dominated settings. But action spoke louder than doubt.

Today, the Foundation’s work speaks through numbers. Project Laadli has impacted over 50,000 women and girls. Project Khilona reaches 5,000 children through 130 toy libraries. Project Shiksha supports 16 learning centers, clocking more than 15,000 hours of education annually.

The future vision is ambitious: to reach 100,000 children and 200,000 women across more villages. But scale isn’t the only goal. Depth matters just as much.

This impact is built on a hybrid funding model. In the beginning, Vaidhei and the Pagaria Group self-funded the work, planting seeds with belief and intent. That credibility drew CSR partnerships and individual donors who resonated with the mission.

Today, the team remains lean but driven by five full-time staff, thirty grassroots educators, and a network of fifty-plus volunteers.

Vaidhei’s dream is to model community hubs in every village. Places where people learn, grow, and thrive.

Her message to people who wish to be changemakers “begin where you are”.
“Mana ki andhera ghana hai, lekin diye jalana kahan mana hai,” she says. The darkness may be thick — but who says lighting a lamp is forbidden?

That’s what the Pagaria Welfare Foundation is doing, one lamp, one life, one village at a time.