Project Nanhi Kali was initiated in 1996 by the K C Mahindra Education Trust (KCMET) with the aim of providing primary education to underprivileged girl children in India.

Anand Mahindra, the founder of Nanhi Kali, believed that educated women form the foundation of a modern secular society and felt that there was a strong correlation between the existing societal ills in India such as spiralling population rate, dowry deaths, caste system etc and no education of the girl child. He believed that empowering the girl child with education would result in huge benefits for the nation in the long term. Studies conducted in developing countries have shown that this is true and today, even the World Bank has acknowledged that there is no investment more effective for achieving the millennium development goals than educating girls. According to the World Bank some of the benefits associated with girls’ education include reduction of child and maternal mortality, improvement of child nutrition and health, lower fertility rates and improvement in economic production. Moreover the benefits in the form of reduction of abuse and exploitation of females are huge.

So it was with the dual objectives of impacting the nation’s development through education of the girl child & encouraging Indians to “give back” in a focussed manner that Anand Mahindra began Nanhi Kali, a sponsorship program, where individuals could support the education of a girl child in India.