Shresta – The meaning of this Sanskrit word is “Highest Value in Quality and Purity.”

Project Shresta intends to support rural population economic aspirations by engaging technology platforms to broaden their knowledge and promote social businesses. Shresta initially rolled out in Wayanad district – a mountain round district of Kerala. The reason why we are focusing in this area is its geographical backwardness and social potential to develop themselves. More than 20 percent of the population are tribal communities- Adivasis, highly marginalized and deprived. The focus of this project is to build a robust platform to support marginalized, especially women and children to bring economically viable self-owned social business enterprises.

We support them in financial inclusion, small business learning practices, training, marketing solutions, and supervise the sustainability of their individual businesses with the help of IT based platforms.

Wayanad – The land of mesmerizing green exposure among the nested mountains of the Western ghats blessed with plantations, forests and wildlife along with its traditional tribal community hamlets.

Geographically, Wayanad, One of the fourteen districts in Kerala (India) located in southern top of the Deccan plateau. The  place also enjoys a strategic location as the leading tourist centers of South India like Ooty, Mysore, Bangalore, Coorg and Kannur are situated around this region. The land is having exceptional opportunities for ecotourism.

Wayand considered as a rural district, having more than 20% tribal population, homeland of various tribal communities such as Paniyas, Adiyas, Kattunayakans, Kurichiyans, Kurumas, Ooralis, Uraali Kurumas etc.

The economy of the district lies in agro based, the crop patterns/crop combinations prevalent in this district are not based on any scientific norms. Therefore, scientific cropping patterns suitable for the agro-ecological situation. The main crops include; Coffee, tea, spices, Rice, fruits & vegetables.

NITI Ayog selected the district in the Prime Minister’s aspirational district program to uplift the socio- economic condition of the hilly land. It is pertinent to say ducation has been given the least priority in Wayanad from time immemorial. Tribal community education is still in vain as the economic condition is worse and the school dropout rate of the backward community is higher than state average. The literacy rate in Wayanad is 89.03  per cent as per 2011  and was only  70.61 in 1991. Thus, there is an appreciable growth in the literacy rate in last two decades. This is still below the state average of 94.0 per cent. Apart from all these, the region still needs to go long in sanitation, hygiene, health, malnutrition issues.

Empowering such backwardness through economic development of their livelihood would be the best option to bring them back to the mainstream. Our program focus is on this agenda to improve their livelihood by ensuring sustainable self-owned entrepreneurial platforms and holistic support.