NIRMAN Executive Team

Amrut Bang is the Program Director of the NIRMAN Youth Initiative since 2008 and Joint Director of the NGO SEARCH which is NIRMAN’s parent organization.

Prior to NIRMAN, he worked in the software industry in Symantec Corporation after he received his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Pune University. He also holds an M.S. in Non-Profit Management from University of Pennsylvania in the USA where he received the prestigious Richard J. Estes Global Citizenship Award for demonstrated commitment to social impact.

Through NIRMAN, Amrut is trying to contribute to the flourishing of youth in India, help them identify a purpose for their lives and nurture their social commitments. In addition to being a mentor & guide for thousands of youth, Amrut’s strategic leadership & creativity has helped NIRMAN grow both deep and wide. Simultaneously he is involved in the organizational management and governance of SEARCH to help the organization provide healthcare to the tribal and rural people in Gadchiroli district and engage in impactful public health research.

Besides his role in NIRMAN & SEARCH, Amrut is an RTI activist and has managed to bring a change in the state government’s policy to ensure availability of doctors in Maharashtra’s public health system.

He is a Member of the National Education Policy (NEP) Implementation Steering Committee of the Government of Maharashtra. He was an invitee member of the brainstorming group by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of the Government of India to plan national level youth development initiatives.

Amrut is a recipient of various awards and scholarships including Social Wealth Creator Award, Zee Yuva Sanman Puraskar, etc. His writings have been published in numerous platforms including IDR, The Wire, Down To Earth, Indian Express, Times of India, Loksatta, Lokmat, Maharashtra Times, Sakal, Saptahik Sadhana, etc.

Amrut is a self-learner and hardly attended school till 10th standard. He has a wide range of interests including reading, sports, music, movies and nature. On Sunday mornings he loves to play cricket or swim, work in his backyard garden, and read while sipping cups of tea. He is married to Dr. Aarti Bang who is a psychiatrist and leads the mental health program in SEARCH. They have a son named Arjun.

Gajanan Burde comes from Gunjepar village in Lakhandur tahsil of Bhandara district and is trained as an electrical engineer. Before joining the NIRMAN team he was a visiting lecturer at Government Polytechnic, Gondia. He joined NIRMAN in 2017. He primarily looks after the administrative and finance functions and it is thanks to his skills that the NIRMAN workshops and other events are organized smoothly. His calm and soothing presence creates a comforting atmosphere for the participants. He loves meeting and interacting with new people and building connections which makes him very approachable. Gajanan has a deeply reflective and spiritual side to personality as well which sometimes becomes visible through his pithy observations & comments during the NIRMAN workshops.

Gajanan is a skilled athlete and his ‘catches’ during cricket matches are a stuff of legends in the NIRMAN team. Apart from being a sportsman, Gajanan also loves to cook, dance, watch movies and he is among the few people who begin their routine at 5.30 am when the rest of the world is enjoying sleep. He is married to Dr. Harsha Nannaware and they have a daughter named Shloka.

Aditi received her degree in Electrical Engineering from Nagpur University and was among the toppers at the college and University level during all four years. Her technical expertise acquired a job in Hitachi, a multinational technology company, before she joined NIRMAN. She felt that her skills and creativity were better utilized to help those in need instead of being used to increase the profits of a giant corporation. Her interest in education led her to join NIRMAN in 2018 where she gets to work with budding social change makers and contribute to their human development.

As a member of the NIRMAN Team Aditi looks after variety of roles including project management, college connect, outreach and communication, anchoring the selection process, coordinating internships, building and supervising educational content development, etc. She loves studying the science of youth development and positive psychology and applying it in her work in NIRMAN as a youth facilitator. NIRMAN workshops become a deeper and engaging experience because of her ability to form strong emotional bonds with the participants. Aditi is passionate about how to help the youth of India flourish and be socially responsible, and she is building her abilities in behavioral sciences and NVC to apply towards the same. Her efforts to make educative videos developed by NIRMAN available to a larger audience have ensured more than 1 crore views for the NIRMAN YouTube channel.

Aditi’s sense of responsibility and time management ensures that NIRMAN team’s work plans are executed as planned and things don’t fall through the cracks. She is not only hardworking and sincere but also a very creative and artistic person. She loves to read, dance, paint and sketch in her free time.

Born & brought up in Mumbai, Prathamesh is the typical ‘Mumbaicha Mulga’. After completing his MBA in Finance, he went on to work in the corporate sector. A feeling of emptiness there & his longing for purpose in life finally brought him to NIRMAN in 2020.

His role in NIRMAN spans across various aspects of project management including data analytics and assessment, organizing Krutee NIRMAN – shorter youth development modules, networking with colleges and faculty, content development consisting of covering journeys of Nirmaanites, developing learning material, analysing available data to inculcate a better understanding of today’s youth & assisting in developing new interventions to reach a larger audience. Being a workaholic, he relates himself with the work ethos of NIRMAN team to work tirelessly to help youth in identifying their purpose. Prathamesh’s quick learnability, cognitive and articulation abilities, socio-political awareness and a keen grasp of numbers and MS Excel are very helpful in his various roles.

Delighted even by the name of Vada Pav, Prathamesh loves talking about cricket, movies, the crowded local trains & street food of Mumbai. His soft-spoken demeanor and a unique sense of humour make him ever – approachable amongst his colleagues & fellow Nirmaanites.

Siddheshwar belongs to Dharashiv (formerly known as Osmanabad) district of the Marathwada region of Maharashtra. After completing his Mechanical Engineering from Pune University, he worked in the Petrochemicals industry for four years. His desire to contribute to conserving the environment and his search for meaningful endeavours that are beneficial for the larger society lead him to quit the private sector and join NIRMAN.

In NIRMAN, Siddheshwar’s main responsibilities include outreach and connecting with colleges, content creation and alumni follow-up. Known for being persistent in his work, Siddheshwar adds flair to the NIRMAN Team both in sense of his ease of interacting with participants as well as his ability to be assertive whenever a situation demands. In order to encourage and inculcate the habit of reading good books among the youth, he strives hard to ensure that quality books are always available to NIRMAN Workshop participants at the lowest possible rates. An extremely curious person, Siddheshwar also keeps looking for new updates about ‘Climate Change’, a topic very close to his heart.

His hobbies include watching movies, reading and painting. However, one cannot complete his introduction without mentioning what he loves to do the most – ‘Swimming’. If you don’t find him in the NIRMAN office, check him out at the Lake Padmaja in the Shodhgram campus!

A native of Ratnagiri, Anushka joined the NIRMAN team, after a short stint in the corporate sector. She holds a B. Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay, post which she worked as a technical manager at ITC for a year. Although she was raised in the cities of Nashik and Pune, she has always had a strong connect with her village in the western ghats, and of course it's natural beauty – the foundation of her passion for environment and sustainability. Her experience with changing schools also led to her having an interest in the Education sector from an early age. Anushka attended the NIRMAN workshop during her college years, where 'Kar Ke Dekho' really stuck with her. The team further helped her solidify her resolve to work for the society. Reflecting on her journey Anushka explains - "I want to provide more youth like me, with opportunities to experience and understand social challenges faced by various demographic groups and to guide them to use their technical and analytical skills to be part of the solution." Other than that, she is an amiable and creative person who can be seen crocheting a lot, and often experimenting with different art forms!

A native of Gadchiroli itself, Vaibhav is alumnus of the reputed Jawahar Navoday Vidyalaya. Having completed his B.Sc. from the Government Science College in Gadchiroli, Vaibhav also led the NSS Unit of his college. Right from his student days, he has been proactively involved in various social initiatives. While in his final year of BSc, he came as a participant in the first Krutee NIRMAN workshop in March 2022 and then joined the NIRMAN team immediately after completing his graduation.

An enthusiastic and empathetic individual, Vaibhav bears the unique ability of quickly striking a bond with the participants in NIRMAN workshops. As a part of the NIRMAN team he focuses on building the network of local youth in Gadchiroli, content creation and following up with participants of NIRMAN workshops. Having a knack for photography, Vaibhav also contributes by capturing various beautiful moments, be it during the workshops or elsewhere on the campus of SEARCH.

Considering helping youth struggling with the feeling of emptiness in their lives as his mission, Vaibhav has his own line to say – ‘There’s more to life than just earning money’!

Megha comes from Kavthe Mahankal tahsil of Sangli district of Maharashtra. After completing her M.Sc. in Botany, she felt herself sliding down the conventional path of pursuing a Ph.D. until she realised that she yearned for meaningful pursuits other than that. In that ‘Pursuit of Meaning’ she arrived at SEARCH and began her work with NIRMAN.

Megha primarily focuses on networking and follow-up of the participants from the workshops, ‘nudging’ them to take actions for their own flourishing as well as to contribute socially. Her sense of responsibility towards the growth of young individuals is what propels her to spend considerable amounts of time interacting with them. Her colleagues often speak of her ability to listen and ‘walk for miles’ while speaking with NIRMAN alumni on the phone. Megha’s other responsibilities include data management and analysis as well as covering stories of actions done by NIRMAN alumni. Her warm and transparent personality coupled with witty humour makes her presence in the team unique.

Megha loves travelling, savours the taste of ‘Puranpoli’ and takes keen interest in cooking cuisine from Western Maharashtra whenever an opportunity arrives.

Born and brought up in Gadchiroli, Prajwal completed his M.Sc. in Chemistry from the Government Science College in Gadchiroli. He had participated in a NIRMAN Workshop while he was in college. His learnings from the workshop and his involvement in various social actions organized by NIRMAN in Gadchiroli boosted his motivation and lead him to join the NIRMAN Team full-time.

Prajwal’s primary responsibility is to mobilise the local youth and contribute to their flourishing while simultaneously encouraging them to contribute socially. As a part of his role, he organizes and coordinates different social action-learning & flourishing activities where the youth can volunteer. Prajwal is also entrusted with the responsibility of NIRMAN Outreach in Gadchiroli district where he uses unique pedagogies such as a thought-provoking ‘Quiz’ to connect with youth and make them socially aware.

An excellent mix of enthusiasm as well as composure, Prajwal connects easily with the youth. Voicing his firm stand against alcohol and engaging in actions against it, speaks about his conviction to fight the alcohol menace.

He loves casual interactions with youth, playing volleyball and music. With his never-ending enthusiasm, Prajwal adds on to the energy in the NIRMAN Team.

A researcher by training and therapist by passion, Ojaswita is deeply interested in understanding what gives people a sense of purpose and direction in life. She submitted her Ph.D. in Psychology at IIT Bombay, where her research explored how values, cultural expectations, and personal agency shape purpose across different life stages in India. Her work has also taken her across borders—interacting with university students in the U.S. to study how young adults in different cultural settings make sense of meaning, goals, and identity. As both a researcher and a practicing counselling psychologist with an M.Sc. in Counselling Psychology from Christ University, Bengaluru, Ojaswita is passionate about making psychology more relevant to everyday life. She has often written for Hindustan Times and Psychologs, an Indian psychology magazine. She continually engages in training youth on important issues related to mental health, gender sensitization, and disability awareness, and has also served as a member of POSH committee at IIT Bombay. As a community development enthusiast, she recently conducted a training session with Anganwadi workers in Uttarakhand. She often feels that academic research, while insightful, rarely translates into practical change, and practical, on-ground work too often goes unrecorded or undervalued in academia. As a research fellow at NIRMAN, she hopes to bridge that gap—providing evidence of the meaningful work that happens on the ground, while also bringing evidence-based insights into youth development and helping young people flourish, discover purpose, and engage deeply with life. She is an ever smiling, warm, disciplined person, who prides on her organizational skills. Outside of work, Ojaswita finds joy in reading, writing, doodling, and solving Sudoku puzzles. She also loves horror and thrillers, perhaps because they remind her how courage and curiosity are often powerful antidotes to fear, both in fiction and in life.

A psychiatrist by training and romantic by nature, Aarti Bang’s contagious energy, warmth and keen sense of judgement embraces you instantly. She is from Nashik and her journey as a disillusioned medical graduate to the head of the mental health program at SEARCH is indeed an unexpected turn of events. After completing her MBBS at BJ Medical College in Pune, Aarti found conventional medicine to be quite monotonous and was disheartened by the questionable clinical practices she witnessed.

However, as a medical officer in the rural hospitals of Harsul (Nashik) and Dhanora tahsil in Gadchiroli, Aarti found her interest gravitated towards psychiatry, a field she’d never considered in her realm of career possibilities. Propelled by the thrill to understand the human mind and behaviour led her to complete her post-graduation in psychiatry from Bhavnagar Medical College. She is most fascinated by the subtle yet crucial influences of culture and society on mental health.

Uniquely placed as the lead of the mental health department at SEARCH and as a member of the NIRMAN team, Aarti’s coveted insight into the mental health struggles and emotional growth of youth enriches the dynamic of our team. She is particularly passionate about facilitating the emotional growth of youth by encouraging them to introspect and make conscious choices for the betterment of society. Observing Aarti weave her magic during counselling sessions attests to the marvel that Aarti and psychiatry found each other.

Addressing mental health in Gadchiroli has given her the conviction to think beyond the mainstream model of mental disorders and which led her to plan and execute the first mental health survey in Gadchiroli’s tribal population, whose findings she presented at the World Congress of Psychiatry in Vienna, Austria. With the goal to make psychiatry more and more accessible to the general public, Aarti is currently pursuing a part-time MPH from Johns Hopkins University with a full scholarship. On a light day at the clinic Aarti loves to bake, read, watch movies, exercise and enjoys her sleep.

Ojas has completed his MBBS from the Seth GS Medical College in Mumbai and currently works with the Mental Health Department at SEARCH. He is from Raipur, Chhattisgarh and his journey of being involved in pro-social actions while being a meritorious student is indeed unique. Ojas questioned the norms of academics during his MBBS and sought more meaningful endeavours. During his final year in MBBS, he started an initiative ‘Mukti’ in order to help those affected by substance use. It was his desire to contribute further that brought him to NIRMAN and SEARCH.

At SEARCH, Ojas fulfils his responsibility as a Medical Officer in the Mental Health Department, providing care to the patients in the Mental Health OPD, IPD as well as in Mental Health Village Camps. Being cognizant of the challenges while providing care to remote tribal villages, Ojas also helps in capacity building and training of the coordinators and block level counsellors in the team. His ability to understand the broad spectrum of mental health issues also enables him to contribute to the ongoing mental health research at SEARCH.

Apart from his role in the Mental Health Department, Ojas also contributes to other initiatives in SEARCH, namely Verbal Autopsy Coding, Mobile Medical Unit and NIRMAN.

Particularly, at NIRMAN, Ojas facilitates the internships and volunteering of young medical students to deepen their learning experience while simultaneously sensitising them socially. His ability to be objective while acknowledging someone’s emotions also enables him to contribute as a facilitator during NIRMAN Workshops. He wishes to become a medium of social change and hopes to empower young medical students to explore their purpose beyond the conventional academic boundaries.

A die hard supporter of Manchester United, Ojas loves to watch football during his free time while also prioritising his equally favourite hobby of reading.