(Guest Interview) From 18 Women to 80,000: How Sambhali Trust is Empowering Girls in India | International Women's Day 2026

This episode is dedicated to Badan Kanwar.

In the early 1990s, a woman named Badan Kanwar was widowed in Rajasthan, India. Her world shrank the way it does for widows there — she lost status, voice, and belonging. Her son, Govind Singh Rathore, watched. Years later, he founded Sambhali Trust in Jodhpur, an organization providing education, vocational training, legal support, and safe spaces to women, girls, and gender minorities pushed to the margins. He started by inviting one woman's two daughters to come learn with him. The next day, 18 women showed up. Today, Sambhali Trust has reached roughly 80,000 people across Rajasthan.

In this special International Women's Day episode, we tell the story of Sambhali Trust through four voices:

- Govind Singh Rathore, Founder of Sambhali Trust, on the grief that became a movement

- Shereen Arent, President of Sambhali US, on how she stumbled into this work and couldn't walk away

- Rajshree Rathore, Head of Education at Sambhali Trust, who joined as a college student-tutor and now leads the programs she once taught in

- Monica, Sambhali's first-cohort graduate (2007) and now central staff—going from the girl who always sat in the back to someone the whole community calls when they need help

This is a story about what happens when you give people closest to a problem the resources to solve it themselves. It's about the domino effect of doing one good thing.

And it's about how change doesn't always take a generation—sometimes it happens faster than anyone expected.

Note: This episode contains mentions of domestic violence. Nothing graphic.

If you have questions, comments, feedback, suggestions, or just want to say hi, send a message to: podcast@optimistdaily.com.

Transcript link: https://www.optimistdaily.com/?p=1421813

Support Sambhali:

- Donate, volunteer, or sign up for the newsletter: https://www.sambhalius.org

- Contact Shereen directly: info@sambhalius.org

- Sambhali Trust (India): https://www.sambhali.org

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