Bismaya Mahapatra gave up his corporate career to work for marginalised communities in rural India. He changed his consultancy firm ‘Harsha’ to ‘Harsha Trust' in 2002 to work in a sustained manner with the poor rather than in a project mode. To set up the corpus for the trust, he donated Rs 10 lakh, his profits earned from his firm. The office initially operated out of his garage.
Bismaya Mahapatra was just 37 when he quit his well-paying corporate job and co-founded the Harsha Trust. He took the road less travelled and went with the flow. Having served on its Board till 2018, he now acts as a mentor to the Trust, currently collaborating on shaping their vision for 2030.
Harsha Trust, which follows a policy of rotational leadership every five years, is currently headed by Rashmi Adlekha, its fifth Executive Director (ED). In the past Jitendra Pradhan and Kallul Bora have served as EDs too. At present, Harsha Trust works in 18 districts, 76 blocks, 3,844 villages, and with 2,34,000 vulnerable households of Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.
The huge satisfaction Mahapatra, an alumnus from XIMB, draws from empowering the marginalised communities is his sole job incentive.
“Recently, I met a Dalit woman who said she’d bought a smartphone and a motorcycle for her son after becoming associated with Harsha. She’s now saving to buy her own land to realise the dream she has always had,” says Mahapatra.
“Another woman,” he adds, “financed her son’s college education, making him the first graduate from their village. She hopes he might join Harsha someday.”
Several individuals associated with Harsha, he says, are also creating impact at the grassroots level as sarpanch, panchayat members, and even Zilla Parishad representatives.
The aftermath of the devastating 1999 Odisha super cyclone became the catalyst for the young team lead, who then worked in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). During a cyclone rehabilitation project with Adam Smith International, Mahapatra was moved by the immense suffering of farmers whose livelihoods were shattered.
He realised that social sector consulting within TCS in the long run would not match his dreams of working with the poor. He decided to leave the corporate world and return to his roots in Odisha. His heart always lay with the marginalised, shaped in part by his earlier stint with Pradan, a non-profit organisation. His wife, he says, has been the greatest support structure in carrying on with his endeavours.
In 1999, he co-founded Harsha, which started out as a partnership firm, alongside Sanjay Ray and Gautam Pradhan (who went on to become the ED of Harsha Trust in 2012 and continues till date as a ManagingTrustee) and a group of young professionals. It was only on February 7, 2002 that Harsha Trust was registered, with an initial corpus of Rs 10 lakhs donated by Mahapatra. His garage served as its first office.
“Back in 2002, seasonal migration was rampant and most regions we worked in were monocropped, primarily cultivating paddy. We introduced sustainable livelihood models to address migration, such as the Lakhpati Model, which ensured an annual income of Rs one lakh through mixed farming, drip irrigation, and market linkages,” recalls Mahapatra.
The team also introduced solar-powered cold storages to prevent distress sales of vegetables, improved livestock practices, and adopted agro-horticulture models with crops like mango and cashew, to make the farmers self-reliant.
Before evolving into a Trust, Harsha aimed to restore lift irrigation (LI) points and transition their management to Water Users’ Associations (Pani Panchayats). Their successful work in the cyclone rehabilitation project opened doors to more opportunities, including partnering with the Department for International Development (DFID) on the Odisha Rural Community Electricity Supplies (ORCES) project.
However, in 2002, when he realised that short-term consulting projects were insufficient for making a lasting impact, it pivoted into a sustainable organisation focussing on the long-term welfare of Odisha’s vulnerable communities.
The turning point came when Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT) approached Harsha for a socio-economic study in Koraput. It was perhaps serendipity that BILT required Harsha to register as a nonprofit to partner on a long-term implementation project. Thus, Harsha Trust was formally registered.
He drew inspiration from Pradan’s ethos of combining professional proficiency with empathy for the poor. His vision was to create a platform where young professionals could uplift marginalised communities, particularly in southern Odisha’s tribal regions.
Early support from Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT) and Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) helped expand projects across Kalahandi, Rayagada, and Ganjam districts, focusing on women’s self-help groups, small irrigation, agriculture, and livestock management.
Mahapatra also set up Renaissance, a company that focuses on resettlement, rehabilitation, and development induced by displacement. He even ventured into politics as an extension of his work in the development sector.
Today, Harsha is dedicated to sustainable development and improving livelihoods to empower marginalised communities. Its key target areas include institution building, livelihood enhancement & management, producer organisations, education, renewable energy, WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene), and natural resource management.
We have put in place livelihood models that have been adopted by farmers, women’s self-help groups, and other community institutions.
Looking ahead, he says, “The future lies in integrating technology into agriculture and aligning with market demands to attract and retain young people in farming. We must tap into government resources as it remains the largest development agency, besides strengthening ties with financial institutions to ensure sustainable growth.”
Mahapatra also admires the inherent strengths of the community. “We can learn from their ability to navigate complex and diverse situations with remarkable resilience,” he says.
About Harsha Trust:
Harsha Trust is a development organisation that has strengthened over 6,000 WSHGs, improving the quality of life of about 2 lakh households in more than 4,000 villages in three states so far. By strengthening community level women’s institutions, mobilised by passionate professionals in remote rural areas, Harsha Trust adopts a multi-dimensional approach to enhance the quality of life of communities in under-reached areas.
The lead image on top shows Harsha Trust founder Bismaya Mahapatra with women, who are a key part of the foundation’s developmental story. (Photo courtesy Bismaya Mahapatra)
