Ashraf Patel
co-founded Pravah as a response to erupting communal conflict post the Babri Masjid
demolition in 1992. Pravah is now a well-established adolescent and youth leadership development
organisation in India. While the inspiration for the start-up came from personal and real-life
experiences of the co-founders, a lot of the early learning of Pravah came from XLRI’s courses on
assertiveness, transaction analysis, ethics, community development, individual, group and organisation
dynamics, IR and HR.
Patel has also co-founded Commutiny-The Youth Collective. It is a group of individuals working in collaboration
with over 100 youth organisations that advocates for change in society’s perception of youth and policy level
re-imagining of youth empowering agenda.
Patel has co-authored a book in 2013,
Ocean in a Drop – Inside Out Youth Leadership
with Kamini Prakash,
Meenu Venkateswaran and Arjun Shekhar. The book is on Youth Development Perspectives, published by Sage
Publications.
Awards & Accolades:
• Is an Ashoka Fellow, selected in 1996 by Ashoka Innovators for the Public. Was also a SMILE Fellow.
• Ashraf Patel has effectively placed the youth agenda in drafting policies as a member of working groups on
adolescents and youth set up by the Ministry of Youth and HRD for the XIth and XIIth Plan in 2008 and 2011
respectively
• Consulted by the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development in the set-up of a Youth Development
Alliance in 2011 and a number of policy consultations on Youth Policy
• Member of the National Committee of IYV+10 set up by UNV and the Youth Ministry in 2011
• With UNFPA, Pravah and National Institute of Open Schooling supervised the intervention to integrate life skills in
social science text books in 2012
Ashraf
Patel
PMIR-1990
Current Position
Co-founder of Pravah
Distinguished
Alumnus
Award:
Entrepreneur
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