Dalit Philanthropy Foundation was registered as a Public Trust in December 2021 in Tamilnadu. It’s a collective of individuals and organizations dedicated to the development of marginalized communities, especially the Dalit community in India.

This was the culmination of a long journey that began in 2017 and saw a series of small consultations in more than 10 cities such as Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Madurai, Pune, Indore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Lucknow, Varanasi to discuss and deliberate the changing landscape of development of Dalits in India and the need for a new approach (if any). These consultations saw the participation of more than 100 community-based organizations and even more like-minded individuals. It’s worthwhile to mention that all these consultations were held with contributions from participant individuals and organizations and had very little outside support.

Most participants in these consultations agreed that the Dalit community needs to leverage the economic opportunities and market forces to; both reduce its dependence on external assistance and improve its internal resources to address key issues. The emerging consensus was there is felt need for a specialised collective platform to take up the above-mentioned mission, giving rise to the genesis of DPF.