MUMBAI: Talk about making a skill-ful impact! Yes Foundation and Centum Foundation have bagged the prestigious Mahatma Award for Partnership & Impact 2025 for their joint initiative, the Youth Empowerment for Security (YES) Programme, which is changing the lives of young Indians one skill at a time.
The initiative, focused on skilling and employability, has trained over 1,800 underserved youth across Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Telangana, and Assam, with more than 30 per cent women participants. Over 1,250 of them have already found jobs in fast-growing sectors such as retail, BFSI, healthcare, and logistics.
The programme’s success comes at a time when women’s workforce participation in India is on the rise. Government data shows the female worker population ratio jumped from 30.2 per cent in June to 32 per cent in August 2025, signalling a strong push towards inclusion.
“This partnership is helping young people gain skills, confidence, and opportunities,” said Yes Bank president, CSR and CEO of Yes Foundation Garima Dutt. “It’s not just transforming lives but building a future of economic self-reliance and inclusive growth.”
Upgrad Enterprise CEO Srikanth Iyengar, which supports Centum Foundation through scalable skilling models, added, “Social impact doesn’t happen overnight. Together, we’re bridging the gap between aspiration and opportunity, especially for women and rural youth.”
Instituted by philanthropist Amit Sachdeva and supported by the Aditya Birla Group, the Mahatma Award celebrates organisations that embody Gandhian values of truth, inclusion, and social justice. Previous winners include icons such as Ratan Tata, Sudha Murthy, and Microsoft Philanthropy.
The recognition adds to Centum Foundation’s growing list of honours, including a recent Brandon Hall Gold Award for the same initiative, proving that when partnerships work with purpose, the impact speaks louder than words.