Our Mission and Core Beliefs

Inatman Foundation was incorporated by us, Ms.Laxmi Duggirala and Ms.Deepa Devaraj, in November 2021 to break barriers of exclusion and traditional stereotypes.

We believe that educated young women from financially disadvantaged backgrounds will be better able to avail higher-paying stable jobs and improve their families’ economic status. They are likely to marry later in life as adults, aware of the life decision at hand, and enable their children’s further education. We believe that this better awareness of the world due to their further education increases their potential to help themselves and those in their community in a variety of direct and indirect ways.

INATMAN Foundation has its origins in a combined passion & purpose towards the cause we are working for.

Our Plans For The Future

We believe in evolving as we grow and plan to work towards making a better future for women by helping them empower themselves so that they can overcome poverty and other constraints. All of our future projects will also be focussed on this goal. We dream of an inclusive and equal world for women, and as part of that mission as many young women need to be educated as possible.

Our future plans include:

  1. The introduction of medical education scholarships.
  2. Workshops with accomplished women to motivate and train young women from underprivileged backgrounds in various fields.
  3. Special mentorship programs/sessions to build confidence, provide exposure, and hone leadership skills for select candidates.

Who We Are

Laxmi Duggirala

Laxmi was in the clothing business with over three decades of entrepreneurial experience. Fashion designing, consulting, financial acumen, team management and leadership were some of the key skills she developed over her career. 

An English Literature postgraduate with a few years of teaching experience, she has always been passionate about writing. With a stint at short-story writing at the prestigious Stanford University, and after publishing a few stories and articles,including a story in Femina Fast Fiction, she now also edits and proofreads books. 

Also a trained hatha yoga teacher, from the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre in Uttarkashi, she loves to travel, meditate and teach. 

Laxmi always dreamt of starting a girl education foundation. She worked consistently towards this goal for many years. She worked for a street children’s home for boys for a few years, teaching them English, to gain knowledge and experience. 

Laxmi says…

I had the idea to start a girls education foundation 30 years ago. I perceived the need and worked towards that goal along with all the other priorities of life. In fact, I was empowering myself first. 

In 2019, after I closed my thriving business with the sole intention of working for this cause, the pandemic happened.But that lockdown period also gave me time to work on the practicalities of starting such a project. The universe blessed me with the right guidance and support.

Both of us (Deepa and I, the founders) agree on the direct, positive impact of education on the girl’s family, then on the society, and eventually on the whole nation and the world. To contribute and work towards that impact became our INTENTION.

We decided to give our hundred percent to that idea and went on to register a section 8 (non-profit) company with all our resources put together in the month of November 2021. That was the ATTENTION it got.

Soon after the fully compliant Intention Attention Manifestation Foundation (INATMAN Foundation) kicked off, we received some very genuine and deserving requests for support. They are all brilliant girls with great motivation, but with a few impediments in their education, such as lack of financial support and mentorship. We took them into our fold and witnessed an immense growth in their learning skills within a few months. What a wonderful MANIFESTATION within such a short period of time!

Deepa Devaraj

Deepa worked as a management consultant with some of the leading global consulting organisations(PwC, KPMG) and then moved on to pursue her art. She currently straddles two worlds - as a part time consultant with an IT Solutions organisation as well as being a Hindustani Classical Vocalist. Both of which she has been deeply involved with for over the last two decades. She is an MBA(specialisation in HR) from XLRI (Jamshedpur) by qualification.

An earlier stint with CRY(Child Relief and You) left an indelible mark on her and spurred her to pursue the dream of working for girl child betterment and education. She is at home at INATMAN, now. 

Meeting and engaging with people from all walks of life, running and reading are her other interests. 

Deepa says…

The heart wants, what it wants! Both Laxmi and I met a bit tentatively on July 29, 2021, masked fully and armed with sanitisers. We were comforted by the protection a double vaccination offered from covid 19.

There was nothing tentative though, with what Laxmi shared next. She evinced her keenness on starting an NGO for working towards girl child education. That was cue enough for me to share my thoughts to say, ‘count me in as your partner!’ And that was that! Both of us knew this is what we want to work on, in the next phase of our lives. The still raging covid, long haul locational logistics (we move between Goa to Kakinada, Hyderabad, Mumbai and more) didn’t deter. INATMAN unravelled naturally and came to be in the next few months.

And that is exactly what we would like for our foundation family of young women as well. Nothing ought to stop them from reaching for the future that their hearts want.

Our Funding

To date we are funded by donations from our founders and their personal networks. We are committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organisation.

We accept gifts, payments and sponsorships from individuals, organisations and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics and special projects.

Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services or opinions.