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NiswaanLinkنسواں لنک

Our story

NiswaanLink began as a table at a community help desk in Delhi, where volunteers sat with girls through portals, eKYC and bank linking.

What we learned at the help desk

Girls were not losing scholarships because of their marks. They were losing them to paperwork: an Aadhaar mobile number that no longer worked, a bank account that was never linked for DBT, an income certificate from last year, a form left as a draft.

Volunteers helped more than 110 girls apply for the Azim Premji Scholarship and helped others join PM VIKAS training. The same problems came up every week. NiswaanLink puts that help desk online, so it reaches girls who never make it to the table.

What makes this hard

  • The best-known minority scholarships are closed

    The central Pre-Matric, Post-Matric and Merit-cum-Means scholarships for minorities have taken no new students since 2022-23, yet many websites still advertise them as open. A girl can lose a year chasing them.

    Lok Sabha reply, July 2026, reported by Outlook

  • Rights exist, but few women know them

    In 2024 the Supreme Court confirmed that a divorced Muslim woman can claim maintenance under the general law as well as the 1986 Act, and called maintenance "not charity". In 2025 it said qazi courts have no legal standing.

    Mohd. Abdul Samad v State of Telangana (2024); Shahjahan v State of UP (2025)

  • There is no Muslim women's mental health line

    We found no India-wide helpline for Muslim women's mental health, so we connect women to Tele-MANAS and Vandrevala, which answer in Urdu and Hindi, and to trained women from the community.

    NiswaanLink research, September 2026

Four tools, one help desk

  • Scholarship matcher: only schemes you qualify for, with honest open or closed status and a paperwork checklist.
  • Rights navigator: maintenance, divorce, triple talaq and domestic violence, with the Indian law and the Quranic principle side by side, and a letter for free legal aid.
  • Healing hub: a call back from a trained woman at a safe time, a quiet corner, and helplines that answer today.
  • Work and skills: free training, paid apprenticeships, internships and small loans.

How we keep it honest

Every morning an agent checks every link, compares our dates with the National Scholarship Portal, and reads official and legal news. It never publishes on its own. A volunteer approves each change. It may only make a listing more cautious without asking, for example marking a broken link as "check before applying".

Impact

Girls helped at the Delhi help desk before the platform
110+
Help-desk cases tracked on the platform
0
Schemes and programmes checked
48
Open to apply today
17

Platform numbers are live. Cases marked as samples are for demonstration and are not counted as real outcomes.

Where this fits in the Sustainable Development Goals

  • SDG 5 Gender equality5.1 end discrimination; 5.2 end violence against women; 5.a economic rights; 5.c enforceable laws for equality
  • SDG 4 Quality education4.3 access to higher education; 4.5 equal access for the vulnerable; 4.b scholarships
  • SDG 10 Reduced inequalities10.2 inclusion of all, irrespective of religion or economic status
  • SDG 17 Partnerships17.17 public, private and civil-society partnerships

How it keeps going

Runs on almost nothing

One small server and a small daily AI cost, both shown on the dashboard. Volunteers, not paid staff, run the help desk.

Partners do the heavy lifting

Legal aid comes from the government's free legal services. Counselling comes from Tele-MANAS and trusted NGOs. Colleges, Common Service Centres and community groups host the help-desk tables.

Funding

We are seeking CSR grants, zakat and sadaqah from donors who want their giving to reach girls' education, and small grants for volunteer training.

What comes next

  1. 1Train 20 volunteer help-desk leads and 10 peer supporters in Delhi, with a clinical partner supervising the peer supporters.
  2. 2Open help desks in two more cities with large Muslim populations.
  3. 3Voice-first Urdu and Hindi guides for women who cannot read easily.
  4. 4Measure what matters: applications submitted, money actually received, and women who reached legal aid or a counsellor.

Our promises

  • No accounts for women seeking help. Matcher answers stay on your phone.
  • We never ask for money or for your Aadhaar number.
  • Information, not legal advice. For your own case we connect you to a free lawyer.
  • Faith and rights together. Nothing here asks you to choose between them.