Manthan Foundation was founded in 2012 as a Charitable Public Trust by a group of diverse individuals and professionals with the aim of promoting community engagement and leadership with specific reference to the fields of health, human development, gender equality, and human rights. In this connection, the organization adopted a participatory approach to engage the marginalized and underprivileged community to highlight their issues and concerns for equitable development.Gradually, the organization started to focus on issues like education, health, and the environment where the community was highly deprived of participation.  Soon the organization realized that socially marginalised individuals and groups such as poor rural women, Dalits, youth, non-literates, and minorities need to be involved in the process of decision-making that affected their lives. The organization was registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 in 2010 and the Bombay Trusts Act, 1950 in 2012.