A young child is encouraged to explore the world and get their hands dirty in a playground. ‘Fall down seven times, stand up eight’, are words that every child lives by. Why then, do we lose this never-say-die attitude as we grow up? 

Pushing youngsters to harbour this attitude to solve real-life challenges is the TechForChange programme, which provides them with a “geek playground”.

The idea, Nidhi Bhasin, CEO, nasscom foundation, explains, is to encourage social innovations from the leaders of tomorrow. “We encourage children to play while teaching them that it’s okay to fall in a playground. We are creating a similar playground for entrepreneurs, where it’s okay to fail. We teach them to stand up by providing the necessary support needed for success.”

Take, for example, 22-year-old Shivam Gupta who had a fantastic idea for building drones for the defence and agriculture sectors. In need for guidance and funding, he joined the programme as an engineering student in August 2022.

The programme helped him refine his idea and learn the art of pitching to investors. His startup ‘House Technologies’ was one of the winners in Cohort 2 and is now up and running, blazing an impactful trail on the ground.

Not just Shivam, this programme has helped 11 startups find their feet while accelerating the entrepreneurship journey for the students. This helps to make the challenging early stages of venture creation — from ideation to product development and marketing — easier to navigate.

TechForChange is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative led by Ciena, a network hardware, software and services company, in collaboration with nasscom foundation as part of the nasscom ecosystem in its third year.

The purpose is to equip young innovators with essential tools, support, knowledge, and opportunities, empowering them to make a meaningful impact. It is also to provide them with a platform to turn their ideas into prototypes and businesses. Spanning over 18 months, the immersive programme guides students, exposing them to cutting-edge technology and potential use cases.

The top five high-potential startups are presented with a seed grant of Rs 5 lakh each through Technology Business Incubators (TBI).

Empowering tomorrow’s leaders to drive sustainable innovation

Today, the imperative for sustainable solutions that tackle critical social issues is undeniable. And this programme seeks to empower young leaders to catalyse global transformation through their innovative ventures and entrepreneurial spirit.

TechForChange strives to lead this charge by nurturing emerging entrepreneurs and providing them with the support and resources they need to soar. It is designed to foster solutions that not only tackle pressing challenges but also resonate with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), thereby contributing to a more sustainable and equitable future.

This programme was conceptualised to address the gap found in the skill set among college students. While they are well-prepared for placements, they are not equipped with the essential tools needed to start their own ventures.

“Ciena’s Digital Inclusion programme aims to foster student development and entrepreneurship in technology, promoting it as a viable and sustainable career option,” says Amit Malik, VP & Sales Leader, Ciena India.

Ciena India employees also engage in regular volunteering sessions to impart their own skills and knowledge to help boost the students’ confidence.

Ciena, in collaboration with nasscom foundation, has conducted two successful cohorts in the past two years and nurtured over 157 ideas. Of these, 11 startups have materialised across various sectors — including healthcare, education, mental health, and agriculture technology.

These 11 startups received mentorship from industry stalwarts and grants worth Rs 61 lakh.

“We received a lot of help and support from the mentorship sessions. The programme helped us learn marketing and allocation of funds too. It has made me a more confident person who can present his idea better,” Shivam shares.

He adds that the programme helped them launch the drones in the market and also led to grants worth over Rs 19 lakh from programmes in IIT-Mandi, NSUT IIF (Incubation and Innovation Foundation of Netaji Subhas University of Technology, New Delhi), and the Vimarsh 5G Hackathon.

Since the third edition of the TechForChange programme commenced in January 2024, the top 124 ideas were chosen. The process was kick-started through hands-on workshops on design thinking and ideation, which helped in refining the ideas.

The programme stands out by offering hands-on workshops and project-based learning, which are instrumental in developing expertise in cutting-edge technologies — such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).

Going beyond technical skills, the TechForChange-Cohort 3 programme emphasises the importance of innovation, guiding participants to identify customer needs and market gaps. This ensures that the solutions are not just theoretical but are relevant, and it helps in finding the product-market fit.

Through this, they hope to encourage youngsters to find solutions to the burning challenges in society today. The TechForChange-Cohort 3 programme has created a framework and support system that enables these solutions to become working prototypes through technology.

However, coming up with an innovative idea is just the first step in the journey of entrepreneurship. Recognising this, the programme offers extensive support in the critical early stages of venture creation. This includes mentorship, resources, and guidance on aspects — ranging from ideation to product development and marketing — ensuring that these young entrepreneurs have the best possible foundation to thrive.

The heartening change observed in the programme over the past three years is the increasing number of women participants. TechForChange’s strong commitment to diversity and inclusion has played a key role in attracting more women. In the current cohort, 30 percent of the participants are women. “We hope that this number continues to increase over time,” says Vishal Thakur, CTO, nasscom foundation. 

The top five chosen startups from the third cohort will receive business mentoring, seed funding, and marketing help. At the end of 16 months, these five startups will be ready to launch.

Details of the programme

The TechForChange-Cohort 3 programme is open for college students in Delhi-NCR with a technical background. The students must come up with a technical solution for a social problem. The programme spans 18 months — including 11 months of cohort and seven months of incubation for the chosen five startups.

Phase 1: Ideation track (2 months)

The chosen 124 teams get an opportunity to refine their early-stage concepts into viable ideas through workshops and webinars. This track focuses on refining the problem statement.

Phase 2: Product track (3-4 months)

Fifty teams with promising ideas will be selected for this exciting stage, where their ideas will come to fruition as prototypes. Mentors with relevant experience will guide the students and equip them with the necessary skills to do so. The programme will also provide resources for their prototyping journey, including a small fund to help students build their solutions.

Phase 3: Startup track (2 months)

Things get heated up as 20 promising prototypes move to the next phase, where the concepts will start becoming business models. Mentors will guide on product-market fit, development, company registrations, and more.

Phase 4: The final five

The top five startups will be chosen for incubation and a chance at seed funding. Their ventures will be on the cusp of becoming realities through a seven-month incubation.

To get updates on upcoming webinars and events, click here.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

Thank you for your report. We have confirmed that this is indeed a vulnerability.”

These are one of the many mails that Muneeb Amin Bhat, a cyber security analyst and ethical hacker, receives in his mailbox. The first of such mails that he received, which included a bounty, added to the young hacker’s happiness. He realised that “hey, this could be a legitimate career!”

The senders of these emails include from multinational companies like Oracle, Apple, Intel, Mcdonald’s and the latest one from NASA (The National Aeronautics and Space Administration). 

The self-taught 22-year-old from Zungalpora, Kulgam in Kashmir, has carved a path for himself in the ethical hacking and cyber security space. He worked hard towards his goal while grappling with limited access to the internet and spotty electricity.  

The feather on his cap has been his work for Apple and NASA. In 2023, he discovered a critical vulnerability in Apple which could have compromised the data of thousands of its users. Apple acknowledged his discovery and featured him in its Hall of Fame in August 2023.

For the US space agency, he discovered unknown vulnerabilities through their vulnerability disclosure programme which earned him a name in their Hall of Fame as well. 

He has spent hours helping these companies secure their data, earning him millions of dollars besides validation.

Here’s his story:

A go-to techie

Muneeb’s interest in computers began at the age of nine. He would hack into his friend’s social media accounts and the Wif-Fi servers. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Muneeb Amin Bhat (@bhatmuneeb_)

“I would inform my friends to secure their social media accounts. When I informed the shop owners or neighbours about the security leak in their Wi-Fi, they would appreciate my efforts and thank me,” Muneeb tells The Better India, understanding the importance of his work.

He was also the go-to ‘gadget fixer’ in his village for any problems in mobile phones and computers.

Despite living in a village which lacked facilities and faced challenges ranging from electricity to internet connectivity, he pursued his passion in the era of 2g cellular network. Watching movies like The Matrix, Live Free or Die Hard, opened his eyes to the world of ethical hacking. 

His father bought their first computer in 2012, post which, the young boy would spend hours on the internet learning the basics of hardware, networking and programming. He learnt from tutorials on Google and YouTube, following the likes of the late Kevin Mitnick, one of the most famous hackers.

“I learnt that we can secure data for organisations. Even though companies have their own security teams, they invite ethical hackers to report vulnerabilities in their data through their responsible disclosure programme,” he adds.

Over 343 million people have been the victims of cyber attacks in 2023, according to a Forbes report. Data breaches also saw a 72 percent increase in 2023 compared to 2021, which makes the need for ethical hackers and cyber security experts all the more necessary.

After Class 12, Muneeb pursued a B.Tech in Computer Science in a college which was 80 km away. The daily travel and classes left him with no time to pursue his passion. Supported by his father, he decided to drop out in the second year to focus entirely on ethical hacking. 

“I could either complete my engineering degree or focus on cybersecurity. To follow my passion, I decided to do a BCA degree in cyber security which also allowed me the time to hone my skills,” adds the 22-year-old.

He is now pursuing BCA through correspondence from the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). 

“For Apple, I discovered a user data leak on iCloud. I submitted my findings in July 2023 and received an acknowledgement from them a few months later,” he adds.

He has developed his own interception tools that help him test data and find leaks.

While his family was initially hesitant about his choice, the growth of cybersecurity as a viable career option and the financial rewards doled out by companies for identifying breaches in their data helped convince them.

Called ‘bug bounties’, companies offer anywhere from $100 to $10,000 per vulnerability. The reward increases depending on the criticality of the breach.

Muneeb wishes to join a company as a cybersecurity analyst after completing his degree. 

“My goal is to ensure the safety of user data and company websites and domains,” he says.

The cybersecurity and ethical hacking space is a growing one with multiple jobs opening up for the same in India and abroad. For anyone interested in getting into this space, more than degrees, Muneeb states that self-learning and knowledge about the hardware, operating systems, and networking is essential.

“A basic computer degree like a BCA or MCA or BTech would be good to enter into this field. Certifications like OSCP (Offensive Security Certified Professional) and CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker) will add value to your resume. What’s more important is to learn about computer hardware, networking, operating systems like Linux, programming languages, coding languages and more,” he shares.

Edited by Padmashree Pande, Images Courtesy Muneeb Bhat

Anchal was born with low vision due to complications at the time of her birth. While she was able to cope in a mainstream school till class 10, she completely lost her vision right before her board exams. 

Following her diagnosis, Anchal had to chart out a path for herself on her own — from taking her exams with the assistance of a scribe to figuring out tools that would help her complete her education.

At this point, she met another blind person in her hometown, Bhatinda, who used computers with a screen reader. Anchal learned quite a bit from him and thus, her journey with digital accessibility devices began. 

She completed her schooling by referring to audiobooks of her course and used a scribe to appear for the exams. 

The Global Accessibility Day (GAAD) is celebrated on the third Thursday of May every year. The day strives to get the international community together to talk and build awareness about Digital Accessibility for disabled persons. 

The mission for Digital Accessibility is spearheaded by WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind). 

Through GAAD, impacted communities worldwide make the case for digital accessibility for diverse disabilities. There are approximately one billion Persons with Disability (PwD) in the world, and creating accessible digital technology is important from a civil rights as well as a business perspective.

Life after diagnosis

“I had to figure it out all on my own. Most people, including my father, initially felt that I would not be able to continue my education. Despite my father being educated, he still didn’t know what was the way forward for me. I don’t blame them, that’s what any lay person feels about blindness,” she says.

Determined to continue her education, Anchal appeared for the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) and went on to become the first blind student to study at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru. 

With the admissions season upon us, every recent school graduate and their parents have been worried about the upcoming entrance exams. 

Anchal’s story is also a reminder to each one of us about how this too shall pass. In spite of all the hurdles, Anchal completed law school in 2023 and is currently working as a lawyer at one of the top law firms in India. 

However, her story doesn’t end with just clearing the CLAT Exams. In fact, that was the beginning in a number of ways. 

As a first-year student, Anchal used to write her exams with the help of a scribe until her Legal Theory professor recommended she type out her answers. 

Initially reluctant, Anchal took her laptop to the exam hall and began typing out her responses.

 Surprisingly, she was able to finish it within 3 hours. There was no looking back after this. Anchal went on to take all her exams on her laptop without the assistance of a scribe. “I was always offered half an hour extra but I never needed it; I was always one of the first students to finish writing,” gleams Anchal.

“Now that I work in Telecom Media and Technology Law, my friends joke that my entire life is in virtual space. I use apps for grocery, for cabs, for everything!” she shares.

Newer technological innovations and services, especially app-based deliveries and services, have made independent living more accessible for several persons with disability.

Lack of digital infrastructure a major challenge

Not having the proper digital accessibility and awareness continues to pose a challenge. As per the latest Web Accessibility Report by WEBAIM, over 95% of the home pages of 1,000,000 most visited websites had accessibility issues. 

This means that even if persons with disability have the appropriate tools and training, a number of web spaces remain inaccessible. 

This has an impact on their work as well. In her work as a lawyer, Anchal has to access case judgments using online archives. However, websites that the courts accept don’t have accessibility built into them. As a result, Anchal often has to rely on someone else to help her navigate through these websites. 

Other than this, Anchal mentions how even the IT staff is not fully aware of how a screen reader works and how it can be amalgamated with the softwares used at the workplace. 

Anchal’s journey underscores the critical need for widespread accessibility awareness. 

The Rights of Persons with Disability Act, 2016 mandates all institutions and workplaces to provide reasonable accommodation and accessible infrastructure. This includes offering accessible materials and resources and conducting regular accessibility audits to identify and address infrastructural barriers and providing training and support to employees with disabilities, along with conducting sensitisation programmes for other employees and people in the workplace or institution. 

Law is a competitive and demanding profession which requires one to do a lot of reading and documentation. The general understanding so far has been that this would not be appropriate for a visually-impaired person. 

However, digital innovations have made it possible for persons with disabilities to add to the diversity of the profession. 

Inclusivity IRL

When asked about the disability inclusion journey at her organisation, Seema (name changed), a human resources manager based out of Delhi, says “Including persons with disabilities has helped the organisation in several unintended ways. Beyond just creating a more equitable workforce, having PwDs at the workplace has helped us relook at our policies, processes and infrastructure from a new perspective.”

As more and more employers warm up to the idea of employing lawyers with disabilities, the industry is also moving towards becoming a more inclusive space for all. 

Echoing this sentiment, Amar Jain, a visually impaired lawyer and accessibility professional, says “As a lawyer with a disability, we face enormous barriers. The data provided by clients is not accessible, the physical case files don’t have digital copies. However, there are a number of progressive steps being taken by the judicial system.” 

“For instance, the Delhi High Court recently released a mandate to provide digital copies of case files to lawyers with disabilities. The landscape is changing, slowly but surely,” he adds.

A little understanding can go a long way in such a situation. Anchal interned at Justice DY Chandrachud’s chambers as a student. She remembers how forthcoming they were with respect to offering ‘Reasonable Accommodations’ to help her work better. 

“We need to make case briefs with page number references. As a visually-impaired person, it is sometimes difficult to find the right page number, so I use paragraph numbers instead and this request of mine was accommodated and helped me better do my work,” she explains.

Anchal also recollects how she received a letter from Justice Chandrachud upon completing the internship in his chamber. 

“He told me that my research skills were remarkable and that he faced no challenges in using the briefs prepared by me. He was also an understanding senior as he was open to me working in my own way and using slightly different formats to present my briefs,” she shares.

Aanchal’s story is more than just an individual’s triumph over adversity, it is a powerful call to action for building a truly inclusive society. By promoting accessibility awareness and implementing robust support systems, we can empower everyone regardless of ability to reach their full potential. 

Anchal’s journey is just one of the many. People with diverse disabilities benefit from digital accessibility. This can be found in a number of different forms. From adaptive keyboards to speech to text softwares, technology has come a long way in finding ways to accommodate human diversity, all that is remaining is a sincere effort from us to integrate it into our lives.

Written by V-shesh, edited by Padmashree Pande.

Originally from Mumbai, I now call Singapore my home. During a routine visit back to the city, I decided it was time for a thorough health check-up. At 41, prompted by my wife’s gentle nudge (more like a push), I opted for a comprehensive assessment to ensure I was on the right track.

While I’ve always aimed for a balanced lifestyle — good work-life balance, moderate exercise, and indulgence — nothing prepared me for the news buried within my test results. A seemingly innocuous observation in my bladder imaging report (presence of a tumour) sparked a whirlwind of consultations and medical jargon.

The advice from all was clear. I had to undergo a surgical procedure called the TransUrethral Resection of Bladder Tumour i.e. ‘TURBT’. Once the tumour is removed, it would be sent for biopsy to test for malignancy. 

One of the key decisions to be taken was which doctor or hospital to choose for the TURBT. 

While seeking different opinions, I met two doctors. One of them was an experienced head of the department at a leading commercial hospital in Mumbai. 

However, the doctor spoke in monologues as he was very busy and used to get irritated when too many questions were asked. The impression this gave me was that he knows what he is doing and that’s why I have come to him. His reputation preceded everything. 

The second doctor was a young surgeon who took his time in explaining everything in detail to me and answered all my questions patiently. He didn’t work for a particular hospital but gave me a choice of multiple hospitals where he would do the surgery. 

After giving it a considerable amount of thought, I went for the more experienced, monologue-speaking doctor. The experience, process and my key takeaways from the entire journey are presented here in this article with The Better India.

Taking the first step

At the Mumbai hospital, I underwent the TURBT procedure to have the tumour removed. 

The biopsy confirmed the presence of low-grade papillary urothelial carcinoma (Grade 1 to 3). The tumour was cancerous but as it was luckily detected early, it had not spread to the bladder muscle. 

The treatment was essentially over – tumour removed, cancer no longer in the body. 

As part of the protocol for such cases, I was given one injection of Mitomycin in the bladder, which is chemo treatment.

However, post discharge, I had discomfort passing urine and on consulting with my doctor, I was told that it will go away on its own and is a normal side effect of a TURBT. 

But even after more than a month of this not going away, I stopped asking my doctor for advice as he had nothing new to say. And the TURBT protocol is the same globally. I had to undergo a cystoscopy every 3 months for 1 year, followed by one every 6 months for the next 2 years, and then annually for the next 2 years. 

By then, I had moved back to Singapore, and during my first planned cystoscopy, another tiny tumour surfaced. The doctor also identified a condition called ‘urethral strictures’ which occur due to trauma caused to the urethra during a surgical procedure. 

Now, I had two things to fix — another tumour and the urethral strictures (likely caused by the monologue-speaking doctor or his assistants during my first TURBT). 

The tumour was removed during the second TURBT and its biopsy confirmed that it was benign! 

Given my experience with the doctor in Mumbai, I was clear that I was going to go with a doctor in Singapore who has the time to answer all my questions – however silly they may seem to be. I chose the doctor accordingly and the experience was wonderful. 

I have realised that the skills of a doctor are important but so are the bedside manners.

I have now gone through my first year of cystoscopy and am now tumour-free and cancer-free! I was very lucky to have chosen to get a preventive check-up done. Early detection helped me beat cancer.

Here are the lessons I learned-

1. Prioritise regular check-ups to stay ahead of potential health challenges, especially as we age. Given the lifestyles that we lead, the pollution and climate change we face, it may be good to do additional check-ups. I always choose a health check-up package which is meant for men older than me. The more tests the merrier.
2. Don’t rely only on blood reports as they cannot catch early stage issues. Include essential imaging modalities in your check-up regimen to catch abnormalities early on. The minimum recommended imaging is an ECG, chest X ray, USG abdomen and pelvis. You can get these done once a year.
3. Ensure comprehensive insurance coverage to alleviate financial burdens during medical emergencies. All my procedures were covered by insurance. Opt for medical cover which covers ‘deductibles’.
4. Seek multiple opinions to make informed decisions about your healthcare. Do not hurry. Not every medical problem is an emergency. More opinions give you clarity and choice. While selecting a doctor – it may be useful to check his/her bio and it is helpful if the doctor has done some form of teaching in medical colleges or written research papers, or worked for govt/not-for-profit hospitals. Commercially-inclined doctors’ caregiving is different (to the point, black and white advice) versus other doctors who do really care.
5. Pay attention to the quality of care (bedside manners) provided by nursing staff when selecting hospitals. Go to a doctor who has time for you, who answers your multiple questions with a smile. Half of this battle is mental, the rest 50% is dependent on the doctors’ skills.
6. Speak to patients who have undergone similar procedures. In the age of digital media, it is easy to find people who are ready to share their learnings and experience.

This article has been written by Ninad Raikar, the head of business operations at an OTT platform. He has been chronicling his battle with cancer. All picture credits go to the writer.

The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only and does not imply endorsement or promotion of any service. No claims, whether expressed or implied, are made by The Better India. Furthermore, The Better India accepts no liability whatsoever for the reliability of any of the views expressed above.

Edited by Padmashree Pande.

It was no surprise then that this young girl would want to pursue a career in aerospace. But how, where, and what to do to achieve this dream was a path she had to navigate on her own. 

With incredible talent and a dogged pursuit of her goal, she became a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which was a huge deal for the student who studied in a state board school and came from a middle class family.

Today, this gritty woman works as an aerospace engineer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). 

And her journey was not an easy one. 

Navigating through the various hurdles of having an education abroad to setting foot at NASA as a full-time employee took her almost 15 years. But this 35-year-old is making it easy for others by sharing her experiences on social media, and mentoring them. Here’s her story. 

In pursuit of the universe

Akshata works as a Principal Investigator and Space Systems Engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on two space missions. She is the mission science phase lead on the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar mission (NISAR) and robotics systems engineer on the MARS 2020 Perseverance rover, operating the rover on MARS. 

This lifelong tryst with space took roots at an airshow in Bengaluru in 2003. It was the Aero India show at the Yelahanka air force base that perhaps started it all. The aerobatic manoeuvres of the Sukhoi Su-30 pilots left the youngster captivated.

“I was always interested in science and maths and wanted to know more about the origins of our universe. I wanted to know more about where we come from, and what is out there in the sky. I also wanted to travel around and explore but we didn’t have the resources for that,” Akshata tells The Better India.

Determined, she fueled her curiosity with whatever source she had access to, like visiting the local factories in her native Karnataka village or visiting the planetariums. 

Calling herself an ‘explorer’, Akshata would find joy in understanding the hows and whys of everything she laid eyes upon. This sense of reasoning helped her when she pursued engineering later. 

A major turning point in her life was reading about the Hubble Space telescope which ignited her passion for aerospace.

“In the early 2000s, watching astronauts perform spacewalks while servicing the Hubble telescope was a huge inspiration. It made me dream of looking at Earth from the vast reaches of space and experiencing what they experienced,” shares the rocket scientist.

Carving her own path

“I wanted to become an astronaut and that was a clear goal in my mind,” recalls Akshata. In the 90s, she knew of Rakesh Sharma, Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams. While Sharma was in the Indian air force, the other two were US citizens. 

“At the time, India didn’t have a human space programme. You either became a cosmonaut with Russia or you became an astronaut with the US space programme. There were no Indians who weren’t US citizens in the programme then,” adds Akshata.

She soon discovered that a large percentage of astronauts had actually studied at MIT.  “Since then, I knew that I had to study at MIT as I felt that it would provide me with a good chance to go to space. MIT has actually sent 44 astronauts to space and most of them pursued their PhDs here,” she adds.

This gave the young schoolgirl a clear path to focus on. 

She then became the only female student in her mechanical engineering stream at RV College of Engineering in Bengaluru, graduating in 2010. 

Following this, she got a full ride to the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign to pursue a masters in aerospace engineering.

The real challenge before Akshata presented itself in the form of getting an aerospace job in the US without a citizenship or a green card. To be accepted as a doctoral candidate at MIT, she would need some work experience, she learned. 

“I came here alone and didn’t have any support. I kept doing research projects and publishing papers to add to my credentials to show that I can create an impact. Every opportunity I got was never luck or coincidence, it was through hard work,” the engineer shares. 

While pursuing her masters, she started writing to professors at MIT that she wanted to work with them for her PhD. It was only on her third attempt that she was selected. 

“I honed my skills and worked outside my curriculum but was still waitlisted as not all space projects can take foreign nationals since they are funded by the US government and have restrictions. But when I was waitlisted the second time, I wrote to all the professors at MIT asking for a chance to work with them for a year. Finally, I heard back from professor Sara Seager that there was a project I could work on,” she adds.

Professor Seager is an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at MIT who focuses on exoplanet research, which is the discovery of new planets. She offered her a temporary research associate position for a year.

At that time, Akshata had two options — take a well-paying job at the likes of Google or Amazon without worrying about her visa or career, or take a risk and work on a new research project which was incredibly exciting. 

It was a no-brainer.

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A post shared by Dr. Akshata Krishnamurthy | NASA Rocket Scientist (@astro.akshata)

After working for a year on exoplanet research, she applied to the MIT PhD programme again, and as they say, third time’s the charm. Under Professor Seager, and in a fully-funded programme, she finally got her PhD in 2020. 

“My doctorate is in aeronautics and astronautics but I worked on the boundary of science and engineering, focusing on developing space telescopes and technologies to discover new planets,” she explains.

She went on to work full-time at the NASA JPL, which, she shares, was also a serendipitous occurrence.

“I worked there for three months as an intern and would meet with managers everyday asking for a job. But nobody could commit anything to me without a green card as it involves a lot of paperwork and complexity,” she says.

The last day of her internship arrived but she still had no job offers or interviews. Luckily, she had a presentation to give that day. A hiring manager in the audience was impressed with Akshata’s presentation and decided to give her a job. 

Even then, till the paperwork came through, the scientist recalls that she couldn’t breathe easy. 

When she entered NASA JPL as an employee in February 2020, that was one of the happiest days of her life. 

As Akshata’s story is surely inspirational, we ask, what kept her going? 

“I was adamant about getting into NASA and doing whatever it took to reach that goal. There was no plan B. I decided to bet on myself. Failure was not an option, but even so, everytime I failed, I took the learnings from it, and did something different to proceed further,” she says.

Realising that thousands of students in India need appropriate guidance, she started channels on Instagram and YouTube. 

Here are her 5 tips to pursue a career in space:

1. Be curious.

“Start by asking questions about everything you see, participate in science projects in school, understand how things work and read about the latest news in the space industry,” she advises.

“Do research projects, internships, get hands-on experience and understand how the industry works,” she adds.

2. Build a strong foundation.

Try to find areas you’re passionate about. “Even in space, there are different areas one can work on, like astrophysics, astronomy, technology, engineering and more. Figure out which field of space interests you,” she adds.

3. Pursue advanced degrees.

Once you’ve zeroed in on your interests, do a bachelors in science/engineering, masters and a PhD to equip yourself.

4. Develop technical/hands on skills.

Given how important AI and Machine learning (ML) has become today, it’s important to develop these skills, states Akshata. “Master coding skills or do a robotics project as these are going to be used in space technologies being developed,” she mentions.

Complete research projects in well-known institutes and develop expertise in an area of interest.

5. Network, Network, Network.

Try to build a professional network as early as possible by attending conferences, workshops, professional seminars and talks. 

“If there are any talks in planetariums or research institutes, make sure to attend them. You can ask questions to people who’ve achieved what you want to. You could find a mentor or it will at least help you chart your path,” she says. 

Edited by Padmashree Pande, Images Courtesy Akshata Krishnamurthy.

For the past nine years, the Delhi police constable has been running a school on the premises of the Lal Qila called ‘Than Singh Ki Pathshala’.

It was in 2015 that he first saw a few children selling plastic bottles on streets and picking up rags near Red Fort. “Many tourists would come and click their photos, mocking their circumstances, I hated to see that. These children were doing odd jobs for Rs 50 because their parents did not have enough resources to take care of them,” he says. 

“I also found these children were eating gutka (betel nut). There are many people who influence children to walk the wrong path, but very few come forward to help them. I wanted to look for options so that these children could do what they are meant to do at this age – study,” he says.

Since then, Than Singh volunteered to teach these kids so that they are able to come to a little par with their peers. “My main objective to teach these children was to prevent them from committing crimes in the future and instil good behaviour among them,” he adds.

Watch this video to know more about Than Singh Ki Pathshala-

Edited by Padmashree Pande.

Not because she was older but because she would exercise her right to vote that year.

However, on polling day, she visited the booth with her family and her excitement waned. The polling station was not accessible for a person with a disability. With stairs leading up to the EVMs, she wondered how she would cast her vote.

One of the officials on duty finally guided her to the back entrance which he claimed had a ramp attached. She rolled down the way only to find two flimsy wooden planks bridging an almost foot-long difference. With four people supporting her wheelchair, and a heavy feeling of being let down, Kavya cast her vote. 

But did she feel like an equal citizen?

India is home to the largest population of people with disabilities. Almost 2.21 percent of its population has some kind of disability. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, which was implemented in 2016, mandates accessibility of the electoral process under Section 11 of the Act.

It bestows the responsibility on the Election Commission of India to ensure that all polling stations are accessible, with all necessary material related to the process available. 

According to the Press Information Bureau, as many as 6.2 million voters have disabilities out of the 910 million people eligible to cast their vote. The same report states that the motto of the General Elections of 2019 was ‘Accessible Elections’ and several measures ranging from mapping electors with disabilities to their nearest polling stations, installing ramps, having Braille-embossed Electoral Photo Identity Cards and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), transportation facilities and sign language interpreters to make the process easier. 

In a 2019 op-ed in The Hindustan Times, George Abraham, a social entrepreneur, inspirational speaker and disability activist, shared his experience of casting his vote with his wife, who escorted him. He was asked to fill up form 49A since he didn’t know Braille and relied on the support of his spouse to assist him. 

“In the following weeks, my colleagues and I spoke to several blind and visually impaired people from across the country regarding their voting experience. Many were appreciative of the ECI’s efforts in making these elections accessible, while some cribbed of insensitive officials. There were a few booths where the Braille list of candidates was missing. But overall, these elections have been a tremendous improvement as far as inclusion of persons with disabilities was concerned,” he notes in the article. 

Over the past few years, the call for accessible elections by civil society organisations as well as from within the ECI has become stronger. 

“The momentum of accessible elections got high within ECI as well as across the country when National Voters Day in 2018 embraced its theme as Accessible Elections. At ECI, we had continuous discussions and worked on all possible facilitations at the polling stations to ensure hassle-free voting by our citizens with disabilities, thereby ECI issued a set of notifications/ circulars on the same to all Chief Election Officers. I also facilitated the inclusion of persons with disabilities within the system to the ground level through their inclusion in Committees for accessible elections from national to state, district, and AC levels,” says Smitha Sadasivan, who works as an Accessibility Consultant in the Disability Legislation Unit of Vidya Sagar in Chennai. 

Although efforts have been made by the Government to leave no one behind, gaps still exist. 

“Right now, the gaps are in the right understanding of accessibility itself, its standards and facilitations at the ground level for which a lot of capacity building is needed within the election machinery,” Smitha adds.

While 2019 was termed as the Year of Accessible Elections, this year is one step ahead with the government now offering the facility to ‘Vote from Home’ or VfH to persons with disabilities over 40%, and those aged 80 and above. 

Starting this year’s Lok Sabha Elections, persons with disabilities as well as senior citizens over 85 can register to vote from their homes using a postal ballot. This accommodation is only extended to people who register to do so in advance. The voters making use of this amenity need to have appropriate paperwork proving their disability/age. 

The process to register is as follows:

• 1. Make sure that you have the necessary paperwork. For persons with disability, this would be a Unique Disability Identification Card (UDID) and a valid proof of age matching the voter list with their Polling Booth for Senior Citizens.

• 2. Fill a Form 12D – Letter of intimation to Assistant Returning Officer (for absentee voters) and submit it to your respective Booth Level Officers. You can download the form using this link.

• 3. Following this, the Booth Level Officers from your polling booth will visit your home once after the last date for withdrawal of nominations.

• 4. In the event that the voter is not available at home, they will return once more before 26 April (the last day of polling for this cycle of elections). If the voter is not available for the second time as well, they will lose their opportunity to vote.

• 5. Please keep in mind that once a voter has applied for a postal ballot, they no longer have the option to vote in person at the polling booth.

These postal ballots will be counted separately from the votes cast at polling booths and will be carried by the Booth Level Officers in a sealed envelope to ensure secrecy.

In case you need any more details about facilities for PwD voters, you can get them on the ECI’s official page here. 

If you wish to speak to a representative from the Election Commission of India, you can call at 1950 between 9 am and 9 pm.

(Contributed by V-shesh; Edited by Padmashree Pande)

And that is ‘how to’ use and understand the book, which is just as crucial to retain the information.

IFS officer Himanshu Tyagi — who also is an institute medalist from IIT Roorkee — shares how he picked the right books and read them effectively during his exam preparations.

He took to X (Twitter) to share tips on making the most of reading books for every competitive examination. “Book reading enhances understanding, but inefficient reading is only a waste of time,” he wrote.

Here are five top tips shared by Himanshu for effective reading for exams:

1. Pick the right book

He advised students not to buy every book recommended by toppers. “Select good books and stick to them,” he wrote.

1. "Select good books."

Don't jump into every book recommended by toppers.

Select good books and stick to them.

— Himanshu Tyagi (@Himanshutyg_ifs) March 10, 2024

2. Read the index

Himashu further advised students to make sure to read the index before picking up any book. “Before starting, understand what the book is about. Understand the design of the book,” he noted.

2. Read the index.

Before starting, understand what the book is about. Understand the design of the book.

— Himanshu Tyagi (@Himanshutyg_ifs) March 10, 2024

3. Read the interesting chapters first

The IFS officer introduced a concept that he calls “superficial reading” — fast reading of the chapter you are interested in.

3. Selective reading.

Don't try to read every page of the book. Be selective about what you want to read.

Read in 2 stages?

— Himanshu Tyagi (@Himanshutyg_ifs) March 10, 2024

4. Deep-read all the chapters

“This is when you go back to the chapter again,” he wrote, while advising students to not make notes while reading. “Make notes after completing the concept without referring to the book,” he opined.

4. 1st stage: superficial reading

Fast reading of the chapter you are interested in.

Highlight or underline very important keywords.

After completing the chapter, summarize it in one paragraph. Not much writing.

— Himanshu Tyagi (@Himanshutyg_ifs) March 10, 2024

5. Read and repeat!

“Read a book multiple times, rather than reading multiple books,” he advised.

He closed the thread with a question for students — “A good test for effective reading is: Can you teach the concept to someone else?” he wrote.

Read a book multiple times, Rather than reading multiple books.

A good test for effective reading is: Can you teach the concept to someone else?

Ask yourself this after reading every chapter.

— Himanshu Tyagi (@Himanshutyg_ifs) March 10, 2024

(Edited by Pranita Bhat)

As Balakrishnan writes in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), he had decided to drop out of his IIT entrance exam after he contracted chicken pox a month before the exam. He was disheartened. The years of preparation would go to waste, he thought. But when he told his father about this, his father advised him otherwise. He told him to take the exam.

I had almost decided to drop out of my IIT Entrance Exam.

Until my father stepped in to (literally) change my life.

A month before my IIT-JEE (IIT Joint Entrance Exam), I had a bout of chickenpox.

Therefore, I could not prepare adequately for the last and crucial phase in the… pic.twitter.com/ZAI115riZ9

— Ganesh Balakrishnan (@ganeshb78) March 8, 2024

“Ganesh, your duty is to do your best with the things you can control, and let go of the things you cannot control,” were his words.

And it was this advice that got Balakrishnan into IIT Bombay in the very first attempt.

Was it luck that helped him? “I believe luck is on the side of those who are consistent,” he wrote. “I was relentlessly consistent during the two years of preparation for the exam. So missing the last month (even though it was super important) did not overpower the preparation of the last two years,” he added.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

Ensuring your loved ones are safeguarded in case of any unforeseen circumstances is paramount. Yet, shockingly, many overlook a simple yet crucial step: adding nominations to all their investments, bank accounts, and insurance policies.

It’s not merely about streamlining matters for your beneficiaries; it’s about safeguarding your hard-earned money from being lost and ensuring it remains rightfully claimed.

What’s truly astonishing is the significant amount of unclaimed assets currently lying idle in demat accounts, mutual funds, and insurance policies due to the lack of nomination. Estimated to be anywhere between Rs 50,000 and 80,000 crore, this massive amount has no home to go to.

Seeing the problem, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has published a consultation paper on easing the nominations for your Demat accounts and other securities.

Why nomination is important

Including nominees in demat accounts is indispensable in ensuring the seamless transfer of securities, such as shares, bonds, and mutual funds, in the unfortunate event of the account holder’s demise. This vital step ensures that the transmission of these securities is smooth and without risks. Consequently, it shields the investments made by the account holder from the possibility of being lost or entangled in legal quagmires.

By adding nominees to your accounts, you’re not just simplifying matters for your beneficiaries — you’re also securing a brighter, more stable future for those you hold dear.

What the consultation paper by SEBI says

The consultation paper by SEBI encapsulates close to all the potential doubts you may have concerning the nomination process for securities.

Before examining its contents, it is important to understand that a consultation paper is a document meant to spark discussion around policy proposals and ideas. Therefore, none of the points put forward by SEBI are binding, i.e. create a new law or policy. They are simply recommendations laid down for further conversation and consideration.

Looking at the contents of the consultation paper, they broadly lay down three issues: 

• What the nomination process apply to
• The role of nominees with respect to legal heirs and wills
• The method of appointing nominees

It is also very clearly underscored that nomination is an ‘entirely optional process’. The recommendation SEBI makes is that in a single person-held demat account, a clear declaration be made that they do not wish to assign a nominee. This is simply a measure for the sake of procedural ease and clarity.

The one thing to keep in mind before reading the paper is the distinction between nominees and legal heirs, which can often be a point of confusion for a layperson. As highlighted by various financial experts and publications, nominees are not legal heirs to the securities. They are simply temporary custodians who are responsible for ensuring the securities are correctly transferred to the legal heirs, as per a will or law. They are akin to an executor of a will in this regard, but for a specific asset, in this case, securities.

In the paper, SEBI provides suggestions on processes for how nominees can be appointed and how they must act. Nominees can be appointed through digital methods for ease, however, safety is kept in mind in this process as well by ensuring the requirement of a digital signature or Aadhaar-based eSigns. One needs to provide identification of the proposed nominee(s) as well. In addition to this, physical nomination through thumb impressions and verification also continues to be proposed.

It provides various scenarios, such as sole accounts, joint accounts, simultaneous deaths of account holders among others, and how a nominee will be given charge of the account for the next steps in each case. It also lays down which legal heirs are entitled to the securities in cases of joint accounts, etc.

You can read a more detailed summary of the paper, and provide your feedback on it by 8 March, 2024, on the Civis Platform here.

Civis is a civic-tech organisation that aggregates and simplifies draft laws and policies that are open for public feedback, with the goal of making the process as simple for you as possible.

The consultation paper has been hosted with a summary that you can read in an accessible format, in both English and Hindi, and give your feedback.

This article was written by the team at Civis.vote, a non-profit platform that works to build dialogue between governments and citizens, using technology to bridge the gap between the two.

Edited by Padmashree Pande.

The course aims to help students understand the nuances of remote sensing technology and its applications in geological analysis and exploration.

Things to know

• Science post-graduates specialising in earth sciences or related fields; BTech graduates in civil engineering, geoscience, or mining engineering; and scientific staff, faculty and researchers of Central/State Government universities and institutions may apply.
• The course will deal with multifaceted applications of remote sensing in geological sciences — including mapping, monitoring, and characterisation of natural resources.
• Applicants must have knowledge of the basics of remote sensing and GIS (geographic information system).
• Course study materials like lecture slides, video recorded lectures, open-source software, and handouts of demonstrations, will be uploaded on the e-class portal.
• Completion/participation certificates will be awarded to students who attend 70% of the sessions of the course.
• The classes will be conducted over five days from 11 to 15 March, 2024.
• No course fees will be charged for attending the programme.
• The course will cover the following topics — an overview of RS and GIS applications in geosciences, glacial dynamics, cryospheric studies, geo-environmental applications, mineral targeting and exploration, landslide initiation process mapping and modelling, integrated approach involving GNSS, geodesy and geophysics in geosciences, and planetary exploration with special emphasis on ISRO missions using advanced remote sensing techniques.

How to apply?

• Participants may register for the course through the official website.

For more information, read the official notification.

A group of students stand in front of a seven-foot wall inside the prayer hall at the Rajasthan Netraheen Kalyan Sangh School in Jaipur. There is an undeniable enthusiasm among them as they discuss the artwork sprawled out on it. The room, which was once only a place for assemblies, has now taken on a new avatar.

At first glance, the students appear to be marvelling at what they see. But a closer look will reveal they are blind. The art in front of them must thus assume a ‘tactile’ form.

It suffices to say that the art is novel in its creation. For one, it beckons the students to touch it to understand it, thus disrupting the traditional notion that art needs to be appreciated from a distance. For another, it acts as a medium for the children to delve deeper into the culture of their state.

Bringing this to fruition is a project ‘Sparsh’, an initiative launched by Asian Paints and the St+art India Foundation — a platform that contributes to urban regeneration and community living through contemporary urban art projects. The project is rooted in the fact that art connects people through thoughts and feelings that cannot be expressed.

Strokes of inclusivity

Why should a disability come in the way of enjoying art to the fullest?

It is this thought that provoked Asian Paints and St+art to begin thinking along the lines of bringing inclusivity into art.

Together, they have brought this idea of ‘tangible art’ to life to enable blind children to experience their culture from a whole new perspective. Through Sparsh, the goal is to broaden their young minds to new ways of experiencing art while sharing their pride in the vibrant and cultural heritage of Rajasthan, on which the designs of the murals are based.

Giulia Ambrogi, a contemporary art curator and co-founder of St+art India Foundation, traces the conceptualisation of this unique initiative to the pandemic. “We began introducing art into settings where it could bring hope. For instance, one of our projects was at a paediatric hospital in Noida. We realised art’s potential to go beyond the language barrier to unite people.”

This was what prodded the team to begin thinking of introducing art into a more inclusive space. And they say the Rajasthan Netraheen Kalyan Sangh was ideal to champion this cause. Since 1968, the organisation has been working with blind persons to create an environment for students to excel at education along with gaining essential life skills.

It is this quest for holistic development that drew the St+art India Foundation to it, and Project Sparsh was ready to take off.

Feel to believe

The goal of the initiative was to enable the children to “interact” with the art. Here’s where the beautiful range of colours and textures by Asian Paints stepped in.

Through glorious strokes of paint and texture that are equally rich, a compelling story has been put together in the prayer hall of the school — one that conveys the legacy of Rajasthani culture. The sensation of tactility is achieved through the Royale Play range of textured paints from Asian Paints, which turns simple surfaces into tactile language that the students can touch and feel.

These textured paints add a new dimension and redefine the art, says Amit Syngle, MD & CEO, Asian Paints Ltd. “At Asian Paints, we leverage art and creativity to foster inclusivity among people. Sparsh is a representation of our values of empathy and the spirit of creativity. This initiative aims to bring joy and inspiration to visually impaired students through touch and feel. The murals narrate captivating stories, from the rich heritage of Rajasthan to the indomitable spirit of Helen Keller and are accessible to all, especially people who perceive the world differently from us. Together with St+art India Foundation, the Sparsh initiative stands as a testament to our commitment to #ArtForAll.”

But what captivated every individual on the team was the children’s response to the tactile art. Their excitement at learning and experiencing more about their culture was evident.

But the wall is only one part of the canvas.

If you head outside, you’ll see giant art murals where bandhej (a dye-textile form centric to Rajasthan) is combined with braille. The duo is an attempt at making a tangible and powerful statement of ‘inclusivity’. In addition to this, the mural being crafted in the style of Rajasthani artisans allows the students to experience a sense of joy and belonging.

Meanwhile, the indoor art museum lets Rajasthan’s marvellous artisanal works — kathputli, blue pottery and carpet making — have their moment. 

An art workshop in close quarters features the artworks created by the students during the Sparsh initiative. This is accompanied by the braille text so that the kids can feel the visuals and simultaneously read about it.

Foraying into this new territory of bringing inclusivity into art was not easy. There were many new roads to navigate.

“This is because there is a whole spectrum of things which we perceive as normal, but are inaccessible to blind persons. But, that’s where the textures played a role,” says Giulia, who shares what an “educative experience” it has been for all the individuals involved in the project. “The project required us to ask a lot of questions and really break through what we knew,” she adds.

Each person who was a part of Project Sparsh testifies that it reaffirmed the belief that art is a universal language, speaking to each individual’s senses and experiences.

Edited by Pranita Bhat.

Disability is a natural part of human diversity. However, seldom are we taught about how to support people with disabilities or use assistive aids. Much of this is because we have little or no exposure to disability — either directly or indirectly. 

Hence, here are a few book recommendations that can help you become more disability-aware!

1. The Invisible Majority: India’s Abled Disabled by C K Meena and V R Ferose

“This is a book about disability. Which means this is a book about all of us,” reads the opening line of the book. When his son was diagnosed with autism in 2010, V R Ferose looked through every resource available on disability — articles, books, blogs, etc. While there was no dearth of information available, it was of little help for a parent coming to terms with the diagnosis of their child’s disability. 

Hence, taking the baton in his own hands and finding a co-author with as much zeal and enthusiasm, V R Ferose and C K Meena set out to pen a non-academic book on disability in India that covers everything from policy framework, social attitudes, employment to healthcare, education, and independent living.

2. Priya’s Mirror by Paromita Vohra and Ram Devineni

This paperback is an illustrated comic narrating the story of Priya, an acid attack survivor who forms an alliance with a group of women with similar experiences and helps them fight off Ahankar, the demon king. Illustrated by celebrated comic creator, Dan Goldman, the book portrays the intersection of gender and disability. 

Priya’s Mirror is a sequel to Priya’s Shakti, in which Priya, a survivor of sexual abuse, galvanises women with similar ordeals. According to Devineni, one of the creators of the comic, “The problem of sexual violence is not a legal issue but a cultural problem.” This book helps evoke empathy and directs the gaze to the social lacunae instead of the victim or survivor. 

3. This Kind of Child: The Disability Story by K. Srilata

“When I started working on the book, my daughter was the protagonist of the story. But as I dealt with the situation, I realised that I could not stop with just my story. That was when I began speaking to other people with disabilities and their caregivers,” K Srilata tells SheThePeople. 

‘This Kind of Child’ is a compilation of seven mini books, each covering a different perspective on disability. Through stories, both fiction and non-fiction, interviews and case studies, the book attempts to attune the readers with a range of challenges experienced by individuals with disabilities, their parents, siblings, and even caregivers. Through this book, Srilata tries to tell her readers that disability is a part of human experience and we have no choice but to engage with it. 

4. Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc  

What is the link between fairy tales and disability? Wearing the cape of a critic, Amanda Leduc looks at fairy tales and analyses how they play a role in influencing society’s perspectives towards people with disabilities. Leduc establishes that villains in fairy tales have been seen to possess certain deformities — a deformed limb or a blind eye — which then go on to reinforce stereotypes that people with disabilities are bad and evil. 

This book, while telling us a story, helps us to reimagine them in a way that no section of society is represented in a bad light! Amanda also, in a beautiful way, conveys to her readers that fairytales are exactly what they mean – a figment of the mind and in no way represent real people.

5. Demystifying Disability by Emily Ladau

Don’t we all struggle to find the answers to the questions around disability? Guess, the author of this book just got into our heads and solved the mystery for one and for all! Penned by globally acclaimed disability rights activist Emily Ladau, this book takes a pretty practical approach to understanding the nitty gritties of the world’s largest minority, thereby inching closer to an inclusive world.

This book covers a lot of important issues like appropriate etiquettes, how to have an informed conversation about disability, how to make accessibility a standard practice and so on. This makes this book the perfect way for someone to begin learning about disability and appreciate and acknowledge the identity.

6. True Biz by Sara Nović

Set in a residential high school for Deaf students, True Biz is a fast-paced novel that follows the lives of the students and provides the readers a look inside the Deaf Culture. It touches on a lot of important topics like growing up Deaf in a hearing world, the fight for civil rights by the Deaf Community, as well as more coming of age topics like family connections, romance, and friendship.

Written by Sign Language User and Deaf Activist Sara Nović, this book is a great example of the community coming forward to tell its own stories.

7. Swimming Against the Tide by Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

A memoir by Indian parasports champion Madhavi Latha, this book traces her personal journey of becoming a para swimming champion at the age of 40. A story of how above all, having faith in one’s own capabilities is a sure shot way to success, this book is a must read for anyone who is out on a new journey and feeling a little lost.

The book also touches upon the important role that a solid support system plays in the road to success. Prathigudupu’s parents and friends play an important role in her story and continue to be a source of motivation and inspiration for her.

8. All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr

This book traces the story of a blind French girl and a young German Soldier whose paths cross during World War II. The book is a must read for history lovers as it shows us the reality of the World War through unique perspectives that have never been explored before.

This book has also been turned into a Netflix series which was well received, making this a great choice for 2024’s reading list!

As the year unfurls, this is a great time to renew our wish lists and add some paperbacks that will indeed be our best friends! Disability is something that affects all of us – directly or indirectly. Let these books bridge the gap between the two and help you become more inclusive and empathetic to the unseen realities of people with disabilities! 

Written by V-shesh; Edited by Padmashree Pande.

With its unique construction and thoughtful design, the school empowers children to rely on their other senses to navigate through the educational space.

Adorned with white walls and airy courtyards, ‘The School for The Blind and Visually Impaired’, designed by SEALABS, is dedicated to these particular students.

“Every visually impaired child has different needs, and we wanted to create a space that was inclusive of them all,” says Anand Sonecha, the architect of SEALABS, speaking to The Better India.

So, how does this school help its children navigate? I’m glad you asked!

‘Found inspiration in many place’

Anand started his practice back in 2015 and had never worked on developing a school before. “When Viren Joshi, the president of the school, approached me to have a look, I was very honoured. I was excited to get to the school and start the designing process,” he shares. 

Explaining the idea behind the school, he says, “There was an existing building but was in a bad condition. It was a school for underprivileged children with visual impairment.” 

There were two buildings — one was a hostel facility and the other one was the school. “In each room, twelve to fifteen students were living in bunk beds. Consequently, a decision was made to construct a new academic building and convert the existing structure entirely into a hostel facility. This would allow for redistribution of students across the ground and first floors, while providing them with more comfortable and improved living spaces.”

While Anand was excited to get on board the project, he lacked a source of inspiration. To find that, he decided to spend time with the kids. 

“I began observing how students navigate through different places and spaces, identifying their preferences and gathering spots. Additionally, I made friends with students to better understand their daily routines, likes, and dislikes within the existing school. Similarly, I engaged in discussions with teachers to explore ways to enhance the learning environment,” he says. 

Additionally, Anand also started to visit schools for children with visual impairment across the country. 

“The Victoria Memorial School for the Blind in Mumbai left a lasting impression on me because of its remarkable beauty, despite being an adaptively reused building. However, I found very few good examples of schools specifically designed for users with disabilities. As a result, I later volunteered at the Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts, one of the oldest schools in the United States. Established in 1829, it boasts a rich history with stalwarts like Helen Keller, Laura Bridgman, and Anne Sullivan who all studied there,” he says. 

He found wonderful mentors in the US and was able to find the right direction for the project.

“When I went out looking for inspiration, I realised how it was not one place that could help me but a lot. Visiting various schools was a great learning arc for me,” he says. 

Using five senses to navigate

The school is designed to be navigated with the help of four senses: sight, hearing, touch, and smell.

“Only 15% of people with blindness experience a complete lack of sight. The majority of individuals who are blind may perceive light or colour, and those with different impairments have varying degrees of usable vision,” he says. 

Keeping this in mind, Anand designed a school that uses colour, smell, and light to distinguish each class. 

Touch:

“We employed five different types of wall plasters and textures for students to identify spaces. Additionally, for ease of navigation, we utilised different textures on the floor, incorporating rough and smooth Kota stone, which marks the entry points of the classrooms,” he says.

Each area classroom, corridor, and courtyard in the school is marked and written in Braille.

Hearing:

For another navigation technique that utilises hearing, Anand varies the volumes and heights of the buildings, creating different echoes and sounds to assist students in identifying places.

“For instance, the entrance of the school features a wide and tall volume, while the opposite side has a shorter volume and is narrower. This contrast in width and height produces a distinct echo compared to the entrance. Students, as part of their training, walk, talk, and even clap to practise using different techniques for identifying spaces,” he says. 

Sight:

To make navigation easy for students who can perceive colour in light, he used different colours.

“Given that many low vision students are studying in the school, another aspect we had to consider was using contrasting colours and lighting to help students identify objects, furniture, and spaces,” he says. 

He adds, “For instance, each classroom door is brightly painted, the entrance is in a different bright colour, and the toilet doors are painted in contrasting yet vibrant colours. This approach ensures that students with low vision can readily identify and locate important elements, such as the switchboard.”

Smell:

Additionally, to make the classrooms even more distinctive from each other, the architect decided to engage the sense of smell.

He says, “We have also planted aromatic plants at entries, which can assist students in marking and identifying places. These elements serve as different clues incorporated into our design. Students, based on their comfort and understanding, use these clues to navigate the building.”

Inclusive, sustainable and a haven for the students

There are five special classrooms and seven classrooms with individual courtyards in the school.

“The furniture arrangement was also crucial, and the shape and size of the classrooms evolved based on how students would sit. To ensure equal attention from the teacher, we designed a ‘C’ shaped seating arrangement where each student is in close proximity to the teacher,” he says. 

Anand also believed that the children should also get the chance to learn outdoors, hence he included the courtyards. 

“We also recognised that learning doesn’t only happen within the classroom but extends beyond its walls. Considering this, the presence of courtyards became crucial. In addition to their educational significance, there were practical reasons for incorporating courtyards,” he shares. 

“The area experiences a hot and dry climate, which can be challenging for students with low vision sensitive to direct light. To address this, we ensured that the courtyard provides filtered light to the classrooms,” he adds. 

Indirect light was a significant concern as the architect aimed to provide a comfortable learning environment for low-vision students with minimal glare.

“To protect the low-vision students from direct light glare, we decided to bring sunlight from the roof and not from windows,” he says. 

A haven for its students, the school also is sustainable in its roots. “We decided to be very frugal with what we were using. We used only locally-sourced materials such as Kota stone and planted more than 1,000 plants of 37 different varieties,” he says. 

Anand explained that he planted the shrubs to attract butterflies and birds, and to diversify and improve the natural environment.

A traditional rainwater harvesting technique known as Khambhati Kuva (Percolation well) was implemented. The well, with a diameter of 10 feet and a depth of 30 feet, is designed to collect rainwater and recharge the ground. This well can absorb 45,000 to 60,000 litres of water in just one hour.

Up and running since 2021, Anand says looking back at his work, “As a professional, I approach all projects with the same intensity. However, working on this project was unique. In our architectural education, we had never delved into questions about users to this extent. It opened my eyes to the realisation that in designing any building, be it public structures or entire cities, we must consider a diverse set of users, ensuring that none are excluded.”

He adds, “The lesson of inclusivity that I learned from this experience has profoundly influenced my approach to new projects, where I strive to incorporate the valuable insights gained from the school project.”

(Edited by Padmashree Pande)

(All image credit: SEALABS)

Needless to say, at the end of the month, there is hardly any money left for the ‘savings jar’. 

The overwhelming burden of finances often used to cause Vikas to skip school. Because, even while admission to public schools is free in India, books, stationery items and school bags aren’t. As the family navigated through the financial crisis, these expenses would add to their woes. 

The easiest option was to drop out of school. Vikas’s story is not an exception. It is the ground reality of thousands of children in remote Indian villages whose parents work as farmers and labourers, earning just enough to live hand to mouth. 

“Bear in mind that even the ‘Rs 150 a day’ is the promised amount only as long as the contract goes on, which is usually six months. The remainder of the year these farm labourers do not have work since there are no rains,” Amol Sainwar, founder and president of Shivprabha Charitable Trust tells The Better India. 

The situation is grim for marginal farmers too. Sainwar explains, “A farmer with three acres of land earns Rs 1,20,000 a year. But the profit is zero.” These financial woes snowball into problems that affect each member of the household, leading to a decline in the standard of living. 

But, since 2007, Sainwar and his team have been working with underprivileged communities in nine states and 43 districts of India to bring equity in education, whilst also championing change in other areas extending but not limited to health services, electrification, rural development and entrepreneurship programs.

The vision is to bring like minded people together so true change can be achieved.

And now you can be a part of this revolution. 

Education in rural India – a distant dream 

Anyone who asks Vikas about his day will be treated to a tale of how he loves going to school. 

As he packs his notebooks and art supplies into his brand-new schoolbag, there is a spring in his step and a smile on his face. Vikas and his school kit are now inseparable.

Shivprabha is at the helm of this novel idea to encourage children to continue their education. “Imagine if the daily earnings of the family are Rs 150,” Sainwar urges. “The cost of notebooks, basic stationery, slate and school bags averages Rs 500. How will the family manage to pay for these expenses for the child? In the case of families that have many children, this is a tough feat.” 

In 2014, he concluded that providing kids free admission and mid-day meals is one of many solutions to draw them to schools. They must also be assisted with the material necessary to continue their education. Thus, the idea of the school kit was born. 

Recalling its inception, Sainwar traces his steps back to an article he read in 2014 about a Class 10 student committing suicide. “The article stated that the child’s father could not afford a bus pass that would allow him to travel from the village to the taluka. This made the child take the drastic step.” This spotlighted the hardships that children of daily wage workers face, and Sainwar and his team decided to investigate the issue. 

“We came to understand how these labourers and farmers earned so little that they couldn’t even afford to buy a small notebook or even pens for their children. While we consider these small expenses, in their eyes they are big,” he adds. 

But the problem had bigger repercussions on the child, they discovered. “When the child would go to school without a notebook or pen, the teacher would reprimand them. This would affect the child’s morale and eventually, the child would stop going to school.” 

Finding these loopholes in the system gave Sainwar and his team a sense of agency to tackle the problem by stepping in and filling the gaps. Sainwar shares that one of Shivprabha’s trustees Parsharam Narwade, also the headmaster of one of the beneficiary schools, was instrumental in guiding the team with the essentials that the school kit must include. 

Each kit, he says, comprises a school bag, notebooks, a drawing book, wax crayons, a slate, a pencil box and a pouch that comprises stationery. Children in Classes 5 to 7 are also provided with a geometry box, while children in classes 8 to 10 are provided with a graph book in addition to the above. 

For some children attending English medium schools, where it is insisted that students wear shoes and socks, these are also provided for. 

Narwade is a picture of enthusiasm as he speaks of how these kits have transformed the children’s lives. “Seeing them carry school bags in contrast to plastic bags is amazing. All these children who we help come from families of labourers. Their parents are struggling to make ends meet. We aren’t only assisting them with these kits, but also provide scholarships to the meritorious students so they can continue their education and help their families out with the money.” 

Take Shivam Vitthal Jevalewaad’s story for instance. The Class 2 student of the Zilla Parishad school in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal was previously living with his parents. They are a part of a tribal community in a remote village in the Painganga Sanctuary. Vitthal observed the hardships of life at a young age as he watched his parents cut sugarcane in the fields, often witnessing losses due to a bad crop.

While Vitthal’s parents sent him to live with his uncle in Yavatmal, Vitthal would often skip school as he lacked the motivation and supplies. Narwade adds, “Shivprabha provided all materials that Vitthal needed and now he has become quite good in his studies.”

Like Shivam, over 9,000 children have been impacted through these school kits. And the numbers can steadily increase with your help. The kits will be distributed across 20 Zilla Parishad schools in the villages of Aaregaon, Yeranda, Dhampeth, Ganpur, Kopara and others in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal and Chandrapur districts.

Inspired by experience  

Sainwar prides himself on being at the helm of the change that Shivprabha is bringing about. Thrust into the working world at a young age after he lost his father when he was just eight years old, Sainwar says he learnt to push the boundaries early on in life. 

“I used to sell newspapers when I was younger and then began giving tuitions and working at a tyre repair company when I was older. The money I earned helped me continue my education till Class 12. But then I hit a roadblock.” 

Exorbitant fees for professional courses made Sainwar reconsider his options. The few thousands he had managed to save up through the years were no match for the engineering fees. But help comes to those who persist, he shares. His professors stepped in and funded his engineering course, where Sainwar shone and topped his batch in the final year. 

Thereafter, he began preparing in earnest for the GATE exam (an entrance examination for postgraduate programs in engineering). Recalling his own struggles that he’d seen in his academic journey, Sainwar decided to donate the books he had purchased to his college library once the exam was over. 

“I told them to give the books to a student who wanted to attempt the GATE exam but did not have the money to buy the books. The student could return the books once they were finished and these could help another student.” 

Elaborating on this cycle of good, Sainwar says, “I wanted to support people in education because society had supported me the same way.” With this belief, in 2007, Sainwar along with his friends came together and started an organisation HOPE (Help Our People for Education) that would help anyone who wanted to study but whose financial condition did not permit it. 

In 2012, the organisation diversified into myriad activities and began work in several areas of rural development. In 2014, Shivprabha Charitable Trust was launched. Sainwar’s journey of creating a space where ideas become reality to better the lives of people in rural areas of India has been telling. 

Changemaking does not need to be an individual journey. You can be a part of it too by making your contribution and giving a child, both hope and supplies for schools.

Edited by Padmashree Pande

Amol Namdev Ghorpade (11) would find a new reason to skip school every day. But on days he couldn’t manage an excuse, he’d spend his time daydreaming in the classroom. A Class 6 student of Nashik’s Zilla Parishad Primary School, Amol dearly wished for school to become more “fun”.

And then his wish was answered.

When Amol entered the classroom one morning, he noticed a new entity that seemed to dim everything else in comparison — a digital device! The rarity promised to bring subjects like Science, Maths and English alive through visual aids and multimedia.

In the months that followed, Amol’s teachers noticed a drastic change in his attitude towards school. From a boy who sat quietly and waited for the bell to go off so he could rush home, to one of the star students of his class whose hand went up every time a question was asked, the transformation was evident.

Amol is one of the millions of children around the world who have been positively impacted by the growing digital revolution. And exacerbating this are organisations such as Global Digital Alliance (GDA) — a global movement of leaders to prioritise digital inclusion in education — and Muskaan Dreams — a tech-driven non-profit organisation.

While the GDA brings together stakeholders to enable them to work in collaboration to bridge the digital divide in India, Muskaan Dreams is championing change through a two-pronged approach — wherein they bring tech and innovation into public schools in India and empower teachers to become adept at this new wave of teaching.

The two strongly believe that digital access is a necessity rather than a luxury. And this is exactly the message the Global Digital Alliance is attempting to drive home by mobilising technology to create educational equality for all.

Spotlighting the problem

Lack of digital literacy is a pressing issue in India. This fact is backed by a WEF Education 4.0 India Insights Report that revealed a staggering 60 percent of schools do not have functional computers and 75 percent do not have internet connectivity. These statistics point to the growing digital divide even in the face of expanding technology.

However, another study reveals that in India, more than 250 million children are in the age group of 5 to 15 years — a majority of them enrolled in public schools in rural India which face numerous logistical and administrative challenges when it comes to integrating tech into their curriculum.

This irony points to the fact that the very places where digital literacy will have a massive impact, are the places where it is missing.

The data holds up a mirror, beckoning stakeholders to spot the unfairness that students from rural areas of India are subject to, as their counterparts in metropolitan private schools have access to the best tech.

But simply introducing tech into schools would prove futile. A lack of infrastructure and resources would have to be addressed first. And this is what the Global Digital Alliance cites its mission as.

A summit that holds the answers 

The Global Digital Alliance intends to bridge the digital divide for “100 million students” through creating access to digital infrastructure, internet connectivity and teachers’ professional development. It aims to “kindle a global movement” through collaborative actions with stakeholders, and research and advocacy that focuses on real-world case studies.

In fact, you now have a chance to witness these plans in real time at the Digital Inclusion Summit — which will bring together leaders from across the world who share the dream of bridging the digital divide in education.

Set to take place on 2 February, 2024, in Delhi, the summit will see a host of panel discussions that track numerous topics exploring tech in teaching — leveraging AI and tech to empower students, the role of the Government in integrating tech in education, the role of industry leadership in improving digital access, and building future-ready teachers.

The summit is a joint initiative between GDA and Muskaan Dreams and will feature a host of speakers from all walks of the corporate diaspora who bring to the table deep insights about integrating technology into education.

Some of the speakers include Mr Akash Tripathi, IAS, CEO, MyGov & India Semiconductor Mission; Dr Ritesh Malik, trustee, Plaksha University & co-founder, Accelerate Indian Philanthropy; Mr Anurag Pratap, VP & CSR leader, Capgemini India; and Ms Urvashi Prasad, director, NITI Aayog.

While GDA sees this as one more step to fulfilling the digital dream, Muskaan Dreams founder and CEO Abhishek Dubey says it is a wonderful way of bringing together great minds to champion change in the educational sector, especially when it comes to remote India.

A step-wise approach to educational equality

Since its launch in 2017, Muskaan Dreams has believed that an effective strategy lies in not only providing tech to public schools but also empowering the teachers in these schools by working with the existing Government machinery.

“We came to see how despite technology being present in schools, most teachers were not aware of how to use it for meaningful engagement. That’s where the challenge is,” Dubey shares. 

Where there is a challenge there is also opportunity, and Dubey and his team resolved to find the scope for hope in these issues. To meet its goal of impacting one million students through digital literacy by 2025, Muskaan Dreams signs an MOU with the respective state governments citing the districts they are looking to work in and the schools they want to target.

To be selected, the schools must satisfy a set of criteria. “We tend to incline towards schools where students are concentrated between Classes 6 to 8. At this age, we believe they can get the full advantage of digital tools.” In addition to this, Dubey says they also select schools basis of the receptiveness they see towards tech in the school and among the teachers.

Once the school has been zeroed in on, the digital setup is done and teachers are trained to adopt the technology. In the following months, metrics assessing the teacher’s usage of the installed content, the student’s performance, and the school’s adeptness at the technology are judged.

Routine visits to the schools enable the team to get a clear understanding of whether students are benefitting through the modules. The last step is sustainability — where Muskaan Dreams waits in the wings while the school now operates by itself, shares Abhishek.

Now with the Global Digital Alliance encouraging such models, one can anticipate the dream of ‘digital literacy for all’ to soon be a reality. And here’s how you can get a front-row seat to the revolution taking place in the world of education.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

It is a comprehensive training initiative that focuses on imparting skills in geoprocessing and web-based visualisation.

Things to know:

• The course is the 133rd outreach programme of ISRO and aims to meet a diverse range of students.
• The course is tailored for final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as technical and scientific staff from Government institutions and researchers.
• Applicants must have a basic understanding of remote sensing, GIS fundamentals, and computer programming.
• The course emphasises harnessing freely available satellite imagery and geospatial data to tackle challenges in environmental management, disaster response, climate change, natural resource management, and more.
• It will include topics such as a GIS overview, python programming, raster and vector data processing, and the use of open-source geospatial data processing libraries.
• The course will be conducted online and participants are required to have the appropriate hardware and stable internet connection.
• Participants with over 70 percent attendance will get a course completion certificate.
• Course study materials — including lecture slides, video recordings, open-source software, and demonstration handouts — will be accessible through e-class. Video lectures will also be uploaded to the platform.

Important dates

The programme is scheduled between 15 to 19 January, 2024, and selection for the restricted seats will be done on a first come first serve basis.

The course registrations are currently open; click here to register.

(Edited by Pranita Bhat)

“There is a village far away from where I currently work called “Chaurasi”. The name always intrigued me and I later found out that it was because the place was once adorned with 84 temples. The temples now stand dilapidated, with scattered stones showcasing fine craftsmanship and some engraved with intricate statues. Coming here [SPJIMR], I saw each participant as the stone of that temple, and this programme as shaping an edifice out of them.” In his farewell speech, Maulik Sisodia, the Executive Director of Tarun Bharat Sangh and son of Mr Rajendra Singh, the Waterman of India, shared these poignant words.

After dedicating 14 years to an organization founded by his father nearly five decades ago, focused on water conservation, Maulik Sisodia recognised that he and his team needed to build the capacity to take the organization to the next level and decided to join the Post Graduate Programme in Development Management (PGPDM) at SPJIMR, Mumbai.  

SPJIMR stands out for the socially responsible management education and their PGPDM introduced in 2011 is no different. The overarching aim of the programme is to develop value-based leaders who can innovate and transform social sector organizations to make a larger impact on society. Through a unique model that enables working professionals to attend classes whilst continuing their jobs, the programme is a testament to ‘learning by doing’. The programme is ideally suited for professionals working in or intending to work for the social sector. The unique design and pedagogy of the programme are a result of an understanding that while the development sector needs to draw upon the management principles to get impact at scale, the conventional corporate management principles are inadequate for the complex social sector. The programme uniquely blends the realms of development and management, harmonizing theory and practice seamlessly. 

It was this unique model of the programme that drew Satendra Singh Lilhare, Co-founder and CEO of a social enterprise, towards it. In the remote corners of Chhattisgarh, stands tall Satendra’s organisation heartingly called Bastar Se Bazaar Tak. It was born out of a deep understanding of the challenges faced by tribal farmers to access the market for their produce and is now on a mission to uplift their lives. The journey from Bastar to the Bazaar is indeed a difficult one and Satendra explains how the PGPDM at SPJIMR makes walking the path a little easier. 

In a single statement summarizing his experience, he proudly expresses, “The programme made me a believer.” Initially, he had an understanding that the core values, vision, missions and aims of an organization are outlined in the website just for the sake of it; the core idea drifts too frequently to be etched as solid statements and which is why many organisations outsource the task of developing these ideas to external agencies. Eventually, his learnings from the PGPDM gave him so much confidence and insight that he has not only developed an unshakeable belief in the core values that his organization will carry but also charted them out into full-blown implementation strategies. No surprise, during the program, Bastar se Bazaar Tak won the Tata Social Enterprise Challenge (2020-21). 

Another alumnus Bhushan Kamble who graduated in 2023,  realized his leadership potential during the programme and went on to build his own artisanal brand ‘Vhaan’ which retails the finest handcrafted leather products by traditional leather craftsmen spread across multiple villages of Western Maharashtra. Growing up in the chawls of Mumbai, Bhushan believes that these artisans from the countryside connect us to the history of the area they come from through the stories they weave into each stitch and design. The goal of Vhaan is to restore this art form’s authenticity while making sure that the true storytellers take back the spotlight and are treated with dignity. 

“The course taught me everything I needed to know about becoming a social entrepreneur. I learned how to think clearly, take care of accounting & finance, undertake surveys, build a team, design a project,  gauge where we are headed as a team, and most importantly, how to incorporate previous learnings into new assignments,” he adds.

The assignments during PGPDM which necessitate drawing from various courses throughout the programme ranging from Theory of Change to Program Design, Fundraising to program Evaluation and Impact Assessment, from Public Policy to Advocacy & Networking and the series of management courses prepared Bhushan and other students to adapt to an ever-changing social sector and apply the learnings in real time scenarios.

Similarly, Maulik does not have one big but many small takeaways from the course. He shares how the course provided valuable insights into aligning his grassroots work with SDGs and staying relevant in the evolving development sector. Having always worked on the ground, he thought courses like Marketing & Branding  Management were only for corporates. Today, he has created the brand guidelines for Tarun Bharat Sangh. New concepts like the Theory of Change and Design Thinking were implemented in his work resulting in improvements, including a refined website with a clear vision and mission. 

Maulik concluded his farewell speech accepting the shift in the social perspectives: “My house in the village has a window with iron bars. Our Bibi’s Suti Saree was used to cover the window, just like in the olden days. When it was sunny, the room would light up and when it showered, slight rain would enter the room. But whatever was happening was happening outside. The curtain was so high that we could only see people’s shadows beyond it. But during this programme last year, something changed, or maybe you all made it happen. The string of the curtain loosened up, and it came down a little. Now, I can look eye to eye into the society beyond. Now, as I go back, I have to see those faces with a new perspective and apply what I’ve learned here.” 

Almost every student and graduate of PGPDM has a similar story to tell; a story of personal transformation for the transformation of the society. 

For more information on the programme and eligibility criteria, click here.

This article was contributed by SP Jain Institute of Management & Research

As he grew older, his determination strengthened, but the financial constraints became apparent. Rahul couldn’t afford expensive NEET coaching to clear the exam.

This year, his dream materialised as he passed the NEET exam, thanks to the ‘Second Chance’ initiative led by Bastar’s Collector, IAS Vinit Nandanwar under the government’s ‘Touch the Sky’ campaign. Rahul is among 65 children who successfully cleared NEET and JEE through this.

Being the first IAS officer from Bastar, Vinit intimately understood the community’s issues. He aimed to ensure that the lack of facilities in Naxal areas wouldn’t impede these children from realising their dreams. Emerging from an underprivileged background, Vinit lacked guidance on becoming an officer but held unwavering faith that he could achieve it.

Finally, after giving four attempts, he was able to clear the exam. So when he got transferred to the area, he wanted to help kids like him. He modified the ‘Touch the Sky’ government scheme and initiated the ‘Second Chance’ campaign. 

“The existing scheme provided free coaching to children. I understand the challenges of failure, having cleared my exam on my fourth attempt. The ‘Second Chance’ campaign offers an additional year of free coaching to children who did not succeed in their initial attempt,” he explains.

Presently, Vinit is dedicated to using the same strength of education to try and change the image of the Naxal-affected region.

Watch this short video to learn more about his work:

Edited by Padmashree Pande

In 2008, an opportunity presented itself which would forever change the trajectory of the 38-year-old’s life. After the English teacher quit, Dr Maxine Berntsen, founder of the school, asked Madhura if she would like to teach. The latter agreed, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

As she enjoyed the work, she also equipped herself with a formal degree in elementary education from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. For the past 15 years, she has been working on making English education accessible and fun for students in the Marathi medium school. 

Now, Madhura has been chosen for the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship for the year 2023-24, and received the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program for International Teachers (Fulbright DAI) from the United States government. She is the only teacher from rural India to be chosen for the scholarship this year.

“I want to build a programme for teachers in rural Marathi-medium schools in Maharashtra on how to make English classrooms interesting. I also wish to learn on how to organise learning spaces for students in their classrooms,” she says.

Focusing on self-expression

When Madhura started teaching at Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan, a Marathi medium private school, she realised that the textbooks and materials available were not interesting to students. She found the textbooks to be complex and started working on ways to make it lively and interesting.

One of the biggest challenges when it comes to English, even for teachers who aren’t very proficient in it, she says, is fear of the language. 

“One of the things we do at our school is to accept the child’s mother tongue. We encourage them to write in whatever language they feel comfortable in as expression is important. Once they are comfortable with expressing themselves, learning English too, is no longer a problem. I work on making children face their fears,” Madhura tells The Better India.

Using art, storytelling and music in the classroom, she makes learning English fun. She sings and raps with the students, thereby removing fear from the equation, and she encourages them to write. 

Madhura says that students get a lot of space for self-expression in a stress-free atmosphere.

“We make sure that the students are having a ball. Education should not be a burden or task for children. We have students from all walks of life and we work together to impart lessons in humanity,” adds the educator.

The school is part of the Pragat Shikshan Sanstha (educational institution), where Madhura is a trustee. The enterprise, in addition to running the school, conducts outreach programmes at anganwadis and Government zilla parishad schools, focusing on early childhood education.

While working with other teachers from rural Maharashtra, Madhura found that English teachers were finding it difficult to teach and weren’t comfortable with the textbooks given by the government. Looking for ways to help these teachers, she heard of the Fulbright scholarship. 

Every year, 60 to 70 educators from 17 countries, including India are selected for the Fulbright DAI, as per the Fulbright India website. Madhura will get an opportunity to study at an American university from August to December 2024, where she can co-teach, audit some courses there and observe the teaching methods.

She wishes to increase the quality of teaching at schools like hers so that they can be on par with English medium schools. 

Programmes like the Fulbright scholarship, she says, help widen your horizons and contribute in a meaningful way to your schools.

If you wish to know more about the scholarship, check here. 

Edited by Padmashree Pande

Such was his desire to study that he always kept the resources from affecting his academic performance. But as the five children grew up, their father’s income, derived from multiple jobs, was just not sufficient to feed the nine mouths (including his grandparents). While all the siblings attended school till Class 8, the financial constraints grew, causing his sisters to drop out of school.

As a boy, Deep managed to finish his education, earning a BSc in botany. Later, he had to stop studying but pursued teacher training and became a primary school teacher. Witnessing children facing similar struggles to his own childhood, he refused to stay silent. He was determined not to let other children, especially girls like his sisters, face the hardships he experienced.

Deep began by assisting two children in his school, providing them with new books, slates, and other essentials. This small act grew into a huge movement to educate underprivileged children and break the cycle of poverty. Starting in Jamuria district, it expanded to seven more districts in West Bengal, Jharkhand, and even Bangladesh, impacting over 10,000 students.

Called ‘Raster Master’ (teacher of the streets), Deep educates not just children, but also their parents and grandparents. His programmes are aimed at reducing dropouts, providing nutritious food, stopping child marriages, bridging the gender gap in education, empowering women, and changing mindsets.

Furthermore, he works on improving education and livelihoods through his Raster Master Research Centre and International Foundation.

Breaking the vicious cycle of poverty

Deep remembers his father working as a daily wage labourer in the morning, cleaning a medical shop after, and working as a watchman at night. In fact, the family stayed in the house where his father worked as the owners were out of the country.

“My father worked day and night for us. But after the house owner returned, we had to move out to a small clay house (kutia) away from the village where there was no electricity. So I would wake up at 3 am every day to study, and in the evenings, I studied on the street as it was well-lit,” says Deep.

He finished school without electricity at home.

After Class 10, his classmates moved to cities for higher education, but he couldn’t due to financial constraints. He considered quitting and working, like his sisters. So he began tutoring kids. But a gentleman saw his good scores and encouraged him to keep studying.

Despite a government school being available, few enrolled. Deep was among the three students there, and he was the only one who passed the Boards.

The well-wisher further lent him books with the condition to return the books within two years. “He was saving the book for his domestic help’s child, who was two years younger than me. He motivated me to study well and finish Class 12,” adds Deep.

Initially wanting to study chemistry, he changed his mind as he couldn’t afford the many books the course required. So he chose botany instead as it involved a lesser number of books. After starting college, he had no books for nearly three months. When the principal found out, he arranged for Deep to borrow them from the library for a year.

After finishing his degree, Deep became a primary teacher in 2010. On his first day at school, he felt a strange sense of deja vu, something he didn’t expect or desire.

“I saw children who came from backgrounds like mine — three to four siblings, no proper jobs for parents, and borrowing old books. These children were going through the same pain and struggle I did while growing up. I didn’t want to see another child face the same hassles as me to get a good education,” he adds.

He started buying new books and slates for two children at his school. The number slowly increased as other children also wanted these shiny books. Most of these children didn’t know what a new book or slate even looked like. While the ‘Raster Master’ tried to buy it for as many children as he could with his own money, he knew that it wasn’t something he could continue doing in the long run.

So he came up with a unique model that would be the first step to what would soon transform into a movement.

The 3G Model

Deep started turning the walls of children’s homes into blackboards, by painting them. This way, when children returned from school with homework, parents began learning too. He calls it the 3G model — teaching three generations in reverse. The child, often the first learner in the family, teaches parents and grandparents.

He started by converting the mud walls of the houses in the village into classroom walls, where he teaches. By painting small portions of the walls black, he created several blackboards open for learning right at the doorsteps of these children.

While parents were reluctant about sending their children to these classes, he started asking the children to teach their parents. Now, many mothers, fathers and grandparents have learnt enough to write a sentence or their own name. He says this method increases bonding, provides basic education to people regardless of age, and helps the older generation realise the importance of education.

His motto is, “Where there is a wall, there is a way,”

“When I began teaching kids, I noticed that their education often stopped around Class 10. Boys would start working, and girls would either get married or work as well. The 3G model helps to prevent this. It makes parents aware of what they missed and emphasises the importance of education,” says Deep.

Surojit, a student of Deep’s for over seven years, mentions that all the kids eagerly await Deep’s visits to their Bankura village. Surojit, now 20 and studying engineering, credits Deep for his significant support. His father does odd jobs, and Surojit will be the first engineer from their village. “We all wait for the Master’s arrival, especially the younger kids. He also gets food for us, which the children, who otherwise eat mid-day meals, enjoy very much,” he says.

Thanks to Deep’s efforts, numerous kids are now pursuing various degrees like engineering, nursing, arts, and more, outside their villages and even beyond the state. The teacher feels immensely proud, sharing stories from a student studying psychology at Delhi University to another securing a government job, among many others.

“Earlier, a child would go out of the village only as a labourer or after getting married (with respect to girls). Now, they have the liberty to dream and pursue an education of their choice,” he shares.

Shalini from Sukhbazar in Howrah is the first from her village to go to Delhi to study. She was sure that she wanted to pursue a degree in psychology and worked towards it. While most girls in her school got married during school or after Class 12, Shalini took Deep’s help to convince her parents to pursue her education.

“Everyone in our village wants to get girls married early. They feel that a girl should go out of the village only to her husband’s house. It’s because of Deep Sir that I was able to pursue my psychology honours at Delhi University,” says Shalini.

Starting in Jamuria, Deep’s initiative gradually expanded to other districts in West Bengal and Jharkhand. He now has a team that trains other teachers as they have students from age 5-50.

“One has to teach in a way that matches how each age group learns. We have a team of 150, which consists of 50 teachers and 100 associates. After training, the associates become teachers. We go to each village and choose teachers from there as they are best equipped to teach the children,” he adds.

The ‘Raster Master’ education model is almost a zero investment system with great returns. The teacher says that it costs Rs 100 to convert a street into a classroom. It helps bridge the digital divide for students who can’t afford phones, don’t have internet and have patchy electricity.

Each child is taught five languages — Bengali, English, Hindi, Urdu and Ol Chiki — through the 5L (language) model. They can read, speak and write in all the languages.

Deep himself is on the streets from 8 am to 8 pm to teach the children. He continues his Government teacher job and takes classes before and after school. 

He also provides nutritious food to children as he doesn’t want them to be a victim of malnutrition. He pays for all this from his pocket, exhausting all his savings and salary for the cause.

‘I feel guilty about my sisters dropping out’

When Deep was young, he didn’t notice he was the only one encouraged to study, owing to his male gender. As he grew up, he noticed girls still face barriers in education today. This inspired him to make it his mission to support girls and talk to their families about giving them better education opportunities.

“Even today, people are not happy when a girl is born. Even though sex determination tests are illegal in India, people still find a way to find out and abort the baby. I want to ensure that every child, especially girls, get a good education,” he says.

Deep began visiting hospitals and homes whenever a girl was born to encourage parents to celebrate her arrival. He gifts sweets and gives them 10 saplings, which grow into valuable trees over 20 years that can be sold for a good price. “I give trees like mahogany which sell for about Rs 1 lakh per tree once grown, which takes roughly 10 years. I tell them to water these trees carefully which would tomorrow become an asset for them,” adds the teacher.

He believes caring for the trees is like nurturing your dreams. Initially, people didn’t trust him, but as they saw trees growing in various homes, their trust grew in the Raster Master. To inspire parents to educate their girls, he brings back former students from the village who are now successful engineers and graduates.

“Earlier, I would bring big officers to give inspirational talks, but that didn’t work. When a girl whom they’ve seen since childhood comes with a degree, parents connect more, as they come from the same background,” he adds. He shows them real-life heroes who they can connect with and relate to, which makes them feel that these dreams are within reach.

His goal now, he says, is to spread his centres worldwide and make education accessible to all. “I don’t want anyone to go through what my sisters did. I will ensure that every girl and every boy gets an education,” he says.

He was selected among the Top 10 teachers for the 2023 Global Teacher Prize, presented by the Varkey Foundation in partnership with UNESCO. 

Deep now needs more funding to expand his model and provide more resources for students. If you wish to help, you can contribute to:

Raster Master International Foundation 
A/C No – 40715717111
IFSC – SBIN0006188
Branch – Jamuria Bazar

(Edited by Pranita Bhat and Padmashree Pande)

Rabindranath Tagore established the Santiniketan in 1901, an educational institution where students could learn in the lap of nature. In fact, teaching was done in the ancient Indian Gurukul system in the open under the trees. 

The Northstar School in Rajkot is an attempt to go back to our roots, where learning is not confined within four walls. Inspired by the gurus in ancient India and wanting to replicate that kind of open learning where students are connected to nature in every space, Mohit Patel started this school in 2016. While studying at Harvard, the 38-year-old realised that the way schools are run today is in direct conflict with the way children learn.

Set across a sprawling 15-acre campus, the school has more outdoor spaces than indoor and lays great emphasis on climate and sustainability, featuring integrated water management systems, an energy efficient architecture allowing nature light and cooling, and use of natural and local materials.

Out of the 15 acres, the academic blocks only make up 2 acres. The remaining 13 acres are play areas, cricket fields, swimming pools, athletic tracks, fruit orchards and more.

Along with designing the curriculum, equal importance was given to the architecture, to ensure that Mohit’s vision was brought to life. It was done so with architects Shanmugam associates, who ensured that the school was airy, with a lot of open spaces and provided a comfortable environment for students.

Studying in the lap of nature

The idea for this school actually began as a class project in 2012, when Mohit was pursuing a Masters in Education at Harvard University. The project was on designing a school. Mohit looked at it from two perspectives, one being curriculum and the other, space design.

“What I thought of when I worked on the project was, how do we design learning experiences? Another important question I had was how do you fit these experiences into a space design? I conceived the project for a school in India and not America,” Mohit tells The Better India. 

After returning to India, he started conceptualising and thinking about how he could convert what was on paper into reality. After working on the curriculum, Mohit joined hands with the team at Shanmugam associates who worked on the space and building design.

Mohit explains that he was clear that the school should look “nothing like a school we’ve been used to looking at”. He wanted kids to spend more time outside the classroom than inside the classroom.

With this pitch in mind, Santosh Shanmugam and Raja Krishnan D, principal architects at the architecture firm, started planning the school. They decided to go back to the roots and design a space where students can learn from nature. 

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A post shared by The Northstar School (@thenorthstarschool)

“We started working with the view that when you enter this school, you should get a feeling that you’re connected to nature and open in every classroom and space. In a large space like this, we first started with a small portion, a classroom and then multiplied it across the campus. We designed each classroom with gardens on either side, to have good cross ventilation. Since Rajkot gets very hot, we incorporated small jali screens to cool the air or block the dust,” adds Santosh. 

The architects have interspersed landscape in every space possible. You are welcomed by 

Gulmohar trees at the entrance which create a canopy. There is a central courtyard which is inspired by the stepped wells of Gujarat which serves a space for classes, performances, and has greenery incorporated through creepers and vines. Each classroom has its own private garden and an open courtyard, where classes too can be conducted, a la Santiniketan.  

By having gardens on each side, a microclimate is created in each classroom. This keeps the temperature lower than the outside environment. The windows in the classrooms directly open up to the garden.

The steps in the courtyard double up as a stage or place for rehearsals during events. The open corridors also come with ample seating for students to lounge and interact with teachers.

The architects have used local, indigenous materials like Kota stones and local limestones. Their mission was clear: Every space a child is in must be one with nature, be it a classroom, staff room, the toilets, courtyard or the play areas. They have green, vegetated screens on the first floor outside classrooms to give a garden feeling, and also reduce dust.

Every window or door opens out into a green space or garden. The school also has a horticulture program that teaches students the process of growing flora and fauna, and is aimed to foster a deep-rooted connection with earth and climate. The fruit orchards offer a hands-on experience for the students with the environment.

A sustainable model for waste management

The school also has a waste management system for water, food, and sewage. All the kitchen waste and food waste is reused as manure within the campus. All the water is also recycled and there is a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in the school. Rainwater is also harvested and used for recharging the borewells. 

“The site topography slopes towards culvert and stream. So the rainwater is naturally directed towards the borewell for groundwater recharge which eventually goes to the Aji river. We’ve done this by keeping the topsoil of the campus loamy to provide for adequate rainwater drainage. We are also building a rainwater collection and percolation tank,” adds Mohit.

The architects add that they designed the campus in a way where usage of electricity is reduced. Raja explains that you don’t need much lighting during daytime and air conditioning is used only in summers. Their design ensures that the school is energy efficient.

“We always feel that architecture should take care of the climate by design and planning rather than by any mechanical equipment. That’s how the building ages well, feels well, feels comfortable. In a traditional school, you have corridors and classrooms on all sides. Our classes are designed in modules, so there’s no class which touches each other. A classroom gets light from both sides and is naturally lit. Our corridors never need to be lit up because there’s so much natural light and because it’s open,” says Raja.

Northstar has 500+ students and 80 teachers. Each class has a student strength of 20-25, maximising the area and amenities available for each student.

Mohit’s idea is for children to enjoy school. Everything else is secondary, he says. The school doesn’t have exams till Class 10, and students are not pressured into running the rat race of IITs, medical entrance coaching from Class 8 itself. A school, he says, should not be thought of as a means to gain admission to a reputed college, it should be an entire experience of its own.

“Students should be comfortable and happy in class. As long as kids are feeling happy being in school, everything else is going to follow. Learning is a byproduct of being curious, of being happy, being in good surroundings. That comes from the teachers, our relationship with our peers, the building, the environment; with everything. We want students to learn, become good human beings, imbibe critical thinking. Schooling in itself is an experience, not a means to do something else,” says Mohit. 

The goal and vision of the school is to help students ‘explore their true north’.

Raja says that he used to hate going to school as he was burdened with homework and exams. “Now, I really want to go back to school and do my schooling at Northstar,” he laughs. 

Edited by Padmashree Pande

As Kalpit Veerwal — famous for scoring a perfect 360/360 in the JEE Mains 2017 exam — recalls that moment in time, he terms it “life-changing”. Although flustered, he felt he knew his attitude determined everything.

“I set my pen down and closed my eyes. I recalled all the exams I had ever attempted. It reminded me of how in the past few years I’d risen from a nobody to a ranker. Then, I picked my pen up and started solving again.” 

How the next one and a half hours went by is a blur in Kalpit’s memory. But when the bell went off, he was done with every question. 

From that day to the present, the 24-year-old Udaipur native’s journey has been nothing short of unconventional. Ask him his closely-guarded secret to success and he smiles, “There isn’t one.” 

A journey of relentless hard work  

Growing up in a middle-class home, Kalpit says education was given prime importance. His father, a nurse, was adamant that his sons should have access to resources and opportunities that he had missed out on. 

As Kalpit recalls, “My father was from a very simple background. But even then, he was one of the first people in his community to get educated. He had big dreams of becoming a doctor, but medical coaching wasn’t easy in those days. He went on to become a nurse instead.” 

As Kalpit prides himself on having a BTech degree from IIT Bombay — one of the most sought-after institutes — he credits his father for always having his back. 

With education being put on a pedestal in the family, Kalpit’s tryst with competitive exams began at an early age. The first of these was in Class 7. 

Not only did he do exceptionally well but got a scholarship too. Unbeknownst to him, it was these successes that paved the way for his incredible performance in the JEE Mains.  

Every attempted competitive exam served as a bounce board that propelled him further. Physics and Mathematics were topics he thoroughly enjoyed. Pursuing concepts and digging deeper into them came naturally to him. 

“I had no intention of giving the JEE exam when I was in school. But, with all the extra studying I did, it dawned on me that I had already completed the JEE Physics section by Class 9!” he shares. 

Looking back at the trajectory, he says his curiosity and willingness to look beyond the textbook stood him in good stead. He cites one such instance, “In Physics, there is a concept known as the ‘Theory of Relativity’. It wasn’t in the Class 11 syllabus which I was studying at the time, but regardless of it, I studied it. I also ended up deriving the equation for the equivalence of electric and magnetic fields. I did it purely out of interest.” 

So, you can only imagine Kalpit’s astonishment when one of the questions in the JEE Mains was on this theory. He smiled to himself as he went on to derive the equation. 

An attitude to learn coupled with an enthusiasm for the subjects has been Kalpit’s driving force. He credits this duo with keeping him determined throughout the JEE prep journey. 

My life's journey so far:

– Was interested in studies from a young age, had fun but also had curiosity in learning.

– Cleared several exams, including Rank 1 in some exams. NTSE, Olympiads, KVPY, etc

– Got AIR 1 in JEE and shot to fame (360/360 in Mains 2017, first time in…

— Kalpit Veerwal (@kalpitveerwal) September 16, 2023

“There were times when I would be reminded that I was a boy from a small city competing against kids from Mumbai and Delhi, some of whose parents were IAS officers. But I knew what I lacked in background I could make up for with my hard work.”  

Tips from the pro 

According to Kalpit, achieving your target score in the JEE Mains exam is a blend of many factors. He shares some of these while the others are available on his YouTube channel ‘AcadBoost’. 

1. The syllabus is the core  

While being an avid lover of topics that extended beyond the syllabus, Kalpit says he changed his strategy when he started prepping for the exam. “I started taking the coaching material seriously. I kept mock papers as my focus.” 

2. Passion is key 

When asked about his performance and how he managed to achieve a nearly impossible feat, Kalpit says it had a lot to do with his love for the subjects. “Only attempt the exam if YOU truly want to do it. Because only when you have a natural passion for something will you do it wholeheartedly.” He adds, “I see a lot of students who do not really wish to sit the exam, but still attempt it. One should know what their calling is and what they have a penchant for.”

Consistency > Hardwork > Talent.

Your talent is innate, cannot be changed too much, and it can’t give you much leverage.

Hardwork is good, but 24 hours a day is the cap – not much leverage here too.

But, you can be consistent over decades – BIG leverage.

Stick to something…

— Kalpit Veerwal (@kalpitveerwal) September 29, 2023

3. Enjoy the process 

It is but natural to let the pressure get to you in such competitive exams. But Kalpit encourages students to enjoy the topics. This takes the burden off. “If you enjoy the process, then you’ll automatically do well in your exams.”

4. Past year papers are important 

As the days of the exam get closer, Kalpit suggests veering away from cramming in new topics and instead focusing on revision. “Past year papers are a great help to go over concepts.”  

5. Even talent needs hard work 

Acknowledging that he has a natural ability when it comes to competitive exams, Kalpit says talent on its own won’t take you very far. “I do have special abilities to understand things a bit faster. But there’s no use of talent if you don’t work on it.” 

6. Trust your instincts 

The day the results came out is etched in Kalpit’s memory. But he shares an anecdote of a time much before the D-Day. 

“I was checking around with my friends and coaching classes that had released their answer keys. There was this one question in particular that was tricky. Everyone was of the opinion that I had attempted it by an incorrect method. But I was sure I was right. I remember my friends saying to me, ‘No one will think of such a strange way of solving this’. When the results were announced, needless to say, my method was the right one.” 

“Trust your gut feeling,” he adds. 

Following the JEE Mains exam, Kalpit started a Facebook page where he would advise students on preparing for the exam, books to refer to, etc. In addition to this, he had a Quora account where he would answer students’ doubts and a blog. 

With the amazing response these platforms witnessed, Kalpit was inspired to start his venture ‘Acad Boost’ in 2019, which tailor makes courses for students who are preparing for the JEE exams. 

He says that while over “2 lakh students have accessed the content, 11,000 students have benefited from the paid content.” 

“When all my batchmates were sitting for placements in college, I knew I’d get a good package if I did the same. But nothing about my life has been conventional. And I decided to take the road less travelled. I am enjoying every bit of the journey,” he adds. 

As Kalpit wraps up the conversation, I ask him to point out a determining moment in this entire journey. “The moment I picked up the pen in the JEE Mains exam room and began solving the questions again.”

Edited by Padmashree Pande

ISRO states that the mission of the free online course is to research, educate, train, and foster startups in remote sensing data and geo-informatics, aiming to create technological safeguards for protecting critical infrastructure.

Things to Know:

1. The course is part of an outreach programme of IIRS which started in 2007 with 12 universities.

2. It will cover theoretical and practical aspects of cyber defence and threats. Topics include an overview of cybersecurity challenges, software tools for secure data access, and ensuring safe transactions in web and mobile applications.

3. The programme spans 14 days and is offered free of cost.

4. Participants achieving 70 percent attendance will receive certificates.

5. The course will be conducted from 28 November to 11 December, 2023.

6. Interested professionals can fill out and submit the form to receive a registration number for enrollment in the class.

7. Interested candidates can apply for the course here.

8. After successful registration, sign in to IIRS Eclass platform to join sessions live or offline.

(Edited by Pranita Bhat)

After his graduation, Bengaluru-based Vishal Talreja got a chance to visit Finland, where he noticed a significant emphasis on the idea of dignity of labour and the high quality of life that people enjoyed, irrespective of their background and the nature of their job.

“It got me thinking about my own upbringing and the caste-class system surrounding us. I wanted to go back to India and change the way we look at dignity here,” he says.

Upon returning to his homeland, Vishal decided to dedicate his weekends to meaningful volunteer work. He focused on assisting youth from underprivileged and vulnerable backgrounds where they were exposed to issues such as malnutrition, abuse, and exposure to crime at an early age. Education and life skills were not prioritised for this group, prompting him to offer his support.

Through various connections, he met a group of passionate people, all in their early 20s working in the IT sector in Bengaluru, Pune, and Delhi. Although they didn’t specifically know each other, they shared a common goal to build a roadmap that would give them a clear sense of purpose. Vishal and a team of 10 others established ‘Dream a Dream’ — a non-profit organisation dedicated to transforming the life experience of vulnerable children in Bengaluru.

They started with an after-school programme in Bengaluru to teach essential life skills to children — such as teamwork, problem-solving, and critical thinking — utilising sports and creative arts as mediums.

What started as a weekend initiative has now evolved into a full-fledged organisation that spearheads life skills education in Indian public schools. “When we founded Dream a Dream, we never expected to become a national organisation transforming education for millions of children,” says Vishal.

Their work has expanded to six states including Karnataka, Delhi, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Nagaland and Telangana — all in partnership with the respective State Governments.

How we turned our dreams into reality

At first, the group began their work with a community of children affected by HIV, investing considerable time to bring joy and happiness in their lives. By 2001, they had also started working in a care home catering to these children.

“At that point, Brinda (one of the founding members) was able to get two to three international volunteers, who organised a creative art therapy programme for the kids. It was a three-month weekend programme, and we saw a mind-blowing transformation among the kids. That was the first time we saw the impact of experiential learning in children,” says Vishal.

The art therapy programme encouraged them to widen their focus on empowering children from vulnerable backgrounds. Within two years, the organisation grew from 11 to 300 volunteers.

While working with care homes and orphanages, Vishal understood the complexities the kids faced. “Most of the care homes did great jobs to take care of the children’s basic needs and keep them off the streets but they didn’t necessarily prepare the children for life outside the home. A lot of the kids would end up returning to their care homes after a year or two of being outside post 18 years of age,” he adds.

During this period, the organisation integrated sports, arts, theatre, music, and various crafts into their weekly life skills education programme, using a unique life skills approach focused on the transformation of every child.

Pavithra KL, who is an alumnus of Dream a Dream, explains, “The programme is about helping children understand who they are, what are their strengths, what is their support system, and what are their dreams and aspirations.”

Dream a Dream programmes — such as Direct Impact, Systems Demonstration, and Building the Field — focus on implementing a life skills-oriented curriculum, pedagogy, new teaching methods, teacher training, and comprehensive assessments.

Under their ‘Direct Impact’ programme, the organisation employs a demonstrable model in both in-school and out-of-school learning spaces. It directly engages with 10,000 young individuals aged 8 to 23 each year, offering innovative education opportunities through sports and arts. This approach fosters crucial life skills like teamwork, decision-making, problem-solving, and critical thinking.

Additionally, the programme aids individuals aged 15 to 23 in preparing for an ecosystem that necessitates skills such as computer education, spoken English, communication skills, money management, and workplace readiness.

The ‘Systems Demonstration’ programme aims to transform public education systems in collaboration with the government. The organisation has effectively trained over 35,000 teachers and educators in the life skills approach. This training enables them to create safe learning environments within their current classrooms and expand their influence, concentrating on curriculum, teaching methods, and evaluations.

In addition, in partnership with state governments, the organisation is introducing new curriculums such as the Happiness Curriculum in Delhi, Anandam Pattacharya in Uttarakhand, a whole-child development pedagogical approach in Jharkhand and a Life Skills Curriculum in Nagaland and Telangana. The organisation also support the state education departments with new pedagogical approaches, teacher training and introducing new assessment frameworks. 

The ‘Building the Field’ strategic approach is working to enable a mindset shift among diverse stakeholders in the learning ecosystem to bring in a collaborative approach to education, encompassing the broader community, decision makers, professionals in various fields, parents, teachers and other stakeholders.

The organisation intends to maximise impact through large-scale dissemination of real world research findings, engage in critical dialogues to listen to diverse narratives of success, amplify young people’s voices through collaborations and advocate for thriving as the purpose of education by weaving together people, places and voices supported by high impact research.

Spearheading change through sports

Dream a Dream works with both affordable private schools and State Governments. For instance, they partnered with the Delhi government and other nonprofit organisations to implement the world’s largest in-school Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum — the Happiness Curriculum — launched in 2018 by the Delhi Government to enhance students’ mindfulness and positive productivity. This initiative positively impacts eight lakh children in the national capital.

Pavithra, currently the associate director at the Innovation Lab, which creates skill development modules for young people, states that Dream a Dream offers children numerous opportunities to participate in various games like hockey, rugby, and table tennis. Recently, they have exclusively emphasised football.

“Football allowed us to include as many people as possible given its popularity. We could get many young people to play as it didn’t need a lot of equipment,” she says, adding that the football programme at Dream a Dream includes a weekly two-hour session.

Pavithra further explains that children typically join the programme at the age of eight, mostly in Class 4, and can select between the creative arts and football programmes, each lasting for seven years.

So far, the initiative has impacted over 2.2 million children across the country, she informs. Among them is yet another alumnus Ranjith H, who, at the age of 12, used to play kabaddi in school.

In 2008, driven by curiosity about rugby, the jersey, shoes, and weekly snacks offered to participants, he enrolled in the rugby programme. “At the time, my father would load or unload goods in the market whereas my mother worked in the garment industry. Because of financial constraints, we did not get good quality food at home. I mostly depended on the snacks provided by Dream a Dream,” he shares.

To support himself financially, he took on part-time jobs, including assisting in garment work and distributing newspapers. Despite the challenges he encountered at home, within a few years, Ranjith was competing at the national level for Karnataka. Travelling to rugby tournaments and meeting people from other parts of the country gave him the confidence to come out of his shell.

“That was the time I learned how to talk to people. I was not scared of playing rugby but I was scared of talking to people before!” he says.

Later on, Ranjith completed his Class 10 and went to college. “I realised how much sports can benefit a person. My sports certificate helped me to get into college through the sports quota. I worked part-time and completed my college,” he says. After college, Ranjith joined Dream a Dream as a football facilitator.

The fundamental goal of the organisation is to ensure that no child they work with is left behind. “Can we ensure that each and every young person feels a sense of support and is moving forward? Even if they have failed academically, are they thriving? Can they still look forward to a life with dignity?” asks Pavithra.

“As we are learning more about young people, we are working to re-imagine the purpose of education in the 21st century towards the idea of Thriving,” she remarks.

Edited by Pranita Bhat. All photos: Dream a Dream.

The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) — Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) portal provides access to previous years’ questions from 2007 to 2022, covering various exam topics.

The institution’s press statement notes that every year, about seven to 10 lakh students in India take the GATE examination. And in 2023, about seven lakh students registered, and about one lakh students successfully qualified. The exam preparation programme on the portal has seen a significant increase in student participation.

So far, the online platform has received over 50,700 registrations. 

Things to know

• The NPTEL-GATE portal offers all the features for free.
• Between August 2022 and February 2023, students completed 115 mock tests across six key subjects — electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, electronics and communication, physics, and chemistry.
• The current semester started on 15 October, 2023. As part of this, 19 mock tests were completed across seven subjects — including the six mentioned above in addition to biotechnology.

How to apply?

• Participants can register using an active email ID and mobile number on the official website.
• Fill out the online form with accurate information and upload all necessary documents.

For more information, check the official notification.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

This pivotal phase determines your coveted rank, where each additional mark can tip the scales in your favour, propelling you towards the cherished title of an IAS officer.

Here are 10 invaluable insights shared by seasoned IAS officers, unlocking the secrets to mastering the formidable UPSC personality test.

1. Be yourself

Retired IAS officer Ramesh Kumar Khanna advises aspirants to participate in mock IAS interviews with experienced civil servants to gain practice and check the extent of your preparation.

“But keep your personality intact, and be yourself. You must also focus on your attitude and confidence level,” he writes in Quora.

He also advises aspirants to be aware of socio-economic problems and happenings of national and global importance.

2. Know your DAF

IAS officer Apala Mishra, who secured AIR 9 in UPSC CSE and got the highest marks in the interview round, says that one of the most important things to remember for the personality round is the DAF (Detailed Application Form).

She says, “Ensure that you put in only those attributes and strengths that you wish to highlight in the DAF. Do not put down any achievements or hobbies that you cannot explain. The interviewers are likely to see through it. Revise whatever you have mentioned and have answers to everything you put down.”

3. Don’t go unprepared

Dr Apala says that one of the biggest myths is that you don’t need to prepare for the interview round as it will only test your personality.

“However, we need to understand that knowledge, too, forms the basis of our personality. It requires equal amounts of work that one puts in at the prelims and mains stage,” she adds.

4. Focus on what you know

Jitin Yadav, a 2016-batch IAS officer, says that having confidence in what you already know is more important than worrying about what you don’t know.

“Do not feel underconfident imagining how much you do not know. Focus on gaining confidence from how much you already know. If you are a serious aspirant, then that is more than enough,” he says.

15 Golden Tips for #UPSC Civil Services Examination Personality Test/Interview –

#1 Always allow the interview board member to interrupt you but never interrupt the board member.

#2 Answer one question at a time. Never mix the previous question with the new one.

— Jitin Yadav (@Jitin_IAS) March 29, 2022

5. Learn to be a good listener

Jitin advises aspirants to be good listeners and take a pause before replying to a question. “Some aspirants start framing their answers before the question is finished. Never do that, we end up giving incomplete answers,” he adds.

Jitin points out that your ability to bounce back is tested in the personality test. “Too many factual questions might be asked, and it is completely normal if not all can be answered,” he says.

6. Be careful while responding to questions

“Interview is not a knowledge test, which has already been tested in the mains. Interview checks your personality traits via indirect methods; your response to questions will give them hints to assess your traits,” says Jitin.

7. Keep your dress code simple

Even though aspirants worry about what to wear during the personality test, IAS Jitin says that what you choose to wear does matter while appearing for an interview.

“Many questions may come up regarding the brand or design. In my opinion, it’s better to keep the outfit as simple as possible,” he adds.

#7 Optimum amount of nervousness is actually good for interview. If anxiety is in extremes, either too high or too low, then only it's a concern.
(Read Yerkes-Dodson Law – individual performs best with optimum amount of arousal)

— Jitin Yadav (@Jitin_IAS) March 29, 2022

8. Keep a check on your behaviour

Jitin says that aspirants should never interrupt the board members, but instead, be open to being interrupted by them.

“Also, answer one question at a time. Never mix the previous question with the new one,” he adds.

9. Learn to manage anxiety

Jitin says that an optimum amount of nervousness is actually good for the personality test. “If anxiety is in extremes — either too high or too low — only then it’s a concern,” he adds.

He suggests aspirants study Yerkes-Dodson Law, which explains how performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a point.

10. Don’t be desperate

Jitin emphasises that during the personality test, it’s crucial to prioritise professional conduct over emotional reactions. “Never show you are too desperate for getting selected,” he says.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

This certification course is designed to cater to a diverse range of participants, including students, technical and scientific personnel, university faculty, researchers, and professionals in related fields.

Things to know

• The programme covers the practical application of remote sensing and GIS in various sectors — including agriculture, forestry, ecology, geoscience, marine and atmospheric sciences, urban and regional studies, and water resources.
• Participants will have access to PDF lectures, recorded video lectures, open-source software, and demonstration handouts, accessible via the E-CLASS and ISRO Learning Management System.
• There are a total of 10,000 seats available for the entire comprehensive course, and 5,000 more seats for individual modules. Additionally, nodal centre coordinators are allocated 25 seats for each course.
• Participants will get a course completion certificate on completing at least 70 percent of the total session hours.

How to apply?

• Undergraduate and postgraduate students (any year), technical and scientific staff from central or state governments, faculty and researchers from universities and institutions, and other professionals in technical and scientific domains.
• Interested individuals can register individually or through their respective nodal centres before the application deadline.

Important dates

• Course duration: 6 to 17 November, 2023
• Registration open date: 16 October, 2023
• Registration closing date: 3 November, 2023

For more details, check the official notification.

The world is increasingly becoming digital, with Artificial intelligence (AI) taking over tasks ranging from physical labour to intellectually demanding jobs traditionally performed by humans. The US National Science Foundation (NSF) predicts that 80 percent of the jobs created in the next decade will require proficiency in maths and science.

This demands that our education system, particularly in government schools, prioritises instilling STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) to encourage critical thinking and problem-solving skills in children. It requires teachers to emphasise practical learning through experiments, rather than focussing on memorisation.

Brillio, a digital transformation services and solutions provider, has been running a National STEM programme in collaboration with STEM Learning, a social enterprise dedicated to promoting STEM education among school students.

Since 2019, they have been hosting the National STEM Challenge, a national competition open to students from government and government-aided schools nationwide as part of their CSR initiative, ‘Bringing Smiles’.

What sets this programme apart is the fact that it’s not just a one-time competition, but works throughout the year with students. They achieve this by establishing science and math labs for practical learning and providing science kits to enhance students’ understanding of key concepts.

Igniting curiosity in young minds

Work for the National STEM Challenge begins at the very start of the school year, explains Abhishek Ranjan, Global Head – Sustainability, ESG, Brillio.

“We set up science labs at government/government-aided schools with STEM Learning. Next, we set up a science club under the supervision of the science teacher. We also have Brillio volunteers and STEM Learning staff who visit the schools and teach the children,” Abhishek tells The Better India.

Throughout the year, students participate in various engagement events. They attend weekly sessions led by STEM ambassadors who share their passion for STEM, offer practical tips and ideas, and demonstrate how these subjects can make a difference.

Experts from the four disciplines deliver lectures, highlighting the application of science in their respective careers. Additionally, over 100 Brillio volunteers also engage with students each week through stories and quizzes, and help them build STEM models using Brillio Science DIY kits.

The idea is to foster curiosity, innovation and critical thinking skills among students from classes 6 to 10, adds Abhishek.

Ashutosh Pandit, founder of STEM Learning, says that they want students in government schools to have access to the same resources as private school students so that they too can excel in these fields.

“We work at a grassroots level to enable students to pursue a career in science. Many have a phobia of science due to a lack of conceptual clarity. So we enable teachers to connect with students better through our teaching aids. We help them learn through experiments. Our science labs are innovative and interactive with a hands-on approach to facilitate the learning process,” he says.

STEM learning sets up mini science centres, which consist of 80 plug-and-play science and maths models. Students can understand the concepts through observation. They also set up tinkering labs, which help them develop skills and build solutions.

“Instead of teachers explaining concepts on the blackboard, learning through practical experiments helps students learn better. Science should not be taught on a rote basis, it should be hands-on teaching,” adds Ashutosh.

Building lakhs of future STEM leaders

Once the science labs are set and the concepts are taught over the first six months of the academic year, the cluster-level competitions of the National STEM Challenge begin. This is followed by zonal levels and the finale. The competitions include science and mathematics model competitions, technology and maths quizzes, and engineering tinkering.

The finale, which took place in Pune on 9 September, 2023, according to Brillio, was attended by more than 130 students and 40 teachers from 20 schools across 13 states.

“These students competed in over 70 cluster, zonal, and state-level rounds. The top 50 teams comprising more than 100 students from 13 states ─ Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Assam, Delhi, UP, Haryana, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, MP, Telangana, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nādu ─ made it to the national finale,” says Abhishek.

Over the years, he says, they have reached around 1,50,000 children across over 900 schools.

Yasin Ansari, a teacher at the Netaji Hindi Vidyapith ME School, Bongaigaon, Assam, says that the level of education has improved, thanks to these STEM mini-science centres. “Even during the lockdown, I was able to teach the students online through the material at the science centre. I also used to go teach students at their homes on Sundays through these practical kits,” he adds.

For many of the students and teachers, this was also their first time outside their states and their first flight!

Suchitra K, a student at Government High School, Konappana Agrahara, Karnataka, says, “Participating in the National STEM Challenge has been an incredible journey for me and my friends. It has shown us that no dream is too big when it comes to solving real-world problems. This competition has not only broadened our horizons but also ignited a lifelong passion for innovation and learning. We are deeply grateful to Brillio, STEM Learning, and our mentors for this experience. With the skills and knowledge gained here, we feel ready to take on the world and contribute to the ever-evolving field of science and technology.”

Bridging the government school-private school gap

Brillio hopes to reach 10 lakh students by 2030 and equip them through STEM education.

“Our primary focus is to develop conceptual understanding and help children acquire skills that will prepare them for global careers, as well as life. STEM is the future and most of the careers would be in these fields. We want to equip government school students and bridge the learning gap,” says Abhishek.

Brillio is also running a STEM for Girls programme in which they provide a tablet-based education programme for girls — to work on the gender disparity in STEM careers. “The intake of women in STEM programmes in colleges is low. To help more women join these courses, we are giving them scholarships and tablets. We’ve given this tablet-based education programme to over 200 female students last year,” adds Abhishek.

Brillio also provides scholarships and mentorship to meritorious government school students to pursue coaching for IIT JEE/CET/NEET etc. Around 21 Brillio Leaders mentor the students one-on-one to prepare for the exams.

“We want to bridge the gap between government and private school students. This will enable students to grow up and become self-sustainable, and help them have a better life. Two-thirds of the students in our country study in government schools and must be given the same platform to grow,” he adds.

Two students who received Brillio education scholarships were among the top scorers in the board exams in Karnataka in 2020 and 2021. Brillio also states that their initiatives have led to improved school attendance, active classroom and co-curricular participation, enhanced learning outcomes, digital literacy, and conceptual clarity in grade-specific subjects.

For the students and teachers, it’s a chance at a better tomorrow. “Children are really motivated to learn now. Seeing the achievements of our winners this year, other students in the school are now geared to participate next year. The level of education has gone up significantly,” says Yasin Ansari.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

“I got a job in a factory in Surat and had to leave behind everything including my home and dreams. The job paid me Rs 1,500 from which I would send some money home and use the rest for sustaining myself,” he says.

Nageshu longed to be near home and spent a few more years working at a Hyderabad shopping mall before finally returning to his hometown. In 2011, his brother informed him of a job opening in the Indian Railways, where he landed a job as a porter.

“After years of struggle, when I was able to have a stable job as a porter, I was sure I wanted to help people like me,” he says.

So even while working and supporting his family, Nageshu kept putting money aside for his future. And in 2020, when the pandemic hit, Nageshu was left without a job like most others. It was then that he noticed how most underprivileged children in his neighbourhood were dropping out of school. He decided to use his savings and start a free coaching class for these children.

So far, ‘Nageshu Sir’ has taught hundreds of students from Classes 6 to 12 for free. Currently, he teaches a batch of 70 students in his coaching class.

“A lot of friends and family tell me how this coaching centre is like a well that is draining my resources. They say ‘Bas ab ho gaya’ (you should close the centre now). But then I think of how this would affect the kids and my resolve strengthens. I will keep on going and ensure that no kids are left behind,” he says.

Watch this video to learn more about Nageshu and his mission:

Edited by Pranita Bhat

After lunch again at the mess, Rohan rests till 3:30pm. From then on, he starts studying in three-hour stretches. He takes a tea break at 6:30pm, followed by some revision, and then has his dinner at 8:30pm. From 9pm to midnight, he studies again before going to bed.

Out of 24 hours, Rohan, who is preparing for the NEET-UG entrance to get into a medical college, spends 7 hours in class, 7.5 hours in self-study, and merely 5.5 hours sleeping. The remaining four hours are spent travelling, bathing and eating. He hardly has any time for himself. 

This is the routine followed by most students in Kota. They come to this town in Rajasthan for NEET and JEE coaching, an entrance exam to get into the top engineering colleges in India. Police officials of the city state that almost 60 percent students are from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, with the rest being from Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra. 

Most of these parents go to great lengths to send their children here, which also lays heavily on the minds of these 15-18-year-olds. 

“I come from an agricultural background. I always wanted to be a doctor, but seeing the other students here, who are equally good, many even better, I’m not sure if I’ll even crack the exam. My parents can’t afford a paid seat. I might give the exam next year again if I don’t clear it this time,” says Rohan. 

Does he have any career plan if medicine doesn’t work out? No, he emphasises. 

The reality is that only a few of the roughly 2 lakh students who flock to Kota each year (figures as per Kota police officials), would be able to get into these few top institutes. What happens to the rest of them? Do they have Plan Bs? Do our education systems, parents, teachers equip students to handle failure and teach them that there is a life beyond these courses and colleges. The answer, which today’s statistics show, is a big NO. 

Kota has seen a rising number of suicides in this year alone with more than 25 students having taken their lives. Student suicides have increased across the country too. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data states that 13,089 students died by suicide in 2021. This alarming increase in deaths by suicides has forced the administration in Kota and the Rajasthan government to take action. 

The Better India spoke to a few crusaders who are working towards identifying depression in students and telling them that life is much bigger than just one exam.

‘Have a Plan B’

Every morning, a police team of the special student cell led by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Kota, Chandrasheel Thakur, who was specially called back to the city from Udaipur to handle this team, sets out to visit hostels and PG (paying guest) accommodations in Kota in plain clothes. Thakur was previously in Kota for 8 years, where he worked on many youth outreach programmes. 

With more than two decades of experience, and having kids of the same age or older at home, these male and female officers speak to students daily in an informal setting. They are part of the special student cell established in Kota on 24 June 2023, which has a 24×7 helpline with three numbers. 

From questions like is anything bothering them, do they really want to become an engineer or a doctor or if they able to understand what is being taught in class to other basic questions like do they like the food being served in the mess, these officers establish a rapport with the students to identify if they are at risk or if they are doing okay.

“Our team is working with students, identifying mental health issues, and just offering a listening ear to them. We look for red flags or symptoms of depression when we interact with students. We speak to hostel wardens, mess staff, dabbawalas to understand which students are not eating properly, who is returning their tiffins without finishing. Food is a very important factor for these children. Once we identify these children, we speak one on one and guide them to counsellors in certain cases,” says Thakur.

The cell also has a control room where police personnel are assigned to speak to callers. The ASP states that they receive almost 7 calls everyday from students facing mental health issues. They’ve received over 500 serious calls in less than four months, highlighting how dire the situation is in Kota.

Shashi Prakash Singh, a NEET coaching teacher, is on a sabbatical now to solely focus on counselling students. According to him, these suicides are an indicator of a larger mental health issue amongst students. He adds that the issues he has noticed are born broadly out of a language barrier, financial burden and/or a lack of career counselling.

“I met a girl from rural Bihar who didn’t want to come here but was sent as some relative of hers had cracked the NEET after coaching in Kota. She was bogged down by the financial and familial pressure of it all. Coming from a Hindi-medium school, she didn’t understand anything. She felt awkward in the hostels as most people spoke in English,” says Singh.

When she confided in her parents about her inability to understand what was being taught and expressed her desire to come back, her parents heard none of it. Singh says that her parents told her, “Either clear the NEET or we will marry you off next year.”

The mental burden on girls is much more than boys, according to Singh, who was deeply disturbed by the rising student suicides.

“Boys will be asked to look after the family business, be it a small shop or a farm. Girls are not even given that option. They are asked to clear the entrance or threatened with the punishment of marriage,” adds Singh.

According to him, parents must tell their children that it’s okay to fail, and to let them choose other career options. Telling a barely 15-year-old child that one exam is the do-all of their life leads to catastrophic consequences.

“A child will try and reach out for help about a hundred times before they take that step. We must address this problem as a society and help children battle depression. Everyone from parents, teachers, government bodies must preach that mental health is as important as physical health,” says Singh. 

“When a child tells a parent or teacher that they are not okay, one must address it immediately and talk to them. Just like you take your child to a doctor when they have a fever, take them to a psychologist too when they are low or depressed,” he adds.

‘It’s okay to fail’

The major problems faced by students can be split into three categories — parental expectations, the market of coaching classes and the education system. 

Competitive exams are, at its core, established to find the best candidate. They should not be treated like board exams. Only a few get selected. But what happens to the other children? Do we speak to them about what else they can do? Do we tell them it’s okay to fail?

“The students at Kota are all school toppers, some of the brightest young minds of the country. They are not used to failure. The coaching system here divides them into ranks and offers handsome rewards to the toppers. They use children as a commodity and their parents put all their hopes and pressures on their children. But, what can a child do in this?” asks Thakur.

Without having a capacity or the facility to handle stress, children get flustered. Even adults struggle with managing stress, how will the young kids fare then? Everyone is a competitor and the parents go to great lengths to send their wards to Kota, where the coaching institutes have very high fees. Different reports suggest that the Kota coaching market generates more than Rs 6,000 crores per year. 

Ravi (name changed) came to Kota in June 2023. The 16-year-old’s family owns a small grocery store in Kanpur and his father wanted him to become an engineer as he couldn’t become one. He was raised with the expectations of studying in an IIT and being the harbinger of hope for his family.

He doesn’t have many friends, he says, and finds it difficult to adjust to this 24×7 study environment where relaxation is hard to come by.

“This is my first time away from home, and I’m an introvert. I was a topper in my school, but so is everyone else here. The pressure is a lot. My parents have borrowed money to send me here and I know that they are doing all this to get me into an IIT. But I’m not sure if I’ll get in,” says Ravi.

In the race to the top, mental health is often ignored. That’s why the work of the police student’s cell, counsellors and teachers like Singh is crucial. In fact, it may be life saving.

The student’s cell has reached out to over 80,000 students so far, according to Thakur. They interact with teachers, hostel wardens, PG owners, mess staff and Thakur himself spends many evenings at different hostels.

“We are trying to bring a positive change. Now, students know that they can reach out to us. Hostel wardens and mess staff are the most important link for us. They can observe any small change in a child, and we ask them to report it to us immediately. Even what seems like a small problem, say of food, is resolved immediately. We also ask coaching classes to take extra lessons if a child tells us that he or she is unable to understand a concept,” says Thakur. 

‘Life is bigger than one exam’

Harsh Rajput came to Kota as he wants to get into an IIT. He is one of the ‘droppers’, who make up a huge chunk of students in the city. They drop a year out of college to just focus on clearing the entrance exam. Many students like Harsh attempt the entrance exam, be it NEET or JEE, and if they don’t clear, they come here the next year.

They have classes for even longer hours, and their days stretch for 15 hours of self-study and classes, as they don’t have board exams to concentrate on as well. This crushing routine and pressure to perform leads to a lot of anxiety. 

The most common problems Thakur and his team hear on the ground include, “I’m unable to sleep” or “Main pareshaan hun” (I’m worried or troubled), “I can’t understand anything” and “I don’t feel like studying”. 

“The competition is ruthless, especially in NEET, where there are few seats in government medical colleges. Parents tell their children that we just can’t afford a paid seat, adding to the pressure,” adds Thakur. 

Dr Neena Vijayvargiya, a psychiatrist in Kota, says that parents need to support their children and understand the importance of mental health. “Brain is also a part of the body. Parents have to understand this fact and give issues of the mind that much importance. Parents keep telling their children about the sacrifices they’ve made and the financial burden to send them to Kota, adding to a teenager’s woes,” she says.

Aside from parents, the major issue is with the education system. These stakeholders say that the government must work on modifying the format of competitive exams, making it less rejective.

As for students, they must have a Plan B, urges Thakur.  

“All of us can’t become doctors and engineers. Some of us will be successful, some not. Keep a Plan B ready. It’s better than Plan A in most cases. You’ll flourish, don’t worry. Becoming a doctor or engineer is the means to the goal; it can’t be the goal itself. So make friends, have some hobbies and enjoy your student life,” says Thakur. 

Vijayvargiya says students must learn that failures are common.

“We have to accept that competition is inevitable. Teach your children that it’s okay to fail. Put in your best, work hard, but don’t lose heart if you don’t get what you want,” she says. 

Many great Indians have achieved success after failing to get into the career they wanted. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, an aerospace scientist and India’s former President, wanted to become a fighter pilot, but failed to get through the Indian Air Force by a whisker. He did not give up, and instead, India got a missile man.

Singh concurs, and says that we all went through failures at one point in our lives and that we’ve all overcome them.

“Life is very big. You will feel bad for that moment if you don’t make it into an IIT or medical college. There are 100 more avenues. Explore them. One day, you’ll look back at this and laugh,” he says hopefully.

Edited by Padmashree Pande

These IAS officers share revision techniques that aspirants could adopt.

A typical day for an aspirant: IAS Officer Naveen Kumar Chandra clinched an All India Rank of 490 in the Civil Service Examination (CSE) 2017. He says aspirants should revise at least 15 to 20 days’ worth of current affairs daily, and each day, they must also pick one subject from the general studies paper to revise thoroughly.

Minimum syllabus, maximum revision: IAS Akshita Gupta secured an All India Rank of 69 in UPSC 2020. She scored 299 out of 500 in her optional subject of medical science because of smart revision.

“The revision gap causes a loss of memory. Since the syllabus is vast, one should revise topics frequently so as not to get overwhelmed. I scored well in my optional because I used to revise daily. Smart revision is the ultimate key,” she says.

Akshita suggests jotting down important facts about every topic in a clean thin register. This helps to revise a day before the exam and retain facts about almost every topic.

“When you start your day, revise what you learnt the previous day. It is not time-consuming and also helps you retain knowledge. Keep your syllabus minimum, but revision maximum,” says the IAS officer.

Read-revise-rectify-repeat: IAS Himanshu Gupta who cleared the UPSC thrice, most recently in 2020 with an All India Rank of 139, without resorting to any formal coaching, advises aspirants to read less and revise more.

He says that unless one revises enough times, any sort of preparation for the UPSC CSE is pointless. “Keep your sources fixed and ensure you follow a simple technique of read-revise-rectify-repeat. This will ensure you are well prepared to tackle the examination,” he says.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

So in 2012, he decided to open a school in Nanakmatta village, while he was still pursuing his PhD at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. “My goal was to create an environment where students and teachers collaborate to both learn and un-learn, striving for a better future,” he says.

From 2012 to 2014, Kamlesh would visit Nanakmatta on holidays or by taking leave to work for the school. But when he completed his PhD in 2015, he came to the village for good to nurture his dream of being a teacher and re-design the school in a new way.

“Today, I’m not just a teacher, but also a fellow learner alongside these students,” he says.

Students leading education and community initiatives in rural Uttarakhand

The students of the Nanakmatta Public School in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand have set up more than 20 community centres in different areas of Nanakmatta, with a focus on providing a learning space to students who cannot afford education.

At these centres, students organise book and science fairs, and learn by teaching and managing engagements through games, music, films and books. There are more than 1,000 students in the school. Kamlesh informs that mostly senior students — Classes 9 to 12 — are involved in these projects.

“We aim to provide holistic education to rural and semi-rural children in the context of rural Uttarakhand. This is a ‘student-led’ school where the students learn from each other through a plethora of activities — from making documentaries to running their own magazines and community centres. The school’s flexible curriculum and freedom attract students from various villages and semi-rural areas who enjoy spending time here,” says Kamlesh who is the co-founder and academic coordinator at NPS.

Ayesha, a Class 10 student, is currently running a community library in Dhyanpur village, where she works with around 30 to 40 children every evening.

“We engage in various activities, such as playing games like hide-and-seek and pakdam-pakdai. Additionally, from 4 to 6 pm each day, we read and learn together. During this time, we focus on enhancing our storytelling skills through written words and enjoy book-related games,” she says.

“Furthermore, we engage in role-play games to better grasp the stories within the books. Apart from these activities, we also celebrate festivals like Holi and Raksha Bandhan, where we exchange sweets and enjoy the festivities,” she adds.

Kamlesh notes, “Ayesha is an active worker at the community centre. This has helped transform her own confidence and zeal to learn in her classroom. She is now able to share what is in her mind with confidence. This is the impact of working with the community through this project.”

Ayesha is among the 50 students who have been able to build positive leadership through such responsibilities. These are learnings, notes 37-year-old Kamlesh, that traditional classrooms may not teach you. His students actively participate in daily meetings, formulate plans to run their centres, discuss the challenges and learnings of these responsibilities, and reflect upon their experiences.

Learning beyond the classroom

Kamlesh shares that the idea of the community centre was proposed by education activist and teaching mentor Mahesh Chandra Punetha from Pithoragarh district. Initially, the focus was just to provide books, but this later developed into a space where children of the community could learn from each other.

NPS also provides students with a space to make films by carrying out field research. So far, the school has helped students release two documentaries on their YouTube channel. The first is about Uttarakhand’s Gujjar community, who migrate from one place to another for livelihood. The other is about the lives of fishermen in Nanakmatta. To make such films, the students spend a month with these communities to learn more about their everyday lives.

“The classroom is all about rote learning with many abstract ideas. It doesn’t provide a space where we can implement our ideas into action,” says Mahesh, adding that through documentary filmmaking, students are better connected with their community.

The students also banded to make a film club in the school to screen films using a projector in one of the school’s common rooms for students from different classes every week. This was done with the aim of offering different alternatives to audio-visual platforms and learning academics more effectively through watching films.

The students also work on ‘The Explorer’ — a magazine that they curate through their editorial team. They collect written pieces from students across the school and edit, proofread, and release the work on their own. The magazine consists of student ideas, written work, cartoons, and more.

The students also work on different versions of the magazine. For instance, with the ‘Wall Magazine’, they create a base of cardboard and paste their writings, drawings, and poems on it. They then display this magazine on the assembly wall so that more and more students can read it. They also release digital magazines to share with parents, teachers, and their mentors.

“The initiative of magazines in schools and classrooms is building a writing culture among students. Writing is one of the most necessary practices every student should be familiar with. After getting inspiration from senior students, junior classes also released their wall magazines with the help of their teachers. In this initiative, students are not only building their writing skills but learning from each other’s writing,” says Kamlesh.

NPS’s initiatives work to encourage students to contextualise learning in their local surroundings. Kamlesh notes that the school identified that children are often oblivious to the things happening around them and that studying only within classroom settings without context or reference makes learning more abstract.

This is one of the key reasons why they work on documenting stories of the people around them, focussing on their traditional art and craft, challenges, social issues, and customs. 

NPS collaborates with the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) to teach students reporting, data analysing, and ground research.

“This project is helping students to know more about the stories around them and learn from the ordinary people of day-to-day life. It helps senior students to get examples from their surroundings about what they are learning in the classroom. Ultimately, it is strengthening academic learning and helping to connect bookish concepts with the stories to get a better perspective of the particular topic,” says Gurpreet Kaur (16), a Class 12 student.

Shaping confident learners for a better future

“All these activities are part of the school curriculum, and students are marked as per the progress of their work. These projects’ impact is more visible than traditional school learning among the students. Through these projects in the school system, students are more confident to share their views and opinions,” shares Chandra Sekhar Atwal, the principal of the school who is also Kamlesh’s younger brother.

The students are encouraged to share their learnings on platforms such as Teach for India, Kids Education Revolution, and more.

For Kamlesh, providing students with opportunities to connect with others working in the field of education is important. He says, “It is important to collaborate with diverse organisations and like-minded peoples to get a new perspective and a vision to look at the model of education in various ways. It helps to shape our understanding of the world around us. They also provide some reflection about how we can make our institution more effective and student-centric.”

For instance, Mahesh mentors the students, particularly in language, grammar, and writing; cinema activist Sanjay Joshi provides new insights and ideas on film and cinema; and Ashutosh Upadhyay, an education activist working at Bal Vigyan Khojshala, Haldwani, organises workshops on science. Meanwhile, documentary filmmaker Fathima Nizaruddin advises students on their own ideas pertaining to filmmaking.

Kamlesh says, “Schools are often part of a social structure and order, and it is effortless to run a system with a monopoly of teachers. But alternative learning needs a lot of trained teachers, who really want to work with students. Today’s traditional education curriculum doesn’t allow students to be involved in activities not related to course books.”

He also says that it’s not just that he’s teaching students — he’s also learning from them. He says, “I’m learning to be a student who is open to new opportunities, values questioning to find answers through teaching, and gains valuable insights from working with students, enabling me to better understand their learning needs.”

Several students from NPS have gone on to get admission to the likes of Ashoka University, FLAME, Delhi University, Azim Premji University, and more.

Kamlesh says, “I don’t know what will be the position of students from NPS in the future, but I know they will never dominate marginalised communities and always help those in need.”

Authored by: Prakash Chand, a Class 12 Humanities student from Nanakmatta Public School, Uttarakhand.

(Edited by Pranita Bhat;  All pictures courtesy: Nanakmatta Public School Administration)

But things started to change when his older brother left school and picked up odd jobs to support the family. “My parents were day wagers and we always had financial problems. However, the problems had gotten worse, and my parents told me that they could no longer afford my education,” recalls Nageshu in a conversation with The Better India.

A passionate reader, Nageshu was heartbroken and determined to change his fate. He made it his mission to prevent anyone from abandoning education because of poverty.

Today, a coolie (porter) by night and a teacher by day, he is doing precisely that. He runs a free coaching class where he teaches students from Classes 6 to 12 for free. “When I started, I had only 10 students with me. However, today the centre has more than 70 students with four teachers, two of which are volunteers and do not charge anything,” he shares.

‘Did not give up on my dreams’

Born and raised in a poverty-ridden family in Odisha’s Ganjam district, Nageshu started to pick up odd jobs when he was only 16.

“I wanted to go to a coaching class so that I could score well in my Class 10 exams. When I went to my parents with this request, I found out that they could not afford to pay even for my school anymore. So coaching was quite out of the question,” he recalls.

“I asked my brother for help but he refused too. I decided to follow in his footsteps and work. I had a plan to save and restart my education soon,” he adds. But unaware of how hard finding work can be, Nageshu says, at that time, he was sure he would earn enough to get back to school soon.

But he soon came to terms with the reality of his situation. “I got a job in a factory in Surat and had to leave behind everything including my home and dreams. The job paid me Rs 1,500 from which I would send some money home and use the rest for sustaining myself,” he says.

Nageshu longed to be near home and spent a few more years working at a Hyderabad shopping mall before finally going back. “I left home in 2006 and returned in 2011 when my brother told me of an opening in the Indian railways,” he recalls.

The opening was for a coolie (porter). “I cleared the medical and physical tests and got the job. I was delighted because this meant I would be close to home and that I would also be earning more money,” he says.

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Soon, he talked to his brother about his education. “I was already a little too late to complete my school but I wanted to nonetheless. I told my brother about it and he was shocked. He appreciated me for not letting go of my dreams and encouraged me to restart my education,” he says.

“I used to work as a coolie during the night and study during the day,” he shares.

Nageshu currently holds a graduation and post-graduation degree with a specialisation in Odia language. “I paid for my own education and was even able to pitch in to help my family,” he says with pride.

‘Will ensure no kid is left behind’

“After years of struggle, when I was able to have a stable job as a porter, I was sure I wanted to help people like me,” he says.

So even while working and supporting his family, Nageshu kept putting money aside for his future. “It was in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and our lives were disrupted completely. Since there were no passengers, I was out of my job,” he says.

While Nageshu could depend on his savings for a while, he noticed how most underprivileged children in his neighbourhood were dropping out of school. “The main reason they were leaving school was because the online system was not working in most government schools. I could not bear to see these children waste away crucial years of their life like I had in my childhood,” he says.

So he decided to use his savings and start a coaching class. “It was not planned or well-thought-out. I just told the kids in my neighbourhood to come to my home and I will teach them,” he says. “I never charged the kids a penny and taught them well as it was my passion. Soon word spread and my house was full of eager children.”

So far, Nageshu has taught hundreds of kids and has a batch of 70 currently studying in his coaching class for free. “I use the money I earn from my job as a coolie and what I get from giving guest lectures at a private university in Ganjam district to fund my coaching class. I have hired four teachers out of which two are volunteers,” he informs.

A Class 12 student, Rohan, says, “I have been studying with Nageshu sir for many years. I come from an underprivileged background and his coaching centre has been very helpful. It is hard enough for my parents to pay school fees; affording coaching fees would have been really difficult.”

He informs that his favourite subject is history and he wishes to graduate just like his beloved “Nageshu sir”.

Nageshu recently also got a job as a school teacher in a private school. Equipped with new responsibilities, he is finding his days running shorter. However, he does not have any plans to stop his coaching classes.

“A lot of friends and family tell me how this coaching centre is like a well that is draining my resources. They say ‘Bas ab ho gaya’ (you should close the centre now). But then I think of how this would affect the kids and my resolve strengthens. I will keep on going and will ensure that no kids are left behind,” says Nageshu.

If you like Nageshu’s work and wish to help him or volunteer at the centre, you can reach him at  94390 08509.

(Edited by Pranita Bhat)

Over 25 years of working in the field of inclusive education have made Sonali Saini privy to a glaring problem — it’s not that India lacks inclusive policies and frameworks. The issue is that there is a massive struggle when it comes to implementation.

She notes, “There’s a lot of talk on inclusion, but how do we make inclusive schools?” 

Without inclusivity and subsequently good learning opportunities, India faces a grave problem when it comes to early childhood care and development. In fact, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 highlights that over five crore children currently in elementary school have not attained foundational literacy and numeracy. The current educational system is such, it adds, that once a student falls behind on this foundational learning, they tend to maintain a flat learning curve for years, perpetually unable to catch up.

For the last two decades, Sonali and her organisation Sol’s ARC have worked to understand this problem in depth. In 2003, she founded the non-profit to build inclusive education and livelihood solutions that use innovative tools to encourage better learning and life outcomes. They aim to make these solutions scalable, so they may be deployed through partnerships with stakeholders like other NGOs, the government, and so on.

“The journey has been about [figuring out] what an inclusive school looks like in a country like India, which doesn’t have very high resources, where even [procuring] crayons, chairs, tables is a big challenge,” Sonali explains in conversation with The Better India, adding that they have impacted four million children and young adults with their work.

A ‘lifespan approach’

What has been notable about Sol’s ARC’s work is its collaboration with state governments in Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh to improve foundational literacy and inclusive education. These interventions serve as examples of how the reach and implementation of existing policies can be widened to impact lakhs of children.

In Madhya Pradesh, there is Project Ankur, which focuses on building Foundational Literacy (English)  and Numeracy (Math) through an inclusive curriculum for teachers and students from Class 1 to Class 3. This has been done in collaboration with the Rajya Shiksha Kendra, the key department working towards the state FLN programme. 

Sol’s ARC analyses that non-inclusive pedagogy, non-conceptual FLN frameworks, and low teacher capacities are some of the key reasons why India’s most vulnerable children are not learning as they should. Sonali notes, “When you look at [high-income] countries, their solutions were very high cost — assistive technology, accessible content…that may not be possible in a country like ours, which has low digital penetration. Moreover, the teacher ratio and the special educator ratios are abysmal,” she adds. Government data suggests that the teacher ratio has fallen from 43 in 2010-11 to 26.3 in 2020- 21.

Sol’s ARC, she says, focuses more on education outcomes, with the aim to subsequently increase livelihood opportunities. “We work on a lifespan approach because only working on education may not be sufficient. Even when we complete education, if the children are still sitting at home, then there’s no point. So to improve life outcomes, we include that under our focus for age groups from 5-39.”

Multiple children, multiple ways to learn

Under Project Ankur, the organisation has taken on a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach to teaching and learning, which “gives all students equal opportunities to succeed”.

UDL is a framework that emphasises flexible learning environments that accommodate individual learning differences. “It basically says ‘Teach in multiple ways, allow the child to respond in multiple ways’…the teaching-learning material should have multiple modalities,” explains Sonali.

This aims to bring flexibility in these arenas so they can be adjusted as per an individual learner’s strengths and needs. They say this is a low-tech, low-cost approach that is suitable for low-resource classrooms in India. The resources to teach include a wide variety of adaptable methods.

For instance, to teach subtraction, a teacher may use blocks, number lines, adapted worksheets, and flash cards. “Now you’ve exposed the child to all learning methods and it’s up to the child which way they want to carry forward,” Sonali explains. “You will also have multiple ways of assessment. This way, you’re allowing different children with different abilities to answer the same question in their own way.”

So if a child is non-verbal, the schools are not relying on oral examinations alone. Instead, the child can respond by pointing at the right answer or writing it down. If the child has challenges in reading, then the child may receive assistance in the form of a reader. “Instructions are broken down, turned into visuals…then all children benefit with these interventions,” she points out.

The programme also addressed the challenge of multi-grade classrooms by breaking the curriculum down. These types of learning environments can be challenging owing to monograde teaching material, low availability of teachers, rigid timetables, and so on.

The organisation estimates that approximately 78% of primary schools in India have three or fewer teachers for all grade levels. “So we made multi-grade plans, wherein we say here are your common activities, here’s what you will do separately, and that way we address the challenges faced by teachers.”

Edited by Pranita Bhat; All pictures courtesy: EkStep Foundation

“So, the ship should sink, right?” Srishti persisted.

A valid doubt thought Sonali.

Fortunately for Srishti, her mother had all the answers. With a PhD in physics from IIT Delhi and 12 years of brainstorming on photonics with some of the best minds in science, Dr Sonali Dasgupta was equipped with the expertise to answer all the eight-year-old’s innocent doubts. And this time was no different.

The little girl watched with bated breath as her mother conjured yet another experiment. This was usual in the Dasgupta household.

A concept that was a bullet point in the textbook came to life as Sonali fetched some aluminium foil from the kitchen, and bent it into a hollow boat-like shape which she then placed in a bucket of water. It floated!

Sonali then proceeded to explain the deep-rooted science behind this simple phenomenon. While Srishti would learn the concept of buoyancy years later in Class 9, an early introduction to it would ensure she did not rote learn things but rather, understood them.

Where innovation is always a guest at the table

Sharing this anecdote with The Better India gets Sonali reminiscent of all the times she and Srishti have bonded over experiments. The lockdown was one of the most important phases.

“It was a pivotal point in my life in many ways,” shares Sonali. Not only did the Bengaluru mother launch her hands-on learning ecosystem STEMonsters during the second wave of the pandemic in 2021, but it was also the time she made a conscious decision to return to India from the UK where she was currently working.

“It was a professional call,” she says.

In hindsight, Sonali says it shaped many of her decisions positively. Her role as a scientist from 2007 to 2019 provided her with the scientific acumen she now fuses into every session at STEMonsters.

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When Srishti was younger, Sonali would often get model samples from the lab or take her daughter to work. The lockdown cut off these avenues of learning. So, instead, Sonali brought the lab to their home to instil a sense of curiosity in her child, one that she herself had harnessed all these years.

While the world was “stuck” amidst the pandemic, this duo ensured the learning never stopped. A routine day witnessed them breathing life into different concepts, where “learning by doing” was the mantra.

“We learnt about the different properties of water, and I showed Srishti how absorbent materials differ from non-absorbent ones. I got her thinking about why a TV screen is black and not white, and why a phone does not get a signal when placed in the microwave,” she informs.

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This probing often enthused Srishti to keep learning and to fall in love with science along the way. As the lockdown progressed, Sonali’s videos on WhatsApp stories became more popular, and she was flooded with requests from friends and family to include their kids in the fun.

The parents’ interest confirmed Sonali’s thoughts on how the traditional teaching techniques in schools needed an upgrade. “Often academics in Indian schools do not think beyond definitions. While working in some of the best labs in the world, I was exposed to different approaches and watched how kids were introduced to science. I strongly believe our curriculum is one of the best, but it needs an overhaul in the way we introduce it to children.”

Sonali’s venture STEMonsters attempts to bridge these gaps in the system. It steps in to delineate crucial concepts in science and mathematics while inculcating the slowly fading away sense of wonder that these topics would usually bring in.

Studying happens at school; learning happens at STEMonsters

“Have you observed how your cocktail at a restaurant is layered with different colours?” Sonali asks me. I answer affirmatively, excited to be let in on some science magic.

“That’s another place where density plays a role,” she carries on. “Srishti and I took a glass bottle and poured liquids like soya sauce, coloured water, raspberry sauce, mustard sauce, etc. in one by one. We got a Rainbow Density Tower.” I am not surprised by Srishti’s enthusiasm for science. Just hearing these concepts explained in relatable ways amazes me.

“This lesson can then be expanded to touch upon how liquids take the shape of the container,” Sonali adds. “You see how everything is interdisciplinary and how so many concepts can be introduced to kids without overwhelming them.”

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At the STEMonsters office in Bengaluru, experiments are being made as we speak. These will be used to demonstrate concepts to kids ages 8 to 14. The continuous learning programme enables these children to come together on Zoom where they explore the nuances of science and maths. Classes 3 and 4 are grouped together, as are Classes 5 and 6, while Classes 7, 8 and 9 are in a third batch.

“This ensures they are not only learning from me but also from each other,” Sonali smiles. Ishani, a student of Class 6, agrees. Her personal favourite topic to date is forensics. She adds that she wants to learn more about it as it helps solve mysterious cases. Aryan Kejriwal from Class 5 meanwhile loved the lesson on the solar system. “We made origami stars and it was so much fun,” he shares.

Aryan’s excitement is shared by his mother Aanchal who says her son looks forward to every class. “He is so curious to understand so many things, and maths and science are definitely his favourite subjects now.”

A regular session involves work. Lessons are planned well in advance and kids are informed of the material required for the session. It commences with an experiment following which questions are asked, answered, doubts cleared, and voila! The concept of the day is now revealed.

One Class 7 student Sooktha Shastry loves this hands-on mode of learning. “My favourite topic was space and my favourite experiment was the one with the James Webb telescope,” she says. Sooktha is referring to the origami model that they created in one of the sessions following a NASA tutorial.

She is one among the “1300 students” who have been mentored by Sonali. “We see students from pan India and even Hong Kong and Singapore in attendance,” notes Sonali adding that the cost for 12 sessions is Rs 6,200.

In the time when she isn’t busy conducting these online classes, she takes offline workshops at schools. As the Bengaluru mother sees her own wide-eyed curiosity — which she once harboured as a child — now reflected in these young minds, she feels elated.

“The circle is complete,” says Sonali.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

Today, Nellayapan B has become a teacher through hard work and focus. He has achieved the position of Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the Chief Minister of Nagaland and is also the deputy director of school education in the state.

In college life, Nellayapan had a busy schedule. He woke up at 4 am to help his parents at their snack/tea shop. After returning from college, he worked at the shop till 11 pm.

Originally from a small village in the southernmost part of India, he moved to the Northeastern state in search of a better life for his family. And he succeeded in his goals. Today, he lives in a 2,000-square-foot, four-bedroom house. He also supported his three younger siblings’ education and marriage, making his parents’ lives comfortable. He credits all his achievements to his education.

“My father made sure that he gave all of us a good education. He went to great lengths to educate us and managed to pay all our fees by borrowing money and mortgaging jewellery. Three of my siblings are postgraduates and one has completed her doctorate. All of us are in good positions thanks to my father’s insistence on getting us educated,” says Nellayapan to The Better India.

From humble beginnings to deputy director

In 1990, Nellayapan had just completed an MSc in physics. His older sister was getting married, for which his parents, who ran a tea/snack stall, had to borrow money from others.

“I remember the time before my sister’s wedding. People refused to lend money. My parents managed the required money with great difficulty. Till the last minute, the moneylenders kept us hanging. I felt so insulted. That’s when I resolved to achieve something big in life, so my parents would never have to face such a situation again,” says the 55-year-old.

Nellayapan’s college senior, who was working in Nagaland, apprised him about the opportunities there. And the then 23-year-old left for Nagaland with Rs 2,000 in his pocket and big dreams in his eyes.

“It took me four days to reach Nagaland. My parents couldn’t afford the train ticket. My mother had to pawn her last piece of jewellery — her nose ring — which got us Rs 2,000. I remember the bank manager’s expression when he saw the nose ring, knowing we had no other choice. I felt helpless,” he recalls adding that the amount helped him with food and lodging for a few days.

In 1991, he started his career as a private school teacher in Nagaland with a salary of Rs 1,000 per month. He shares that this money wasn’t enough to cover his expenses as he sent some money back home too. “I had to pay Rs 700 per month for electricity and rent. How could I survive on just Rs 300?” he adds.

“I started taking tuition for school students to supplement my income. I used to tutor from 6 am to 10 am, then attend school until 4 pm, and return to tutor again until 6 pm. That’s how I managed for the first six years in private service,” explains the teacher.

This was also the time when Nagaland was facing insurgency issues. But the teacher didn’t let that hinder his progress.

In 1996, Nellayapan got a job as a postgraduate teacher in physics at the Government Higher Secondary School in Dimapur. In 1999, he got married and remembers how they then put an asbestos roof on their house. “The burden of responsibility is often a blessing. I had to move up,” he shares.

Later, he went on to become the school principal in 2012 and continued working there till 2017. Then, in 2018, he was appointed as the assistant director at the Directorate of School Education in Nagaland, and in 2022, he was promoted to the role of deputy director.

A trailblazer in education

When COVID hit the nation, Nagaland was one of the first states to embrace online education and was even recognised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Education (OECD).

In April 2020, the Directorate of School Education rolled out a tele/online education programme through which education was offered through TV (Doordarshan, Kohima) and radio (All India Radio, Kohima). In May 2020, they also offered educational content through a YouTube channel. This programme was led by C Shanavas — principal director of school education — and supported by Nellayapan.

Heartiest congratulations to the awardees of Governor's Gold Medal and Governor's Commendation Certificate on the occasion of #74th_IndependenceDay. pic.twitter.com/qdEbUZl7OP

— Neiphiu Rio (@Neiphiu_Rio) August 15, 2020

“Many hilly areas in the state face network issues. So we ironed out a plan that would reach every student, irrespective of network. We were also the first state to conduct online exams for students from Classes 5–12,” says Nellayapan, who was awarded the Governor’s commendation certificate for his efforts.

Working with IAS officers like Shanavas was also a big motivation for Nellayapan. “I have had the privilege of working with many IAS officers. They are an inspiration for me and I wish to work like them,” adds the physics teacher.

Recognising his work and efforts towards improving education in the state, Nellayapan was made the OSD to Chief Minister, Nagaland in April 2023.

The road to here has not been an easy one for him, he shares. He has had to stay away from his family for more than three decades. He credits his wife for being a big reason for his success. “My wife is my rock. She supported me since the day we got married. She also helped my younger sister get married. Today, my wife is a successful executive in the private sector,” adds Nellayapan.

In 2006, his wife and children moved to Trivandrum because of his wife’s job. He proudly mentions that his son is now a doctor, and his daughter is in Class 11.

Reminiscing the past, he adds, “I used to concentrate only on work because I had a lot of responsibility when I came here. I had to ensure that my siblings studied well and my parents didn’t have to borrow money. Poverty and responsibility guided me on the right path,” he adds.

Nellayapan has a message to all young people: “There is no substitute for hard work. You might get the reward late, but keep at it. Hustle for a better tomorrow with focus. You will be rewarded for your efforts. Just work hard and don’t let your mind get diverted.”

Back in the day, many people helped his father with the loans. Even though his parents don’t require his assistance now, this government officer is a strong believer in karma. Today, he supports six students in their education. “God has blessed me; I have to pass on the help to those who need it,” he says. 

Edited by Pranita Bhat

Sources

OECD

“I became a government school teacher when I was 19. I didn’t even do my graduation then as I wanted to start teaching as soon as I could. All I did was complete the teachers’ training programme and appear for its qualifying exam,” Archana tells The Better India.

On 5 September 2023, she received the National Teachers Award from President Droupadi Murmu at the Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. These awards are conferred by the Ministry of Education to the finest school teachers in the country who have improved the quality of education and brought about change in the lives of their students. This award was the culmination of her hard work and dedication towards the teaching profession.

The 42-year-old headmistress first started as a primary school class teacher here in Telangana. From a non-descript centre of learning with just a few students, this educator has transformed the school into a mecca of learning, offering holistic growth through a variety of extra-curricular activities. 

The seeds of change were sown in Archana’s mind at home. She saw her grandfather, a teacher, serve students. “My grandfather would teach a lot of tribal students. He used to teach them at our house and helped them in their higher studies. I aspired to be like him and help students,” adds the teacher.

Where it all began

Rebbenapally, where the school is located, faces a lot of challenges in terms of infrastructure, access to education, and healthcare to name a few. When Archana joined the school in November 2000, it had just 34 students. 

Hailing from Mancherial district, she was acquainted with the troubles faced by the locals and why they weren’t sending their children to the school. She wanted to use the transformative power of education to help these students attend school daily.

“There are a few tribal hamlets in this village. The occupation of the residents is to collect raw materials from the forest. There are no transport facilities to these hamlets as they don’t even have a pucca road. When I joined, my first mission was to ensure that these children come to school,” says Archana to The Better India.

Archana embarked on a mission to get those children to school. She started visiting those tribal hamlets and spoke to the parents. 

“They don’t have proper houses or even clothes to wear. They were not aware of the school as no one from there was enrolled. I visited them daily for 15 days to convince them. I told them how essential education is and how it can help their children lead a better life,” adds Archana.

She exalted the benefits of education and the change it enables.

“I would show them videos of people who came from similar backgrounds and are in a good position today. Through education, they were able to transform their lives. I urged these parents to give their children the same opportunity to progress,” she adds. 

Many Problems Laced The Journey to Success

Archana was able to convince the parents and the children soon started coming to school. However, she soon started seeing students drop out. On enquiry, she realised that transportation was a major challenge. How would these children come to the school which was over 5 km away with just a kaccha road leading to it?

To solve this problem, Archana arranged an auto to pick up and drop off the students daily, at her own expense. Through her tireless efforts to ensure that the tribal students in the village are educated, she has increased the strength to 275 students today, with 103 being girls.

Apart from this, she also worked on developing the school infrastructure. For this, she enlisted the help of a former student of her school, Rajendra Prasad, who now lives abroad. NGOs like Bring a Smile Foundation, Padmavati Charitable Trust and local politicians also joined hands to support her. 

She was able to procure a borewell, purified water plant, furniture, and most importantly, built a beautiful library with 1000 books, through their help.

“Rajendra has helped tremendously in the growth of the school. He is the person through whom we got most of the donations. The Washington Telangana Association (WATA) helped us get 40 benches for the school because of his efforts. A local MLA installed the borewell and an RO plant in the school,” she adds. 

To make learning more fun, through digital technology and the central government’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) initiative, she procured five computers, two LED projectors and two additional classrooms. 

The ICT Information and Communication Technology School Scheme was launched in December 2004 to provide opportunities to secondary stage students to mainly build their capacity on ICT skills and make them learn through the computer-aided learning process. She proudly states that her students are now able to use computers proficiently.

“We are living in an era of globalisation. To be a global citizen, digital education is a must. I want my students to know how to operate computers well and therefore, am exposing them to the technology at the grassroots level,” adds the headmistress.

Giving holistic education a must for this school

Smt. Archana Nooguri, a National Awardee Teacher 2023 from Telangana, works on improving enrolment rates & reducing dropouts. She develops low-cost teaching-learning material. She involved the community in setting up water purification plant, library etc.#OurTeachersOurPrerna… pic.twitter.com/eU7InH6xFN

— Ministry of Education (@EduMinOfIndia) September 5, 2023

With more than 100 girl students, Archana wanted them to learn self-defence. She arranged for karate classes twice a week through a private instructor.

“Just having bookish knowledge is not enough. I want the students to excel in all aspects of life. Sports should play an important role in student’s lives. I arranged for a karate and dance class for students. The students have excelled in karate competitions at both state and national levels and one student even secured admission at a sports school in Hyderabad,” she adds. 

At the parents’ request, Archana also introduced English as the medium of education at the school in 2016. She says that this is the first English medium government primary school in their district. 

“Many parents were starting to enrol their children in private English schools. They wanted their wards to get educated in that language. So, we reached out to the government and got approval to start teaching in the medium then. This helped improve our enrollment numbers tremendously,” adds the educator.

Girija, a parent whose daughter is a first-generation student in the same district, feels that English is a must to succeed in life.

“After school, everyone has to study further in English. They have to attempt entrance exams in English. They also need to know the language to work anywhere and be equal to students who come from more privileged backgrounds. We don’t want our children to lose out on any opportunity just because they don’t know English. It opens doors to a better future,” adds Girija.

While the government provides two teachers, Archana has enlisted the services of four private teachers. She says that she pays salaries for two of them with the help of the NGOs and two from her own pocket. She spends more than Rs 20,000 from her own pocket for this, the transportation of students and extra classes.

“I know the importance of education, it is the only tool supporting me in life. The only way ahead for these students is education. I want every student to earn a good livelihood,” she adds.

Marking a Proud Legacy 

Many of her students are today engineers, working in the private sector, and one is even in the army, she states with pride. 

She also mentors teachers and helps them to embrace innovative pedagogical approaches and stay abreast of the latest advancements. She has published two papers in international journals, based on her learnings as a teacher in Mancherial 2017 and 2018. She has also authored a book called ‘Transforming India by means of National Education Policy 2020’.

The teacher is continuing her education today by pursuing a PhD in the ‘Role of education played for the socio-cultural, political and economic development of women’ from Shridhar University, Pilani, Rajasthan.

“As I was not able to finish my graduation as I started teaching at 19, I wanted to complete it. I have always been a curious person, wanting to learn new things. If I don’t keep updating and educating myself, how can I teach my children? To update my knowledge, I finished my graduation and am pursuing this PhD now,” she adds.

Meanwhile, she wants to open a school for orphans post her retirement. 

“My father was so happy when I received this award. I want the parents of my students to feel the same happiness and pride in their children. That’s what I’m working tirelessly towards. Education is the only means to a better tomorrow,” says Archana. 

Edited by Padmashree Pande

Between 2010 and 2015, Siddhant Jain and Vibhav Sinha attended IIT Delhi. During this period, before the rise of OTT (over-the-top media service), many students resorted to watching pirated movies and downloading pirated books and courses. Their awareness about the impact of piracy grew when they saw a close friend affected by it.

“My roommate Satish used to teach chemistry to Class 11 and 12 students in Mathura and Delhi every weekend for a year. When online coaching became popular, he thought of transitioning his classes online. However, he was concerned about sharing his carefully crafted notes online, fearing that his content might be leaked and distributed,” says Siddhant to The Better India.

Satish’s quandary led the two friends to realise the gravity of the situation.

“We noticed that online video piracy was adversely affecting teachers like Satish when they tried to upload good content online. Many individuals would download these class videos and distribute them on platforms like Telegram, YouTube or WhatsApp, reaching a large audience. This situation resulted in genuine teachers losing the opportunity to enrol new students and losing income as a consequence,” adds Siddhant.

Video piracy doesn’t just harm movie and show producers; it also impacts teachers and creators of educational content. Ultimately if teachers do not put their best content out on the internet, it is a loss to the student community as well. According to a 2022 report by Ankura Piracy Statistics, India ranks as the third-largest contributor to visits to content piracy websites, following the US and Russia, with over seven billion visits.

In 2014, while they were still students, these two engineers embarked on a mission to solve this issue using their video encryption technology.

Providing security against online piracy

With a keen interest in encryption and software, Vibhav decided to combine encryption with cloud-based video players. Siddhant joined him to test the product and help with the sales. They first piloted their prototype with a finance-based e-learning platform, and after some tweaks, launched VdoCipher in September 2014.

VdoCipher provides highly secure DRM (Digital Rights Management) encryption — a security that protects videos from unauthorised access — and user-based watermarking. This is combined with a smart customisable video player to ensure that videos are not illegally downloaded, and that viewers have a great playback experience.

“We provide security through DRM encryption and watermarking. Basically, any customer, be it a teacher or an ed-tech platform, is provided with a video dashboard. They upload the content to that dashboard where it is encrypted, ensuring access only to authorised users,” says Siddhant, CEO, VdoCipher.

He continues, “On mobile phones, we can prevent screen capture also. Since this can’t be prevented on computers in all cases, we provide user-based watermarking to discourage sharing. If they choose to share the screenshot, their name/user ID will appear on the image; it also helps us trace them.”

The engineer duo claim to offer ‘Hollywood grade security’ as they use the same technology used by Netflix and other large streaming services. Their USP is also their ability to provide this anti-piracy technology to everyone — from a small teacher taking an online class to large ed-tech companies.

“We use Google DRM encryption and Apple DRM encryption, which provide very high security. They are the tools used by Netflix, Hollywood and Bollywood movies. We were the first company in India to provide such a high level of security technology in an easy-to-use way, notes Siddhant.

“This tech was not available to e-learning platforms as it was difficult to integrate. We have made it easy and accessible,” he shares.

A government exam preparation course platform (UPSC and others) with over 10,000 online students and 17 centres across the country adds that their videos were getting leaked as the streaming platform was not secure. In 2019, they started using VdoCipher’s service and saw a marked difference, with more teachers trusting them. “Partnering with VdoCipher stopped video sharing and helped us in brand building too. Teachers also developed confidence in our brand,” says a spokesperson of the platform.

Besides security, VdoCipher also provides smooth streaming for slow internet connections, which helps premium content reach students in Tier II and III cities. VdoCipher also enables offline playback on mobiles and a bunch of interactive player features to ensure the best student experience.

“Our goal is to ensure that students from any remote areas in our country should get access to premium video content. Poor network connectivity should not be a hindrance in accessing quality education,” he adds.

VdoCipher uses a usage-based pricing model where customers pay based on how much data their students or viewers use. The duo claims to have over 3,000 paying customers across 100 countries, streaming over seven million hours of content on a monthly basis. They say that as COVID led to a boom in the ed-tech space, the need for content security is also booming.

“We have also seen a substantial increase in student footfall. This security has helped us do justice to serious students, teachers and other business stakeholders who were putting efforts in terms of time and money,” adds the customer.

Helping teachers protect their content

Over the past seven years, the journey for these 30-year-old entrepreneurs has been filled with challenges. The field of security technology constantly evolves, requiring regular software updates.

“We have had three updates just in the last five years, which required us to change our software each time. Earlier, we were providing our software through a flash player. When this feature was removed from browsers, we had to completely shift our technology, which took a lot of time and effort,” informs Siddhant.

They faced hiccups in securing their initial funding as this space was relatively new in India. “But now”, they say, “there is no looking back!” Currently, the engineers are assisting educators not just in India but also in other regions like Africa.

A physics teacher from Tunisia, Africa, who launched Tunisia’s first online course platform, is among their customers. Siddhant explains that when the teacher started using VdoCipher eight years ago, he had 200 students. Today, he has over four lakh students and over 450 teachers.

Their friend Satish, who inspired VdoCipher, is now a customer himself teaching chemistry through his coaching classes to students in Haryana.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

Sources

Ankura report

Located in the lush green area of Pamohi locality in the state, the school does not want its pupils to compensate them with money. Instead, they only accept plastic in the form of fees! 

Founded by Parmita Sarma and Mazin Mukhtar in 2016, in the heart of Assam’s verdant paradise, this school has successfully turned education into an adventure, and fees into a pledge for a brighter, more sustainable future. 

“We wanted to make the coming generation from underprivileged sections break the circle of poverty and be environmentally sensitive. Education is the only way these goals can be achieved,” Parmita Sarma, the founder of Akshar School, tells The Better India. 

The couple has collected and recycled about 1,200 bottles and 6,43,600 plastic wrappers so far from the school kids. Additionally, the school follows a unique style of education where they place the students in grades as per their academic aptitude and not their age as is done in traditional schools. 

Making education accessible to all 

Born in Mumbai, Parmita was mostly raised in Guwahati, Assam. “From a very young age, I had an inclination towards doing things for others. My family was very politically aware, which further pushed me to the path of social work,” she says. 

“After completing my master’s in social work, I decided to work in the field of education as I believe that education is an integral part of the process of breaking the cycle of poverty. I wanted to set up a free school,” she adds. 

It was in 2013 when Parmita was in Lakhimpur to work for Bhupen Hazarika, Assam’s legendary singer and social worker, when she met Mazin. “Through our conversations at Bhupun Hazarika’s school, we realised how we both wanted to open a school that helps underprivileged children get access to quality education,” she says. 

This laid the seeds for the foundation of Akshar School. “At that time, we could not afford to purchase land and build a school from scratch. It was my mother who donated the land and some funds to start the school,” she says. 

The school today is located in Pamohi and offers free education to its students. “We started with just 10 students as the villagers did not want their kids to study. Instead, they wanted them to work. It took us a lot of convincing to get even those ten kids to school,” she recalls. 

Today the school is flooded with 150 children. How did they achieve that? Well, they came up with an interesting solution. While designing various curriculums, the couple spoke to some students and found out something that became the foundation for their unique idea. 

“The children told us that they burn plastic bags and bottles during winter to keep themselves warm. This was alarming and we decided that this needs to end,” she says. 

This is when the idea of collecting plastic came to the couple. 

“We asked all our kids to collect plastic all week and bring at least 25 pieces of plastic by the end of the week. Initially, no one took us seriously. When we told them that this was their fee, the students slowly started bringing plastic every Friday,” she says. 

Along with this, the founders came up with another path breaking solution to help the unemployment situation of the locality. “We noticed that many children started to skip school to do daily wage work. We decided to employ these kids in the school and pay them so that they would attend school,” Parmita explains. 

She continues, “As the students upgrade to a higher class, we employ the suitable ones to teach the lower classes under supervision. For this service, we pay them. This way, our kids have the motivation to study well and become ‘student teachers’ and earn pocket money as well,” she says. 

This model helped them gain more attendance. “By the end of 2016, we had around 200 students waiting to get admission in the school,” she says.  

While the model worked well for the school, Parmita observed that parents were taking money from their children’s earnings for personal expenses, including buying liquor. To address this issue, the school decided to replace cash with points.

Each point, for example, 50 points represent Rs 50, ensuring that the funds are spent solely on the child’s needs. The school also partnered with local shops selling sweets and garments to allow students to use their points there. The school management then settles the bills on their behalf in cash. This system has safeguarded students and their hard-earned money.

“This way we could ensure that the money gets spent only on the kids’ needs,” says Parmita. 

Additionally, the school also has a bank. “This was introduced to the kids to teach them money management and the importance of saving money. The kids can deposit their weekly points in the bank and save them. They can keep collecting them and buy something expensive too. For example, many kids saved up for months and were able to buy mobile phones with the money,” she says. 

‘Learning by Doing’

The school is affiliated to the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).

“At Akshar School, we place students in the grade levels that they are at based on an aptitude test. So, if a student excels in 6th standard maths, that’s where they’ll study. But if they’re more comfortable with 3rd-standard science, then their focus will be on that,” Parmita explains.

This approach provides an opportunity for older students who couldn’t attend school earlier, perhaps due to poverty, to catch up and learn at their own pace, she notes. “This helped us connect with those older kids very well too,” she says. 

When Yuvraj Kashyap (now 20) joined Akshar School as a student back in 2018, he was taken aback by the school’s unique curriculum and fee policy. “It was a true paradigm shift in every sense,” Yuvraj reminisces in a chat with The Better India, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

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Yuvraj, now ready to take his NIOS board examination next month, recalls his experience, “The curriculum was a far cry from what I’d experienced in my previous school. They weren’t just interested in filling our heads with facts; they were dedicated to nurturing our holistic growth. And the best part is that they didn’t ask for a single rupee in fees.”

Another feature of their curriculum is that the school focuses on the holistic development of the children. “We just want to make sure that when they step out of here, they are ready for the world. We have a lot of vocational training-based courses for the kids to learn. We teach them carpentry, solar panel fitting, electrical work, tailoring, gardening, and landscaping,” she says. 

Our philosophy is ‘Learning by Doing’ and this curriculum is exactly what we want to do, the couple adds. 

Recycling Plastic Into Substantial Goods

They have also set up a recycling plant on the campus. “The plant recycles as much plastic that is recyclable and converts them into eco-bricks. Our kids learn how to convert plastic into bricks and work in the plant after school. We pay them for that too. This way they get to learn an extra skill,” she says. 

The eco-bricks are then used in smaller constructions in and around the school.  

“We are also using a machine from the Netherlands. The machine upcycles the plastic into things of use. We have to put the melted plastic in different moulds and the machine converts it into pots, planters, keyrings, earnings etc,” she says. 

“There are only a few types of plastic that we can use around children and the rest we ship to other recycling companies,” informs Mazin. 

Watching the success of their school, the couple decided to expand their curriculum. 

“We collaborated with a residential school in Delhi for orphans and our curriculum worked successfully with them. Although we wanted to expand it to more schools in Delhi, the COVID-19 pandemic put our plans on hold and we had to call our team back to Assam,” she says.

The road ahead 

In 2021, the couple reached out to more schools in Assam and signed an MoU with the state government to replicate their educational model in five government schools. Currently, the couple has implemented this model in 14 schools in Assam and are hoping to reach 200 more by the end of 2025.

The couple was contacted by the Assan government to assist them in the Swachh Bharat Mission. 

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A post shared by Akshar Foundation (@akshar_foundation)

“They recruited us to contact private schools and collect plastic from them. More than one lakh students will be segregating plastic in their homes, bringing it to their school and our team will collect it from them. The plastic will then be recycled at our centre, while some of it will be sent to other recycling centres in the state,” explains Mazin. 

So far, the couple has reached 3,000 students through their school and by implementing their curriculum in 14 other schools, they have collected 2,330 plastic bottles and 7,19,700 plastic wrappers in totality.  

If you are interested in their work, you can reach them here. 

Edited by Padmashree Pande.

Uttarakhand is facing a severe crisis with heavy rains and flooding. Reports indicate that this natural disaster has claimed 85 lives and caused a loss of Rs 1,000 crore in the state. Other parts of India are also grappling with extreme weather conditions, which are linked to climate change.

A 2023 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report stated that global temperatures have risen by 1.1 degrees Celsius in 2011-2020, compared to what they were in 1850–1900. The report emphasises the significance of education as a vital tool to combat global warming and achieve sustainable development.

The Mobius Foundation is dedicated to  contributing to sustainable development goals (SDGs) through various initiatives — one of which is the International Conference on Sustainability Education (ICSE). Now in its fifth year, the conference focuses on exploring the details and importance of sustainability education as a catalyst for change and transformation.

Dr Ram Boojh, convener, ICSE 2023, calls the conference the flagship programme of the Mobius Foundation. He says they strongly believe in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which talk about education as a major catalyst for change to find solutions to the climate crisis.

“The UN SDGs are the basis of survival of humanity in the 21st century. It guides us on how to combat climate change, create better health, access affordable energy and fight poverty. We also feel that education can pave the way for transformation, which is what we intend to do with ICSE. We want to give an opportunity for stakeholders and students to come together to encourage collective action and share ideas about fighting climate change,” says Dr Ram.

Education as a tool for climate transformation

The ICSE 2023 theme is ‘Educating for Climate Action and Sustainability’. It will take place from 19 and  20 September 2023 at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi. The conference will bring together professionals, educators, leaders, policymakers, teachers, and students to collaborate on climate change solutions.

“This conference offers an exceptional opportunity for educators, researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders to come together and exchange ideas, strategies, and innovative solutions for effectively addressing planetary issues of climate action and sustainability through education. We will be demonstrating what changes have been made through case studies,” adds Dr Ram.

They aim to inspire and motivate young people to pursue sustainable solutions through success stories and case examples. “Youth play a critical role, both today and tomorrow, in many of the sustainable development goals. Whether it is the SDG related to hunger, quality education, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, or reduced inequalities, all these changes start with the “YOUTH”. We tend to follow what the Youth  does,” says Pradip Burman, Chairman, Mobius Foundation.

The ICSE 2023 chief guest is Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan who will be inaugurating  the conference. Other notable attendees include Dr Anil Prakash Joshi — environmentalist, green activist and founder of Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organization (HESCO); and Jadav “Molai” Payeng — environmental activist, forestry worker, renowned as the Forest Man of India.

Including sustainability in national education

Their ultimate goal is to reform the national education framework and curriculum. This aligns with the goals of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which seeks to incorporate environmental education into the school curriculum. The NCERT is actively working on this by developing the National Curriculum Framework.

“NEP is a great change. It is important to add specific courses to make the curriculum ‘green’ while developing the new framework. We will be having experts from the education sector and ministry at our conference, through which we hope to empower the teachers,” adds Dr Ram.

Previous ICSE conferences drew about 1,000 participants from 40 different countries. This year’s conference will feature notable speakers like Dr Jane Goodall, founder, Jane Goodall Institute(JGI), UN Messenger of Peace; Kartikeya Sarabhai, founder and director, Centre for Environmental Education; Dr Vibha Dhawan, director general, TERI; Pramod Sharma, senior director of education, Foundation for Environmental Education; among others.

You can register for ICSE 2023 here.

(Edited by Pranita Bhat)

Sources:

IPCC 2023

NEP 2020

“Today, I learnt about cell structure and functions. It was taught on the television in our school. I like studying on the TV, the videos show cartoons and diagrams. Now, I remember what my teachers teach and I do not feel sleepy,” Siya, the daughter of a cook and labour worker, tells The Better India.

“Apart from Science and Mathematics, we are also taught English from YouTube. When I go back home, I show my parents that I can speak English,” she adds, noting that she aspires to be a doctor.

Siya is part of a cohort of 1 lakh students under Muskaan Dreams, whose founder Abhishek Dubey is on a mission to make learning in government schools fun. He does so through a number of interventions, including teaching children NCERT syllabus via animations and fun videos. The non-profit aims to bridge the digital gap in transforming education for marginalised children in rural communities without the burden of an additional fee.

“We work on digital inclusion. Our focus is that every child should have digital shiksha (education) as technology is our future. If these students do not adapt to digital methods, chances are that they miss out on good opportunities. With Muskaan Dreams, we wanted to bring smiles to these children and help them fulfil their dreams of a better career,” adds the 31-year-old.

Launched in 2017, the non-profit has so far collaborated with 1,000 government schools across Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh.

‘When I took a stand’

Born and raised in a farmer family in rural Gwalior, Abhishek developed an interest in teaching underprivileged children during his college days. In 2013, while studying engineering in computer science, he started devoting his weekends to teaching children in government-run shelter homes.

“One day, I saw one of my classmates going to teach students in shelter homes. I went along with her and saw how such children are deprived of education. Most of them are children of single parents and from tribal or rural backgrounds. Coming from a rural background, I started connecting with them and I felt the urge to teach them,” he says.

Within two years, they formed a group of 200 volunteers and expanded their reach to Bhopal and Indore as well. By now, this was no more a weekend activity.

In 2016 after he graduated, Abhishek wanted to completely dedicate himself to teaching children. The decision was not welcomed by his parents. “My father, who is a government officer, was completely against the decision. He asked me to get a good job and drop the idea. But I did not want to quit,” he adds.

Having studied in a government school, he did not want to ignore the challenges he needed to address. “My idea was to improve the learning experience of children so that when they enter the classrooms, their interest increases and they come to school every day. We already know that the dropout rate is one of the major challenges faced by government schools,” says Abhishek.

“I wanted to improve the quality of education in the government school because when they are educated there in a better way they would not require tutoring. But my father was so angry at my decision that he stopped speaking to me. If I would be in the bedroom, he would move to the drawing-room,” he says, adding that this continued for two years.

“I believe that no one should quit on their dreams. Dreams have the power to become reality. This kept me motivated when my father did not speak to me. This was the first time I took a stand,” he recalls.

“But today, he is proud of the work I do. In 2019, when we invited former vice president M Venkaiah Naidu for a project launch, my father also joined us for the first time. He understood that I was serious about the work,” he smiles.

Transforming the govt school ecosystem

After launching the non-profit, Abhishek started his journey with a government school for girls. Talking about the impact of the work, he says, “At that time in 2017, there were only 79 girls enrolled in the school. After a year of working with the school to transform the education system with digital learning methods, the enrollment of girls increased to 129. This impact encouraged us to understand that what we are doing is meaningful for the children in the government ecosystem,” he adds.

To kick off the work, Abhishek’s Muskaan Dreams signs an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the state governments for a particular period. Thereafter, they conduct in-person meetings with district collectors who help them select government schools in rural areas based on the power availability to run the electronic devices.

“We then arrange meetings with teachers and students and engage them in discussions about the benefits and opportunities that lie ahead. It helps build enthusiasm and commitment among teachers and students and ensure their active involvement in the implementation phase,” he says.

“After collaborating with schools, we provide them with electronic devices, content, and training to teachers. We focus on improving the performance of children in Maths and Science because there is a lack of these subject teachers in the government schools,” he adds.

Muskaan Dreams also uses a third party Tic Tac Learning app’s unique “tic-tac” learning module, wherein they animate pictures and high-quality video content aligned with the NCERT syllabus. With a special focus on subjects like Science and Math, all chapters and exercises are converted into animated videos in Hindi. For example, a chapter on nutrients and food is converted into an animated video to disseminate information in an interesting and engaging way, and in the form of a story to help students retain what they learned better. 

This is followed by teacher training and 1-1 feedback and support to teachers to ensure the adoption of technology in teaching practices. “The training is divided into four modules that are mandatory for each teacher to attend. We make our teachers familiar with the structure of the digital lesson, teaching, and learning models using technology and methods of delivering instruction. It is important to invest in teacher training to foster a stronger education ecosystem,” he says.

Abhishek informs that his team works with any school for 2-3 years. After they leave, they provide virtual tech support to ensure teachers are ensuring the consistency of digital learning.

“Before we stop hand holding the schools, we try to build capacity to lower dependency on our team so they remain efficient post-exit. Other than this, we have engaged private organisations like Pernod Ricard India Foundation, LTI Mindtree, Yash Technologies, and Acuity Knowledge Partners who offer resources, expertise, and funding to support the sustainability of our initiative for at least two years,” he says.

‘1 Million by 2025’

Abhishek says that every year, they conduct an annual survey to understand the experience of children in digital classrooms. “We have found that 95.2 percent of children are enjoying the digital learning experience as compared to before our intervention,” he says.

But this also came with a set of challenges. Abhishek says, “Our biggest challenge was to make government school teachers in their 40s start adapting technology. But thankfully, over the years we were able to achieve this with our intervention.”

Explaining the challenge to ensure schools continue to use digital means after they leave, he says: “As an external organisation, we cannot guarantee the school’s actions once our direct engagement comes to an end. But we track the usage and effectiveness of smart TVs and digital tools through regular evaluations. We also assist schools with the maintenance of the digital infrastructure. We strive to create an environment where smart TVs and digital tools become an integral part of the school’s educational practices.” 

For this initiative, Abhishek does not charge any fee from the students. The expenses are managed through funds from CSR activities and corporate collaborations from partners like Amazon India, Linkedin, ONGC, and Hindustan Zinc. To further the cause, he is planning to expand the project to Karnataka schools by the end of this year and reach out to 1 million students by 2025.

With big goals ahead, Abhishek speaks about the decision he took years back, “If I was placed in any company like my friends, I would be just another corporate employee. I am glad that I took a stand. Whatever happened, happened for a good reason. Although we work 10-12 hours daily, I cherish this roller coaster ride.”

Edited by Divya Sethu; All photos: Muskaan Dreams

“We have a culture of education where students are suppressed and made to sit quietly throughout their schooling for 12 years, and again in college for another five years. Then one fine day, you expect them to be communicators and collaborators in projects. That is where they fail,” notes Hyderabad-based educator Rennis Joseph.

“In schools, people make fun of students who are unable to speak English properly. Their natural curiosity and ability to communicate efficiently are killed. Learning becomes a tedious task,” adds the 47-year-old.

In a bid to address the gap in life skills and English language learning at the school level, Rennis and his wife Imma Mary started Ignis Careers to teach students and train teachers through interactive curriculum and participatory learning methods. So far, they have taught English language and life skills to over 3.5 lakh students and trained at least 10,000 teachers in about 1,000 low-cost schools across Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha, Mumbai, and Delhi.

What’s unique about Ignis is its use of ‘play’ in inculcating these curricula and making learning fun for children, a philosophy emphasised by the National Education Policy, 2020. “We do not talk about definitions in the beginning. We ask them to talk about their parents, their vision of a smart school, or a hospital. We let them engage in fun activities and in the process help them learn grammar concepts. Through this, they are able to retain the concepts,” Rennis explains.

Left PhD for a ‘better purpose’

In 2002 while pursuing PhD at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Rennis got an opportunity to engage in a project with the UN High Commission for Refugees in Delhi. Born to an impoverished family of farmers, he immediately took the job to support his university fee. But this changed his aspirations.

“This project was very interesting. I had to teach the English language to Afghan and Burmese refugees. I had no idea where to start. One of my PhD guides suggested — ‘Don’t talk, let them speak’,” he recalls.

“When I started implementing this, I understood that it is not just about English, it is about life skills. Language is all about expression, not just about structures that we have adopted conventionally,” he adds.

Soon after, he dropped out of JNU to start teaching life skills and grammar to students. “When I went to JNU, my parents expected me to be a professor somewhere but I realised I could do a lot better and bigger by teaching students. For me, the best education started after I left college,” he says.

In 2004, he started teaching in a coaching institute in Bengaluru. As part of his visits to smaller towns in the state for promotional programmes, he would get a chance to interact with school students. “Here, I observed the horrible system of education we have. I asked the students, ‘What is a cloud?’, ‘What is a window?’, and they looked up into the sky. They had no idea.”

“Our education system is all about mugging things and putting them down. Rote learning is itself a dangerous thing, it imparts no skills to students. It is a very rigid architecture psychologically. As a teacher, your job is to manage a classroom of 100 students, it is not about teaching them, just handling them,” he says.

“In our classrooms, the person who sits in the back row is expected to be a clown. Others do not collaborate with them. Whenever a backbencher stands up, everyone bursts into laughter, that student starts thinking they are a ‘joker’ and they lose the confidence to do better,” he adds.

These experiences led Rennis and Imma (whom he met in JNU) to start Ignis Careers in 2014.

Making classrooms fun

Explaining how they work, Rennis says, “First, we form a small group of say five students. We let them sit in a circle, not rows so that there is no difference between a front and a back-bencher.”

“We make a few groups of 4-5 students each. We then ask one group to design a smart village with the best sustainable technology possible, we ask another group to redesign a hospital. They observe the limitations of the current system and come up with a design which they draw on a chart. While doing that, they build design thinking,” he explains.

“We try to promote positive interaction among peers. It helps them to build critical awareness and negotiations among team members,” he adds.

Rennis and his team work with any school for about four years, but remain in contact with the school to trace the impact. For instance, his team worked in Banapuram village of Telangana in 2010. After five years of this intervention, he says, 90 percent of the children going to schools in the villages were enrolled in higher education in colleges. “In 2019, we did a study to check what happened in the last 10 years. We found that all the girls were still in school,” he smiles.

Other than teaching the students through interactive sessions, they work to create a pool of teachers who can think of innovative ways to teach children after they leave.

For this, Rennis says a trainer is sent to a school once every week and is provided with a unit-wise printed textbook with creative ways to teach the children. In conversation with The Better India, Narmada Samala, a rural teacher fellow in a school in Khammam district of Telangana says, “Teachers are trained to develop their skills so that they can train students accordingly.”

Explaining what makes the teaching method unique, she says, “If I have to teach students about prepositions, I won’t start by teaching them the definition and what are the words of prepositions on board.”

“Here, a teacher hides any object in the classroom, and students are asked if it is ‘under’ the table or is it ‘in’ the bag. After the activities, we tell the students that the words they used like, ‘in’, ‘under’, ‘on’, ‘behind’, or ‘beside’, are called prepositions. So, they easily understand the concept. Similarly, we teach other grammar concepts. This helps engage all the students and we see a great improvement in oral as well as writing skills of students. This kind of training is not happening anywhere,” she adds. 

For this, Rennis charges up to Rs 700 per student per year from low-cost private schools. For government schools, they do not charge any amount and manage expenses through CSR donations. But there have been times when he had to borrow from his friends to run the startup.

“In 2016 after demonetisation, we were affected for two years as were our partners. We did not receive sufficient funds to run the startup. In 2017, I was so short on money that I had to pull my children out of school because I could not afford their fees,” he says.

“In 2019, we conducted a study and found that 94 percent of parents from various cities we are working in saw improvement in the quality of life of the students. Our training methods make young people confident. These experiences give us hope. In the end, it is about the happiness on the faces of our students and the freshness we are able to bring into classrooms.” 

“I am someone who wants a strong purpose to live, and when you find the impact, you are motivated to do better,” says Rennis.

Edited by Divya Sethu; All photos: Rennis Joseph.

“Having been fortunate to receive quality education and the backing of a supportive family, I couldn’t ignore the stark reality that numerous others were not as privileged as I was,” he reflects in conversation with The Better India. 

This reality, he adds, triggered in him an urge to extend a helping hand to those in need. 

Presently, he is a guardian and teacher to 75 girls living with visual impairment. Within the precincts of his boarding school nestled in Kalaburagi, Karnataka, these girls are provided with more than just academic instruction — they are also given clothing, shelter, and a chance at life.

“In many areas of India, girl children are still looked upon as a burden. I can’t even imagine what life would entail for girls with disabilities,” says Dattu, adding that he wants to give them an avenue to building a life of independence. 

‘Fate brought me here’ 

Born and raised in Kalaburagi, Dattu suffered a bout of pneumonia at the age of three, which led to his visual impairment. “I don’t remember the world before I lost my vision. My parents were worried, but also quite determined to make me self-sufficient and independent. They sent me to a blind school for boys in Kalaburagi at the age of 8,” he recalls. 

After completing his schooling, Dattu went on to study political sciences in Gulbarga University. “In 1985, I started to teach in the same university. I taught political science for more than 35 years,” he says. 

While Dattu progressed in his life, he never felt that his impaired vision was like a disability to him. For others, he notes, this was not the case. “Comments like ‘What will he do now?’ and ‘He is disabled and will be a burden’ were quite common. Such comments take a toll on your mental health too. I wanted to create an environment where there is no such prejudice,” he says. 

“I found it very difficult to find my footing. There were enough avenues to help me grow and succeed in life,” he notes. “[But] I could see people from my community suffering, especially little girls. There were schools for boys but none for girls in my district back in the 2000s,” he adds. 

He started saving and brainstorming ideas to help people with visual impairments. 

“In 1990, I laid the foundation of a trust by the name Hyderabad Karnataka Disabled Society. Under this, I also founded a residential school for visually impaired girls. The girls belong to underprivileged sections of society.” 

A chance at life and success 

Dattu named the school Matoshree Ambubai Residential School for Blind Girls after his mother. “It was my mother who was my backbone and biggest supporter. Whenever voices from the society became too much, she would rescue me and remind me that I can do anything if I wanted to,” he recalls. 

“My mother is also my biggest motivation and inspiration. She has taught me everything I know about life and society. She was a woman of remarkable perseverance and warmth,” he adds. 

When Dattu started the school, he had only four girls with him. “I went to villages in Kalaburagi district to talk to parents and tell them about the school. The parents did not want to send their girls to blind school because they feared for their safety,” he says. 

“As they belonged to underprivileged sections, they did not understand the need for educating their visually impaired girls and making them independent,” he notes. 

‘Need more schools like ours’

The girls at Dattu’s school are from six districts — Kalaburagi, Bidar, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal and Bellary. 

“Initially, we intervened and went to villages to find girls with visual impairments who needed help, but within a few months, the scenario changed. People would hear about us and approach us directly,” he informs. 

“Apart from following the regular syllabus, we also train them in sports and music. This gives them more options and passions to follow when they move out of the school,” he adds. 

Among them is Idhma, who wants to be a lawyer. “My parents found out about Dattu sir’s school when we were at an eye camp in Hyderabad. I moved to the school and joined Class 7. Initially I missed my home, but everyone here helped me settle in. I want to study harder and become independent so that I can help my parents out financially,” she says. 

Meanwhile, Muskan (12) , who studies in Class 5, says, “I left my village Madanapura four years ago so I could get a better education here. Before this, I did not go to any school as my parents could not afford the fees. The school teachers and staff are very polite and make us feel comfortable.” 

Sangeeta D Thakur, the head mistress of the school ponders on the importance of such schools. “There are very few avenues for girls in Karnataka. Schools like ours, which give free education and residence to the children, are the need of the hour. If these children don’t get education, they will end up in a sorry state. When I see them, all I see is talent and creativity. We have had seven batches of girls who have completed their education here and have gotten into good colleges,” she says. 

Reflecting on his journey, Dattu says, “I believe that the turn of events when I was a child and everything that followed in my life was fate. My life would have been very different if I had not lost my vision back then.”  

How can you help? 

Dattu’s school has 75 girls, but for the last one year he has stopped taking new admissions. 

“We have been overburdened with new admission requests. While I want to take every girl that I can, we do not have any space left in the dormitories,” he says. 

A new building is under construction and the school is in need of funds. “For so long the school has been running on my income and from donations from different sources. However, now that I have retired too, we are looking for more avenues of money,” he explains. 

If you wish to help Dattu in his cause or fund the education of the girls, you can reach out to him at 95353 93900. 

Edited by Divya Sethu

In conversation with The Better India, Bengaluru-based Nomita Sikand says, “These families settle in the urban spaces for labour jobs. And in the bargain, children are not a concern or focus. They miss out on education.”

“Even if the children are enrolled in government schools, they hardly understand anything as schools are in Kannada [or another regional language] medium. So eventually, they stop going to school. Also, typically, children are enrolled in age-appropriate classes, but their learning level might not be at that grade because of irregular continuity in education,” she adds.

Driven by a common purpose, Nomita along with Bengaluru-based Rizwan Ahmed, Manimakalai Raja, Preethy Rao Patel, Joseph Deyone Jacobi, and Somya Nand came together to mainstream such children into the government schools and public space.

In 2015, the sextet co-founded ‘Gubbachi’ — a Karnataka-based non-profit that works towards the educational inclusion of out-of-school and marginalised children of migrant families. “We wanted to implement an approach to get a child mainstreamed, and subsequently, their family with them, so that they feel how a citizen should feel,” says the 53-year-old.

Multi-level approach

After pursuing their higher education at Azim Premji University and doing internships, they observed the dire educational state of migrant children. To address these gaps in educational exclusion, Gubbachi mainstreams migrant children through various age-appropriate programmes.

Nomita says, “We enrol children aged 6-9 in a bridge learning program. Our fast-track curriculum covers a two-year course in just one year. We teach the subjects in their native language to strengthen their understanding and also help them with the regional language used in the school they want to join. The training lasts for one or two years.”

Once the children are bridged to their learning levels, they are mainstreamed in a government school. “But after enrolling them in schools, we found that there are hardly enough teachers to manage hundreds of students. It was impractical for us to expect any kind of learning for our children. The students complained to us that nothing was being taught in schools. Having worked so hard to mainstream them, if they dropped out, then all efforts would go to waste,” co-founder Manimakalai tells The Better India.

“In 2016, I finally found myself teaching in these schools,” she adds. In these government schools, Gubbachi utilises the ‘Nali Kali’ scheme which means ‘joyful learning’ in Kannada. 

“These classes are full of activities. Regular subjects are taught through games, songs, colourful charts, educational toys, game boards, dice, flashcards, and storytelling. We also conduct weekly dance activities and sports classes twice a week,” says Manimakalai.

“Over time, several government schools approached us to adopt the state government’s multi-grade and multi-level education program,” adds the 53-year-old.

In collaboration with the Department of Education, Karnataka, Gubbachi has established two centres to implement the bridge learning programme and works with nine government schools to educate classes 1–3 through Nali Kali. “We believe that if we give these children a good foundation, they will be able to perform better in Class 4,” she says.

So far, they have associated with over 60 teachers to help them implement various programmes in schools.

Promoting equitable learning for thousands for free

For children above 10 years of age or above, Gubbachi first enrols them in bridge learning and then mainstreams them in English medium schools for further education, informs Manimakalai. The organisation handholds its students throughout formal education.

For instance, Jharkhand’s Vijay Kumar (name changed) got enrolled in Azim Premji University for a BA Honours (Economics) course with the help of Gubbachi.

At 13, Vijay migrated from his home state Jharkhand for better schooling and to live with his father, who works as a house helper for a wealthy Bengaluru family. But, Vijay was denied admission to a local private school.

“I did not understand English and the fundamentals of other subjects like Maths. I left school after Class 5, so my basics were not clear. My Maths understanding was of Class 3 level. So I was denied admission and I felt dejected,” the now 18-year-old tells The Better India.

In 2018, he learnt about Gubbachi from his father’s employer. The same year, he joined the non-profit’s programme, where he was trained to read and write English and understand Mathematics. After a year, the organisation helped him enrol for senior secondary schooling (Class 10) at the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), a government-run “open school”.

“They explained concepts to me in my language and helped me read textbooks. They emphasised that memorising exact vocabulary wasn’t necessary, and I always wrote down what I understood. This approach made it easier for me to grasp the subjects,” he says.

After getting hold of the basics, Vijay appeared for the Class 10 examination and secured 88.5 percent in 2021. Subsequently, he completed his Class 12 with 72 percent. Not only this, he even got a chance to join Azim Premji University on a full scholarship for the entire course.

“It is because of Gubbachi that I was able to get an education and study, first in a convent school, and then in a university. This achievement has transformed me a lot. I learnt why education is important and how it helps in life. My parents are proud that I am continuing my education because they never got the chance to study,” he adds.

Similar to Vijay, the non-profit has assisted more than 4,000 migrant children from states like Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Odisha, and West Bengal in joining mainstream schools without any cost.

“We handhold them right from their schooling to college enrollment. Our dream is to see all children, like Vijay, get into good universities. When impoverished families move to new states, we want them to feel secure and cared for. Every child deserves a complete education,” says Manimakalai.

Edited by Pranita Bhat. All photos: Gubbachi.

“I still remember Pranay helping me cram a year’s worth of syllabus into those last few minutes. And the best part is that it was always my favourite way to learn,” shares a nostalgic Atharva over a call with The Better India. 

Growing up as close friends in Madhya Pradesh, he and Pranay shared many fascinating nostalgic memories, almost all pertaining to the classroom. So when it was time to head their own ways to pursue their engineering degrees in 2019 — Pranay to Mumbai and Atharva to Chennai — it was with a heavy heart that the friends bid goodbye. 

What Atharva would miss the most was his friend’s tips and tricks right before an exam. It’s perhaps why the boys’ venture Padhle is reminiscent of exactly this way of learning. The YouTube channel, which they launched in March 2022, enables students across India to access notes, lectures, study tips, and more, all in an attempt to help them recall things during an exam. 

A new way of learning 

The friends were pursuing their first-year B.Tech degrees when Atharva decided this wasn’t his cup of tea. “A thought that I’ve always had through my school life is that even though India has so many educational institutions, there are very few teachers who understand the ‘vibe’ of the student. Today, there is an evolution in so many fields, but this one problem continues to persist. I always felt teaching should happen in a manner that makes the student eager to learn. Kind of like if an elder sibling were to teach you. But I did not feel this enthusiasm and so I dropped out of BTech.” 

This was around the same time that Atharva reconnected with Pranay, and coincidentally, also when the COVID pandemic arrived in 2020, doling a major hit to several sectors, including education. 

Pranay says, “The idea of helping students in some way was always there. It was a shared passion between Atharva and I, but the COVID pandemic accelerated this need to go beyond our abilities. We both pitched in Rs 2,000 and bought a domain on the internet as the first step towards our plan.” 

He laughs recalling how, when it came to naming the platform, they decided to go with a remark that most desi homes are heard using on kids. 

‘Padhle’ — but understand what you’re studying

“We wanted to ensure that students were learning concepts in a language they are comfortable with, for better understanding,” says Pranay. He credits their success to starting off at the right time. “During the height of the pandemic, students were confused about the way forward. As teachers grappled with the new software to shift to remote teaching, students too were adjusting to new formats of learning.” 

The boys began discussing how the quality of content that students were being provided wasn’t great. Parents, too, were now being burdened with the added responsibility of teaching kids what they couldn’t grasp in online class. 

“That’s when we thought of starting this website that would be a storehouse of educational material freely available for students to access. The internet has plenty of content available on every subject imaginable. But when you were a student, what did you prefer best? Handwritten notes.” 

This, says Pranay, was the formal start of Padhle. 

The two boys would manage the entire platform by themselves in the initial days — writing down notes from concepts available on the web, scanning and uploading them on the YouTube channel, and even recording fun videos that would break down tough concepts into simple-to-understand ones. 

“The lectures we recorded would be conversational, where Pranay and I would play the role of two friends speaking about a chemistry concept or a teacher and student understanding a physics equation. These tutorials began to go viral,” shares Atharva. 

A creative utilisation of their knowledge 

Having started with Classes 8, 9 and 10, the boys soon moved on to Classes 11 and 12. 

“It was a completely free module system when we started off,” says Pranay, adding that the idea was to put everything on YouTube and the website. Whatever they earned through ads and donations, they spent on curating educational material such as curated booklets with NCERT topics simply explained. 

“The books aren’t just plain information, but we also have memes that help the student grasp the main concept. Right from the start, we never set out to be teachers, but those last-minute revision friends who helped us through our school life,” shares Pranay. 

Recently, they have started charging a fee of Rs 3499 for a package that caters to classes 9 and 10. They also offer a crash course for Rs 800 that covers all important concepts within a couple of weeks. The YouTube channels they have launched under Padhle — Just Padhle, Padhle Tenthies, Padhle 11th 12th —have a cumulative subscriber base of 1.5 million, while over 10,000 students have enrolled in their sessions to date. 

On weekly Zoom sessions, the boys interact with the students who access the YouTube material for free and those who have subscribed to the paid modules. 

They do this to understand their testimonials, they say. 

Kumar, whose son Aditya is in Class 10 and finds Padhle a great source of learning, says, “I was concerned about Aditya’s studies because I couldn’t help him due to my job responsibilities. But he has been watching Padhle videos for quite some time now, and I’ve noticed that Pranay and Atharva’s teaching approach, as well as their subject management, is pretty unique.”

He adds that Aditya, who is interested in giving his JEE exams, also refers to Padhle notes for this. 

Student Saniya Chauhan, who heard about Padhle through a friend, says Class 10 is easier because of their notes.  She commends the boys’ “concise and clear approach to subject teaching” as the reason for her success. 

The good work by the boys does not stop with the Padhle endeavour. With the earnings of the YouTube channel and the fees paid by students, the brothers make donations to the ‘Children With Special Needs’ in Indore. 

Explaining why, Atharva shares, “We noticed there were not many facilities here and so decided to donate whatever requirements they had. To date, our donations have been used to install a water cooler, a CCTV camera, fans, lights, etc. We also provide the students of this centre with our paid material for free.” 

Today, as students across the country tune into Padhle’s videos, rapt with attention at this new way of learning technical subjects, Atharva and Pranay feel a sense of satisfaction. Their efforts have paid off. 

Edited by Divya Sethu

A native of the village, 19-year-old Umer Ahmad Ganie cracked NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) with an impressive score of 601 out of 720, becoming a beacon of inspiration for the children in his neighbourhood.

This year, over 18 lakh students registered for NEET, considered one of the toughest exams in the country. So for Umer, who also bears the responsibility of being the family’s breadwinner, preparing for the medical entrance exam was even more challenging than it is for most.

A childhood full of struggles

Living in a household of five, including his parents and three siblings, Umer had seen poverty in its crudest form since he was a little boy. By the time he turned 16, Umer and his brother had to start working to support the family.

“Financial circumstances in the family were never great but they grew worse as my father aged. Now, he is constantly ill and is unable to work. My brother and I work odd jobs to support the family,” he informs.

Always a bright kid in school, even when Umer was forced to work, he had made up his mind not to give up his education. “I went to a government school in my village, but it offered education only up to the primary level. My village did not have a higher secondary school, so I joined a school in Pulwama. After completing high school, I decided to get a day job and earn money for my family,” he says, adding that he wanted to support his brother with the extra income.

“Another reason why I worked as a labourer was so that I could afford my education. Due to the low-income situation at home, my family couldn’t support me further. I had to find a way to support myself,” he says.

Umer started to work as a daily wage worker, mostly working as a painter. He earned Rs 550 a day, which he used to pay for his books and to bring food for the family.

Breaking the cycle of poverty

About his dreams and aspirations, Umer remarks, “Ab is gareebi se bahar nikalna hai.” (I want to break this cycle of poverty).

He continues, “When you are young, you dream of different things unaware of the circumstances life may throw at you. When I was a kid, I dreamt of becoming an IAS officer. But as I grew up, I realised how much money this would cost me. For starters, I will need a graduation degree!”

“So, if you ask me now what I want to be, I’ll simply say I want to break this cycle of poverty. Generations in my family have suffered and will suffer until someone goes out and does something differently,” he says.

The idea of becoming a doctor came to Umer when he was in high school. He wants to help poor people and earn a stable income to support his home. “I would spend most of my time thinking about ways of getting out of this hard life of extreme physical labour. This motivated me to work hard towards my goal every day,” he shares.

While the entire village slept, Umer would be up at 3 am to start his day. “After school and work, I would return at 7 pm. Once home, I would not waste even a minute after that. I used to study till midnight and then get a couple of hours of sleep, then wake up to study some more,” he shares.

“I followed the routine very strictly because I knew that if I am not consistent then I won’t be able to crack the exam and will have to wait another year,” he adds.

Talking about his routine and his motivation, he says, “The routine was very tiring, and I would not get enough rest sometimes. But I had to do it! I kept believing in myself and that my hard work would pay off. I kept picturing a time when my family and I would be out of poverty…not worrying about money.”

‘Learn, revise and repeat’

To crack the NEET exam, most of the aspirants turn towards coaching and private assistance. But for Umer, that was not an option. “I could not take any coaching because of two reasons. One, I could not afford them, and two, I couldn’t spare the time to attend extra classes while I juggled school and labour. Instead, I used the internet and NCERT to crack the paper,” he says.

While he was looking for resources online, he found some helpful lectures on YouTube. “I also found a free lecture online by Physics Wallah and then decided to take that course. It was for Rs 3,500, which I could afford. That helped me a lot too,” he says.

Umer shares these tips for future aspirants:

“The most important thing that every aspirant should keep in mind is to learn everything that the NCERT books offer. Many times, aspirants focus only on the notes got from coaching classes, but that will not cover everything,” he says. “Focus on the NCERT syllabus, and you will easily get good marks.”

He also advises them to revise everything. “Make thorough notes and bullet points. Then keep revising them so everything remains fresh in your head.”

He acknowledges that preparing for the exam can be stressful. “It is one of the toughest exams and preparing for it can make you anxious. However, I always tried to keep myself calm and focused on the material rather than the result. My parents would always say, ‘If you give your 100 percent effort, good results will come’, and I wholeheartedly believed in that,” he says.

Finally, Umer also urges everyone to go through previous years’ papers to get an idea of what the current paper might be like. “I solved exam papers from 2013 to 2022, which really gave me valuable insight,” he says.

As Umer eagerly awaits for the counselling to begin, he says that there is a long road ahead but he is ready for it.

His exceptional performance earned him financial aid of Rs 10 lakh from the ed-tech startup Physics Wallah, enough to cover his counselling fees and college expenses.

“Financial barriers have often prevented underprivileged but deserving students from succeeding. Umer used to sleep only for four hours a day and would earn for his family too. The struggle he endured to change his family’s circumstances is inspiring,” says Alakh Pandey, founder & CEO of Physics Wallah.

He continues, “I faced challenges in the past, but after learning about Umer’s difficulties, I understood that what I went through wasn’t as tough as his experiences. The support I offered Umer feels like the least I could do. His story will motivate others to pursue education and create positive changes in their lives.”

Reflecting on his journey so far, Umer says, “My parents and siblings were very supportive throughout the process. And when the results finally arrived, they were more excited than me. It is their belief in me that has kept me going, and I hope I will be able to earn a stable income for my family soon.”

Edited by Pranita Bhat

In the late 1800s, when Dr Maria Montessori was working at a psychiatric clinic in Rome, she would often visit asylums for children with intellectual disabilities (then referred to as “mental disorders”). It was here that she observed that these children needed a more stimulating environment, that “in such a bare, unfurnished room, [they] were desperate for…activities for their hands, and that this deprivation was contributing to their condition”.

This observation was among the first seeds sowed for what is now known as the Montessori method, which, over a century later, has spread far and wide across the world and to children across the spectrum. It encourages a ‘different’, ‘informal’ way of learning. Though acknowledged to have both pros and cons, Dr Montessori’s work has pioneered early childhood education in a way that helps children develop their own pace and learning environments.

Jo Chopra-McGowan, who has worked towards the inclusion of children with disabilities for over 30 years, says that you will often find that inclusive practices don’t just uplift a certain group — they’re for society as a whole.

Jo is the founder of the Latika (previously Latika Roy Foundation, or LRF), an organisation that has, since 1994, worked with thousands of children and adults with intellectual and physical disabilities to help them mainstream in society. Among their key projects is to work with disabled children in their early years, to “catch them young”, as one of their programmes says. This inclusion centres around their education, but also looks to integrate them into the mainstream as a whole and for the long term.

“When Maria Montessori began her work, it was for disabled children. But parents soon realised that this could work for other children too. That’s what we’re always telling people, that when you target the most vulnerable child in the room, your whole classroom will benefit,” she tells The Better India.

‘Everybody is welcome’

Latika’s work with disabled children began when Jo and her husband Ravi adopted Moy Moy, who also lived with a disability.

“We started as just an inclusive play centre where children of all kinds could come after school and engage in fun activities. The only rules were that you play fair and welcome everybody,” Jo tells The Better India. “We saw lots of kids with disabilities coming in naturally; it wasn’t an active effort on our part, but they came because of the inclusive environment we’d built.”

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What they learnt later, she says, was that these children with disabilities couldn’t otherwise engage in regular childhood activities like going to the park and that they often had no friends.

“Then it turned out that my own daughter was disabled. We hadn’t looked at it that way until she had to go to school. Then her disabilities really became apparent. For us, she was just Moy Moy, this great, funny, little child. But when she started going to school, it was as if they put a spotlight on her difficulties. That’s when we realised this school system wasn’t right for Moy Moy. Everything at the Foundation has evolved from that.”

India has put in place many provisions in the form of laws and policies for people with disabilities, but the implementation remains questionable. Outlook India noted of all the children with disabilities in India, three-fourths of those aged aged five don’t attend any educational institution. About 12% drop out, and 27% have never attended any educational institute.

Meanwhile, a UNICEF report notes, “The early years (0 to 8 years) are the most extraordinary period of growth and development in a child’s lifetime. The foundations of all learning are laid during these years. Getting the foundations right carries huge future benefits: better learning in school and higher educational attainment, which results in major social and economic gains for society.”

The 2020 National Education Policy has laid great emphasis on inclusion in education that takes into consideration local contexts and diversity. The framework asserts that quality in the early childhood care ecosystem (ECCE) is the highest priority, as is the inclusion and equal participation of children with disabilities and those from economically disadvantaged groups. 

So how do we extend the same future benefits to children with disabilities, who are disproportionately affected by an already fractured educational system?

Among the first programmes that the Foundation started was Karuna Vihar, an early childhood intervention centre that encourages the overall development of children between the ages of 0 and 6 by building on their strengths. Parents or guardians work closely with special educators and therapists so they can carry out the activities practised during lessons at home. They are also given counselling services and support group interventions.

Karuna Vihar also focuses on ‘play’ including theatre and creative interventions like exercises to help develop a child’s functional skills. They also involve play in developing individualised education plans for each child to learn speech and language skills and alternative communication systems, as well as encourage sensory stimulation and behaviour management.

Crucial aspects of a person’s life 

Rupa Bishnoi, director of diversity and inclusion at Latika, tells The Better India, “When we talk about ‘inclusive education’, we also mean their inclusion in society. We have two catchwords — ‘participation’ and ‘opportunity’. I specifically work for the mainstreaming of our children with the kids, the parents, and the schools. Preparing the schools has become the main focus area for the inclusion team.”

It is commonplace in India for school managements to deny opportunities to children with disabilities — sometimes due to a lack of understanding, and sometimes due to an unwillingness to “take responsibility”. Children may also face bullying and discrimination in these institutions, often with limited intervention by school authorities. Then there is a lack of accessible and safe infrastructure, and special educators.

“We work on a process where we contact schools, hold workshops with them, make them aware of different disabilities, establish relationships…then we try to mainstream our children. For at least a year of support, we provide teachers with strategies, and work preventing the bullying of even parents…This way we’ve managed to mainstream nine children in the last two years.”

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Inspired by Canada-based organisation CanChild, Rupa explains that Latika has also developed a Hindi version of a module titled ‘The 6 F-Words’. “These are six functional areas for the inclusion of a child. These include Functioning, Family, Fitness, Friends, Fun, and Future. This covers very crucial aspects of a person’s life.”

Jo notes that inclusion also goes beyond education in the sense that these children need camaraderie.

“For disabled people, opportunities to interact with peers are few,” she says, adding that it is common to loop or keep children with disabilities together, with minimal interactions with a wider circle. “We need to open up these areas so children with disabilities are more visible. That’s where our children’s club Latika Vihar, where these children interact and play, helps. It’s wonderful how they grow up together, the simple and uncomplicated way they interact with each other.”

As a child grows, integration and mainstreaming get tougher. “Children don’t know these boundaries of disparity, class, caste, race….” Rupa notes. “For neurotypical children too, in the early years, it’s natural to have other children in the classroom who are different from them. Teachers are also more accepting of children of this age; there’s more benefit of the doubt. If we send a disabled kid to school without specifying that label or giving them that assessment, we’ve seen that teachers work very hard to make that child adjust. And then the child does beautifully.”

Embracing the ‘difference’

Jo opines that one of the biggest challenges in India’s education system is its rigidity. “There’s an assumption that all children in the classroom learn the same way. We see how that fails so many kids who are already in school. When you bring disabled children into the mix, this becomes more apparent. The blame is put on the children — not just those with disabilities, but also those who have a different way of learning. We label them as ‘naughty’, ‘lazy’, ‘not interested’…The system is designed in a way to exclude at multiple levels.”

“There’s a very academic, literal way of learning, when the fact is that children universally learn better by doing. This idea is not even well understood, let alone implemented. If we cater to this difference in ways of learning, we will automatically move towards more inclusivity.”

Rupa emphasises on a social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum. This is a process by which a child learns to understand, express, and manage emotions. It is focused on helping them build healthy relationships, manage positive and negative feelings, and develop a sense of empathy and right or wrong. “You need to make each child feel significant, and have a sense of belonging in the classroom.”

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She also points towards building responsive classrooms, which are a part of social-emotional learning and emphasises on helping children develop academic, social, and emotional skills in an environment that responds to their needs and strengths.

“Teachers believe a responsive classroom means that children are quick to respond to questions, when it’s actually the other way around. A social-emotional curriculum can build a child’s self-confidence and identity, and develop a sense of empathy with everyone else in the classroom.”

Online studies and material for educators in countries like the US show that responsive classrooms can go a long way in putting a child’s sociocultural makings at the forefront. They remove existing biases, as well as encourage higher academic achievement, improved teacher-student interactions, and higher quality instruction.

The Society for Research in Child Development also opined that these effects are long-term — one study said that even years after, students who participated in SEL programmes fared significantly better than those who did not.

“Benefits were similar regardless of the student’s race, socioeconomic background, or school location. Infrequently assessed but notable outcomes (eg, graduation and safe sexual behaviours) illustrate SEL’s improvement of critical aspects of students’ developmental trajectories,” the study added.

“I also suggest that every ‘regular’ teacher should be given a certification for being a ‘special educator’ after their degree. We need to do away with the idea of having specific special educators to tackle the shortage of these instructors,” Rupa adds. “Everyone who wants to be a teacher has to be a special educator too.”

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‘These creative strategies help children as a whole’

Circling back to how inclusive education is actually beneficial for all children, Jo says, “Young teachers will come to us with a ‘problem child’ and say, ‘This kid just won’t sit still, they’re constantly disruptive…’. Then we give them a strategy to tackle the issue.”

“Almost invariably, the teachers come back to us to say that these strategies haven’t just solved their original problem, but have also benefited other students in the class somehow. Learning to take turns, to wait, to know that this class you hate will be over and one you love is coming up next…these creative strategies help children as a whole.”

Sonali Saini, an inclusive pedagogy and education consultant with 25 years of experience in the field, also notes that in any classroom, or even within a family, any two children may be different and have diverse ways of learning. “Diversity exists across the classroom. For instance, there might be a child who is a migrant, who is not from the same city…in that case, they may be equally non-verbal as, say, a child with autism. So why do we continue to not address that diversity and see it as invisible?” 

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Meanwhile, Rupa says that the results of such interventions are very visible in the parents too. “Their mothers have more confidence, they chat with the other moms, they start dressing better, they feel like they’ve started being accepted in society now. It has an effect on the entire family.”

She recalls the example of Aarti, a young girl with cerebral palsy who was mainstreamed into a prestigious school in Vasant Vihar, Delhi, last year. “She’s learned to carry herself well, and she looks forward to other children greeting her every day — ‘Hello Aarti! Bye Aarti!’. Academically she may not be able to do what they do, but she looks forward to the swing time, meal time…And all the other children run to help her.”

“In the process, her mother, who used to say things like ‘Main nahi padhi toh marr toh nahi gayi. Aarti nahi padegi toh kya marr jaayegi? (I didn’t die because I didn’t study. Will Aarti die if she doesn’t?)’ is now determined to see her daughter’s education through. That’s the kind of change inclusive education can bring.”

To learn more about early childhood care, click here.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

Sources:

‘Unmet Targets, Unfulfilled Expectations: India’s Progress With Disability Rights’: Written & Published by Outlook India on 8 May 2023

‘Early childhood education’: A Report by UNICEF

‘How Children With Special Needs Are Being Left Out of Mainstream Education in India’: Written by Anisha Reddy for The Wire; Published on 15 July 2022

Taylor, R. D., Oberle, E., Durlak, J. A., & Weissberg, R. P. (2017, July). Promoting Positive Youth Development Through School-Based Social and Emotional Learning Interventions: A Meta-Analysis of Follow-Up Effects. Child Development, 88(4), 1156–1171. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12864

Principles & Practices of Responsible Classrooms

When Anthill Creations, a Bengaluru-based non-profit organisation building low cost and sustainable playgrounds around the country, began their operations in 2017, the discourse around playgrounds and the infrastructure required to build them wasn’t very advanced. 

“When we started out, there was a lack of awareness around the importance of play. We would go to schools and tell them that we’ll build a playground for the kids. In response, they would say ‘no’ and note that it would distract their students. We would often hear, ‘We don’t want a playground at our school. We want children to study.’ With that kind of mindset, I think it was very discouraging in the beginning, but I feel that attitude has markedly changed,” says Pooja Rai, CEO and co-founder of Anthill Creations, speaking with The Better India. 

“Also, during the very first few pitches that I made for corporations for CSR funding, they would say ‘Our focus area is education and your product is not does not fall into that category’. This is no longer the case and there is definitely a change that we have seen from them,” she adds. 

Another challenge was when Anthill pitched their ideas to potential stakeholders, people would look at the play elements they made out of waste material as something of poor quality. 

“We have overcome all of these challenges in some way. At this point in time, there is very high awareness around play-based learning. All education is becoming gamified be it digital or non-digital. Everyone is talking about play-based learning today. So there is definitely a very high awareness that has happened over the past five or six years,” claims Rai.

(You can read more about play-based learning here and here.)

‘Education should never be about textbook-based learning alone’

Like the National Curriculum Framework for Foundational Stage, where the Union government spoke of play-based learning, the Delhi government has introduced a ‘Happiness Curriculum’, an initiative that challenges traditional pedagogy and practice. These policy decisions created a lot of awareness around the importance of play-based learning, she adds.

This has neatly translated on the ground when they’re working with government functionaries. 

“Every time we speak to a district collector or IAS officer today, they understand our work in facilitating play-based learning. In fact, in their training module itself, they’re being told about concepts like BaLA (building as a learning aid) and how they can improve educational outcomes. It’s extremely useful when we have other parties/stakeholders whom we don’t have to convince on the basic importance of play-based learning,” she says. 

Abhishek Gowda, a sub-divisional officer (SDO) posted in West Garo Hills district, Meghalaya, who has collaborated with Anthill to build playgrounds in government schools in the past, says, “The Central and State government are as a matter of policy focussing on early childhood development, of which play-based learning is an integral part. Building of structures like playgrounds with children playing in these spaces will facilitate their cognitive and behavioural development during early childhood. What’s also particularly encouraging is the minimal cost that went into building these playgrounds.” 

“Education should never be about textbook-based learning alone. The focus should be on the holistic development of children. Play is an integral part of the overall growth of a child. We have been mandated to focus on early childhood development (ECD) by the Union and State government because this is the time when children learn the most,” he adds.

What can be done to improve playground infrastructure

Having said that, in rural areas and in more remote geographies, Rai argues that we need more playgrounds. “We have built playgrounds in 23 states, but not one in Bihar or Chhattisgarh for a variety of reasons. There is a big need for playgrounds in those states, but we’ve just not been able to raise funding to build playgrounds in those states. So, I think there’s an imbalance in where these playground resources are available and where the need is most urgent,” she says. 

How do you resolve this conundrum? Rai notes that one of the biggest things that can be done is bringing the government, corporates and playground builders together. 

“A lot of times we see there is funding, but there’s no government support. At other places, we have government support, but do not have funds. Bringing all three parties together has been a challenge. There are occasions when the government has funding, and they just install a few plastic slides, which is okay but not good enough. They can bring in organisations like us who are building playgrounds at lower cost that are also more durable and help in children’s growth and learning. We must align different stakeholders to one common mission,” claims Rai. 

“According to the All India School Education Survey conducted in 2016, 62% of government schools in India do not have playgrounds. Diving deeper into the data, we realised they’re just talking about open playgrounds. They weren’t even considering play infrastructure,” she adds.  

Given this state of affairs, better collaboration between the government, corporations and playground builders will go a long way in addressing this lacunae. 

Rural versus urban

Around 60% of playgrounds built by Anthill Creations are situated in rural areas, despite their extensive work in major urban centres like Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai. And as expected, there are major differences in how playgrounds are built in urban versus rural areas. 

Here’s how Pooja Rai explains these differences:

1) “In terms of designs, when we do these activities with children and urban areas, the kind of responses we get are very different. In rural areas, people want play elements that speak to their sense of adventure, but also stories that they care about. So, you have play elements shaped like elephants, horses, and more nature-based play,” says Rai. 

“When we build playgrounds in urban communities, children want toy elements resembling cars or computers in their playground. If we go and just put the same play elements in all of these geographies, we are not really contextualising play to their local contexts,” she adds.  

2) In rural areas, there is a lot of space as compared to urban areas where sometimes they see schools, which are just four storey buildings with no additional playground. 

3) “In urban areas, children might have seen a playground, so they are more familiar with what to expect. In rural communities, I see children get so amazed when we build the playground. For instance, we had built a slide that basically included tires to climb and then a slide, and they used to call it Disney World. The appreciation for playgrounds is a lot higher,” she says. 

There are two key challenges when it comes to building playgrounds in rural areas as compared to urban areas: 

1) Funding: “When we are working in cities, there’s more funding available in terms of CSR. A corporation would want to build something in the local vicinity so they can also kind of monitor and take care of it in the long term. In rural areas, the funding availability is lower,” she says. 

2) Transporting material to remote areas: “One of the playgrounds that we had built in Odisha did not even have electricity. We had to get generators to use power tools that we needed to build a playground. For one of the playgrounds we built, the team had to take tires through a boat because there was no road near the town of Baulakani,” she adds.  

Retrieving play spaces

Challenges, however, aren’t restricted to rural playgrounds. In urban centres, particularly the major metros, there is a serious paucity of space due to a variety of factors. 

Take Bengaluru, for example. According to Janaagraha’s survey (2017-18) on parks and playgrounds in the city, Bengaluru only has “2.2 sq.m of open space per person, which is significantly short of the recommended 10-12 sq.m by the URDPFI (Urban and Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation*) guidelines set by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), India.” 

In terms of playgrounds, only 38% of them across the city have play equipment or facilities, while only 1% are equipped with drinking water facilities. Going further, nearly half the playgrounds in the city lack lighting facilities, while only 4% of them have toilet facilities and 70% are suffering from litter and garbage piling up.

In Part 1 of the article, Srikanth Viswanathan, the CEO of Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, noted that although the survey was taken in 2017, “things haven’t changed much since”. Given the circumstances, there have been episodes where communities were required to reclaim play spaces for their children.   

Back in 2015, a couple of former students of Round Table School in the Roopena Agrahara area of Bommanahalli, Bengaluru, led by Pallavi S and Ranjith M, began the process of retrieving a playground in their neighbourhood that the government wanted to sell to private builders to build an apartment complex. These students held conversations with local community leaders and legislators about the importance of the playground for the growth of a child’s learning abilities. 

They managed to persuade the local councillor and MLA to spend Rs 12 lakh of their own funds to upgrade and maintain the playground after inviting them to a few sessions of an After School Life Skills programme organised by Dream a Dream, a Bengaluru-based non-profit. As a result, about 15 schools in the Bommanahalli neighbourhood share this playground. 

All this was achieved thanks to people like Pallavi and Ranjith, who come from marginalised backgrounds. As children, Ranjith picked up rugby while Pallavi played football on the same ground under Dream a Dream’s ‘After School Life Skills Program’. Established in 1999, Dream a Dream is a well respected Bengaluru-based non-profit working in the space of education and youth development for children from marginalised circumstances. 

Besides the sport, they had also picked up life and leadership skills on this ground. Over time, however, as development work picked up in the area, a dispute over who owns the land began to take shape. The government also got involved in this dispute. As a result, it grew into a vacant piece of land where people would dump garbage.     

Chandrasekhar — who handles a team of 28 members in the After School Life Skills Programme for children from marginalised communities — recalls, “One of the challenges we faced before opening our centre there was that it was occupied by a local politician. Ranjith, Pallavi and a couple of more products of our programme fought for that space and regained that public ground for children in their community.”  

As Ranjith recalls, “The ground in question was under litigation between some private players and the government, and over time, had become a public dustbin of sorts filled with garbage and stones. The end result was that there was absolutely no space in the community for young people to play football or any other sport. Upon seeing this vacant ground, Pallavi and I decided to do something. After all, there was no playground within a three kilometre radius of where we reside. So, we reached out to our community leaders asking them whether we can repair the ground and use it given that young people from the community have no space to play.” 

“After approaching community leaders, they offered their support to clean up this ground. We also enlisted the support of the local councillor and MLA as well. Many people in our community got together to clean up the ground even though its legal status remains under a cloud. Today, we play different sports and organise a bunch of local tournaments there,” he adds.         

After nearly a year of negotiations, the alleged owner agreed to convert that vacant plot of land into a community playground for children. It took three months to convert that vacant plot to a community playground. By 2018, the playground was open for children from the community. 

Today, Dream a Dream runs their football programme, which falls under their After School Life Skills programme, on this playground. The moment when Ranjith, Pallavi and other former students rallied the community to ensure that they have a playground for children was significant. After all, no one knows the value of play better than people like Ranjith. 

Getting introduced to rugby literally changed his life. Ranjith today is a college graduate who works at Dream a Dream as an associate manager, plays rugby for the national team and even coaches the under-14 and under-18 national team in the sport.     

Suffice to say, this is what a playground did for Ranjith’s life. Without play spaces like these, children suffer in ways that impact their long-term growth and development. In many of our cities, these spaces are shrinking and much more needs to be done to build and retrieve them. 

Have you come across any innovative ideas or construction executed in playgrounds in your city? We’d love to hear all about it. Send pictures and information about the playground to editorial@thebetterindia.com with the subject line “Childhood Dialogues”.

(Edited by Divya Sethu; Images courtesy Anthill Creations)

When Pooja Rai was a student of architecture at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, she would volunteer at Disha Seema Care Centre, a school for underprivileged children located on campus. During one visit, she observed a few girls playing on broken cement pipes while some construction work was going on nearby. 

“It was extremely unsafe because you had wires coming out of the pipes and there were broken pieces of cement lying around. I also saw some boys at school trying to play a game of badminton with their slippers. Even though there was so much joy in that space, it just made me think that these children don’t even have access to something as simple as a playground. Talking to my friend that evening, we discussed how we could use all the design knowledge that we learned to build a playground for these kids,” says Rai, speaking to The Better India. 

Given that Pooja and her batchmates were students, they didn’t have a lot of money. Instead of building a conventional playground with a jungle gym, merry go round and slides, they got innovative, brought a few tires together, and built a different kind of playground. 

A ‘DIY’ playground 

“Initially, we struggled to collect tires, but we got lucky after reaching out to a few companies. Michelin, a global tyre manufacturer, sponsored the very first playground we built. They sent us used tires, with which we built swings and other play elements for children. They also sponsored a part of the project, while the rest of the funding came from our college alumni. We built our first playground in 2015 and it was completely DIY (‘do it yourself’),” she recalls.  

What Rai and her batchmates built here was a low-cost (barely Rs 20,000) and sustainable playground for underprivileged children. According to Rai, mass produced recreational equipment for building a playground at the time would typically cost about Rs 2 lakh. What followed was a lot of media coverage and inquiries from all around the country to build similar structures.  

Fast forward to January 2017, Rai and her friends quit their jobs full time and established a Bengaluru-based non-profit called Anthill Creations, which “transforms spaces into interactive and sustainable playgrounds by upcycling waste materials like tyres, oil and cable drums.” So far, they have built around 380 low-cost and sustainable playgrounds for children across 22 states including Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, Odisha, Meghalaya, Tripura, amongst others.  

But why are playgrounds important for children in the first place? Educationists note that at the heart of early childhood care and education (ECCE) is play-based learning.

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Why play-based learning matters 

“Based on science and what we know, and from a lot of experience, play is an important way for the child to learn. In this context, it is not just ‘playing’ as we know it. It includes singing songs, conversations, stories, music, puzzles, dancing, etc. It is what the child does naturally, or as we say, ‘play is child’s work’. When a child is playing, they are learning,” said Shankar Maruwada, CEO and co-founder of EkStep Foundation and member, National Steering Committee for the National Curriculum Frameworks (NCF), in an earlier interaction with The Better India.

This line of thinking has been emphasised by policymakers in India with the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF) 2023. 

(You can read more about play-based learning here and here.)

While there are different modes of play, a playground presents one of the key platforms where a child can engage in play-based learning for cognitive and behavioural development. But nearly half of all public-funded schools in India don’t have playgrounds, notes government data. 

According to the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) 2017-18 survey, less than 57% of schools have playgrounds. In states like Odisha and Jammu and Kashmir, less than 30% of schools have playgrounds. Other surveys indicate that even major cities don’t have enough playgrounds. Take Bengaluru, for example. 

According to Janaagraha, a Bengaluru-based think-tank, “With a population of 12 million (unofficial estimate, 8.4 million as per 2011 census) and an area of 709 sq.km, the city of Bengaluru has only 19.31 sq.km dedicated towards open spaces like parks and playgrounds. This translates to 2.2 sq.m of open space per person, which is significantly short of the recommended 10-12 sq.m by the URDPFI (Urban and Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation*) guidelines set by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), India.” What’s worse, only 39% of playgrounds in the city have playing equipment and facilities. 

Srikanth Viswanathan, CEO at Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, notes that although the survey was taken in 2017, “things haven’t changed much since”.  

This is an unfortunate reality despite the fact that the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE) legislated by Parliament mandates that all school-going children between the ages of 6 and 14 should be guaranteed access to playgrounds.  

Accessibility for all 

What does it take to build a playground? Speaking to The Better India, Rai begins with first principles. “The basic principle we follow is that where there is a need for a playground and people cannot afford it, we are happy to build these structures in those areas,” she says. 

“What we have seen in the last few years is that even if we build one or two playgrounds in the area, it motivates other people in the surrounding areas and creates awareness around the importance of play and how much good it can do. The playground is also usually shared by nearby communities or schools. It’s not limited to the one school where we built it,” she adds.

Thus far, Anthill Creations has built playgrounds in major cities like Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai to the remote corners of states like Meghalaya and Tripura. Here’s an example of how they built playgrounds for four government schools in rural Meghalaya.     

Speaking to The Better India, Abhishek Gowda, the sub-divisional officer (civil) of Dadenggre [subdivision] in West Garo Hills district, Meghalaya, recalls the work Anthill did.  

“In January 2023, Anthill Creations approached me to facilitate the site selection process for these playgrounds under their project titled ‘Bring Back Play by Making it Accessible to All’.  Their team visited around 10 rural schools in my sub-division, and finalised on four where they would build playgrounds. By the end of March, the Anthill team began building these playgrounds using old rubber tires and other scrap material. You had see-saws, elephant-shaped play elements and swings made of scrap rubber tires,” says Gowda.  

After constructing these playgrounds, the Anthill team conducted an extensive quality check process to ensure that these structures are safe for children to use. 

“Once the quality check was done, they handed over the playgrounds to their respective schools and communities. By the end of April, these playgrounds were built and ready to use. Today, children are actually utilising these playgrounds with a lot of enthusiasm and happiness. These playgrounds have also transformed the environment in these schools,” he adds.  

Gowda and his administration’s task in building these playgrounds was simple. They provided any administrative and logistical support the Anthill team needed. Funding for this project came from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)’s CSR fund and all the work of actually selecting the sites and building these playgrounds was done by the Anthill team. 

“Although the main objective is to develop play-based learning infrastructure for early childhood development, we’ve seen improvements in school enrolment numbers and reduction in dropouts. As a result of these colourful playgrounds, the atmosphere in these schools feel a lot more welcoming to children,” notes Gowda.  

Around 80% of the playgrounds Anthill has built are in government schools, but they also build them in public places. “We’ve built a lot of public park playgrounds in Bengaluru like in Agara Lake, for example. We also partnered with another organisation called Recity to start building playgrounds in tourist hotspots Nainital and Darjeeling so that there’s more awareness around recycling. Those are places where a lot of people visit, so they generate a lot of waste,” says Rai. 

“But it’s challenging for us to work in public spaces because you’d have to work with multiple authorities. It’s difficult to get permission from all stakeholders at the same time,” she adds.  

Schools, however, are where most children are present. “And typically, what I have seen in government schools is that they keep their playgrounds open to neighbouring children. So, it’s not really just the school children who are playing in those playgrounds,” says Rai.  

From elephants and horses to rockets on the playground 

When Rai and her colleagues started building playgrounds, they didn’t want to build the typical elements that already exist like a jungle gym, see-saw, merry go round, etc. 

“The correct way to go about any design is asking the user what they want to do. In the early days, we would talk to the children. Some of the very first designs that we developed were thanks to children. We used to go to these schools in Bengaluru, conduct activities and play games with them. Children used to come up with amazing ideas. They would want a slide from their classroom to the playground or a water fountain coming out of a slide. We did not exactly translate what they said but we got a sense of what they wanted in a playground,” she says.

Some of the play elements you see on playgrounds built by Anthill like octopus, elephants or horses came from children. Other children wanted a rocket in their playground. 

“We tried to incorporate some of those major structural designs, but also keep activities in mind when we were designing those final elements. It took a lot of iterations. Not all of our design elements became successful in the first go, but we seek to ensure a constant feedback loop that happened. We still engage in these processes, but today we have around 100 different designs in our design library although we still take requests,” explains Rai.

“Since we’re operating at a much larger scale today, we have this written site survey form that either we fill when we visit a site or there’s a local community or a teacher who fills it out for us. That basically captures what children need and if there is anything in specific that like that particular community or school wants to do, we look at our design library and see what fits well into this playground. We try to leave some space for designing new elements as well because we want to give some unique touch to most of our playgrounds,” she adds. 

How do they make these playgrounds inclusive? 

As stated earlier, there are playgrounds with elements that didn’t come from their design library. After all, they have to cater to a variety of children, including those living with disabilities.  

In October 2021, they built a playground in collaboration with the Sankalp Learning Centre in Chennai for children with autism and intellectual disabilities.  

“We didn’t have a playground designed for autistic children in our library. For projects like these, we spent time with the children, understanding what works for them, what will help in their therapy and use tactile sensors in the playgrounds which might help them. In terms of design, we wanted to do something tactile. We wanted children to just feel different kinds of senses and build something that they can touch with their hands and also play with,” says Rai.  

“We included a xylophone for sensory stimulation, parallel pay bars for wrist and finger movements, a seesaw to encourage balance and body coordination, and a low height climber to ensure muscular movement and safety for the children while at play,” she adds.  

Rai admits that Anthill’s playgrounds aren’t completely inclusive yet, but they try to make them accessible. “We’re incorporating play elements used in playgrounds built for the visually-impaired in all our playgrounds. For example, we have introduced sound elements like xylophone or bells in all our playgrounds. The goal is to make playgrounds inclusive,” she says. 

Building ‘community champions’ 

What Anthill has learnt over the years is that it’s better to involve the community early in the process right from the site selection to what they are designing. When they involve the community from the beginning, they take greater ownership of the playgrounds. Typically, what Anthill does is build a playground, and hands it over to the community to take care of it. 

But how do they obtain community buy-in for these playgrounds? “When we work in a new geography, there’s always a local organisation or NGO who might have been working in these communities for years and already have that relationship built with them. When they bring us in, there is that sense of respect and trust already established when we go in. On our end, we also spend time with people explaining to them what structure is going to come up here,” says Rai. 

To maintain costs, Anthill largely procures materials locally and employs local labour. 

“Given the elements that we’ve designed are simple and basic like tires and metal drums, and engage in recycling and upcycling, it doesn’t make sense to transport things from Bengaluru to Tripura. We procure materials locally because it saves cost, available locally. Where it becomes challenging is to ensure the quality that we want in these elements,” she explains. 

“To overcome these concerns, we have a set of vendors in Kolkata, Delhi and Bengaluru, and we transport these joineries from one central hub to wherever we are building playgrounds. Elements like tires and metal, we procure locally because those are like the bigger bulk of what we kind of use to design these playgrounds. Given we have now built playgrounds in 22 different states, we have identified vendors and all of these communities,” she adds. 

Also, as stated earlier,  Anthill doesn’t take ownership of the playgrounds they build. 

“We are just facilitators who are enabling the local community or the school to build a playground. We bring in funding with the help of a corporation and provide our expertise in how to construct the playground. But after those six days of intervention, our major role is complete in building the playground and we hand it over to the community,” she says. 

Whether this handover period is over one or three months, it varies based on where the playground is located. They often complete building the playground in six days. 

“On the last day, we do a quality check with the corporate who’s funding the project and the local headmaster, and make sure that the playground we’ve constructed meets all the basic quality measures. And then we proceed towards our adoption plan. We identify one community champion. It could be anyone from a headmaster to a teacher or an alumni of that school, who was involved in building that playground and is happy to volunteer their time. We maintain correspondence with them. After one month, we contact them to do a basic check on how children are playing in these playgrounds. We have a questionnaire that they answer to help us assess the impact of this playground. We get both quantitative and qualitative feedback and whenever we’re building a new play element, we receive some extra feedback,” she explains. 

‘Our playgrounds are like IKEA blocks’ 

Apart from handing their playgrounds over to communities, once a year (or once in two years) Anthill organises a drive where their team travels and conducts checks to ascertain the state of our older playgrounds. Making matters easier, their playgrounds are low-maintenance. 

“Since our playgrounds are DIY, we do not refabricate (play elements like) a conventional merry go round. If there’s a screw coming loose, you have to replace the merry go round entirely. Our playgrounds are like IKEA blocks. You can fix them, take them off when you want and put them in another place held together by nuts and bolts,” claims Rai. 

To facilitate play for young children, Anthill Creations has come up with a variety of innovations to facilitate greater inclusivity and work within the confines of different circumstances. For example, they came up with the concept of a Play Library. “So, we used smaller tires to create seating spaces in a more interesting way where the entire space felt very inviting for children to play. We had basically converted a library into a play area,” recalls Rai.  

However, one of Rai’s favourite innovations in recent years is this concept called ‘Playground on Wheels’ which Anthill has developed. “And this idea honestly came when we were going around finding spaces in Mumbai and Bengaluru on where we can build these playgrounds for schools that contained three or four storeys and nothing else,” she says.   

In Mumbai, she recalls a teacher telling her that her students really needed space to play. 

“So we came up with this concept of Playground on Wheels, which is basically a truck converted into a playground. It can be shared amongst different neighbourhoods and it can go from one place to another. Once the truck playground arrives at a location and opens up, you’ll find climbers, sandbox and other tactile elements that allow children to play in groups. Whenever the truck arrives, it becomes play time for those children,” she explains.

“It’s a bit like ice cream trucks coming around, but also signifying to children that this is their playtime. In the next couple of months, we will build our first prototype of that truck. We also won an award from the Government of India for designing this Playground on Wheels and hoping it will be implemented very soon,” she adds.

Have you come across any innovative ideas or construction executed in playgrounds in your city? We’d love to hear all about it. Send pictures and information about the playground to editorial@thebetterindia.com with the subject line “Childhood Dialogues”.

(Edited by Divya Sethu; Images courtesy Anthill Creations)

The fondest memory that Portia Putatunda has of her departed father is of him playing and singing nursery rhymes with children.

“He was very fond of children. I always observed how he engaged them. During playtime, he would recite tables and rhymes to teach them. He would visit rural areas and distribute books to children for free. This memory is so deeply embedded and always inspires me,” she tells The Better India.

Carrying her father’s efforts forward, today, Portia runs a free boarding school under Planet Spiti Foundation in Komic, Himachal Pradesh, which is the highest village in India. A teacher, a caretaker, and in many ways, a mother to these underprivileged children, Portia takes care of their education, provides food, and supports their overall growth.

‘An attempt to be close to my father’

Born and raised in Ranchi, Jharkhand, Portia completed her graduation in journalism from Kolkata and landed an internship in The Times of India.

“I always wanted to pursue journalism. After working with TOI, I worked with many other organisations. I was a news producer at CNN before I decided to quit journalism,” informs the 32-year-old.

Always fond of travelling, she visited Spiti Valley in 2013 for the first time. “I found peace and fell in love with the place. I loved travelling and visiting such places, but at that time I had no clue I would end up living in the valley itself,” she says.

When she made her second and final trip to Spiti, Portia had lost her father and was slipping into depression.

In 2018, the valley called out to her again and she re-visited the place. “The first time I visited the place, I was a happy, chirpy and highly motivated individual, but this time, I was a lost and grieving soul,” she shares.

She continues, “I lost myself when I lost my father. He had always been my support system. I went into depression and nothing felt right. I kept focussing on the fact that he was gone and could not feel any connection to him.”

Searching for this lost connection to her father is what paved her way to Spiti. “I thought, if I am high up in the mountains, then I’ll be closer to heaven and hence my father,” she says.

Portia stayed in Kaza with a local family for a month and started teaching their children. “I wanted to spend more time in the mountains and this family took me in. I would teach their kids in return and it was a great experience. One thing that I noticed was that education, especially for the underprivileged kids, was in a very bad shape and I wanted to do something about it,” she says.

In 2020, she quit her job and career and moved to Spiti. “It took me a lot of courage to give up my life in Mumbai where I was working and move to Spiti for good. Everyone called me stupid for doing that, but I had to do it. It was a step closer to my father and also to finding my purpose in life,” she shares.

From Kaza to Komic

Unsure of the first steps to take, Portia went to children playing on the streets and parks to approach them.

“I honestly did not know what I was doing. I just spoke to the kids playing on the streets and told them that I will give them crayons and sheets, and teach them art. This intrigued them. Initially, only a few showed up. I would sit under a tree in Kaza and teach these kids how to speak English, sing rhymes, and draw,” she says.

Word spread among the little ones about the crayons and watercolours, and they started to show up in larger numbers. “There was a time when close to 40 children used to show up to learn. This gave me the motivation I needed to take this up seriously,” she says.

Portia visited remote villages in the area and realised how the children in those areas do not have any access to education. “There was no way those kids would walk all those hours to reach Kaza to study with me. Besides, the parents did not understand the need for education. They were very reluctant to send their children to school,” she says.

As Kaza was a tourist hub, Portia was unable to find a reasonably priced place to set up a small school and a library. “I also wanted to set up a dormitory and a kitchen for children who do not have a home to go to. I was running out of money and needed a cheaper place,” she says.

This is when she got to know about a place in Komic which was up for rent at a very low price. “Renting the place is Komic seemed the right thing to do. This way I would be able to reach the children living in the remotest areas,” she says.

In 2022, she moved to Komic and rented the place to start a free boarding school under her foundation —  Planet Spiti Foundation.

Following her father’s footsteps

“When I think about it, my greatest motivation is my father. All of this work and my foundation are a tribute to him. I’m just continuing what he started,” she says.

Moving to Komic was the first step towards her dream but what Portia was not aware of was the problems that would follow. “The major issue that I faced was convincing the parents to let their children go to school. They would say “kya karega padh ke, momo bech ke bhi paisa kama lega” (What will my child do with education? They can earn even by selling dumplings),” she says.

She continues, “I would spend hours talking to them and ask them to send them to school. At first, many were unmoved but slowly they caved in. Moreover, if I take a child and give them food, shelter and education, it lightens their burden.”

She started her boarding school with three children and the number has grown to 10 presently.

Calling herself “mother” to those children, she says, “These children are not orphans and are not abandoned by choice but by poverty. Around 50 percent of these kids do not have a surviving parent, but the rest have parents who can’t raise them. This is where I come in,” she says.

‘The children keep me going’

Every morning Portia wakes up to the sound of the children outside her window.

“They would call me Portia madam and giggle at my window. I believe this is the best way to wake up every morning. After waking up, the first thing I do is to light up the tandoor to heat up the classrooms,” she says.

“We use firewood or cow dung for the tandoor and I cook on top of that sometimes. I prepare breakfast and the kids get ready,” she says.

The children start their day with a small assembly and then head to their classes. “I teach them everything from mathematics and science to English and art. I also conduct many activities like gardening, dancing, etc throughout the week to keep the learning wholesome,” she adds.

The children’s age group is between three and 10 years old. The classes go up to 5 o’clock in the evening.

“A girl, who is older than other children, takes one class at my school. She used to be very shy. But today, she helps me in taking care of the children,” she shares.

“I love living and studying with Portia ma’am. I am studying hard to be the best student and grow up to be a doctor. Earlier, I was shy and couldn’t speak Hindi or English, but now I’m teaching seven younger kids and getting paid a small token amount for it too. It is very exciting as I can now buy gifts for my grandma and send them home,” says Tanzin Norzom.

Talking about the hurdles, Portia says, “The main issue that I have been facing for quite some time is funding. I built this place with my savings and there have been months when I am unsure how I will buy vegetables and food for us. However, something or the other always works out and we end up having just enough money,” she says.

“My concerns have always been — what next? I have always had this feeling ‘aukaat se bahar ki zimmedari leli’ (Did I take up a responsibility that I am not capable of fulfilling?). I am capable of undertaking the primary education of these kids. But I am looking at prospective schools which can take them in when they will need secondary education,” she says.

“Self-doubts keep bothering me, but what keeps me going is the smile on all these little faces. These children are so untouched and pure. I believe that I am just a medium, and it was the fate of these kids that brought me here,” she adds.

About her journey of healing from her father’s loss so far, Portia says, “I have had my fair share of low moments in life. There was a time in my life when I thought that I will never be able to feel connected with my father. Now, all I want is to have good things to share when ‘I see him again’. Even if it means making a difference in just one child’s life, it will be enough.”

If you wish to help Portia, you can reach her at 93680 68121. (As Komic is a remote village with low network connectivity, messaging through WhatsApp would be the best option.)

Edited by Pranita Bhat

What fuels this love for a subject that is often dreaded by most of his classmates? 

Prince says his mentor Savya Mittal is the reason behind making these classes “exciting and fun”. Savya is one of the 100 student volunteers who has registered on the ‘Volunteers for MCD Schools’ mobile app, an initiative by Delhi resident Anant Bagrodia, who himself is a student in Class 12 at the Vasant Valley School.

While Prince is in awe of how Math can be simplified to such a degree, Savya, too, thoroughly enjoys the process of teaching. While the two spread out their notes, ready for another class of learning mixed with fun, Anant says this was exactly the motive with which he launched the mobile app. 

“It all started as a passion project,” he explains.  

A decision to tutor kids 

The 16-year-old, who is currently in the thick of his own studies and extracurriculars, thinks back to when an anecdote shared by his mother ended up shaping this unique journey. 

Shivani, Anant’s mom would dedicate hours teaching underprivileged children in MCD schools as part of a volunteering project. Some time in January, she recalled to her son how among the many children she would tutor, one child had caught her attention. Prince, as she later told Anant, was a bright child who could grasp concepts well with the right tutoring and help. 

“But he is struggling right now,” Anant’s mother said. Intent on helping the young boy in some way, Anant took up the challenge and decided to dedicate two hours every week to this. Over video call, he and Prince would bond, learn the nuances of English grammar and the former would solve the latter’s doubts.  

This continued for two months and Anant’s friends — who had observed how this experience had changed him — wanted to help too. “However, while many fellow students were interested in teaching underprivileged kids, there was no system in place for the same,” recounts Anant, adding that it was only during the pandemic that the state of educational infrastructure became evident and gave him the final push he needed to come up with a solution. 

“With school having shifted online, countless children from government schools who lacked the facilities of a computer and internet connection lost out on the opportunity to attend school for almost two full years.” This, says Anant, meant they fell behind in terms of being on par with other kids their age who had access to tech. 

Delving deeper into the research, he discovered that the 2020 Annual State of Education Report states that only 8.1 per cent of children in government schools attended online classes.

This, he points out, led to a significant educational gap that only worsened as the pandemic wore on. The problem wouldn’t end, but rather intensify as schools would reopen, he thought. This is because to catch up on the lost time, these children would require additional support to bolster their understanding and supplement their education. 

“I witnessed this myself, as I was engaged in tutoring Prince,” he notes. “Like Prince, there were so many other students who might need urgent support, whose parents may not be able to afford tuition classes without incurring a heavy financial burden.”

This web of problems had one solution.  

Creating an app that can catalyse learning 

While deciding on the target group for his experiment, Anant chose the MCD school children of Delhi. The reason lies in the fact that these schools lacked the digital infrastructure to conduct online classes during the pandemic. 

The months spanning May 2022 to July 2022 were spent negotiating his plans with the school authorities, detailing how the extra tutoring would greatly benefit the kids. The latter was in heavy agreement with Anant’s proposal. Now it was time to get started on the app. 

Having always held a fascination for technology, machine learning, and data science, Anant applied this repertoire of skills and, by September that year, was ready for the launch. “The platform links students in need of support, with willing student volunteers. Through this model, I hope to inculcate a spirit of volunteerism in the youth and address educational inequalities brought to the fore by the pandemic, before it’s too late.”

Today, there are 19 MCD schools across Delhi — including areas like Kailash Colony, Vasant Vihar, Hauz Khas, Defence Colony, and Lajpat Nagar — which are being helped through the app. The app is available to download on the Google Play store and has over 100 student volunteers who have registered to dedicate their time and skills to helping these children. 

“Students from Class 6 to Class 10 can volunteer,” says Anant. “Once they register on the app, the principal of the concerned MCD school will reach out to them explaining the needs of the students who need special attention.” 

Not only do these student volunteers help the kids with maths, science, English, history and other academic subjects, but also conduct chess workshops, music lessons, life skill training, activities like solving the Rubik’s Cube, basketball training, and more. 

These classes are conducted at a time that is mutually decided upon by the school and the student volunteer depending on the convenience of both. While sometimes they take place after school hours, sometimes it is on weekends.

Rahul Kumar, who studies in class four at the MCD Primary School in Andrews Ganj, says his favourite class was the chess workshop taught by Saara Mehta. 

“I learnt chess from Saara, who was very kind and understanding. She helped me learn how to play chess step by step,” he adds. These activities cultivate a spirit of eagerness among the children, expanding their horizons beyond the four walls of the classroom and introducing them to so much more. 

The student volunteers, too, say these classes are thrilling, to say the least. Saara, who studies in Class 11 and has been tutoring for three months, says the experience has been enriching. “It has become a highlight of my week, something I eagerly anticipate. The children I work with display remarkable intelligence, and witnessing their curiosity and growing  interest  towards  learning chess has been truly fulfilling and personally rewarding.”

Anant, meanwhile, is constantly looking at expanding this idea to reach out to more schools across Delhi. The young changemaker recently raised funds from friends and family and donated 30 tablets to three of the MCD schools, enabling smarter integration of technology into the curriculum. Through the outreach created by the app, they have managed to help over 600 students, he notes. 

Looking back at the trajectory of this unique endeavour and how it has shaped him personally, he says he feels grateful. A love for imparting knowledge combined with an idea has now turned into a beacon of hope for many students across the national capital. 

If you’d like to be a student volunteer, you can download the app here and register yourself. 

Sources 

Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2020 Wave 1, Published on 28 October 2020

Her dream was to take education to one of the remotest areas of the Sundarbans and it was born in 2012 during her first visit to Hingalganj, an island on the Ichamati River at the Indo-Bangladesh border of West Bengal. For nine years now, Satarupa has been running the Swapnopuron Welfare Society (SWS) in Hingalganj.

Swapnopuron, which means “a dream come true” in Bengali, is one of the first English-medium schools in the heart of Sundarbans. With five centres spread across connected islands, Swapnopuron has impacted over 1700 children since its inception.

Satarupa generously carved out some time for me while juggling meetings in Swapnopuron’s Kolkata office and planning her trip to the Sundarbans for the weekend. Here’s her story of infectious determination, unwavering faith, and tireless hard work.

A Sewing Machine and the Road Trip of a Lifetime:

It all started when Satarupa’s Toronto-based aunt was visiting India and working on her annual ritual of making a few donations to people in need. This time she was looking for a sewing machine to help skill a community of women in the Sundarbans. So Satarupa dug out one of her late grandmother’s favourite possessions — a Singer machine that had been idling untouched for years.

Joining her aunt, she took a 3.5-hour-long ride over 86 km from Kolkata and reached Katakhali village in Hingalganj. The village mainly comprised families of beedi workers, fishermen, a few farmers and daily wage labourers. With the everyday struggles of survival being the main focus for residents of the cyclone-prone region, education had taken a backseat.

Satarupa distinctly remembers seeing kids “who were either playing in the mud or rolling beedis.”

“I couldn’t help but compare those kids to my 7-year-old daughter back home. When in preschool, my daughter had access to things like a toddler gym class, a group of peers, and many privileges. In contrast, I was seeing these kids who might never get a chance even to see a decent playground. Could I do something about it?” she says.

The region has several government schools, but the quality of education was dismal, and kids mostly went there just to receive mid-day meals. As a result, many dropped out and got pulled into child labour in the business of making beedis.

Bikash Biswas, a 35-year-old English teacher and branch coordinator with Swapnopuron, says that the area has over 20 government schools. Still, they lack all the required facilities to give these children a safe, nurturing environment.

A resident of Hingalganj, Bikash has a Masters in English Literature and Diploma in Teachers’ Education. He completed his education in a government school in Hingalganj itself and went to college and university in Hooghly. The difference between his time at school and government schools in the region now, he says, “is the way teachers taught. Twenty years ago, the teachers here were motivated. Today, due to poor facilities, lack of infrastructure, and skewed teacher-student ratios — that dedication has dwindled.”

(Determined to make a difference, Bikash has been a teacher since 2007. Having begun with the same government school where he was a student, he has now been working with Swapnopuron since 2018.)

Upon Satarupa’s arrival in Hingalganj for the first time, few people in the village quickly learnt that she was a teacher. While she had been observing the kids, their parents were observing her. Just before she could leave, they approached and asked her to teach their kids some English.

“I remember casually saying that I would love to come down sometime, but I never really thought I would”, says Satarupa. At the time, she was a middle-school teacher of Economics at a renowned school in Kolkata. On that day in the village, she had a young child back home, a full-time career, a conservative joint family — there was no way she could be back to help.

But, extraordinarily, a few months later, she found herself on a boat ride back to Hingalganj. A firm believer in having a purpose in life, Satarupa says it was the “call of the universe, and she had to answer it.”

TGIF! For the Most Beautiful Reasons:

Every Saturday morning, Satarupa would take the 6:20 am local train to Hasnabad station. From there, a rickshaw ride would take her to the Dasha river bank, followed by a boat ride across the river, and finally an auto-rickshaw ride to Hingalganj. There, she would teach kids till three in the afternoon and make plans for the next week on her way back home.

“I used to do my job at the school five days a week. But I’d always wait for Saturday — a day of all things freedom and happiness. Crossing the river, teaching the kids — it was an adventure for me,” she laughs.

These initial Saturdays involved speaking to parents, counselling those who were not sending their kids to study, gathering kids, and teaching English. In a few months, she had taken eight Katha (0.5 acres) of land on rent using her salary and had set up a makeshift school.

However, getting kids to come regularly was difficult. The area wasn’t easy for her to navigate alone. Though she was never scared or doubtful, not knowing anybody in the region was a hindrance. Thus, one of the first stepping stones for Satarupa came in 2014, when she met a man called Aamir Hussain.

Aamir da, as she refers to him, was a high school teacher in Basirhat, a town located about 30 km away from Hingalganj. Some people told him about “this lady who travels every week to teach kids.” Intrigued, he reached out. Impressed by her dedication, he started supporting and encouraging her. He created space for her to work in the community by helping her speak to residents. And when Satarupa decided to hire the first few teachers to join her school, his wife was one of them.

But fate took a sad turn in 2016 when Aamir da passed away because of a heart attack. It came as a massive shock for Satarupa. Her strong pillar of support for four long years was no longer by her side.

The Moment of Truth and Triumph:

Even in his absence, Aamir da’s faith was always with Satarupa. Slowly, the work she had been doing started taking roots. Since many of the local teachers she hired didn’t have the adequate skills she required, Satarupa arranged for a teacher training programme at the National Institute of Creative Performance in Kolkata. She also used her salary to pay theirs.

“Convincing them to come to Kolkata once every week was a task in itself. I couldn’t have done it without Aamir da’s support. He helped me convince them by speaking to their husbands and families,” she adds.

Starting with 25 kids in Nursery, Lower Kindergarten and Upper Kindergarten classes, Swapnopuron slowly expanded to Grade 4 by 2016. But the moment of truth arrived with the realisation that kids were going back to government schools after Grade 4, where the lack of facilities would eventually take them several steps back.

Satarupa knew she had to set up a high school. “By this time, I had realised that my profession as a teacher in Kolkata alone was not giving me the happiness I sought. So I had to make a concrete decision — either I could continue with my full-time job, or I could set up a high school in Hingalganj.”

No prizes here for guessing – she quit her job, along with a very comfortable salary. But the choice came with hesitations about her family’s reaction. “I came from a strict family. Women needed permission to go so far away from home, all alone, and spend that much time at a strange place.”

Moreover, she had a daughter to look after. Thankfully, her husband Debashish Majumder, a businessman in Kolkata, was highly supportive, and her conviction won everyone else’s support as well.

Now, she had the fuel she needed to dedicate herself solely to her cause. Using her Provident Fund, Satarupa paid the first advance to lease another piece of land in September 2018, on which she built a structure of hay with ten rooms for Classes 5 to 8. In 2021, Swapnopuron expanded to Class 9. Today, the school charges a small fee of Rs. 100-150 per month, which is often waived off for those who can’t afford it.

A Steep Climb Up and Up:

In 2019, the school grew from 100 to 182 children, and the number kept increasing month on month. Satarupa hired more teachers. Impressed by her work, renowned changemakers in the city joined the organisation as board members. Well-wishers pitched in with donations, and her team started raising retail, institutional and CSR funds.

While following the CBSE curriculum, Swapnopuron focuses on a lot of activity-based learning for primary school. From craft and culture workshops to outdoor activities and storytelling sessions — they focus on the holistic development of children. To conduct such sessions, Satarupa invites experts at regular intervals. They have had people like accomplished storyteller Priyanka Chatterjee and students from Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, join them on the island.

The word about their work spread from home to home. Satarupa and her staff members went door to door, convincing parents to send their children to school every year.

In the process, she observed various issues in the community, which involved everything from men abandoning their wives for multiple marriages to children being married off. She felt, first-hand, the insecurities of women and children and resolved to help them.

Working with the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights, they started conducting several child protection and women empowerment workshops to ensure the schools, families, and society would work together to keep children in classrooms.

Come Cyclones and Viruses; the Dreams Went On:

Swapnopuron was among the few educational organisations in the country that could continue teaching despite COVID-19. Satarupa worked with her team to divide students into groups of those who had smartphones at home and those who didn’t.

They took a few weeks to prepare and then started online classes. Those with no phones received worksheets in their homes. Additionally, they trained mothers in the area to help kids during online classes. To support the families, the team also distributed 13,550 ration kits over ten months.

Just as the battle against COVID was being won, Cyclone Amphan struck and created havoc in the islands in May 2020. Swapnopuron braced itself again. With Satarupa’s encouragement, the team set up six community kitchens and served 76,100 meals over 21 days across Hingalganj and five neighbouring islands. They had to stop classes for a month because of the lack of electricity and phone network.

Hearing about their work, people started approaching the organisation to help — with funds and volunteers. And together, they began rebuilding projects in the Sundarbans, which included rebuilding houses, cleaning ponds, introducing pisciculture and vegetable gardens as means of livelihood, and several other projects supported by individual donors.

It was this work and their strong reputation that helped Swapnopuron draw the local administration’s attention. The administration was amazed to see their progress.

“I have been seeing Swapnopuron’s work not only as an educational institution, but also as an organisation that is helping empower the local community here. From relief work to empowering women, to bridging the gap in online education during COVID-19, they have done impressive work,” says Sukanta Sarkar, Upa-Prodhan, Hingalganj Panchayat.

The administration reached out to her via the Local Panchayat Sabhapati, Archana Mridha, asking if she would set up centres in other parts of the island. “I said we definitely would if they helped us with the places to set up centres. So they did, and today we have been able to set up five new centres in six months,” says Satarupa.

Bikash, who was very closely involved in the relief work, calls it one of the most complex and challenging things Swapnopuron has ever done. “We saw people in the remotest areas lose everything from houses and cattle, to all their belongings, including children’s books. Bainara village was one of them. So it meant a great deal to me when we were able to set up a free coaching centre for 205 kids from Bainara for five months after Amphan, followed by a permanent branch near the village,” he says.

One Challenge, One Student, One Teacher at a Time:

Towards the end of 2020, Satarupa had started hiring teachers and faculty members from Kolkata and other parts of the country. But human resources, like financial resources, is a huge challenge for the organisation. “Convincing teachers to come to a cyclone-prone area is not an easy task. If I had to hire good teachers, I had to make sure they had a proper place to stay in the Sundarbans,” she says. Satarupa now rents a two-bedroom quarter for teachers to use whenever they stay in the area, and Swapnopuron has a total of 16 teachers.

Anupa Dutta, an educator with 20 years of experience, is one of them. She quit her job at a renowned school in Kolkata to work with Satarupa. Her role involves everything from teaching to counselling the teachers and parents.

“I live in Hingalganj for 3-4 days a week. My husband and son are not supporting my decision right now, but I have made up my mind,” she narrates excitedly from the teachers’ quarter while sharing in the same breath that there’s no electricity right now, and she’s sweating in the heat. “When our students are so determined to learn despite all the challenges they face here, why can’t we persevere?”

“Education is Love”

“It’s love,” says Satarupa, “the way every single subject can impact these children.” She tells me about Masoom Birla, the first kid to join her school – who is now in Class 6. Masoom’s childhood was scarred with hardships. Coming from an extremely underprivileged background, he has a sick father and an ailing mother at home. But no matter the circumstances, his will to learn drives him and inspires several teachers. “Masoom was one among the 12 of our students who participated in the Science Olympiad Foundation exam. He won a medal for his performance,” Satarupa shares with pride.

Talking about the impact, Satarupa emphasises depth over numbers. “While we began with a small number of kids, we have now seen an urge among the residents to educate their children. Women, who are running their families as single mothers, turn to us for hope today. They approach our teachers and ask for their kids to be educated. This is a tremendous success. Because unless we can impact the entire community in this way, we will not be able to have a long-term impact on the kids.”

Bikash and Anupa agree with this belief. “Ritika Ghosh, one of my students in Class 1, lost her brother to an accident recently. That little girl was so depressed that she was not able to come to school,” says Bikash, who continued to go to her place to counsel his parents. “I told them that they had lost their son, but their daughter was there. She would fulfil their dreams. I spoke to them till they were convinced to send her to school,” he says, adding how bright a student she is and how much she loves to dance.

Debjani Adhikari is another such student of Class 3. She lost her father in an accident, and her mother works as a beedi worker. “Many of these children are first-generation learners. Seeing these parents trying so hard to help their kids get educated always fills me with pride.”

A Dream Come True

Swapnopuron stands true to its name, not only for the students but for everyone involved.

“This place has taught me that nothing is impossible,” says Anupa. She helps me connect with Ruma Das, a resident of Hingalganj who sends her daughters Moumita and Sushmita to the school.

“Compared to the previous Bengali medium school where my daughters were going, Swapnopuron school has brought a massive change. For me, the biggest change is how they try to talk in English, even at home. English is important for one’s career, and I want my kids to learn,” says Ruma. Being a Naik with the Indian Army, Ruma’s husband is rarely at home. So she manages the house alone while taking care of her in-laws.

Her daughter Moumita, a student of Class 2, one among the thousands for whom these dreams are being woven, chimes in, “I learn English, Environment Studies, Social Studies, Math and Bengali at school, and I really like my school. Why? I like my school because it’s the most intelligent school. It is an English medium school,” she says.

Moumita’s smile is a testament to the fact that though it took many years, Satarupa Majumder never gave up on her dream.

(Edited by Vinayak Hegde)

Gill notes, “Some of us felt strongly that play was being missed out. When we went to schools, and then when our kids went, many things had changed. But there was no change in how schools or parents looked at play or physical activity — rather, we saw it diminishing from children’s lives for many reasons [including a sedentary lifestyle, the use of gadgets as opposed to active playtime, etc.]” 

And so, Sportz Village was set up to get children involved in play and sport as part of their core education. For roughly its first decade, the Bengaluru-based organisation worked with private schools that were able to pay for their sports and physical education programmes. Now, Sportz Village operates in 22 states — including Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Haryana, and West Bengal — and does significant work in rural areas as well.

Why play? 

Soumil explains that over the last 20 years, he had tried multiple models of getting children to play in sustainable and scalable ways before arriving on the school partnership model. 

“Providing adults — who control the child’s quality and quantity of place experience — with the right data and visibility around the process, as well as on the impact on goals that they care about (attendance, grades, fitness, sports, and so on) can help get 100 million children to play,” he opines. 

This, he notes, is possible through a structured programme that integrates with the school PE timetable, is designed for limited space and time, and provides resources, data, and visibility to the various stakeholders involved. Most of all, it gets “100% of the children to develop the right fitness, skills, and attitudes to play for life”. 

In 2017, the organisation launched Sportz Village Foundation to help raise Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds and expand its outreach in government schools. 

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A post shared by Sportz Village Foundation (@sportzvillagefoundation)

“The CSR law requires a corporate to invest only with a non-profit,” Gill says. “The new structure was important so that we don’t have constraints in raising funds for running programmes in government schools. The Foundation also allows us to achieve different goals, even though the structure of our programme and the quality of experience for children is uniform in private and public schools. In government schools that cater to children from underserved communities, there are different things ailing the system…the biggest piece is the socio-emotional skills.”

Some examples of socio-emotional skills are the ability to understand your thoughts and feelings and the ability to relate to others. These skills are widely recognised as vital to personal development and building healthy relationships.

50,000 lives transformed 

Gill says that keeping children, especially girls, in school was another one of their priorities, as the drop-out rate in government schools is quite high. 

The programme, which is called ‘Sport for Change’, functions at three levels. At the base is sports education, which involves teaching children basic physical and sports skills. “The core [of the programme] was to integrate children in play and sport because it was central to their experience and development process, regardless of whether they want to be athletes or not,” Gill said. 

According to Upma Kanswa Jain, who manages marketing and communication for the Foundation, over 50,000 students are currently engaged in their programmes. They also wanted to create a pathway for those who performed well in a sport and wished to pursue it further. So, the next level is their sports excellence programme PathwayZ, where interested or selected children are given expert training in their sports development centres (SDC). 

These centres are located within the schools in which they work. At the highest level, they take the best-performing student-athletes from the SDCs and admit them into the high-performance learning centres (HPLC), where they are also provided with match and tournament opportunities, and given scouting information about district, state, and national selection trials.

Of the 50,000 students in their programmes, over 2,200 are enrolled in sports development centres, with roughly 60% being boys and the rest girls. 

Finally, there are about 40 students in their high-performance learning centre, of which roughly half are boys and half are girls. “They get invited to trials that are happening at the district level,” Jain said. “If they perform, then state level, then national level events.”

Shaping athletes 

Different geographical areas offer different sports depending on the infrastructure available in the schools. For example, in Lucknow and Noida, children can choose between volleyball, cricket, football, kabaddi and athletics. The sports development centres operate six days a week and host sessions lasting two hours a day. Depending on the school, the sessions are held either in the morning or in the evening. The children are given t-shirts, shorts, shoes and additional nutrition in the form of bananas, eggs and milk. 

In situations where a child’s parents are reluctant to let them attend the sports programmes, the Foundation’s programme managers reach out to the parents to tell them how good their child is at sports, and that everything is paid for, so they don’t need to worry about any additional expenses. 

According to Ranvijay Gupta, one of the programme managers in Uttar Pradesh, the Foundation has faced the odd protest as well. “[The parents] tell us, ‘You people are spoiling our kids by making them go outside and play. This is not our culture. We cannot let them go outside and play’.”

At the same time, he makes it clear that it is possible to change the minds of even these parents. “It takes time,” he says. “I take the help of the other parents whose children are in the programme. I tell them to come and support us. We have a second meeting, and a third meeting. After that, we can mostly convince them, and they send their wards to us.” 

Based on his experience, around 70% of the responses they get from parents are positive.

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A post shared by Sportz Village Foundation (@sportzvillagefoundation)

Gupta (38) is in charge of the programmes in Lucknow & Noida-based schools supported by the HCL Foundation. He joined Sportz Village in 2010 and moved to the Foundation in 2017. According to him, they had just 5 to 10 girls in their SDCs when they started the programme, but now they work with over 600 girls on a regular basis. 

“We have helped more than 450 children play in district-level tournaments, more than 100 at the state level, and over 30 at the national level to date,” he said. “This is very satisfying for me.” 

Building role models 

One of those girls is Rukhsar, a Class 11 student at Govt. Girls Inter College Vikash Nagar in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. She is an avid kabaddi player and wants to represent India one day. However, previously, her circumstances held her back. Her father earns Rs 7,000 a month working in the private sector and did not support her desire to be a kabaddi player, though her mother and three siblings did. 

The Sport for Change programme cleared the way for her to play by giving her the opportunity to train with expert coaches and sports nutritionists, while also learning life skills such as leadership.

As a result, in just the last six months, Rukhsar has been selected for the Uttar Pradesh senior women’s state and junior girl’s state kabaddi teams. She is also a promising athlete in the triple jump, where she finished first at the district level. 

“My parents feel much better now because I am travelling to different places, meeting new people and my game is getting better,” Rukhsar says.

The Foundation hires specialised coaches to run its sports excellence programmes. The coaches must have played at the state level in their sport and hold a minimum qualification of a Bachelor’s in Education. However, as the organisation has grown, hiring good coaches has become a constraint because funds have not kept pace. 

They are also training children from their programme as coaches. Since the Foundation is relatively new, the first batch of potential coaches from within is only now on the horizon. “Very soon, we will hire two or three girls from our programme,” Gupta says. The advantage of having homegrown coaches is that they are already familiar with the programme, and being from the same community as the children, can sustain the programme and serve as role models too. 

Beyond the field of sport 

Sportz Village Foundation has conducted a number of studies to determine the impact of its programmes on education, health and empowerment. One of them concluded that in the roughly 390 schools supported by Ashok Leyland, the children were more likely to attend school and showed a 10% increase in fitness levels, 18 months after the programme was launched. 

Another study with the Sports Authority of Gujarat demonstrated a 23% increase in female participation in after-school programmes, two years after the launch of the programme. 

They also conduct an annual health survey, of which the most recent results claim that 95% of children improved their fitness levels, 92% improved their communication abilities and 78% developed greater emotional capabilities in the face of challenges. 

The Foundation has set ambitious goals for 2023. It wants to add 100,000 children to its programmes and enable over 1,000 student-athletes to perform at an elite level. Improving gender perception and inclusivity is another priority. 

“There are still some barriers in our society around gender,” Gupta says. “I feel that at the policy level, inclusivity should equally be a focus so that more talented girls can come forward without any hesitation, participate in sports and eventually win medals for India.”

“Nurturing athletes, especially girls, can serve as a way to create role models for children and youth of India, within and beyond the field of sport,” Gill says. 

Edited by Divya Sethu

Seema was taken aback when the conversation between the two families shifted towards discussing marriage rituals. At the tender age of 17, she found herself in an unexpected situation. Memories of her elder sister, who had also been married at a young age despite having only completed Class 6, came rushing back to her.

“I had no idea my marriage was getting fixed. After the family went, I protested to my father that I did not want to get married. My father asked me, ‘What will you do then?’,” recalls Seema in conversation with The Better India.

Within Bihar, 40.8 percent of women, representing four out of every 10, enter into marriage before reaching the legally mandated age of 18. Among the 38 districts in the state, 12 districts surpass the average prevalence of child marriage. Notably, Seema’s hometown of Jamui is one such district, along with Supaul, Purnia, Saharsa, and Begusarai.

Child marriage is closely associated with abject poverty and young girls are often forced to get married in the absence of education and awareness. But that day, Seema was able to break out of this cycle. “I told my father that I wanted to become an ANM (Auxiliary Nurse Midwife). Fortunately, he decided to support me, and my marriage talks stopped,” says the 22-year-old, a second-year student at RB Chandra Para Medical Nursing College, Jamui.

“If I hadn’t spoken up, I would have been forced into marriage like many other village girls. They marry young, become mothers early, and suffer health issues as they grow weaker. Today I feel empowered; all this was possible because of the efforts of Doctor Sir. It was due to his guidance that I was motivated to study,” she says.

For the past two decades, Dr Shankar Nath Jha, a paediatrician by profession, has volunteered to help children like Seema to use education as a tool for empowerment. Like Seema, he has helped 407 children from the Musahar community in the district to break the shackles of child marriage and labour.

Because of his efforts, today, Seema is able to afford her college fee of Rs 1.5 lakh and is also teaching around 30 children from her community in a village chaupal.

Empowering the Musahar community

Socially marginalised, the Musahar community is located at the bottom of India’s caste system. Musahar in Bhojpuri literally means “rat eaters”. They were often compelled to subsist on a diet of rodents. Although their main former occupation was to catch rats, they now mostly work as agricultural and brick kiln labourers.

The community lives in Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and some districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh. As per the 2011 Census, Bihar is home to at least 2.5 lakh Musahars.

Dr Jha, who has been in the medical service for the past 40 years, would often get patients from Musahar community in his clinic. Explaining their socioeconomic status he says, “Their children are malnourished. Even if their children die, they would not shed tears [because the death rate was high and they were often emotionally drained]. I would see skinny young girls with children in their arms. It would be very heart-wrenching to see that,” the 70-year-old tells The Better India.

“I would often wonder that if they get graduated or at least learn to read and write, their lives could get better. But there is low awareness in the community. They live in unhygienic conditions and are involved in child labour. Let alone girls, we would not find even boys who had passed Class 10. I wanted to work for these children,” he says.

According to The Musahar: A Socio-Economic Study by Patna’s AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies supported by the National Human Rights Commission, education among the members of the community was almost non-existent, the literacy rate is only six percent. “Development programmes of the Government had not reached them,” notes the study.

“Political parties also do not show any interest to work for them. They get their votes with free murga (chicken) and daru (alcohol). In schools, they were excluded and not allowed to sit with others,” informs Dr Jha.

Treating the root cause

In a bid to help these children, Dr Jha started visiting the shanties of the Musahar community living in the Dalit localities of the district. He decided to teach the children but found that it was difficult to stay at the place post-afternoon.

“Men would get drunk after 2 pm and walk lazily. It was challenging to convince them to send their children to study. The only advantage I had was people knew me and respected me because of my profession. No one protested when we started educating the children,” he adds.

Along with a non-profit Samagra Sewa Sansthan’s founder Makeshwar, Dr Jha started using some part of his income and spared some time off to visit the community. Gradually, he hired some teachers out of his own pocket to teach the children and engaged them in sports, dance, and debate programmes.

“We focussed on cleanliness, education, and employment. We started getting donations from individuals and my peers to distribute food materials, clothes, books, etc. Seeing this, more and more children got motivated and started joining the classes. These were all small steps, but the result was big,” says Dr Jha, who is also a senior advisor of the non-profit.

Today, nearly 5,000 children are associated with 85 centres [called Community Culture Education Centre] where 82 volunteers teach the children basic education so that they can be on par with their peers in schools. Since 2007 when the initiative started, as many as 5,000 children have been enrolled in schools. Currently, about 3,000 children are studying in the centres across Jamui.

“Once they are educated, they will be empowered to come out of the life of drudgery. Padha dogey to sab bimariyan door ho jayengi (Once you teach children, they will get rid of all adversities of poverty). Communities which did not know the importance of education are now seeing graduates among them. As a secondary benefit, girls have started resisting early marriages, children are leaving labour jobs and have started entering the mainstream,” he says.

For his work, Dr Jha was awarded the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Shiksha Puruskar, Bihar’s highest award in the field of education, by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in 2021.

“I have grown up playing with children irrespective of their caste or community. My parents have always taught me how to live harmoniously with all communities. It feels satisfying to do something for this [Musahar] community although I never thought this would have such a big impact. With the award, I got more recognition and support from peers, even from foreign countries. I will continue this work for the remaining years of my life,” he says.

(Edited by Pranita Bhat; All pictures courtesy: Makeshwar, Samagra Sewa Sansthan)

Sources:

National Family Health Survey-5 by Union Ministry of Health & Family Services.

Child Marriage in Bihar: Key Insights from the NFHS-5 (2019-21) by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) published in June 2022.

Study on the Musahar Community of Bihar by the AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna.

“A storyteller has the option of using plain narrative or combining it with a visual medium like drama or puppetry. In a plain narrative, the narrator has to be very expressive with words and the children have to understand exactly what is being said. This understanding is made easier by using puppets. In fact, I use speaking puppets minimally. The message should come through puppet play, the action,” she explains.  

Lata has been committed to innovative and socially relevant puppet-making for the past 37 years, and has earned repute in India and abroad. She trains teachers in puppetry in training colleges as well as institutions like Mt Carmel’s and Christ University in Bengaluru. Alongside, she conducts workshops for children and adults alike to share her passion for puppetry. 

Lata’s thematic puppet performances, conducted both online and offline, imbibe the principles of ‘theatre in education’ combined with her practice of storytelling and scriptwriting. She uses these to fuel her passion for reviving the art of storytelling through puppetry, and has received a state award as an innovative puppetry teacher. 

Behind the screen 

Lata recalls that her passion for drama and literature developed during her school days in Bengaluru. With the support of her teachers, she would set up plays on topics like world culture, mime entire poems, and explore her school’s puppet theatre. As an introverted child, she notes, she found it enjoyable to be able to speak from behind the screen. 

“An exciting period in school life was when [English actor] Jennifer Kendal and her family came to our school to conduct workshops. We were exposed to Shakespearean theatre for three years. Since we were a small group, we got the best of the interpersonal interaction,” relates Lata.  

After completing her BEd and MA in English, Lata became an English language teacher in Women’s Peace League school, where she taught for 12 years. She would get actively involved in staging plays at the school, which she enjoyed. Exposure to drama early in life had changed her thought process. As a teacher, it made her want to try out new things. 

‘How I became a puppeteer’ 

The turning point in her life and career came when she was asked to represent her school and the state of Karnataka at a 45-day puppetry training programme held in Shillong in 1986. The programme was organised by NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training), New Delhi. 

This was her first exposure to the outside world. There were around 100 teachers from all parts of the country, and the theme was national integration, wherein participants learnt patriotic songs. 

“It was an enjoyable experience. I was exposed to puppeteers from different regions and we would exchange our skills and experiences of training. Famous puppeteers were our mentors.”

“After the programme, I received a certificate that stated that I had been trained in the ‘educational use of puppetry’. Participants had to come back and spread the message of integration in their states. Without knowing it, I had been chosen as a resource person in puppetry for the department of education,” says Lata. Subsequently, she has attended conferences and presented papers for NCERT. 

Tapping into your ‘inner child’ 

According to Lata, making puppets and participating in puppetry shows improves communication, interpersonal, literacy and motor skills of children. It is also therapeutic as it taps into the ‘inner child’, and hones both creative and critical thinking skills. 

“Getting involved in puppetry brings about positive behavioural changes and improves socialisation as well,” asserts Lata. 

As an educational tool, puppetry also makes learning more interesting for children, and develops observation skills in children. “This media is powerful because of the visualisation involved, the movement or action, and because it facilitates language development,” she explains.  

Two developments have given a boost to puppetry in India. In accordance with the National Education Policy 2020, which suggests experiential learning (learning by doing an activity) for all age groups, the Central Government has developed a toy-based pedagogy to help school children in the age group of 3 to 18 years understand basic concepts of science and mathematics, as well as develop sensory and motor skills. Alongside blocks, puzzles, masks and sand art, puppets are to be used as tools by schools to teach children. 

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Another development that Lata opines augurs well for the future of puppetry in India is that the art has been included in the BEd curriculum for the past few years. “I was asked to address 100 students who had enrolled for the BEd course on the subject of puppetry. We made puppets out of newspaper. Puppetry can be used to teach English, mathematics, science and social studies,” she says.   

Twist endings, creativity unleashed

The topics of the puppetry shows are usually socially relevant such as personal hygiene, Swachch Bharat, health issues, community living, national integration, behaviour of children during COVID, career counselling and guidance, and messages to protect the environment. 

For writing scripts around these, Lata also involves the children. She has prepared subject kits with puppets for topics like shapes, rainbow colours, food chain, Swachch Bharat, and national integration. 

At times, Lata performs shows based on books. She has created puppet performances based on the ‘The Little Red Hen’, ‘Three Little Pigs’, ‘Birbal’s Khichdi’ and on the story of Christmas, to name a few. 

She narrates an interesting incident. “We were staging the story of the lion and the rabbit and how the rabbit escapes by outwitting the lion. In the traditional story the lion falls into the well and dies. But, in a twist in the tale, the children decided that they wanted to teach the lion a lesson but did not want him to die. So, in their ending, the lion emerged from the well feeling repentant.” Even Lata did not know of this change!

‘Joy and meaning’ 

While there are many styles of puppetry, Lata specialises in ‘glove puppets’, where the connection between the puppeteer and the puppets is closer. When she is giving a demonstration on puppetry, she also shows how string, spoon and leather puppets are used. Different energy levels are needed depending on the style of puppetry, she says. 

“Puppets are commonly made of paper, thermocol and cloth. I use handmade paper and, as a result, the puppets have lasted over the years in spite of wear and tear due to usage by children,” says Lata. 

She also likes combining songs with storytelling, which makes her shows more interactive, as the audience can sing along. Each performance requires a rehearsal of a maximum of three days. At times, she carries a makeshift screen with her. At others, she improvises on the set with tables and sheets. She has to select the right indoor place as voices won’t carry in the open.   

“In 1992, we had to perform at the Visvesvaraya museum on the topic of space. I was wondering how to show stars or a rocket fly.  We were helped by the museum team to prepare a slide show that ran in parallel with the puppet show. This was an innovation that has helped me on numerous occasions. I used it when I helped a group of children put up a puppetry show at a community programme on infectious diseases at St John’s Medical College,” narrates Lata.   

Recorded voices are not used in puppetry, as live voices make the performance more engaging. But Lata has introduced recorded music in some performances instead of live orchestra.

“Puppetry brings joy and meaning to my life in several ways. I am sharing my own passion with others. I am constantly innovating and being more creative. For instance, I am now involved in using puppetry to introduce different kinds of masks in India. My work involves a lot of research, which I love doing. I also feel I am contributing to popularising the skill of puppetry. Karnataka is famous for puppetry, but has not received sufficient recognition. Along the way, I am encouraging new puppetry artists,” she says.  

Edited by Divya Sethu; Photo credits: Lata Satagopan

At a learning centre in Lumding, Assam, children from the local tribes come faithfully every day to engage in a slew of activities such as reading, writing and listening to stories told by the village grandmothers. Some of these children live at the centre itself, with their food taken care of by the attached community kitchen. There are also facilities for mothers who are victims of domestic violence to stay here. 

The centre is a hub of laughter, chatter and progress. Similar to this centre in Lumding, 160 others have been set up across Northeast India, West Bengal, Karnataka, and Goa. And at the helm of these Ananya Paul Dodmani, founder of Tribal Connect, a foundation working tirelessly to uplift and empower indigenous communities, like the Kunbis of Goa and Uttar Kannada, the Siddis in Karnataka and Karbi, Dima and Kuki tribes of Assam.

Ananya’s is a tale of valour, a journey of persisting every single day to ensure that tribal communities in India finally get the safe space and respect they deserve. 

‘It started when I was in school.’

The communities that Ananya works with have had a long history of being marginalised. For instance, the Siddi community remains among India’s most neglected tribes and have spent generations in abject poverty. Additionally, many of the tribes in Northeast India lack access to basic facilities like education. 

Ananya recounts her early schooling years in Assam, where a majority of her friends and neighbours hailed from Santhals and other tribal communities. “There was a certain disparity between their ways of life and our ways of life,” she notes. 

It wasn’t until she was in class 8 that these incidents began to become more vivid. Ananya shares that most of her friends who stayed in the school hostel wouldn’t return after the summer holidays. Their parents would tell the school that they had contracted malaria during the holidays and passed away. Ananya would hear these stories with dismay, all the while feeling guilty about her own privileges. 

One particular day she was made more aware of these privileges while at a shop with her caretaker. A local tribe woman was buying a product that cost Rs 10. But when she handed the shopkeeper a Rs 20 note, he stubbornly insisted that it was actually a Rs 10 note, and refused to give her change. “I realised these people needed to be taught at least basic things like recognising money denominations, writing their own name, reading bus numbers and train timings, etc,” Ananya says. 

And that’s the moment she realised if they couldn’t access these learnings anywhere, she would create a space where they could. 

“I began to look out for kids loitering around and I would ask them to come to the local school, where I found an empty space where I could have them sit and learn basic topics. I would read stories to them too.” 

Soon Ananya was joined by other batchmates who were also keen on imparting their knowledge to the local tribal kids. The team she formed would travel across the villages of Northeast India on weekends, raise funds through cultural activities, football matches, and more. 

When Ananya passed out of school and went to college, she began convincing her professors to conduct exchange programmes that would also facilitate these children to travel and learn. But then, an incident shook Ananya’s world, compelling her to make tribal upliftment a goal she wanted to dedicate her life to. 

‘My dad was kidnapped.’  

Though Ananya had grown up hearing incidents of people from local tribal communities being kidnapped, she only realised the gravity of the situation when her own father was abducted one day in 2002, she says. “You’ll never know the heat of the fire until it burns your own house.” 

“It was traumatic,” she recalls. “For seven days, he was tortured, beaten and was only able to escape when he jumped from the third floor of the building where he was being kept hostage. He ran several kilometres to reach the closest railway station to reach home. This incident had a heavy impact on my brain.” 

While at the time she was fuelled with angst for what had happened, looking back now she says a lack of education compels people to resort to kidnapping others for money. “These unconstitutional people have been brainwashed into doing these things. It’s only when one does not have money to put food on the table for their child that they do things that are not constitutional,” she adds. 

Ananya knew that while she had been teaching those around her the basics of education, there was a dire need for her to increase the numbers and scale to see visible impact. Driven by this fire to create a change, she started her first learning centre in the same village where her father had been held hostage following being kidnapped (a name she avoids mentioning). 

She started small, with the resources she had at the time. She explained her plans of setting up a centre where children could learn, and the youth could get employment opportunities to the gram buda (headman) of the village. But, she notes, they couldn’t envision her dream. So she started under a banyan tree in 2003 with five kids keen on learning. 

Today, the same concept is applied at the 160-odd learning centres across India, albeit in a more organised form. Though these centres have existed for years, Ananya formally established the organisation in 2019. 

A welcome space for everyone

At the learning centres, language is no barrier. Ananya frequently employs local youth so they can teach the children in a language they understand best. “I collaborate with any NGO or foundation that can help us in bringing about change,” she notes. 

In 2019, when Ananya got married and moved to South India, she found many tribes facing the same issues as those she had seen in the Northeast. “I began working with tribes such as Siddi, Halakki and Kundi.” 

She explains that education is free at the learning centres, as are meals thrice a day. There is also a community farming model through which the children and men can grow their own food, which then goes into the meals. A unique concept is that grandmothers are housed with the children so that they can look after them. This benefits both, says Ananya. At a time, 35 kids can be accommodated at a centre. 

There are also community centres for men who don’t have jobs. Here, they practise community farming to grow produce and sell it in the markets, while the leftovers are used in the community kitchens. Every learning centre is headed by three local youth, says Ananya so that the centres continue to thrive even while she is away. 

This was always something she wanted. “My work is often in conflict zones and I do not want the workings of the community centre to stop should something happen to me.”

‘I will persist no matter what.’

Aside from the work Ananya does for the community centres she also creates awareness related to menstruation and has reached “over 90,000 tribal women” through her workshops. These include teaching women to make sustainable pads at home, distributing pads to the women in villages and even introducing the concept of eco-friendly menstrual cups. 

With 700 volunteers, Tribal Connect is bringing a change in the lives of people in marginalised communities across the country. Ananya was awarded the Karamveer Chakra for her work in 2019. 

“Sometimes I see kids who come from broken homes to the centres only for the food. But in 10 days, they are transformed seeing the environment around and we inculcate habits of good learning in them,” she explains. 

She goes on to recount an instance where one of the girls stopped coming to the learning centre as she started menstruating and the family did not want her to leave home. “I sat outside their house for two nights, caught a cold and fever in the process, but did not budge until they promised she would be back at the centre.” 

Twenty two long years of persisting and Ananya is still going strong. 

How? 

“It is your willpower,” she affirms. “Our community centre isn’t always made up of walls. Sometimes it’s just a tent, washed away by the heavy rains every year or trampled upon by elephants at other times. But what sets us apart is that we rebuild every time.” 

To this she adds, “Everyone has trauma. It’s how you let it change your life that makes all the difference. I could have chosen to be a victim because of what happened to my dad, but instead I looked fear in the eyes and chose to start a centre right in that very spot.” 

“You have to be your own cheerleader. Always.” 

You can learn more about Ananya’s work here.

(Edited by Divya Sethu)

In a classroom where most students eagerly seek the teacher’s attention and recognition, Bindiya prefers to go into hiding. Whether it’s hiding beneath the desk, blending in with her friends, or even finding refuge behind the trees on the playground, she is excelling at the game of hide and seek, while her peers compete to answer the teacher’s questions.

Eventually, the teacher becomes aware of this behaviour and manages to locate Bindiya. Curiously, the teacher asks, “Bindiya, why do you hide? Please tell me.” 

After a brief moment of hesitation, she responds, “Sir, I’m afraid of questions. And if you don’t see me, then how will you ask me questions?”

This scene is part of P&G Shiksha’s new campaign film, illustrating the profound impact of the ‘invisible gap’ on children and their struggles to adapt within the classroom environment. The film further shares that “like Bindiya, over six crore children feel left behind in class” — according to the NAS (National Achievement Survey) 2021 report — and that “many of them eventually drop out.”

The campaign aims to emphasise the importance of unified efforts in guaranteeing that every child in India is provided with an empowering education, enabling them to shape a brighter future for both themselves and their communities.

What is the ‘Invisible Gap’?

“Many times, children struggle to keep up with what is taught in class. One concept, one subject, one class — can give way to a larger issue, where the child develops a gap in the fundamentals of education. When the child falls behind and the current learning level is not in line with the expected learning level as per the defined curriculum, it gives rise to a learning gap,” says Girish Kalyanaraman, Vice President of Marketing Operations, P&G India.

As a result, India is facing a significant “learning crisis”, in which educational accessibility has greatly improved, but learning outcomes have not kept pace. This crisis manifests in various ways among children, ranging from diminished confidence and making excuses to skip school, to reduced participation and a fear of expressing themselves.

Some children even resort to distraction and hiding when probed, as illustrated by Bindiya’s story. Unfortunately, these signs are frequently misinterpreted as naughtiness, lack of discipline, or disinterest, which only worsens the symptoms due to a lack of comprehension and support. These misconceptions primarily arise from a lack of awareness and understanding regarding the invisible gap.

The invisible gap manifests in several ways — making excuses to avoid attending school; demonstrating limited participation in classroom discussions and activities; experiencing fear or difficulty in expressing their emotions; displaying below-average performance in tests and examinations; exhibiting distraction and a tendency to hide when probed during class or at home.

How to make this learning gap visible?

“Our aim this year is to make this invisible gap visible, by creating awareness and urging meaningful action,” says Girish.

“We are attempting to spark conversations around the pertinent learning crisis impacting crores of children in our country. This gap arises when children fall behind and the current learning level is not in line with the expected learning level. To bridge this gap, P&G has been working with its partners through various programs — from leveraging advanced machine-learning-based tools to community-level learning camps.”

P&G Shiksha has adopted a three-pronged strategy to bring visibility to this gap:

1) Taking the lead on the urgent need for driving awareness — Through this campaign, their goal is to bring attention to the gap by generating nationwide awareness about this issue, which is frequently misconstrued as a child’s mischievousness or lack of interest in learning.

2) Tackling the issue on the ground — They say they are actively employing innovative approaches to reduce learning gaps and enhance learning outcomes. This includes implementing on-ground remedial learning interventions, early childhood education initiatives, and technology-based digital remedial learning methods.

3) Urging for collective action​ — While P&G Shiksha spearheads these on-ground interventions, it encourages everyone to join forces and take collective action. Each individual can contribute to this transformation by participating in an assessment test to identify learning gaps in the children around them and subsequently taking remedial measures to bridge those gaps. The test can be accessed on their website.

The assessment test has been created in collaboration with Educational Initiatives, the implementing partner for their digital remedial learning programme. The purpose of this assessment is to enable people across the country to identify learning gaps faced by children promptly. It also suggests ways to bridge these gaps.

The assessment is open to children in classes 1 to 10 and consists of 15 compulsory multiple-choice questions. These questions cover Mathematics, Science, and English, with five questions from each subject. The difficulty level of the assessment is determined based on the grade of the child. The questions align with the curriculum for each grade and aim to assess whether the child’s current learning level matches the expected level according to the defined curriculum.

If the assessment reveals that a child’s learning level is below the expected level, the screen provides recommendations and remedial actions that parents, or guardians can take to bridge the gap.

The Motivation 

The flagship CSR programme of P&G India, called ‘P&G Shiksha’, was introduced in 2005 with a mission to offer access to education for underprivileged children in the nation. As the country progressed, P&G Shiksha underwent a transformative journey, expanding into a comprehensive education initiative that encompasses all aspects of learning.

It focuses on enhancing children’s learning outcomes by bolstering educational infrastructure, addressing learning gaps, and empowering marginalised communities through education.

Girish says, “At P&G, our endeavour is to be a ‘Force For Growth’ and a ‘Force For Good’ in the communities we serve, and to touch and improve people’s lives. This is naturally woven into the way we work every day. Our initiatives are in line with the motto outlined in the New Education Policy — Educate, Encourage, Enlighten. Over the years, we have supported more than 3,000 schools impacting over 35 lakh children in need.”

These programmes are aligned with the Government’s Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan and the National Education Policy, both of which emphasise the importance of providing equitable learning opportunities for all.

The initiatives currently spearheaded by P&G Shiksha

1) Infrastructure — In collaboration with the NGO Round Table India, P&G Shiksha is actively involved in improving education infrastructure in diverse ways. This includes constructing new classrooms, developing playgrounds, and enhancing health and hygiene facilities for children — such as providing clean drinking water and separate toilets for girls and boys in schools.

“By undertaking these initiatives, our aim is to create a learning environment that is more conducive to education. This, in turn, contributes to increased enrollment, decreased dropout rates, improved teaching efficiency, student motivation, and ultimately, a higher overall level of learning,” says Girish.

2) Community Remedial Learning — Through collaboration with the Pratham Education Foundation, P&G Shiksha is implementing innovative approaches to reduce learning gaps and enhance learning outcomes in communities. This is achieved through on-ground remedial learning interventions utilising both a community-based and an ‘in-school’ model. Trained volunteers from the community, along with teachers at the school, provide support for these programs.

“The objective of our remedial learning initiatives is two-fold — first, to accelerate students’ progress in school and second, to strengthen their conceptual understanding of crucial subjects. As a result of these interventions, at the end of the programme last year, over 70% of students were able to read at their expected learning levels, compared to less than 25% at the beginning of the intervention,” he notes.

3) Digital Remedial Learning — Through a partnership with Educational Initiatives, they are implementing ‘Mindspark’, an adaptive computer-based learning tool designed to address learning gaps in students. This tool combines pedagogy, teacher instruction, and a comprehensive learning management system to assess each student’s learning level and create a personalised learning path tailored to their specific needs.

4) Early Childhood Education Programme — In collaboration with the Pratham Education Foundation, P&G Shiksha’s efforts are directed towards nurturing children’s motor, cognitive, social-emotional, language, and creative skills.

5) Girl Child Education in Rajasthan — Through their partnership with Save The Children, they are working on dismantling gender-based barriers that hinder girls’ access to education in the country.

“As part of this initiative, we extend our support to 49 government-operated residential Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) schools and 36 regular schools across seven districts in Rajasthan. Our focus is on providing quality education to girls through comprehensive infrastructure and learning interventions. Additionally, we actively engage parents to emphasise the importance of continuous education and reduce dropout rates,” says Girish.

6) STEM Scholarships — They are actively involved in fostering opportunities for girls to pursue careers in STEM fields through the ‘P&G Shiksha Betiyan Scholarship Programme’ in collaboration with the Centre for Civil Society (CCS).

“Currently, women comprise only 14% of the STEM workforce in India, and we are committed to narrowing this gender gap. Our objective is to empower girls who aspire to pursue STEM education by providing vital financial assistance and mentorship support. Our ultimate goal is to facilitate the entry of skilled women professionals into manufacturing and production industries. Through this program, we have successfully collaborated with over 100 institutions, positively impacting more than 300 beneficiaries,” he explains.

“P&G Shiksha started as a programme to build schools across the country in line with the government’s mission. It has today evolved into a holistic programme that addresses some critical barriers to achieving quality education,” remarks Girish.

(Edited by Pranita Bhat; All images courtesy: P&G Shiksha)

These remarkable enhancements have resulted in a surge of enthusiasm among the children in the village to attend school. As a result, the student enrollment has grown from 76 to 136. 

So how did the change happen? For this, we will have to thank 39-year-old Veeranna Madiwalar’s efforts. 

“It didn’t occur overnight. It was a gradual journey, and everyone played a part in it,” he tells The Better India. “Today, the school stands proudly, and the students have a place they genuinely enjoy studying in.”

‘I wanted to give them what I didn’t have’ 

Born and brought up in a small family in Kaliwal village in Karnataka, Veeranna’s childhood was rife with struggle, he says.” “My parents were not stable financially for a very long time. My father was a daily wager and worked hard, just earning enough to bring food to the table.” 

Veeranna says that even as his father struggled to make ends meet, it was very difficult to pay his school fees. It was his uncle who supported his education. “He used to say that he saw a changemaker and artist in me, and he wanted me to complete my education.” 

One thing that Veeranna was sure about as a student was that he wants to make education better for future generations. 

“I studied in a government school too, and the infrastructure, teaching methods, and school grounds were never up to the mark. I always dreamt of bringing change as I grew up,” he says. 

“I remember my uncle introducing me to the world of Rabindranath Tagore. His literature amazed me and inspired me to write too. He believed in me so much that even today it motivates me.” 

After completing his schooling, Veeranna had to fund his higher education. 

“In 2001 I went to Kopla for higher education. To fund myself, I worked as a daily wage earner at a construction site for many months,” he says. 

After completing a Diploma in Education, he moved back to his taluk. “I joined an NGO that worked for the rejuvenation of lakes and wildlife. I used to earn Rs 750 for working there and by saving money, I was further able to do a master’s in English and Kannada,” he says. 

In 2007, his dream to become a government school teacher came true. 

It takes a village 

“I worked for four years before being made the headmaster of Nidagundi Ambedkar School in 2016. By that time I had saved money and was financially stable,” he says, adding that the rundown building and lack of infrastructure was reminiscent of his own school’s state. 

Using his own funds, he started small — first he planted a few trees across the campus, and launched repair work of the structure. “But I knew I could not fund the repair of the school alone and would need more help.” 

And so he used the power of social media to raise money. “I started posting pictures of the school with my repairs on Facebook. Word spread and, surprisingly, many people came forward to help me,” he says. 

Veeranna says he then had toilets constructed for students and staff, and repaired old furniture, alongside bringing in new furnishings. “I used to stay in the school after work hours to make this happen.” 

Even students began helping in the repairing and upkeep of the school. “A gentleman from Mysuru donated nearly Rs 1.5 Lakh for the school. Another person from Chanapatna donated a smart TV to the school,” he shares. 

It was the combined efforts of such people that the school is in such good shape now. “With the help of social media, I was able to get a good amount of donations, which helped build a language lab in school. The students, with the help of pictorial books and audio-visual resources, learn English and Kannada,” he says. 

‘I live my dreams through my students’ 

Until 2016, the school had a low attendance rate of about 76 students. Since its transformation, the enrollment has increased to 136, says Veeranna.  

“The change is amazing,” says Suleman Sheikh, the cluster resources person of the school. “If you would have seen the building back in 2016, it was in a very sad state. I am one of the people who has witnessed the before and after of this school. There are washrooms and proper seating facilities now.” 

He adds, “When the school looks appealing, students would want to come and study. Children now flock here every morning, and we have seen a rise in attendance too.”  

Veeranna notes, “While I always wanted to make schools in villages better, I also desired to study mechanical engineering as a young boy. I did not have the money to make that dream come true. However, a student of mine recently completed his degree in mechanical engineering. This is my biggest win, and I live my dreams through my students.” 

If you wish to help Veeranna, you can reach him at 99721 20570

(Edited by Divya Sethu)

In fluent English, he tells his name to The Better India. “Ma’am ji, earlier I had never gone to school, but now I study in class 5. I study Social Science, Hindi, Maths, and English. Of all subjects, I like Social Science the most and I aspire to become a Police officer like uncle ji, and I will teach children like he does,” says Ajay, whose father works as a labourer at tourist spots.

Like Ajay, nearly 80 children from slum areas in Delhi, who had earlier been involved in odd jobs like rag picking, are able to study. This is thanks to the efforts of constable Than Singh.

How Than Singh ki Pathshala was born

Born in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur, Than Singh himself was raised with two siblings in the slums of Delhi. While his father would iron clothes for a living, he would sell corn on the street as a child. But he never underestimated the importance of studies, he says. 

“I would study at a school for a fee of Rs 3. My father wanted to become a police officer, but he could not. I wanted to fulfill his dream. I’d juggle work and studies. In 2009, after two attempts, I cleared the examination for Delhi Police constable and got my posting in 2010,” the 34-year-old tells The Better India.

Memories of his childhood rushed back to him in 2013, when he saw a few children selling plastic bottles on streets and picking up rags near Red Fort. “Many tourists would come and click their photos, mocking their circumstance, I hated to see that. These children were doing odd jobs for Rs 50 because their parents did not have enough resources to take care of them.” 

“Also, I found these children had started eating gutka (betel nut). There are many people who influence children to walk the wrong path, but very few come forward to help them. I wanted to look for options so that these children could do what they are meant to do at this age – study,” he says.

While finding solutions, the constable understood that it was difficult to enroll these children to schools. “If you go to school for admission of a 12-year-old, ideally they should get admission in either Class 6 or 7. And for that, they should at least know how to read a book or at least the alphabet. But most of these children had never seen a school, and it was not possible for them to enrol in one,” he adds.

So two years later, he started a one-of-its-kind school known as Than Singh Ki Pathshala to teach underprivileged children for free. 

“I volunteered to teach these kids so that they are able to come a little par to their peers. For this, I started meeting the parents. Police are the only segment that go to people irrespective of their socio-economic status and get to understand their problems. After meeting their parents, I convinced them to not worry about kids and send them to our pathshala,” he says.

“My main objective to teach these children was to prevent them from committing crimes in future and instil good behaviour among them,” he adds.

Class of 80

Starting with four children in 2015, today Than Singh teaches more than 80 children from Raj Ghat, Vijay Ghat, Shantivan, Red Fort, Lohe-wala-pul (Old Yamuna Bridge).

Every day, children in the age group of 3 to 15 years flock to Sai baba temple located at Red Fort parking area, where Than Singh and his group of volunteers wait for them. Many battery rickshaw owners have volunteered to take these kids from their homes to the pathshala, he informs.

The classes begin at 3 and conclude at 5:30 pm, and the school opens all days of the week, including Sunday. The school functions through donations from various stakeholders and with the help of 50 volunteers. “We get everything through donations – from food, uniforms, books. We do not take money,” he says.

Last year, with the help of DCP Sagar Khalsi, Than Singh was able to enrol nearly 70 kids in the government-run schools. “Although these children have started going to school, they come to us to clear their basics so that they can perform better at school and not feel less than their peers. Ten of my children have topped in the school,” he says, beaming with pride.

“I want to give these children a good atmosphere because their parents go to work and there is a chance that they could wander on streets. This is why we continue to teach them after school. Also, when other children got to know that they can get admission after studying with us, more and more kids started coming,” he adds.

Talking about managing work alongside teaching kids, he says, “There are no fixed working hours for a constable. We work for 24 hours. But if you have to do something, then you have to strive for it. Since my posting and pathshala are at the same place, I am able to manage both work,” he says.

“There is no other peace than working for these children. I could be the reason towards bringing a change in their lives with just a little support. What could have been better than this for me?” he asks.

Edited by Divya Sethu

Shiksha is the brainchild of 30-year-old Akshay Mashelkar, and aims to make learning fun and interactive “Growing up in a village I was very aware of the limitations of schools in rural areas. We still use printed charts and blocks as a means of learning. There are no scientific methods available. I want to change that,” Akshay tells The Better India. 

A new way to learn 

Born and raised in the village of Sirsi in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district, Akshay grew up in a teaching household. “My mother was a teacher and from a very young age, I knew I wanted to become an educator too. While studying, I realised that I wanted to work towards improving the education system,” he says. 

Following in the footsteps of his mother, Akshay became a professor at a college in Sirsi after completing his degree in Physics. “While I enjoyed my job as a professor, I had many ideas to implement in the education system. With the work, there was no time for me to start working on it though,” he says. 

When the COVID pandemic hit and the education sector moved online, Akshay found himself relatively free. 

“I found the perfect opportunity to work on my ideas. One of the most important things that I have seen in the education sector, especially in Tier-2 and -3 cities and rural areas, is the lack of modern and scientific methods of teaching. On one of my several visits to schools in the village, I saw that teachers were still using charts and blocks to teach,” he says. 

“Those techniques were used when I was in school. It is sad that the world has advanced so much with smart boards and whatnot, but schools in rural areas are still stuck with handmade charts. This pushed me further to give all my attention to bringing an easier and cheaper solution,” he adds. 

It took Akshay a good one and half years to do the research. In 2022, ‘Shikha’ — a humanoid robot capable of teaching in regional languages up to Class 4 — was ready. 

In India, the education sector has been incorporating technology for teaching purposes for several years. Nevertheless, its implementation has primarily been observed in urban regions and expensive schools. On the contrary, rural schools continue to rely on conventional tools like charts and drawings to facilitate learning.

Moreover, teachers of government schools are overburdened with students. A recent Quint report states, “The number of teachers in government schools in Karnataka has dropped from 2.08 lakh to 1.99 lakh, forcing 6,529 schools in the state to have only one teacher. The student-teacher ratio is now 23:1 when compared to 21:1 in 2020-21.” The inclusion of such a device could help fix this problem. 

A mix of technology and good ol’ jugaad 

The robot took nearly Rs 2 lakh to build, which he took out of his own savings. “A lot of money was involved in the research and development. On average, making only a robotic arm costs nearly Rs 50,000. ‘Shiksha’ is an entire robot with several features. The reason why I was able to cut costs was I used jugaad. For instance, I did not use a mould for the body of the robot, instead for the arms I used plastic cricket stumps that you find in toy shops,” he says. 

Siksha can teach various subjects including rhymes in Kannada and English rhymes; the days of the week; names of shapes; English alphabets, and maths topics such as multiplication, addition and tables.

Explaining how the robot works, Akshay says, “The robot has two main cards — the master card that unlocks it, and the normal card to start the desired programme. The teacher has to put the master card on Shiksha’s hand to start it and then they can use the programme cards to start different programmes. She moves her arms to take the card and returns it once scanned. She asks questions, recites poems, and even has trivia options,” he says. 

The robot has visited over 25 schools in the Uttar Kannada district, including KHB School and Urdu School in Sirsi. So far, Shiksha can teach up to Class 4 and has syllabus accommodation across boards.

Sunaina Hegde, who teaches Science and Maths at Model Higher Primary School in Sirsi, says, “Akshay came with Shiksha to our school in April. The children were so happy to see her and they took a greater interest in the class. For them, Shiksha was not a robot, but more like a friend as it was dressed like them too.”

“While it is great for students to learn, it is also a great tool to be included in schools for teachers. It reduces our burden, as there are fewer teachers in government schools. Something so interactive helps children to gain more interest in science and technology,” she adds. 

Akshay notes, “The importance of involving village children in technology is because they are also the future of the country. An average child living in an urban setting, from a very young age, knows how to operate laptops and computers. Sadly, this is not true for kids in rural areas. When the kids saw Shiksha for the first time, I could see the sparkle in their eyes. They were intrigued, amazed and excited.” 

“My motive behind making Siksha was not only to introduce technology in the classroom but also to encourage children to make their robots,” he says. Taking the thought forward, Akshay also opened a research centre where young robotics enthusiasts can come and learn for free. 

“In order to keep the cost of the operations of the centre low, we keep our centre mobile. Whenever we get low-cost places to rent in Sirsi, we move to that place. Over 200 children have visited the centre and many are regulars now. They have the space to learn from me and use the tool available in the research centre,” he says. 

Although the first Shiksha cost him lakhs, Akshay says that he can reduce the cost even more. “There were a lot of errors and a lot of investment in R&D initially, but now there won’t be. With the help of grants and support from the government and NGOs, I can possibly reduce the cost to Rs 35,000. This way it will be cheaper to afford rural schools. My only wish is to take Shiksha to every rural school in Karnataka and make learning fun,” he adds. 

If you wish to know more about his research centre and be a part of his initiative, you can reach him at 74832 76508. 

(Edited by Divya Sethu)

For the cyber security course, participants will be introduced to 200 hours of course content and cover advanced topics including malware analysis, drone, and anti-drone technology; and 120 hours of course content for artificial intelligence and machine learning. 

Both courses are open to students and graduates from any discipline, IT professionals, officers from tri-services, and research and development professionals.

Things to know

• The online course on AI will cost Rs 29,500 to participants, while the course on cyber security will cost Rs 35,000.
• Both online courses will be conducted for two hours every day, five days a week.
• Upon successfully completing the course, participants will be given certificates.

How to apply?

For both online courses, the participants must register here and submit details. After submission, they will receive an email regarding further process within two working days.

Important dates

Both online courses are scheduled to begin on 12 June 2023. The last date to register for these courses is 25 May 2023 and the last date to pay the fee is 5 June 2023.

For detailed information check official notifications for Artificial Intelligence and cyber security courses.

Edited by Divya Sethu

Students across the country undergo a rollercoaster of emotions once the results are announced — ranging from joy and relief for those who achieve their desired outcomes, to disappointment, sadness, or frustration for those who did not meet their expectations. Each student’s reaction varies depending on their personal goals, aspirations, and the significance they attach to academic achievements.

Keeping this in mind, Dr Sudhir Kumar, a neurologist working at Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, shared his CBSE Class 12 mark sheet from the year 1989 on Twitter in March 2023.

In the thread, he said that around 17 lakh students appeared for Class 12 CBSE board exams this year.

Class 12th marksheet (1989)-CBSE board
1. About 17 lakh students have appeared for class 12th CBSE board exams this year and you may be anxiously waiting for results.
Here I am sharing my 34 years old mark sheet. Focus on Physics theory marks: 23/70#examination #CBSE #marks pic.twitter.com/ttbj8qmPWM

— Dr Sudhir Kumar MD DM (@hyderabaddoctor) March 24, 2023

He wrote, “You may be anxiously waiting for results. Here I am sharing my 34-year-old mark sheet. Focus on Physics theory marks: 23/70.” He then went on to explain how he had anticipated a score of 67-68 out of 70 in Physics, but due to an unexplained error, he received only passing marks.

But he adds that “despite the disappointment, it ultimately didn’t have any significant impact.”

Dr Sudhir informs that he was able to apply for various medical college entrance exams. He enrolled at CMC Vellore where he successfully met the qualification requirements — achieving 50% or higher marks in each subject of Class 12 — thanks to his practical scores.

Finally, in a reassuring tweet, he wrote, “Marks do matter but only to a certain extent. So, my sincere advice to students is to study well and do well in entrance exams (NEET/JEE) or any other higher studies. The future DOES NOT depend on Class 12 marks (alone).”

4. Marks do matter but only to a certain extent. So, my since advice to students is to study well and do well in entrance exams (NEET/JEE) or any other higher studies. The future DOES NOT depend on class 12th marks (alone).

— Dr Sudhir Kumar MD DM (@hyderabaddoctor) March 24, 2023

Read the full thread here.

Edited by Divya Sethu

Anusha comes from a remote village called Bandlapalli in Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh. Her parents are farmers who have a small plot of land, and her father also works as a tractor driver for hire. Playing sports seriously was not considered an option for her. But the then 13-year-old left-arm spinner was named the best player of the tournament and received a scholarship from ASA to attend their residential academy.  

Anusha, now 20, has since played for the Andhra Pradesh Under-16, Under-19, and Women’s Senior State teams. 

“Playing sports at ASA has helped [me] in many ways,” she says. “It made me more confident than I ever was. It gave me exposure and financial help through playing for the senior State team, which I needed …Alongside, playing sports at ASA has given me the opportunity to train in one of the best cricket facilities in the state as I was able to improve cricketing skills.”

Anusha is currently in her third year of under-graduation at PVKK Degree College, where she is pursuing a B Com in computers. But her dream is “to continue to play cricket at a higher level and [one day] represent the Indian women’s team.” 

A major emphasis on the grassroots 

ASA is part of the Rural Development Trust (RDT), which has been working in communities in Andhra Pradesh for over 50 years. In the late 70s and 80s, the Trust taught kabaddi to encourage children to be active, but this was done in an informal way. Sport became a formal, and integral, part of its programmes only in the late 90s. That’s when the ASA was born. Over time, the ASA programmes have expanded to include eight sports — cricket, football, hockey, judo, tennis, kabaddi, softball and, most recently, archery. 

“In the beginning, our programme used to provide financial and material support to teams travelling out to participate in tournaments,” Moncho Ferrer, programme director of RDT, says. “Later on, we started organising events such as grassroots level tournaments and camps to ensure children access their fundamental right to play in a safe and quality playing space, which later grew to a year-long programme with an emphasis on holistic development of children at all levels of the programme.”

The organisation’s programmes follow a traditional pyramid structure. At the bottom is their grassroots programme, which is conducted entirely in government schools in each community. Then there are the development centres, and at the top sits the residential programme, which is based at the ASA sports village that was built between 2000 and 2002. 

“The major emphasis lies on the grassroots,” Sai Krishna Pulluru, executive director of ASA, says. “All the sports have a grassroots programme except tennis. We also have around 104 or 105 [development] centres, which include youth clubs, government schools, and sports centres.”

According to Pulluru, the difference between the grassroots and development centres is that the latter have their own physical infrastructure, such as computer labs and classrooms, and they provide English classes as well as nutrition. The residential programme at Anantapur Sports Village is for children who have the potential to excel at sport. 

ASA also runs leagues from August to December for each of their sports where matches are held every Sunday. The rural cricket tournament is the longest-running league, and arguably the organisation’s crown jewel. According to Pulluru, over 100 villages used to participate in the tournament, with the final being held in Anantapur at a pristine cricket ground. However, it was recently restructured and now features 16 teams each in U-12 mixed-gender, U-16 and U-19 age categories. It has also been renamed the Ananta Premier League (APL).

ASA also runs an athletics meet exclusively for girls. 

“In these leagues, we scout talent and provide full scholarship — academics, boarding and lodging, and access to competition — to whoever can pursue this,” says Pulluru. 

‘Joy and happiness’

The programmes have been tailored for children ranging between the ages of 6 and 18. Over time, life skills were added to the programmes, for instance, a coach may conduct a session on topics such as communication, inequality, or gender awareness. 

Pulluru estimates that 6,700 children were part of the programme at the beginning of the season, and roughly 1.5 lakh have gone through the programme over the years. 

“It is a dream for me to be part of this kind of programme,” he notes. “When I finish my work, step out of my office, and watch the children playing, I can see the real joy on their faces. That is what gives me a sense of joy and happiness. That is one thing that really drives me.”

In 2016-17, ASA started a mixed-gender festival where girls and boys compete together, though this is reserved only for younger children. The age depends on the sport — for cricket it is U-12, for football under-9, and for softball U-14. Participants are brought to a single location once in two months and the festival is held over two days, with the final round being played at the Anantapur Sports Village. 

Y Lahari, a 12-year-old from Dharmavaram, was first introduced to ASA when he played in the mixed-gender U-9 football cup a few years ago. In 2021, at the age of 11, he was given a scholarship to attend the academy. 

“I like playing [football] because I can make a lot of new friends and also visit other places,” Lahari says. “I can maintain fitness by playing sports regularly.” He credits ASA with teaching him new skills such as teamwork and communication, as well as values such as respect and fair play. 

“I am interested in refereeing,” he adds. “I want to become a professional FIFA referee where I can referee national and international matches.”

ASA relies mainly on volunteer coaches and physical education teachers – “They are the backbone of the programme,” Pulluru says. The programme has also created a pathway for participants to become coaches. “Not everyone can make it to the next level. To build a sports culture, you need more coaches.” 

ASA encourages those who are interested to join the one-year Youth Leadership Programme and become volunteer or shadow coaches. As part of the programme, they are given the chance to organise events and conduct workshops. ASA then supports those who complete the programme and wish to become professional coaches by helping them get their coaching licences from the various state associations.

In particular, ASA wants to increase the number of female coaches in rural areas. “Though there is still a long way to go, it’s worth noting the changing perceptions among the wider community (particularly parents, teachers) about boys and girls equally playing sports,” Ferrer says. “The programme has enabled youth to gain skills to enhance their higher education and livelihood opportunities, particularly as a coach and/or a referee.” 

‘Sports made me who I am today’ 

One of those coaches is P Hindu Kumar (24). He was selected for the residential programme as a 14-year-old in 2014 and is now a coach with the organisation. He comes from a village called D Honnur, and says his parents were “very happy” when he was selected, because it meant he would get a good education and could also keep playing sports. 

“Sport made me who I am today,” Kumar said. “It gave me a career opportunity as a coach, [and] I learned a lot through playing sport; most importantly believing in myself and in my team, and helping each other to achieve a goal, which are the most important aspects in any part of life or profession.”

The programme also taught him to develop empathy, he says. “[The] programme supported me when I was in need, as I come from a family where my parents are farmers and daily wage workers,” Kumar says. “Today I can display the same qualities as a person and professional working with children who have the same background as mine.”  

To measure the outcomes of its programmes, ASA uses different parameters for each level of their pyramid – Grassroots, League and Empower. At the grassroots level, they use the number of the children they have in the programme plus the number of clubs they have set up. In the case of the leagues, which are open to all the clubs, they measure the number of children who participate from each club in the league. At the empower level, they track the number of youth leaders and volunteers in the programme, as well as the number of internships and employment opportunities that they can facilitate.

ASA also uses a socio-emotional development index to track qualities such as self-esteem and self-confidence among the children, as well as social skills such as communication and relationship building. The organisation has also developed a gender equality index that at the programme level factors in the number of female coaches, the ratio of girls to boys in each centre, and the overall ratio of girls to boys across all their programmes. ASA also has a section on gender in its questionnaire for children between the ages of 10 to 15 that aims to measure their perception of gender equality. Students must rate how much they agree or disagree with statements, such as “I believe members of the opposite gender can equally participate in sport” and “I believe everyone is equal”. 

As far as funding goes, ASA benefits from being part of the Rural Development Trust, which has its own sources of revenue. On top of that, the academy has project partners such as the La Liga Foundation and the Rafael Nadal Foundation. However, according to Pulluru, funding from corporates remains challenging because of a lack of information on how they can use CSR funds in tribal and rural areas.

“In the early years of ASA, many had questioned what an NGO had to do with sports, but now we see numerous sports for development programs doing great work across India,” Ferrer says. “So, we feel humbled to see the trust we placed in a new programme back in the early 2000s has managed to evolve and grow to become this big in reaching approximately 8,000 children every year in eight different sports. Over the years, we have had numerous individual achievements, but of late, to share, I see B Anusha, recently being shortlisted for the Women’s Premier League (WPL) auction as an accomplishment for her and our programme.” 

Written by Sharba Tasneem; Edited by Divya Sethu

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation shared that the general literacy rate here is 71.4%, and modern education, which was fully embraced only after the 50s (up until then, the region mostly relied on monastic education), has been the “great equaliser, responsible for lifting less advantaged sections of society out of poverty and improving their chances for success in adulthood”.  

Most of us may not know that the Indian state of Kerala has played an essential role in shaping this modern education system to be the way we know it today. In fact, V Shantakumar and Phuntsho Choden wrote for this 2018 paper for Azim Premji University and said, “Almost everyone above the age of 25-30 years (in Bhutan) has been taught by one or the other teacher from Kerala.” 

Bhutan before 1960 

Until the ‘60s, students in Bhutan had mostly Buddhist monasteries to take private education. While diplomats and children of royal families were sent to India and Europe for education, the rest of the population mostly relied on religious learning. 

“By the early ‘50s, the ruling dynasty realised the need to modernise the country’s education, even if they wanted to continue to keep Bhutan isolated from the rest of the world,” wrote author Ajay Kamalakaran for onmanorma. “The first step was to set up Hindi medium schools in the country, and almost totally adopt the Indian system from neighbouring West Bengal.” 

William Mackey, a jesuit priest who is credited with establishing the modern education system of Bhutan, recalled in the book The Call: Stories of Yesteryears, “The second King, Jigme Dorji, set up 7 to 10 Hindi Medium schools, in Bumthang, Ha, Wangdi, Tashigang, Damphu and Paro. This was the beginning of our present Bhutanese Education System.”

Mackey also noted that the third king, Ugyen Dorji Wangchuk, wanted to establish English Medium Schools, for which the government approached the Jesuits of St Joseph’s College, North Point, Darjeeling, in 1962. Kamalakaran opines that the proximity of the two regions — both in culture as well as geography — made this convenient. 

Meanwhile, Mackey credited Lyonpo Dawa Tsering, the then secretary of the Development Ministry, for slowly replacing Hindi textbooks with English ones. “His late Majesty and the late Prime Minister asked me to set up an English Medium Education System, based on the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. Mr Rustomji, the then Political Officer in Bhutan, promised that he would get our High Schools affiliated to the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education,” he noted. 

The construction of modern education

In 1962, Tsering, impressed with the quality of the primary education system of Kerala, went on a recruiting trip far south. He recruited 20 teachers and returned to south-eastern Bhutan. These 20 educators would later become the pioneers of the country’s modern education system.

“They arrived in Samdrup Jongkhar, where they were given rations and a little money. They started walking (no roads then in the East), from village to village.” Mackey wrote. “[Tsering] left two teachers in each of the schools. He told them he would pick them up some 10 months later. Some of these, like Mr and Mrs R Krishnan, recently retired.”  

The teachers would walk miles in low temperatures to meet in towns like Lhuentse, which is 452 km away from the capital Thimphu. “These were very devoted, sincere teachers, who sacrificed their whole life for Bhutan Education. Their contribution to our present education system in the early years was enormous. Without their devoted and sincere teaching in isolated difficult rural areas, Bhutan could never have reached its present high standard of education in the interior schools,” Mackey added. 

The teachers helped build schools from the ground up with the help of students and locals. The makeshift classrooms with bamboo and straw roofs became a sanctuary for eager learners. The students also helped the teachers prepare meals for them. Kamalakaran wrote, “Children were sent to collect firewood for the simple porridge and vegetables. When the latter was not in supply, children and teachers would collect wild ferns.”

Jigme Zangpo, one of the first students of the teachers from Kerala, recalled in the publication that after their arrival, the education system began including physical training, drama and cultural activities in its curriculum as well. 

In 2014, Bhutan’s current King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk, noted “India has always played a vital role in education in Bhutan. Bhutanese youth routinely study in Indian institutions and, in turn, impart their knowledge in Bhutan too.” 

The ‘manna’

The Call mentions the names of a few among the 20 teachers who went to Bhutan, including P B Nair, M Prasad, G B Kurup, M K G Kaimal and R Sivadasan, Mr and Mrs R Krishnan. 

Prasad, who lived for 11 years in the country, recounted, “Being in the inspectorate for 11 years gave me the experience of knowing the people, culture, tradition, and their mode of living in the urban, rural and remote areas in an elaborate manner.” 

It also narrates Kurup’s moving account of living in the country for 26 years. 

Kurup recalled that in 1962, after walking for 10 days, he reached his school in Trongsa in the dead of the night. Suffering from a bad knee and taken aback by the isolation of the tiny village, he wondered if he had made the right choice by leaving his high income job to teach in this remote region. 

Some time later, he was awoken by the knocking of two children — a boy and a girl — at his door. They handed him a kettle with water, red rice, and ema datshi (national dish of Bhutan). “I accepted the ‘manna’ with gratitude. I tried to thank them. They continued their giggles. They said something. I did not understand the language, but I understood the meaning. ‘Sir, as long as we are here, you have nothing to worry about’. Language cannot create a barrier between love and affection.” 

Kurup noted, “I had to fight back my tears of happiness. I changed my mind. I will work for these children. I will give whatever I have to make them better persons (sic).”

Edited by Divya Sethu

Sources:

The Call: Stories of Yesteryears; Centre for Educational Research and Development, Department of Education, Rinpung, NIE, Paro

Overview and Transformation of Education in Bhutan: Written by Karma Choden for Freidrich Noumann Foundation; Published on 12 December 2022

How Malayali Teachers Helped Build Bhutan’s Education System: Written by Ajay Kamalakaran; Published on 12 July 2021

Bhutan: Education in India: Written by Mihir Bhonsale for Observer Research Foundation

‘India’s role in Bhutanese education is vital’: Written by Priyanka Kachchava for The Times of India; Published on 5 October 2014

“She has always been involved in the work, but she doesn’t want her daughters to face these problems. She has always encouraged me to pursue education,” she tells The Better India.

Kanchan and her mother belong to the Bedia community, which falls under India’s Nomadic and Denotified Tribes. In many households within the community in Madhya Pradesh, it is quite custom that the girl will pursue sex work when she hits puberty — the profession is both a family business as well as tradition. Meanwhile, their brothers begin to work as procurers and bring them clients.

The girls, who often become breadwinners for their families, have remained victims of institutional sex work for long. Meanwhile, the stigma that follows isolates the children from other communities, preventing them from their fundamental right of education. 

Kanchan says, “Because of the work that people from my community do, they face a lot of problems. Even after so much exploitation, girls are vulnerable to child marriages. Most of our women make several rounds of government offices, and, unaware of their rights, they are discriminated against because of their work. I want to become a lawyer so that I can help my community and bring a change,” she says.

As a student, Kanchan would be asked for her caste and her father’s name in school. “I would tell them that in our community, we do not mention father’s name,” she adds. Nearly eight years ago, Kanchan had left her village and moved to Bhopal in hope of a better future. Next year, she plans to bring her younger sister to Bhopal.

Kanchan is among the 5,000 children from the Bedia community that have been able to carve a different future for themselves. Thanks to the efforts of IPS officer Veerendra Mishra, children, teenagers, and young adults from 60 villages in six districts are able to move through the stigma attached with their castes to pursue education and, in turn, their dreams — some want to be police officers, some sub-inspectors, and some doctors, engineers, IAS officers, and lawyers, to name a few. 

‘The children suffer the most’

“Currently, we have 26 children in colleges, and 37 students in schools in Bhopal. Wherever we work, we have ensured that almost all the children are involved,” Mishra tells The Better India. The non-profit gets financial support from child rights organisations such as CRY (Child Rights and You).

What people believe as a “traditional engagement in sex work”, Mishra calls “community-based sexual exploitation”. “These children suffer the most, because they were being introduced to sex work from a young age traditionally and customarily, and their education level was abysmal.” 

Launching his organisation Samvedna, the 53-year-old began his work with 13 children. So far, he has covered districts like Bhopal, Rajgarh, Raisen, Guna, Vidisha, and Sagar.

Breaking a cycle

“Our idea is to create opportunities. When you create opportunity, you generate hope, and when you generate hope, then everyone starts pushing their boundaries. They have to help themselves. We are just facilitators,” explains Mishra, who started Samvedna in 2005 to combat caste-based commercial sexual exploitation and human sex trafficking in the state.

In 2010, he brought 13 Bedia children from Rajgarh district to Bhopal to educate them. “We enrolled them in schools. We handheld them from preschool level, and helped them get higher education and find jobs. We identified strengths of these children and accordingly helped them shape their future,” he says.

Currently posted as assistant inspector general of police-AIG of Madhya Pradesh State Industrial Security Force in Bhopal, the IPS officer has previously worked with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and the Ministry of Social Justice.

It was during his posting in Narsinghgarh of Rajgarh district that he came to know about the Bedia community. “Most of the adults here never left the village to explore other opportunities. Exploitation is normalised to them. We are trying to break that normalisation. We do not believe in stigmas and we do not go to them to preach what they have been doing traditionally is wrong. We let them know about various livelihood options,” he says.

“Sometimes, they don’t have identifiable biological parents because their fathers were customers. Their brothers are procurers while their mothers are sex workers. The entire ecosystem is supporting that tradition. We try to engage with each stakeholder of the community so that they realise the importance of education. Not even one of their kids had passed a Class 10 examination. This was not fair with these children,” he adds.

As children face discrimination at the village level, they enrol themselves as children of other communities. In order to provide a better environment, the team convinced parents to send their children to nearby schools in Bhopal.

“It was a paradigm shift in their thought process. For up to four years, I struggled to convince them. Although the older generation is still involved in sex work, we are trying to help the new generation get out of that circle,” says the IPS officer.

For Veerendra, the work has been a life changing experience. “Perhaps, it has made me a better person. I have learned so much from these children. And I am as passionate about them as I am about my kids. I am not doing this as a police officer, I am doing this as an individual.” 

He believes that every citizen should ensure that children from such communities get better education and a quality life free from discrimination.

“We fight for fundamental rights, but nobody values fundamental duties. Every citizen of this country should ensure that these children have equality, because it is us who bring disparity and discrimination,” he says.

Edited by Divya Sethu. All pictures: Samvedna

As amazing as this sounds, many of these varieties are on the verge of becoming extinct. With only the most common and popular ones being sold in the markets, the survival of the rest looks bleak.

On a mission to save as many varieties of vegetables as possible, 38-year-old Aravinthan R P from Coimbatore quit his job to pursue his dream. So far, he has collected and planted various seeds — saving close to 70 varieties of eggplant, 20 varieties of okra, 28 varieties of tomatoes, and 20 varieties of beans.

“I never really imagined that I would end up doing this. But life worked out in a way that saving these varieties of seeds has now become my passion,” Aravinthan tells The Better India.

When you can’t find authentic organic produce, you grow them

Born and brought up in the small town of Karur, Tamil Nadu, Aravinthan was always under the influence of farming.

Growing up, his father was a farmer. After completing his engineering degree and then master’s in Germany, he worked as a research assistant at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology for some years before coming back to his homeland in 2012.

The decision to come to India changed Aravinthan’s life completely.

“My father wanted me to write civil service exams so I decided to prepare for that. In the meantime, my father took over the management of a school in Coimbatore, so we moved closer to it,” he shares.

“We have over 100 residential students and wanted to provide them with nutritious food. We looked for sellers who sell organic vegetables, but there was no proof that they were actually organic. So we decided to grow our own food,” he adds.

“My friend who used to grow organic vegetables on his terrace said that he cannot explain in words how juicy and tasty his vegetables are. He said that it is not very hard if you use the right methods. This inspired me, even more, to grow food for the children at school,” says Aravinthan. 

He shares that his forefathers have been farmers and so he had a liking for nature and farming. But with not a lot of experience in natural farming, Aravinthan decided to start small and plant a few vegetables on the school’s terrace.

“Since we decided to do organic farming, we figured out that heirloom seeds would be the best option. We would give only natural fertilisers and nutrients to all the plants, so they become genetically strong and adaptable. But when we tried to source heirloom seeds, we could not find them easily. This gave me the idea of founding a ‘seed bank’ at the school,” he says.

“What started as just an urge to give healthy food to my residential kids turned into a completely different thing. In 2015, we started growing our organic food on the occasion of Pongal,” he adds.

Furthermore, he grows the vegetables organically with no chemicals or artificial fertilisers.

“There are a lot of varieties of many vegetables, like onions, that are inherently pest resistant. If we can find those varieties and grow them, then we won’t have to worry about using pesticides or chemicals,” he says.

‘It is a service, not a business’

At Aravinthan’s school, all the students participate in planting their food.

“To encourage youngsters to do farming, we have a program called agricultural sciences in our school. The students of the course help in planting the crops and harvesting them. They get a first-hand experience in farming. The other kids help occasionally too,” he says.

“We also introduced ‘grow bags’ to our students. The bags are basically kits with seeds and tools. The kids sow their plants on campus and take care of them. The seeds from the harvest are then stored in the seed bank. This helps the kids inculcate healthy farming habits,” he adds.

Talking about his motivation to keep going, Aravinthan says, “My idea was simple; I just wanted to give my kids a healthy diet. Also, nurturing the seed bank is important. If we don’t try to save them, they will go extinct. If we lose one variety of a vegetable, it will be lost forever.”

Talking about his produce, he informs, “Today, we produce around 2,000 kg of vegetables and various varieties of beans per year. Over the years, we have collected hundreds of seeds and are trying to preserve them. We slowly expanded our farm to the spare space near the playground in the school. For every new variety, we plant one or two trees, as we have limited space,” he says.

“We grow tomatoes, eggplant, radish, okra, broad beans, chillies, drumsticks, pumpkins etc. We also have water apples, vanilla tamarind, coconuts, and some pulses like green gram and pigeon pea lentils,” he adds.

The produce is mostly consumed by the resident students on a daily basis.

“The leftover is given to our staff teachers and they can just take it home. If there are any more leftovers, we share them with our neighbours. The students put up stalls and the neighbours are welcome to take the vegetables for free. There is a WhatsApp group of our residents and neighbours where we tell the details of the vegetables so they can come and get them,” he explains.

Shweta Sharma, who has been teaching Hindi in the school for the past decade, says, “I started teaching in 2013, and after two years the school started to plant its own food. The best part is that they involve the students in the activity too. I think it is very important to induce more and more students in agriculture as they are our future. Especially, here they learn organic farming which is very essential.”

“Whatever is leftover, the staff takes home. Yesterday, I took some drumsticks and they were so juicy. This is the thing about the produce from our farms; they are so fresh and natural,” she adds saying that anyone can easily spot the difference between organic vegetables produced on the school’s farms and the regular vegetables sold outside.

“The seeds, on the other hand, are given to enthusiasts like me who want to conserve them. We don’t sell them but rather share them. The activity of preserving seeds is not a business but a service for me,” says Aravinthan.

With this venture, he hopes to make farming profitable and induce more and more youth into agriculture.

“As for the future, we want to grow corn. It is very difficult to prevent cross-pollination in different varieties of corn. But, there are many ways to prevent them, and I want to figure that out. I can only hope to save as many varieties of vegetables as possible and inspire more people to do the same,” he says.

If you are interested in conserving seeds and saving different species, Aravinthan is willing to share his knowledge. You can reach him at 76395 55088.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

Named Abhinay Maths, the platform targets the majority of government job seekers, who come from Tier II, III, and IV cities, where affordability is a major concern. He says that so far, he has provided free education to over 10 million students from small towns and cities across the country, with over 10,000 students passing the government exams he teaches for.

The decision to embark on this journey, he says, came from his own childhood, most of which he spent in abject poverty. His only strength was his ability to solve Maths problems. 

Recalling the time he was preparing for the government recruitment examination SSC CGL [Staff Selection Commission – Combined Graduate Level], he says, “When I was preparing, there was only one book available. I did not have the luxury to attend free YouTube classes. I would expect help from others, but nobody helped me because of my financial background.”

“Now, I try to help the students with my work. I have never denied admission to students from impoverished backgrounds. I see myself in them,” the 32-year-old, who hails from Rampur village of Bulandshahar in Uttar Pradesh, tells The Better India.

From bad to worse

“Since my childhood, I had seen my mother listening to the taunts of relatives,” he says. “We did not have a stove. She would burn papers to heat milk for us. We would be mocked and insulted for our poverty. Our relatives would ask us not to attend family gatherings because we did not have good clothes. They would not even give us a ride in their cars.”

“During my 10th and 12th, I would wear only one set of clothes for the entire week. I would wash it on Sundays and repeat it again. My classmates would mock me and refrain from speaking to me,” he adds.

After his graduation in engineering, Abhinay began preparing for the competitive examination. He moved from his village to Greater Noida so that he could prepare for the examination. To emotionally support him, his family moved along with him. The family shifted to a flat at a monthly rent of Rs 1,500.

He recalls that at the time, his father’s construction business was not very stable. “At times, we would get enough money. But other times, we would even struggle for two square meals,” he says.

To meet the expenses of the household, he started giving tuition and was able to earn Rs 6,000 a month with it. Meanwhile, he cleared the competitive examination and got a job in the Income Tax Department in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

Another tragedy struck when the landlord told the family that he would not be renting the property to them anymore, and asked them to vacate the flat. “It was a very painful moment. I had tears in my eyes. But my father calmed me down, and we shifted to another flat in one week,” says Abhinay.

By then, he had refused the government job offer as it was not close to home. He continued to give offline tuitions. With this income, he started buying household appliances such as an air conditioner and oven. Their financial condition started improving.

But in 2013, his family’s condition started deteriorating again when Abhinay fell in love. His career graph slowed and he had to quit the coaching job. He continued to give examinations and in 2016, he got a job opportunity as an Audit officer in Mumbai. This time, he took the job.

But this did not put an end to difficulties.

At the same time, his father’s business fell through. “This was one of the worst phases of my life. We had bought a house in Greater Noida with our savings and had taken a huge loan of Rs 70 lakh from the bank and Rs 40 lakh from a friend. Such a situation came that I had to struggle for even a Rs 10 recharge. From a bad phase, I went into a good, and then into worse,” says Abhinay.

To make matters worse, his mother suffered facial paralysis, and his father was diagnosed with diabetes. Abhinay realised the government job was not enough to repay loans and meet household expenses. Four months into work, he resigned and came back home.

When tables turned

Coming back home, Abhinay sold his phone and with some earnings, moved to a flat on rent with his brother. “We would stay and sleep in one room, and next morning set seats for the students ourselves. In July, we started with a batch of 20 students and we managed to collect nearly Rs 1 lakh,” he says.

In mid-2017, one of Abhinay’s students suggested he upload a video on YouTube. Within six days, the video received over 1 million views, he says. 

“In the video description, we even added a link to one of the books I had written. Students liked it because I used to simplify answers to mathematical problems. For instance, how one can make Algebra and Trigonometry easy using zero. I started getting Rs 5-7 lakh because of this. That was one of the best phases of my life. Just a year before, I was struggling for even a chapati. I would survive only on Maggi,” he says.

Inspired by this, Abhinay started his own YouTube channel – Abhinay Maths — in October 2017. The channel became one of the first few education channels on YouTube to reach one million subscribers in just eight months. He also expanded his coaching to a hall with a capacity for 150 students. When he announced the batch in November, around 500 students approached him.

“They would stand in queues to study in my class. We managed to repay loans. In 2018, I bought my first car, a Mercedes Benz. Since then, I have bought 10 cars. I never repeat any clothing item now. I have been able to silently respond to all those people who mocked me and my family. I feel I have lived all my dreams,” he smiles.

Affordable education for millions

Abhinav saw YouTube as a way to reach out to more students in remote areas. He provides free books and content to watch later for students who cannot afford education.

“I have taught the entire course three times on YouTube. Those who do not want to study for free buy courses on our mobile application, where we also give a few courses for free. If someone does not have enough money, we never cross-question them and give admission to them with [whatever they have],” he adds.

For instance, one of his students Naresh Guguloth, who hails from Hyderabad, could not afford expensive course material. “My father is a farmer. Because of my financial condition, I could only pay Rs 2,000 for the course on mobile application, although the course is for Rs 5,000. Generally, we are charged at least Rs 10,000 and up to Rs 16,000 for the same course by other institutes. Besides affordability, Abhinay sir teaches concepts simply through various methods. I have been able to clear my preliminary examination after studying on YouTube,” the 27-year-old tells The Better India.

Like Naresh, Abhinay has more than 2.5 million subscribers on his YouTube Channel. “Throughout this journey, I never saw education as a business. Only a structured curriculum and teaching can bring about a revolution in education. Money comes after hard work. I believe that a teacher can never be a good businessman, and a businessman can never be a good teacher. I will continue teaching for free on YouTube, even if I take retirement,” he says.

Edited by Divya Sethu

To educate these children, he converted his cowshed into a classroom and started teaching them for free. Later in 2003, with Rs 800 in his pocket, the BSc graduate turned his classroom into a non-profit school called Parijat Academy.

As the word spread, more parents started sending their children. Today, along with 22 trained teachers, the 47-year-old educates nearly 400 children from 20 villages for free.

Uttam built the Parijat Academy on his ancestral property. The school runs classes from nursery to Class 10 affiliated with the Assam State Board. There is also a hostel for children from remote places.

Apart from providing formal education in Assamese, Hindi, English, Social Science, and Maths to the children, the institute teaches various crafts to upskill underprivileged kids. They are trained in computer learning, sewing, handloom, sports, and dance.

Uttam receives help from individuals as well as organisations to run the school. But it hasn’t been easy. He collects pencils, old school bags, old books, and even green vegetables and rice from people to sustain his school.

“Only with education can the underprivileged live a life of dignity,” he says.

Watch his inspirational work here:

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Edited by Pranita Bhat

The camp is designed to inspire its candidates to become science and technology innovators and leaders who can change the world. The course will engage students in various mentor-based programs and activities to build skills, inspire innovation, and infuse problem-solving aptitude.

Dr Tushar Jain, head, CCE, IIT Mandi, said, “Seeing the success of PRAYAS 1.0, this time we have extended this flagship program for the UP Government. A competition will also be held at the end of the training to explore their innovation and ideas. The IIT Mandi customised robotics will be provided for the training and prototype development.”

Things to know

• The participants will be taught robotics, programming, computer, electronics, and artificial intelligence.
• They will also get trained to implement the learnings in real time.
• They will be encouraged to come up with innovative ideas to solve problems in real time.
• A batch of 200 students and teachers will be a part of this event.
• Based on the qualifying test, 100 students will be selected for a fully residential training program at IIT Mandi.

How to apply

• Interested candidates can apply using this link.
• The applicants will have to pass a qualifying test.

Important dates

• The last day for submission is 10 March 2023.
• The results will be announced on 15 May 2023.
• The summer camp will be conducted from 5 June 2023 to 4 July 2023.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

A UNICEF report shows that learning outcomes remain one of the biggest challenges in the country as millions of children complete primary schooling without achieving foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) skills.

In a bid to enrich the learning-teaching environment and make it child-centric, lively, and joyful, the Union Ministry of Education has recently launched play-based teaching and learning material called Jaadui Pitara (which translates to magic box) for the foundational stage.

Here are 10 things to know about the learning-teaching material.

1. Jaadui Pitara has been designed based on the National Curriculum Framework for the Foundational Stage (NCF-FS) 2022. It points out that children at this stage learn best through play and activity, talking, listening, using toys, working with material, painting, drawing, singing, dancing, running, and jumping.

2. The NCF for the foundational stage was launched by the Ministry of Education last year. According to the curriculum framework, the NCERT developed and collected the learning-teaching material, and launched it on 20 February 2023 as Jaadui Pitara.

3. The Jaadui Pitara recommends learning and development in five domains — physical development, socio-emotional and ethical development, cognitive development, language and literacy development, and aesthetic and cultural development. Positive learning habits have also been included as another domain of development at this stage.

4. The child-centric and innovative learning experience is expected to strengthen conceptual understanding amongst learners in the age group of 3–8 years.

5. The material comprises toys, games, puzzles, puppetry, posters, flashcards, worksheets, attractive storybooks and playbooks for students, and is available in 13 Indian languages.

6. It also includes a trainers’ handbook, mapping the curriculum goals for future training of teachers at the foundational stage.

7. The learning material for the foundational stage has been designed as per the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which envisages a “5+3+3+4” curriculum pedagogical structure. In other words, children will spend five years in the foundational stage, three years each in the preparatory and the middle stage, and four years in the secondary stage.

8. Under the Union Ministry of Education, the Department of School Education and Literacy formed the National Steering Committee, headed by K Kasturirangan, to develop the NCF for each of the stages.

9. While releasing the Jaadui Pitara kits, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, “It is a giant leap towards enriching the learning-teaching environment and making it more child-centric, lively, and joyful for the Amrit generation, as envisioned in the NEP.”

10. These resources are digitally available on the DIKSHA platform.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

Today, Ankit is the founder of Unstop, a Delhi-based early talent engagement and hiring platform, which has over 5 million users and earned a revenue of $2.5 million this year.

The company was recently offered the highest offer of Rs 5 crore on Shark Tank, which they refused.

From a blog to a multi-million company

The idea of Unstop developed from a blog that was born in a hostel room and ended up being a full-blown multi-million dollar startup.

“I was in IMT pursuing MBA and wanted to participate in various programmes and contests that were held in different colleges, universities, and companies. However, the information about these events would not reach us on time,” he recalls. “This is when I started a blog where I would post the information as soon as I got it. This was way back in 2010.”

While still working on his blog, Ankit joined Harvard Business School to pursue a scholarship programme. “I noticed the same trend in Harvard too. The students wanted to explore more opportunities and find out which industry they were suited for, gain CV points, and eventually get placed. Getting placement and the right industry exposure is all that the students need. So, while in Harvard, I realised this idea might have a monetary value to it,” he shares.

The first big breakthrough that Ankit got was when the Aditya Birla Group and Reliance approached him.

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“It was the big push I needed. In consecutive months, these two big giants approached me. They asked me if I can reach out to students and start an employer brand. I then decided that this is the right time to transform that blog into a website,” he says. 

So, in 2017, Ankit decided to give his full attention to building his blog and making it something bigger. “When I started in 2019, the company was quite restricted. We were collaborating with a few schools. Slowly we started building on it and incorporated different fields being offered in colleges, such as engineering, arts and commerce in 2020. Then, in 2021, we pivoted from being just a listing platform. And now, a user can create web pages, make and take payments, do coding, and also do assessments on our platform,” he says.

Explaining how the platform works, Ankit says, “We look at Unstop as an early talent engagement and hiring platform. It is like a combination of Naukri.com, LinkedIn and an assessment platform like Mettl. In a nutshell, if you are a working professional or a student, we can upskill your talent journey by helping you learn new skills, showcase those skills to new employers, gain CV points, and then finally, get the reward in hiring.”

“Eventually, that is the goal — to get hired. Today, we have 5 million users, 10,000 colleges, and more than 1,000 companies listing their opportunities on Unstop,” he informs.

Unstoppable journey to success

While Ankit always had an eye for business, his journey was anything but easy.

“Unstop was not my first try at business. I have been trying my hand at different startups and failed. They all came with their set of problems and learnings,” he says, adding “The hardest one was to overcome the fear of going solo. In my earlier gigs, I think I was dependent on my co-founders a lot.”

He shares an instance from when he was working on his first business idea. “The idea was to build an app where people can book shows. We were working on it, and then just three months later, ‘Book My Show’ got launched!”

While Ankit was convinced that this was a good idea, he couldn’t convince his co-founders to go ahead with it. “I knew there was a market for such a platform, but I did not hustle enough. I let go of it, and the only reason was that I was not brave enough to take that leap and go solo,” he says, adding that it was an internal barrier that he had to overcome.

The entrepreneur recently appeared on Shark Tank Season 2, where the ‘sharks’ offered his team Rs 5 crore, the highest offer in Shark Tank history, which they refused.

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He says, “It was an amazing experience, seeing all the sharks and answering their questions. Initially, it can be a little intimidating, but then I was prepared with all the numbers. It was surreal to see the glimmer in their eyes as I shared about my startup and the plans ahead.”

“We got an offer from Amit Jain, but we did not accept it for some business reasons. The most important takeaway from all of it is that the ‘sharks’ saw so much potential in the business and that is really motivating,” he adds.

As his startup’s name goes, Ankit too has no plans to stop.

Sharing future plans he says, “For now, we are looking at sustainable growth. We want to form a community of students and employers. A person can create tech overnight, but you cannot create a LinkedIn overnight. We are looking to grow our five million users to 10, 20 and so on. We are not looking into the revenue side of the company but the community side for now.”

Edited by Pranita Bhat

The course will cover the overview of remote sensing technology and its applications in geological problems — including the role of optical, thermal, microwave, and hyperspectral RS in geological sciences, among other topics.

The curriculum is suitable for postgraduate or final year postgraduate students of geosciences, scientific staff of central or state governments, and faculty or researchers at universities and institutions. Users receiving programmes under CEC-UGC or CIET networks can also participate.

Things to know

• The course is free.
• It can be completed in 10 days.
• Course study materials — such as lecture slides, video-recorded lectures and handouts of important links and demonstrations — will be made available through e-class.
• There is a limited number of seats available. Registration will be done on a first come first serve basis.
• A certificate will be given to the participants who have 70 percent attendance in the course and a minimum 40 percent score in the online examination.
• Course updates will be available here.

How to apply

• Applications have to be submitted online.
• To participate in this programme, the interested organisations, universities, departments, and institutes have to identify a coordinator at their end.
• The identified coordinator will have to register his/her institute as a nodal centre on the IIRS website. The link for this can be found here.
• The course can then be taken by registered participants through the e-class platform of IIRS-ISRO.

Important dates

The course is scheduled from 13 March 2023 to 24 March 2023.

For more information, check the official notification.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

“When I was in school, people used to tell my father to stop spending money on my education. The school fee was around eight rupees a month at the time. They would express pity towards my father and tell him that he will need more dowry to get me married as I was disabled,” the 43-year-old tells The Better India.

Diagnosed with scoliosis (Polio) when she was two months old, Shilpa grew up with 94 percent post-polio syndrome which affected her lower limbs.

“Yes, I am disabled. So what? I am capable of doing so many other things. I decided that ‘Boss, I have to do something to make my parents proud!’,” she says.

Working brick by brick

As a child, Shilpa had no friends in school. She could not play or accompany her classmates to the playground. It was only during the mental skill competitions, which were quite limited, that she would get any accolades or affection from teachers. So she realised early on that education was the key to success.

Despite the mammoth physical setback of living with polio, she set foot on an ambitious journey with grit, passion, and determination. Shilpa secured 82 percent in Class 10 and 75 percent in Class 12.

She further proved her mettle by becoming a Chartered Accountant (CA) in 2001. She cleared all three levels of CA, considered one of the most challenging examinations, in her first attempt. She also completed MCom and MBA.

But while pursuing the competitive exam when she went to enrol herself for articleship, she was rejected by many firms despite being good in academics. “The only reason I was rejected was my disability. Articles need to go to other clients for audit. So, in my resume, I would mention that I can travel independently. Normally, no one has to mention this,” she recalls. Finally, she got the articleship from a reference.

Shilpa worked hard to build a life of dignity one brick at a time.

Driving to Swimming, Paragliding

She also pursued varied other interests — such as driving, swimming, trekking, paragliding, and kayaking without any assistance.

“I had to skip college when my driver would not come. I thought this should not hinder my education. I cannot be dependent on anybody. I started learning to drive a two-wheeler and later a four-wheeler,” says Shilpa.

“My husband used to introduce me to all kinds of sports. For him, my disability did not matter,” she adds.

Like any other person, she wanted to be physically fit. So, in 2018, she decided to learn to swim. But at every stage of life, she was reminded of her disability.

“I had a tough time getting classes as no one would allow me to swim. After six months of resistance, I went to a club and put my foot down. I told the coach if he did not teach me how to swim, I would stay right there. Realising there was no way to kick me out, he asked me to come in the afternoon batch in peak summer months,” she recalls.

“I took that batch. On the first day, we were 40 people; all 39 stood at one side, and I stood alone. I still remember the kind of looks I got; everyone was gossiping. However, within seven days, I learned to swim while others struggled to even get into the water. I have now swam in rivers and oceans,” she adds.

Meanwhile, the attitude of people towards her started changing once she became a CA. “When I started riding a scooter, no one would sit behind me. But when I got the degree and cleared CA, people would often ask me to go for a ride to have ice cream,” laughs Shilpa, adding, “Everything changed from the way they talk to me to the way they speak to my father about me.”

To support 100 persons with disabilities

On 10 January this year, Shilpa was awarded the ICAI award by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) for her diligent and excellent professional achievements. On account of receiving the recognition, Shilpa pledged to financially support 100 people with disabilities to pursue their CA in the next 10 years.

“This award is a testimonial that once you prove yourself, the world will eventually acknowledge your capabilities,” she says, adding, “When I received the award, many people congratulated me. I realised I have achieved so much; why shouldn’t I give something back to society? I should try and help those like me [people with disabilities] in getting articleship and exposure…and leverage my network for their benefit.”

A day after receiving the award, Shilpa started a scholarship called ‘Shantilal Mehta Scholarship’ in her father’s name. She dedicated Rs 10 lakh of her savings towards this. So far, she has identified three impoverished visually-impaired persons from Rajasthan’s Alwar, whom she is going to help financially to pursue CA.

“There are many people like me who start their career, but at a certain point, they do not get enough opportunities. That is why you will not find people with disabilities holding higher posts. As a person with a disability, you may have to struggle more compared to others, but if you have capabilities nothing can stop you,” says Shilpa.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

That’s how BIRD, or the Billion Readers initiative, was conceived. 

Soon after this incident, Dr Kothari joined the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), and dove deep into research on the idea of Same Language Subtitling, a term he coined himself. SLS, he explains, is subtitling audio-visual content in the ‘same’ language as the audio. What you hear is what you read.

“The idea behind BIRD is that SLS of content on mainstream television and streaming platforms will promote reading literacy to a billion Indians who have access to television,” explains Dr Kothari, who is currently serving as adjunct professor at IIMA. 

BIRD, a collaboration of IIMA and Dr Kothari’s non-profit PlanetRead, was recently awarded a prestigious ‘system change’ grant from the global philanthropic collaborative Co-Impact. It was among the 34 initiatives across Africa, Asia and South America to be given the grant to help make systems more just and inclusive. 

On receipt of the grant the former director of IIMA, Prof Errol D’Souza, said, “Our institute has nurtured the SLS innovation from its very beginning and over the next five years we aim to scale it nationally in partnership with the government, private sector, civil society and other institutions.”

The background 

Despite a literacy rate of nearly 80 percent in India, studies have found that over half the “literates” cannot read simple texts, much less a newspaper. ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) has, year after year, found that half the rural children in class 5 cannot read a class 2 level text.

“This is a serious problem and there are multiple reasons. When a child joins school, the home language may differ from the school language. The quality of teaching in schools leaves much to be desired,” explains Dr Kothari. 

He continues, “The problem of intermittent schooling is another problem. Out of 200 days of schooling, children in rural areas may attend only 100-125 days. Many children drop out of school in class 5, and more in class 8. After that there is no opportunity for constant reading practise for them, as they have little exposure to print material. Weak readers read even less, compounding the problem.” 

The premise behind the BIRD initiative is that the average Indian will watch around four hours of TV every day, for 70-odd years. If the TV content has SLS, when the TV is switched on automatically, reading is switched on. India is estimated to have 600 million weak readers, in addition to 250 million non-readers. The primary target of the BIRD initiative are the weak readers. 

‘A staggering impact’

BIRD is building a strong coalition of partners across the Central and state governments, speech-to-text experts at premier technology institutes like IIT-Madras and MIT Open Learning, and leading civil society organisations. Once state governments come on board, the BIRD team plans to directly talk to major TV networks, streaming platforms and content producers.   

The initiative is also set to develop AI driven technology to automatically subtitle content in over 12 Indian languages, with a minimum 85% accuracy. As a result, BIRD will soon implement SLS on 1,000 hours of entertainment content per language in 12 languages.

BIRD also claims to be the first globally to propose the use of SLS on mainstream TV entertainment for mass reading literacy. Other countries have leveraged SLS, or ‘captioning’ as they call it, for media access among the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) and for language learning. 

Dr Kothari notes, “There have been many studies on SLS and language learning, but few on its link with reading literacy. Pilot studies in the US and New Zealand quote our work on reading literacy. This innovation is India’s baby!” 

The number of target beneficiaries makes the BIRD initiative arguably one of the world’s largest reading literacy interventions. Eminent personalities including Bill Clinton are deeming SLS “a small thing that has a staggering impact on people’s lives”. 

There are two factors that make SLS a viable solution to improve reading skills. First, the content with SLS will be the viewer’s choice. Second, the viewing and reading activity will not require additional time and effort as it automatically takes place while watching television. 

“We have combined three elements — television content, subtitles and people’s passion for the content. Passion plus SLS is the solution,” says Dr Kothari.

In India, SLS is available on TV entertainment in English but not systematically in any Indian language. BIRD aims to change that for three major national goals — reading literacy, Indian language learning, and media access among the DHH. There is compelling evidence in support of SLS for all three goals.

Proof of efficacy 

Several eye-tracking and impact studies have found that the presence of SLS on popular entertainment content leads to automatic reading practice.  In fact, study results reveal that 90 percent of weak readers who get SLS exposure will try to read along with SLS, intermittently and sufficiently for their reading skills to improve. 

Dr Kothari notes, “We conducted a study of children in classes 1 to 5 in government schools in Rajasthan. We showed them videos with and without subtitles.” 

“We noticed that in the former, the eye movements were split between the picture and subtitles. The consistent onscreen associations between sound and text activated and strengthened brain pathways that aided picking up of reading skills. Basically, anyone trying to learn reading seeks text to read — whether on billboards, shop signs or comics. It’s like a game. That game gets activated in the case of SLS,” explains Dr Kothari.   

A five-year study was also conducted on musical TV series Rangoli, which airs on Doordarshan every Sunday. It was found that even one hour of exposure to television content with SLS every Sunday improves reading skills. The impact was strongest on children studying in classes 1-3, who were automatically able to match song and text. 

A significant victory

It was not easy to get a policy framed on SLS, despite strong evidence that it works. It took 15 years from conceptualisation of the simple innovation to the framing of policy. 

In September 2019, SLS became a part of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s (MIB) Accessibility Standards under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. Half the entertainment content on TV, in every language, state, and channel, is required to carry SLS by 2025. To start with, all major TV channels, which number around 900, are required to caption at least one programme per week. 

“IIMA has been involved in the initiative from the very beginning when research was being conducted. Policymakers do not easily accept social innovations. Because of its reputation, IIMA’s facilitated engagement with policymakers,” says Dr Kothari.  

While broadcasting is a Central subject, implementation in different languages will have to be done by the state governments by talking to TV channels. The challenge now is quality implementation at scale. It is encouraging to see that a number of TV channels — including Star Plus, Star Utsav, Zee TV, Zee Anmol, Sony SET, Sony SAB, Colours TV, Surya TV and many other regional channels — have begun implementing MIB’s Accessibility Standards, he adds. 

Focus on girls and women

BIRD is sharply focused on impacting the reading skills of girls and women, particularly from rural and vulnerable communities. Over 60 percent of India’s non-readers and weak readers are female. The priority is to add SLS on entertainment content that they watch with a passion. A fluently reading female population, the BIRD team believes, will unlock unimaginable possibilities of dignity, skill, and empowerment. 

It is important that an intervention aiming to improve reading literacy among women is one that does not disrupt their daily lives. SLS will provide effortless and affordable reading practice for women in a context where gender norms pose a barrier. 

“Girls get fewer years of education, print exposure and reading practice. Many girls drop out of school early as there is no high school in their village. Even during the schooling years, they are pulled into domestic chores. SLS gives them opportunities to read at home while watching television, explains Dr Kothari.   

With the Co-Impact grant, BIRD’s ambitious mission is to now scale SLS on TV and streaming platforms in all Indian languages.  

“Our goal is that one billion people will read every day for a few hours, and for life. I don’t say this casually. It seems an impossible task, but we are addressing it in a novel way. We look at what content interests and engages people and provide SLS for that content. For instance, 75 percent of television viewing is of entertainment content — movies, serials and song-based programmes. In the case of children, it is cartoons. For them, we integrate reading into cartoon watching through SLS,” says Dr Kothari. 

What beneficiaries say

A small survey was conducted to assess how viewers liked SLS in the early years of the project. Around 2,000 post cards received from viewers (80 percent from rural areas) as reactions of Chitrageet were analysed. It was found that 701 respondents liked the initiative. While 131 felt it improves reading ability, 52 thought it had a positive impact on writing ability and 20 on pronunciation as well.  

Jayanti Dafda from Amreli wrote that watching Chitrageet with SLS has taught many people in his neighbourhood to read and write. Now, they can even sign documents and there is no need for thumb impressions, he wrote in the postcard. 

The BIRD team has conducted a survey in Bihar and is talking to schools to find a good balance between the content that the school system wants to offer and what children want to watch.  Apart from cartoons there are good children’s films made by the Children’s Film Society, India and NFDC which children would be interested in, Dr Kothari believes.   

What is the top challenge facing the BIRD initiative today? “We have estimated it will require funds amounting to around Rs 163 crores for five years to scale-up the initiative nationally. The Co-Impact grant will be a big help. We are willing to match state government grants with those funds. The challenge is to get governments to implement the initiative in partnership with us and other organisations,” he says. 

Dr Kothari has written in an article about a quote attributed to Leonardo da Vinci — “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” He says the BIRD initiative at IIM-A draws inspiration from this very thought. 

Edited by Divya Sethu; Images: BIRD, Dr Brij Kothari

Interested students have been invited to apply for the IBM SkillsBuild Internship Camp in machine learning and artificial intelligence. Apart from mentoring sessions, the internship includes structured self and project-based learning.

Things to know

• It is an eight-week-long virtual internship.
• Participants will have to attend virtual mentoring sessions for 2 to 3 hours every week.
• There are 1,000 openings for the virtual internship.
• No stipend will be given.
• Candidates pursuing technical education — BE/BTech (II, III, IV years), BCA (II, III years), MCA (I, II years) — in disciplines such as computer science, civil, mechanical, electrical, and electronics are eligible to apply.
• The candidates should have a valid Gmail account to submit applications.
• The applications require a recommendation from a competent authority of the academic institution from where the candidate pursued their studies.
• Upon successful completion of the internship, the participants will be provided with a digitally signed internship certificate.

How to apply

The candidates can apply for the internship here.

Important dates

The last date to apply is 31 March 2023.

For more information, check the official notification.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

Things to know

• Applications will be submitted in two categories — Individual and Start-up.
• Individuals should be citizens of India above 18 years of age.
• The start-ups should be recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• A maximum of four members including one team leader can participate under the individual category.
• The participants should not be an employee of DRDO nor family members of DRDO employees.
• Participants can submit their ideas for innovative solutions in 10 domains.
• The participants will have to select the challenges under which they want to make submissions. They can apply for up to five areas of challenge.
• The winning individual will be awarded a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh and the winning start-up will be given Rs 10 lakh.

How to apply

• Participants can apply on the DRDO website, where they must register using an email address and contact number.
• Applications will be submitted online.
• Select the challenges to make submissions.
• Provide a write-up for the challenges selected. Submit attachments in PDF format.

Important dates

• The entries started on 7 January 2023.
• The last date to submit entries is 28 February 2023.

Edited by Divya Sethu

Referring to the right books and sources is thus extremely important for preparation.

In a tweet thread, IAS Divya Mittal shares a few technology tools that can help aspirants in their preparation for UPSC as well as other competitive examinations.

Some technological tools that you can use to make your journey towards IIT/IAS or any during other competitive exam easier

Make sure you use technology to your advantage

A ?

— Divya Mittal (@divyamittal_IAS) January 17, 2023

Divya, who proved her mettle by cracking some of the toughest examinations in the country, like UPSC, JEE and CAT, is currently serving as the District Magistrate of Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh.

Here are the eight technology tools on the IAS officer’s list:

1. Print Friendly

Print Friendly helps optimise webpages to save them in PDF format, removes junk, and has an editable preview which helps in deleting irrelevant information.

Tiny Wow – For making beter notes

? Edit photos, pdf files and convert formats etc.
? It offers multipe tools to process PDF: edit, split, merge, compress, and much more. pic.twitter.com/ru895D3oDe

— Divya Mittal (@divyamittal_IAS) January 17, 2023

2. Tiny Wow

Tiny Wow helps in editing photos and PDF files, and converting them to different formats. It offers multiple tools to process PDF files — edit, split, merge, compress etc. It can also be used for making notes.

3. Google Keep

This is a note-taking service that helps you manage your time efficiently with options for checking the entries and a voice memo on the go which automatically transcribes text. It can quickly search for notes by colour and allows you to find what you’re looking for, faster.

4. Notion

Notion – Organizing information

?Far more than a note-taking app.

?All-in-one for notes, knowledge management, project management, calendar, databases with filters and lot more.
?Save tweets, threads automatically
?More you explore, more you feel its awesomeness! pic.twitter.com/z8BBjuBS7P

— Divya Mittal (@divyamittal_IAS) January 17, 2023

This technology tool is used for organising information. It has multiple uses ranging from making notes, capturing thoughts, manage projects, to saving tweets and threads automatically.

5. WolframAlpha

WolframAlpha can help students best in preparing for the Mathematics segment of the exam. It provides step-by-step solutions to algebra and plotting functions. It also helps prepare for Chemistry, Physics, Finance and Geography.

6. ChatGPT

This is an AI tool that can be used to generate ideas for various essays and other long-form answers. As per Divya, it is your own “customised assistant” to answer all your questions.

7. Dictation.io

It is a free online speech recognition software that allows you to take notes and organise information. Aspirants can use it to write emails, documents, and essays using voice narration and without typing. It allows users to make notes in several languages including English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati etc.

8. Blackout

Given that these tools increase productivity as well as daily screen time, it is advised to use Blackout or a similar tool to block the internet for at least six hours. This time can be utilised to study. Although this is not a free mobile application, it is very effective.

“Technology is a major game changer in today’s times. You must use it to your advantage,” says Divya.

Edited by Asha Prakash

Although the course is open to any interested professional or student, it would be most beneficial for students interested in telecommunications engineering, senior undergraduate students, graduate-level students, MS and PhD students, and practising engineers in wireless communications.

So far, 1,340 learners have enrolled for the course, which will be conducted by Suvra Sekhar Das, associate professor at the G S Sanyal School of Telecommunications in IIT Kharagpur.

Things to know:

• The course is free.
• Students can appear for a proctored exam conducted by the institute to get certified. The examination fee is Rs 1,000.
• The e-certificate will be provided based on the candidate’s performance in the final examination.
• The final score will be calculated based on 25 percent of the average assignment score and 75 percent of the proctored certification exam. The average assignment score will be the average of the best six out of the eight assignments given in the course.
• Hard copies of the e-certificate will not be provided.

How to apply:

The course is offered on the official website wherein you must sign up and enrol using an email address.

Important dates:

• The course will be conducted from 20 February 2023 to 14 April 2023.
• The last date for enrollment is 20 February 2023.
• The examination will be conducted on 29 April 2023 in two slots: from 9 am to 12 noon and 2 pm to 5 pm.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

Not only are their handmade toys designed “following extensive research on motor and cognitive development of children”, but they also work with traditional artisans to make them with non-toxic and sustainable eco-friendly materials like wood and lac.

“The experiences children have in early childhood shape their brain and the capacity to learn, get along with others, and respond to daily stresses and challenges. Toy Trunk has been built with a vision to spread awareness amongst parents and guardians about how toys can contribute to the overall development of a child,” says Priyanka, speaking to The Better India.

“Also, to qualify the ‘handmade’ claim we make, some toys may require basic machine cutting in terms of their base shape. However, fine-tuning, shaping the edges, colouring, detailing, assembling, and finishing is all done manually,” she adds.

Finding inspiration

Priyanka, a trained architect and interior designer who also specialises in craft and technology, has more than a decade of experience in the higher echelons of Indian academia.

Back in early 2020, while writing a research paper with a fellow architect Minu Joshi for a conference at IIT Bombay, Priyanka took the example of reviving traditional woodcraft practised in the Konkan region of Sawantwadi in Maharashtra — famous for making toys.

“Different revival strategies were proposed in this paper, and both of us thought ‘instead of just discussing these, how can we implement them?’. And that’s how the idea of the Toy Trunk was initially born,” recalls Priyanka.

However, inspiration also came close to home.

In the midst of the first wave of COVID-19, Priyanka’s son had turned three. She was finding it very difficult to keep her son away from the screen during the lockdown. It was very disturbing to see her son getting addicted to mobile phones, tablets, and TVs, which could severely hamper his mental as well as physical growth and learning ability in the long run.

“I found a genuine lack of appropriate toys which could engage him. This pushed me to research child development and methods/tools that allow for the holistic development of a child in a fun and easy way. I found that toys are the best tools one can offer to a child during their early stages of development, as they also entertain,” recalls Priyanka.

Connecting the dots, she thought of redesigning traditional toys made by these artisans as tools that could aid the holistic development of a child. Moreover, if they were made by these artisans, it could play some part in keeping the traditional woodcraft, in places like Sawantwadi, alive.

Ajay, an architect and urban designer by trade who specialises in human ergonomics, also noticed how the advent of online education during the pandemic had led to increased screen time for parents and children, leading to disengagement. In his apartment complex, Ajay also observed that infants and toddlers were no longer satisfied even by being seated in front of a screen.

“Children need to be engaged in different ways off-screen. When Priyanka and I joined hands with our common vision, we participated in ‘Toycathon 2021’ — a nationwide competition organised by the Union Government in January 2021,” says Ajay.

Their entry made it all the way to the final round, and barely three months later in April 2021, Toy Trunk was first established. They launched their website in May 2022.

Employing research to make toys

Neuroscience research tells us that about 85% of a person’s brain development happens by the age of eight. During this period, the rate at which neurons are produced in the brain is high. These neuron connections are the result of learnings achieved through experience. Therefore, providing the right tools which will give the required experiences at the right age during this period is very important.

Here are some of the toys that Toy Trunk have that support such development in the early childhood period.

1) “Children learn to control their body movements by the time they are three years old. Children between three and eight years are considered to be learning with friends of the same age. During this time, their social skills are developing, and hence, providing such opportunities ensures the improvement of social skills,” explains Priyanka.

“Our pretend play kitchen set is one of the best tools where children learn considering others’ perspectives, language skills, negotiations, and problem-solving abilities, based on the observations made by them daily. Additionally, the idea behind developing a kitchen set was sparked when my son pointed out that the traditional toy kitchen set he had lacked the equipment that one uses in a kitchen daily today,” says Priyanka.

“This made us realise that her son’s current wooden kitchen set needed a lot of modification in its design and size so that he can relate it with the ones that we use. Also, the knowledge of ergonomics and human body proportions which we learned in architecture assisted us in deriving the right size and proportion of each utensil for that perfect grip,” She adds.

“While designing the kitchen set, we made many iterations and tested them with family and friends before reaching the correct size. Rather than using lacquer colour for its finish, we decided to use dark and light colour wood to make it more appealing,” says Priyanka. 

2) Interestingly, Priyanka sends her son to an ‘unconventional school’ where the focus is on experiential learning, unlike conventional schools. “Here they first focus on the development of muscles from the shoulder to the fingers before taking up the task of writing,” she notes.

“In this context, what we need is a tool that allows children movement of these muscles. For example, threading activity, which helps in developing the pincer grip, is a very important skill that a child needs before he/she starts using a pencil. In the case of our threading shape and lacing beads toy, the child is made to use both hands to weave a shape. This helps them to develop the correct hand and finger movements,” she adds.

“Our threading shapes toy develops bilateral movement as well as hand-eye coordination. It also teaches them to identify fundamental geometric shapes. This improves existing threading toys in the market that look at only unilateral hand movement,” claims Ajay.

3) There are some traditional Indian wooden toys available that are also developmental tools, but there is a lack of awareness about their purpose.

“A peacock wobbler is an example of one such toy. This toy is very helpful in increasing the tummy time of a two or three-month-old infant. Generally, at this age, a child starts crying when you put them on their tummy because their neck and shoulder muscles are not yet fully developed. But more tummy time helps in developing their neck and shoulder muscles which further help them to raise their head, roll over, sit up, crawl and walk,” explains Priyanka.

“Having something which has a vibrant colour and dynamic movement while on the tummy diverts their attention from the pain and helps them to enjoy this time. We took the concept of the same toy but improved it by modifying pointed shapes and adding attractive colours, which made our toy more desirable to parents or prospective parents,” she adds.

4) “In the first three to four months, a child learns mostly through touch and hearing sense. Hence providing different audio stimulation is crucial in this period. At Toy Trunk, we provide various types of rattles to support this development. We have redesigned the dumbbell rattle in such a way that it will not harm the little fingers of the newborn,” says Ajay.

Sustainability first

Both Priyanka and Ajay strongly affirm that “every toy at Toy Trunk is made completely with sustainable materials like wood or fabric, thus keeping the children at bay from plastic toxins and other chemically manufactured toys.” Even the colours used on the toys are made from lac with natural products like turmeric used for pigmentation.

“The decision to make toys out of sustainable materials like wood and fabric is inspired by several factors. Besides the obvious environmental reasons, the artisans we work with have been traditionally using these natural materials for years together. Also, wooden and fabric toys made with natural materials are safe, in contrast to plastic toys, which are produced using chemicals and ‘acceptable amounts’ of toxins in the manufacturing process,” explains Priyanka.

“Wooden toys have natural textures which stimulate the child’s senses to invite them to touch, feel and explore the surface area. Meanwhile, the basic shapes of the toys help the development of your child’s hand-eye coordination,” claims Ajay.

Who are these artisans?

“From our published research work with the School of Design, IIT Bombay, which saw us  studying the Sawantwadi toy cluster, we learnt that traditional Indian toy clusters were facing a variety of issues. So, we decided to redesign and repurpose these toys and began working with them and the Channapatna toy craft cluster as well,” says Priyanka.

Channapatna, a place near Mysore, has a toy craft cluster of over 3,000 traditional artisans engaged in the production of lacquerware made from vegetable dyes.

“Traditional practice involves lacquering of locally available ivory wood (locally known as hale wood) for making toys, but today they also work with other woods like neem wood (locally known as Gauda neem), beech wood, and rubber wood. The artisans do not use any non-toxic colours or raw materials, hence making the toys safe for children,” says Ajay. In 2005, these traditional wooden Channapatna toys were conferred with a GI tag.

One artisan that Priyanka and Ajay met when they visited Channapatna in September 2021 was master craftsman B Venkatesh of Sri Beereshwara Art and Craft. Since their first encounter, Venkatesh has completed six orders for Toy Trunk.

“We make handmade lacquer wooden toys with locally available woods — like hale wood (ivory wood), gauda neem, beechwood, and rubber wood. Traditionally, we have been making rattles, tops, kitchen sets, trains, cars, spinners, yoyos, cup-and-balls, wobblers, dancing wooden dolls, etc. Currently, I have 30 artisans working with me,” says Venkatesh. 

“In the future, we wish to spread and apply our leanings, and design developmental tools in different toy craft clusters of India with respective materials. We wish to play a larger positive role in sustaining and enriching these crafts in the future,” notes Priyanka.

Business model

“Toy Trunk currently uses the D2C (direct-to-consumer) business model in which we sell our products directly to consumers. This includes selling toys online through our website and aggregator marketplaces such as Firstcry and The Nestery. We aim to be on more popular e-commerce platforms like Amazon India, Flipkart, and Jiomart soon,” says Ajay.

How do they work with artisans?

“We work with them on a per-order basis. When we need more inventory, we create a purchase order with the master craftsman who employs these artisans. We follow this system since it is easy to communicate the design and manage the material required, the delivery time frame, etc. The master craftsman pays the artisans according to the order. We are currently working with two master craftsmen,” notes Ajay.

Thus far, the bootstrapped startup has released 24 products and is looking to become a brand with a turnover of Rs 1.5 crore by the end of the year.

“Besides fulfilling standard business goals, however, we are currently looking at options for incubation and funding. In the long run, we want to collaborate with more artisans and improve supply chain efficiency and also build a sustainable and responsible business,” says Priyanka.

(Edited by Pranita Bhat, Image courtesy Toy Trunk)

The curriculum has been designed by MSD Lab, Department of Electronics Systems Engineering (DESE) at IISc Bangalore, and offers industry-oriented training and an insight into the design, modelling, characterisation and development of semiconductor technology.

The instructors are a team of researchers and experts from MSD Lab, headed by Professor Mayank Shrivastava, programme director, IISc. 

The programme has two variations — a nine-month PG Level Advanced Certification programme that includes a five-day campus visit and a hands-on project at MSD Lab; and a six-month Advanced Certification programme that includes a two-day campus visit and a visit to the MSD Lab. 

Things to know

• Those with a BE/BTech degree (ECE, EE, Instrumentation, Nanoscience/Nanotechnology, Materials Engineering or similar) or MSc degree in Physics can apply.
• Fresh graduates aspiring to build a career in the microelectronics industry may also apply. 
• The fee for the 9-month comprehensive programme is Rs 3,50,000 + GST

• The fee for the 6-month programme is Rs 2,50,000 + GST
• The programme is also offering scholarships. 

How to apply

• Visit this link for the detailed process of application.
• Candidates will need scanned copies of their education certificates, experience letters and latest pay slips.

Important dates

Round 2 of applications close on 27th January 2022.

Edited by Divya Sethu

“I love colouring, connecting the dots in my workbook, and learning to count using marbles. Mathematics is my favourite subject,” says Darpan Malaviya, a Class 1 student from the primary school in Kodiya Chhitu village of Sehore district in Madhya Pradesh.

Darpan’s school is one of the many primary schools in India where there has been an enthusiastic stir in the public education system. Central Square Foundation (CSF) has been working to empower children with fundamental literacy and numeracy skills while ensuring the right delivery of the curriculum — as per NIPUN Bharat Mission guidelines and State Education boards’ framework.

Founded in 2012, Central Square Foundation is a non-profit organisation, working to transform the Indian school education system by improving the learning outcomes of all children, primarily from low-income communities.

CSF’s work is mainly focused on four impact areas — Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN), EdTech, Affordable Private Schools, and Early Childhood Education.

“We are currently working in about 12 states across India, and in most states, we have other education-partner NGOs like Room To Read (RTR) and Language and Learning Foundation (LLF), who work on developing programmes designed to support both children and teachers,” says Anustup Nayak, project director at CSF, in conversation with The Better India.

He says they work with their technical education partners to improve the quality of the design of their programmes. “We look at global best practices and consider the good examples that we have produced ourselves to see whether the teachers can better use these programmes. So, we look into the material with these lenses and see if it is simple and easy to understand. We basically improve the user interface of the programmes for the teachers and students.”

Coming to the implementation of these programmes, he says, “Most programmes are well-designed, but struggle at the implementation phase. So, we go on the ground, sit inside the classrooms, observe teacher training programmes, and understand what is working in the implementation phase and what needs to be improved. We then provide feedback to improve the programme design.”

Anustup shares how their team is like a thought partner to their tech partners. “We also sit together with them whenever we are jointly advocating any academic strategy to the government.”

Teachers form the backbone of an educational system

To achieve its vision of ensuring quality school education for all children in India, CSF works very closely with the teachers to ensure that they are well-equipped with the right techniques, right tools, and the right training.

“When teaching children the basics of language acquisition or mathematics, there are certain scientifically proven techniques. For example, if you want to teach children numbers, it’s better to get them started with practical hands-on models. In our programmes, children actually touch physical objects to understand what each number is before teaching them the corresponding abstract symbols. If these techniques are used in classrooms, then children learn and retain better,” he explains.

In most traditional classrooms, teachers have the same textbooks as children. But in the CSF programmes, teachers have access to a whole lot of other helpful tools.

“Our primary tool is a teacher guide. It has step-by-step lesson plans that help the teachers impart these techniques to the students within the school timetable. Even the children are provided with better-designed workbooks and supplements to language learning,” shares Anustup.

He further shares that very often, teacher training has been largely a one-way transmission of content to teachers, which is not very practical. The teachers go through many training programmes, but they don’t come back with practical techniques that they can actually implement in the classroom.

“What we are designing has demonstrations as a big part of it. The trainers actually demonstrate these new ways of teaching to the teachers, so that they experience it,” he notes.

Anustup says that the teachers are also provided ongoing coaching. “The block and cluster resource persons visit the school once or twice every month. They observe the teachers in the classroom, give them feedback, conduct more demo classes, and also assess some children. This way, continuous input is given to the teacher instead of a one-off training workshop that happens once or twice a year,” he says.

Sunita Singh, a Class 3 assistant teacher at Government Primary School in Sewapuri district of Uttar Pradesh, says, “I used to tutor children in the past. I’ve been through a lot of struggles in my life. But, I worked hard and was selected as a teacher in this school on 6 September 2018. Initially, I used to teach the children with traditional methods. While some grasped the curriculum, others were left without learning. But now, I have reference material in the form of a teacher’s guide. It is very helpful to assess what the students have understood. This helps me cooperate with them and offer help as needed.”

Vandana Dubey, a Class 1 teacher from the same school, says, “I’m very fond of children and have worked hard to prepare them for the future with passion and honesty. Before, I was able to teach them basic language and maths concepts, but many were not able to grasp them despite my efforts. But the teacher’s guide solved my problem. Now, I’m able to teach students with more confidence and help them to learn the concepts well. Today, I’m known as an active shikshamitra in the Department of Corrections, and this is a matter of pride for me.”

With stories of impact like this and the dedicated efforts of CSF, its education-partner NGOs, teachers and students, the programme could help the entire education system move towards a brighter future.

Edited by Divya Sethu

Although the course is open to any interested professional or student, it would be most beneficial for students pursuing the following degrees: electrical engineering, electronics and communications engineering and computer science engineering.

So far, 900 learners have enrolled for the course which will be conducted by Debdoot Sheet, assistant professor of Electrical Engineering at IIT Kharagpur.

Things to know

• The course is free.
• There is a Rs 1,000 fee for an e-certificate. 
• The certificate will be provided based on the performance of the candidate in the final exam.
• The final score will be calculated based on 25 percent of the average assignment score and 75 percent of the proctored certification exam. The average assignment score is the average of the best eight out of the 12 assignments given in the course.
• Hard copies of the certificates will not be provided.

How to apply

The course is being offered on the Swayam NPTEL platform wherein you need to sign up using an email address.

Important dates

• The 12-week course will be conducted from 23 January 2023 to 14 April 2023.
• Last date for enrollment is 30 January 2023.
• The examination will be conducted on 30 April 2023 in two slots: from 9 am to 12 noon and 2 pm to 5 pm.

(Edited by Asha Prakash.)

Not everyone can afford to dedicate all their time to UPSC preparation; some juggle their studies with full-time jobs. They often find themselves in a dilemma — whether to quit their job or not.

So, if you are a working professional seeking guidance on how to prepare for the UPSC, Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Divya Mittal has some useful tips which she recently shared on Twitter.

Mittal, who proved her mettle by cracking some of the toughest examinations in the country like UPSC, JEE, and CAT, is currently serving as the district magistrate of Mirzapur.

Many people have asked me how to prepare for UPSC Civil Services Exam along with job. Here are my tips on it:

A thread ?

— Divya Mittal (@divyamittal_IAS) October 12, 2022

Here are ten elements, according to Mittal, that can help you build a good strategy:

1. Wake up early

The IAS officer’s first advice to working professionals is to wake up early; for instance, at 5 am. “You must dedicate 4-5 hours every day to studies and at least 12 hours on weekends,” says Mittal.

2. Utilise work breaks

She tells aspirants to finish reading newspapers and current affairs during office breaks.

She adds, “Living near the workplace can save travel time. And by commuting via public transport, you can study while commuting as well. It’s a good time to listen to audio and watch videos.”

Utilizing travel & work breaks

-Try to finish newspapers, current affairs in office breaks.
– Don’t try to do optional. Impact will be less
– Try to live near workplace to save travel time.
– Use public transport over bike to study while travelling. Else listen videos/ audios

— Divya Mittal (@divyamittal_IAS) October 12, 2022

3. Limit sources

The IAS officer advises aspirants to focus on an in-depth study from limited sources instead of increasing the sources of study. “This is the most critical aspect, as you are short of time,” writes Mittal on Twitter.

4. Buy notes

“Making notes is crucial for preparation. But you can also get some notes online or at the market. This will help you save time, and allow you to use that time for high-impact study,” says Mittal.

5. Split leaves

The IAS officer advises working professionals to use leaves judiciously.

“Take leaves close to your exams and try to take a longer break after clearing prelims. Now, depending on the number of leaves you can take, split them in this manner — two weeks before prelims and one month before mains.”

Leaves

Use leaves judiciously. Take them close to your exams. Try to take a longer break after clearing prelims.

Depending on how many leaves you can take, try to split in this manner:
– 2 weeks before prelims
– 1 month before mains

— Divya Mittal (@divyamittal_IAS) October 12, 2022

6. Manage stress

Mittal shares that working professionals mostly endure job stress along with preparation. So her advice is to leave work problems at the office itself. “This will allow you to remain focused when you prepare for the exam,” she adds.

7. Avoid socialising

The IAS officer asks aspirants to remove distractions — hanging out with office colleagues after work, attending social events and movies — as time is critical for those in preparation.

8. Drown negativity

One of the many challenges for working professionals could be people doubting their abilities. “Keep going and prove them wrong. Cut off ties with such negative people, and talk to a mentor who can push you and motivate you,” advises Mittal.

Drown negativity of people

-If someone tells you that you can’t do it. Keep going and prove them wrong. People have done it before you and you can do it too.

-Cut off ties with such negative people and talk to some mentor who can push you and motivate you

— Divya Mittal (@divyamittal_IAS) October 12, 2022

9. Avoid complacency

She shares that as working professionals already have a backup — their current job — they should not let complacency set in, at any time, adding “Sustained motivation is most critical in clearing the CSE.”

10. Maintain focus

The IAS officer says, “Once you get selected for any service, resign the same day. With the selection in place, you have the security of getting a private job at any time. This will help focus completely on the next attempt.”

“It must also be noted that work experience helps score well during the UPSC interview. It is not a negative aspect,” highlights Mittal. “It is definitely difficult, but if you have the commitment you can make it happen!”

Edited by Pranita Bhat

Here is a list of free online Google courses that will add an extra edge to your CV:  

Data Science with Python

As the name suggests, the course gives the applicants a complete and comprehensive learning of data analytical tools and techniques. The 13-module advanced course includes data analysis, visualization, NumPy, SciPy, web scraping, and natural language processing. 

The 8-hour-long course has self-paced videos with quizzes to ensure wholesome learning. It is the perfect kickstart to your journey to becoming a data scientist. You can register for the programme here. 

Basics of Machine Learning 

If you are looking to take up a machine learning course then this course is for you. The beginner course will explore the basics of machine learning along with its application to grow your business. 

The course is one hour long with video lessons and end-of-topic assessments and certification. You can keep track of your progress with the “My Learning Plan page”. You can register for the course on Google Digital. 

Machine Learning Crash Course

A slightly more advanced course in machine learning, this will contain video lectures from researchers at Google designed specifically for newcomers, as well as interactive visualisations of algorithms in action along with real-world case studies.   

The course is 15 hours long with three modules and coding exercises that will help implement your learning in TensorFlow, an open-source machine intelligence library. Register for the course here. 

Data Science Foundations

Another beginner’s course where you can learn Data Science. This course will give the learners an introduction to Data Science and Analytics Landscape. It will also explore all the fundamentals of Data Science and the Data Science Life Cycle.

The 1.5-hour long course with six modules with quizzes to test your learning. With the growing data science industry and demand for subsequent jobs the course will be perfect for data enthusiasts. Register here.

Learn Python Basics for Data Analysis

Another data analytics course to upskill your resume is Learn Python Basics for Data Analysis by Google. The 12-hour video course with four modules will teach learners how to use and write functions, practice with data analysis, and work on their first algorithm. 

The course will explain the fundamentals of the Python programming language with its application in data analytics. The structure has various activities and quizzes to assist in quick learning. Register for the fast-filling course here. 

Google Cloud Computing Foundations: Data, ML, and AI in Google Cloud

A trending skill to acquire is cloud computing. The course offered by Google is ideal for those with no or little background in cloud computing. It will explore Cloud Computing Fundamentals, Infrastructure in Google Cloud, Networking and Security in Google Cloud and Data, Machine Learning, and AI in Google Cloud. 

The course will also provide a free certification on completion of the course. This is an on-demand course and you can sign up for it here for free. 

Get started with Google Maps Platform – web 

Another cool and unique skill to dive into is learning about the Google Maps Platform and how to manage projects in the Google Cloud Console. In this course, you will learn to make your own interactive web maps, create and attach a billing account, Add a map to your website in JavaScript etc. 

The course is available in the English language with a free certificate on completion. Click here to register.  

Google Analytics for Beginners

Google Analytics for beginners will help newbies to learn how to create an account, implement tracking code, and set up data filters. In the course, one will learn how to navigate the Google Analytics interface and reports and set up dashboards and shortcuts. 

It has four units covering a variety of topics like Acquisition reports, Behavior reports, Tracking campaigns with the URL Builder etc along with a free certificate on completion of the course. Register for the course here. 

Advanced Google Analytics

Once you have grasped the basics, you can hop on to this course to further your knowledge. The course will walk you through how data gets collected and processed into readable reports. It will also explain using configurations like Custom Dimensions, Custom Metrics, and Event Tracking to collect data that are specific to a particular business. 

The free certification course has four units which will teach topics like collection and processing of data, advanced analysis tools and techniques etc. You can sign up for the on-demand course here. 

Fundamentals of digital marketing

One skill which is in demand and is ever-increasing is digital marketing. You can add this skill to your list by taking this free certification course. The course has received accreditation from Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe and The Open University.

The 40-hour-long course with 26 modules will teach topics such as promoting a business online, building a web preference, making marketing strategies, using social media platforms to promote businesses etc. You can register for this course here. 

Edited by Divya Sethu

However, circumstances have changed, and for the better.

The Class 4 student has been able to study in the government school in her village Gaurella of Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi district of Chhattisgarh. “I like studying at school. My teacher teaches me ‘A’ se Anaar (pomegranate). I want to become a madam. I will study a lot and work hard,” Priya tells The Better India.

This has been possible with the efforts of IAS Richa Prakash Choudhary. 

After discovering the plight of visually-impaired students in her tribal-dominated district, the collector decided to transform their lives. Last year in 2022, she launched a unique campaign to identify school age visually impaired children and enrol them in schools so they can excel in life.

“There is a stigma associated with visual impairment, because of which such children feel left out in schools. Most of the time, they drop out, especially the primary age group. If we succeed in keeping them in school, they will become vigilant about further studies themselves, and they won’t need much support,” Richa, a 2014-batch IAS officer who hails from Rajasthan, tells The Better India.

“But it’s not just the child who needs the hand holding. The focus of the programme is also on the family, the community, peer groups and schools. We need to sensitise them so that they do not consider these children a burden,” the 34-year-old IAS officer adds.

The district has involved Ek Kadam Foundation, a non profit working for the rehabilitation of visually impaired children. With their help, Richa has identified 120 children in primary school age groups with partial and complete blindness in her district.

Helping children grow 

Children who are blind by birth endure difficulties in studying as well as in their day-to-day activities, making them dependent on someone. Unfortunately, matters are worse for those from low-income backgrounds, where even the parents are barely educated. 

Under the programme, an exclusive teaching volunteer is provided to these children, who administer personal assistance through a supported teaching process. The volunteers visit homes of children and help them groom like any other kid. And there has been a visible change.

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“I teach her [Priya] at home with braille books. She touches them and learns. Now she can read. She has developed interest in studies. She now speaks with other people also. There has been a change in her overall behaviour and personality,” Gunja Gendley, Priya’s mother and a volunteer of the programme, tells The Better India.

“We have endured a lot. People used to taunt me for my daughter’s disability. But it doesn’t matter anymore. My daughter is no less. When she comes back home, she tells me everything about her day at school. She considers me a friend,” says Gunja.

“She asks me to buy her a car. I told her to study and earn and buy herself a car. She wants to become a madam [collector] like Richa ji,” she adds. Gunja has been teaching Priya with the help of braille books for the past six months. The volunteers are also given an honorarium for their work.

The IAS officer has been facilitating study materials in suitable formats in government schools. “The content is the same. All these children are taught from NCERT books. But for visually impaired children, these books are converted into brailes, for all subjects. In a couple of months, every child will also be given audio lessons,” says the district collector.

“Initially, children were taught to recognise things from touch. Then they were made to go out on their own. After a few weeks, they were given braille training to recognise letters like A, B, C. We are also sensitising teachers that these children should not be seated at the back bench,” says Richa.

Making a difference

In July 2022, the district administration organised a basic orientation workshop with 2,600 teachers of the district, along with national level resource persons, about 21 disabilities including blindness and cognitive. It was pointed out that most parents are reluctant to send their visually impaired children to schools. 

“The workshop was eye opening for us. The percentage of the population that suffers from one or the other kind of disability remains hidden,” says Richa.

Recalling the event that triggered her to launch the campaign, Richa says, “I remember meeting a girl in a chaupal [meeting]. Her name is Kranti Baiga [a visually impaired child]. She is very smart. We found that she dropped out of the school because there was no support at school and parents also hesitated to escort her to school daily. Kids like her are smart and have potential but still because of some gap in our educational services, they drop out.”

Kranti was enrolled in the programme sometime in July last year. Speaking of the change she saw in Kranti, Richa recalls, “A couple of days ago, I saw a video of hers. She was speaking English. She sang the Chhattisgarh state song Arpa Pairi Ke Dhar and she sang it very beautifully. She is very confident. It’s very rare for people from the PVTG [Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups] community to be assertive and extroverted. I am looking forward to her going to college like all of us, pursuing higher education, and getting a job.” 

Meanwhile, the other children are going to schools like regular children. “Classmates have also been sensitised. They feel part of the school and community now. They do not feel left out. Through these small examples you see awareness clicking in your faculty, in your teachers, in the community. You are able to make a difference. That’s one of the perks of being a civil servant,” smiles the IAS officer.

“When you are working in far off areas, it takes a lot of time to see impact. But in such cases, you see the change happening in a couple of weeks. After the initiative, I have observed changes in behaviours and personalities of children, their families, teachers. It inspires me to see this difference. Education has always been my priority. is the biggest thing you can give to any being, if you are missing out on these children, then it means you are not performing duties that you are trying to do,” she adds.

In the subsequent step, Richa also aims at providing vocational training to the visually impaired youth who could not complete their education. “We are planning to give them vocational training so that they do not feel they are a burden to society,” says Richa.

Edited by Divya Sethu. All images: By arrangement.

Hailing from Pamohi village in Assam’s Kamrup district, Uttam Teron’s life was carefree and purposeless just a couple of decades ago. He would spend days roaming around the village with his friends. Once in a while, he would collect and sell firewood. But a turning point came in his life when he spotted kids playing with water and mud during one of his trekking trips.

“These children should be at school,” thought Uttam.

“I saw what life they were leading disconnected from the mainstream, so I asked their parents to send those children to my home. I turned the cowshed in my home into a classroom and started teaching them for free. My mother would cook for these children,” recalls the 47-year-old.

With just four children, Rs 800 in his pocket, and a cowshed with bamboo walls for a classroom, Uttam established a non-profit school ‘Parijat Academy’ in 2003. Today, the school imparts education to nearly 400 children with the help of 22 trained teachers.

The school is named after the parijat flower — a reference to the innocence and delicacy of children, who need to be nurtured into better human beings.

Backbencher to teacher

The BSc graduate was influenced by many career choices, but becoming a teacher was never his primary choice. Uttam, who was once a backbencher in his class, says, “I tried my hands at learning yoga, and I wanted to excel at dancing like Mithun Da and Govinda. But nothing really worked out. Teaching seemed like a boring job to me, but that incident birthed a teacher out of me.”

After the word of free education spread, more parents started sending their children to Uttam’s school. And now, children from 20 villages — Pamohi, Maghuapara, Maina Khurung, Ulubari, Jaluk Paham, etc, come to avail of free education. Children from remote villages of the Assam–Meghalaya border are now provided accommodation facilities in the hostel, which has a capacity of 60.

“When I started this school, I thought it would continue for 2-3 years, and that I would enrol the children in government schools. But seeing the belief of parents from low-income groups, I felt responsible and started opening more classrooms instead,” says Uttam.

The school is affiliated with the Assam state board and imparts education to children from nursery till Class 10. The school is built on an ancestral property of a 20,000 sq ft area and has a library, skill development centres, and a computer lab.

Upskilling the underprivileged

Apart from providing formal education — Assamese, Hindi, English, Social Science, and Maths — to the children, the institute teaches various crafts to upskill underprivileged kids. For instance, they are trained in computer learning, sewing, sports, and dance.

“We focus on skill development so that they get trained for livelihood opportunities. We teach our students agricultural and computer skills. Further, we have handlooms in our learning centre and teach weaving to our students from Class 8. They also learn to make cotton and silk sarees and shawls using handlooms,” says Uttam.

He continues, “Our girl students have stitched reusable cloth sanitary pads, helping them earn an income from people who had no access to pads. We also make boys aware about menstruation.”

Fun activities including drama, survival training camps, trekking trips, and skill development classes make Uttam’s academy a popular choice for children over government schools in the area. “Our kids have been to places like Mohali, Goa, Jhansi and Puducherry for school programmes. They find these programmes enjoyable and interesting,” says Uttam.

Manju Bongjang, who hails from Garbhanga Ulubari village, studied in Uttam’s school from Class 2 to Class 10. Belonging to an impoverished farmer family, Manju lives in Parijat Academy’s hostel with her younger brother, who also studies in the same school in Class 9. Apart from learning Assamese, Geography, Logic and English, she learned to stitch and weave at the skill centre of the school.

“The education system is good here and the atmosphere as well. In my free time, I also make sanitary pads from clothes, which helps me earn an income along with studying,” says Manju, who manages to earn around Rs 1,000 per month. After securing 66 per cent in the board exam, the 17-year-old is now enrolled in a junior college in Guwahati. She aspires to become a teacher like her mentor.

Not an easy road

The academy has become popular with volunteers coming from across India and overseas to help the children in different activities such as painting, sports, art and crafts, and yoga. Uttam receives help from individuals as well as organisations to run the school.

But the task has not been easy.

“I keep emailing institutions and organisations. Of the 100 emails I send, I get responses from two or three. It takes around Rs 400 to afford a kid’s monthly education. I keep looking for financial support as I need to manage school expenses and also provide an honorarium to the teachers,” says Uttam.

“But now there is no turning back. I wish to increase the accommodation facilities of the hostel so that in the new year, more underprivileged kids from remote villages study here,” he adds.

The educator collects pencils, old school bags, old books, clothes, blankets, bedsheets, computers, and even green vegetables and rice from people to sustain the school.

For his selfless work, Uttam has been awarded the CNN IBN Real Heroes Award 2011, the Karmayogi Award from Lions Club, the Eastern India Women’s Association Social Service Award 2009, and recognised by the Rotary Club of Dispur in 2015.

“I have no selfish motive here; I do not earn profit from this. But this work gives me happiness worth a million dollars. If these underprivileged kids get educated, they could live a life of dignity and secure the future of their next generation, and so on,” he concludes.

To support the education of underprivileged kids at Parijat Academy, contact here.

(Edited by Pranita Bhat; All photos: Parijat Academy.)

This monumental impact in the state is a result of Sunny (Gurpreet) Singh’s years-long endeavour. 

As a young boy, Sunny was always the child with many questions on his mind — whether it was for school projects or the things he saw as life progressed. 

“I would watch construction workers and domestic help going back from work with their young children, who were my age. The kids do not go to school, they have no future because of the circumstances they are born in. Their parents, as much as they would want to, cannot afford to educate them,” he recalls to The Better India. 

Sunny moved to Seattle for further education and started working in companies such as Expeditors International and Microsoft. In 1996, he started Edifecs — a healthcare company. While he was doing exceptionally well in his work, the itch to do something for his homeland stayed with him.  

“As a kid when I would watch those kids, I’d feel bad for them, but could not do anything about it. But as a man who has his own business, I knew I could do something because I had the means, talent and resources to,” he says. 

Sunny came to India in 2014 to found RoundGlass Foundation, an organisation that aims to drive holistic well-being in Punjab — from education to waste management and promoting sustainable living. He says that so far, it has reached 1,442 villages across 23 districts such as Fatehgarh, Mansa, Sas Nagar, etc. 

For every citizen of Punjab to grow together

Sunny explains, “What we want to do through our initiatives is make 12,500 villages in Punjab environmentally clean, while making them financially sustainable, so they don’t have to leave their villages. We have reached [around] 1,500 villages so far,” Sunny says. 

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The foundation has four initiatives — Sustain Punjab, Her Punjab, Sports Punjab and Learn Punjab. 

Explaining how each works, he says, “Through Learn Punjab, we are trying to give education to village kids in a way that they understand how the world works. We don’t do textbook knowledge. Our goal is to make them think out of the box and help them have good communication skills. In a village, people can have a very confined way of thinking. We aim to break that barrier. The courses cover everything from agriculture, and AI to space sciences.”

“Sports Punjab is about getting the kids to get out for one or two hours a day to play sports. The idea was simple, I drew four lines and gave a few kids four footballs. Soon more and more gathered, and now, we have tennis and volleyball courts, football fields, etc, with professional coaches.” 

“The kids come out of the learning labs, freshen up and come to their sports training. Their schedule is packed — they study, they play and they go home. Now their lives have a purpose instead of playing gulli danda, wandering around or, worse, getting into drugs,” he continues. 

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Talking about Sustain Punjab, he says, “We plant mini forests and trees in the villages and the villages take care of them. We also make compost out of the solid waste from the homes. They are all organically made and can be used as manure by farmers. This has driven a sense of cleanliness among the villagers and they start complaining to the sarpanch if the garbage collection person does not come even for a single day. We have reached 122 villages for waste management but we hope to expand it to every village in the state,” he says. 

“Another initiative that the foundation has is Her Punjab, where we have set up self-help groups and a sanitary pads unit where they learn how to make pads, manufacture them and make money. We also help them set up beauty parlours, etc, to help them use whatever skills they have and become financially independent. When they are not subservient to the male members of the family, they can stand against the abuse and early marriages that happen. When the mother is independent, she would stand up for her daughter, and so on,” he adds. 

Rajender Kaur, a victim of domestic violence, was given work in a flower nursery and now is able to earn a living. After enduring continuous violence for seven years, in 2020, she left her husband’s home. Her father introduced her to the foundation, where she was trained in the relevant knowledge and skills under the Her Punjab initiative. 

“My husband would hit me for no reason. Everyone forced me to give him second chances. Now my life has changed drastically,” she says. 

“The work at the nursery gave me the courage to stand up for myself. Before this, I was always tense and the work itself helps me to calm down. I am happier because I can give my children a better future,” she says. 

‘My heart is in Punjab’

Although Sunny has spent a long part of his life in Seattle, he says his heart belongs to the villages of Punjab. 

“I have a special connection with Punjab. I spent a lot of time with the villagers and you would cry if you witnessed their hospitality and the kind of affection they will give you. The warmth and the love they will shower will not be anything like you have ever experienced,” he says. 

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Sunny says he feels connected and in harmony with the people of Punjab. “I feel like these are my people, my land, my culture and I resonate with them and hence want to work for them. This is why I feel like I am the right person to be doing this work in Punjab,” he says. 

RoundGlass Foundation works on an open-source policy which also focuses to help similar organisations and teach them the tricks of the trade. 

“This is why I wanted to go beyond basic corporate social responsibility. I wanted to create a space which is actively involved and is leading the charge to make social change happen. I see a problem and immediately want to look for a solution. I want other organisations to come and learn with us and spread the work in other states too.”  

“I hope that the work RoundGlass does in Punjab inspires and makes other Sunny Singhs say ‘Let me do something similar’. One day, by the combined efforts of organisations like RoundGlass, we can improve lives in all villages in the country and make them sustainable.” 

“My learning is that I want to uplift my people and be in service of humanity. If someone comes to me with choices to get a billion dollars or do good work I would give up money. I want to leave behind a good place for my children and the children of the world. I will continue to do so for the rest of my life,” he says. 

Want to contribute to Sunny’s efforts or volunteer in his work? You can reach him at the official website of RoundGlass Foundation. 

Edited by Divya Sethu

This dream became a reality when he was enrolled in a government school. “Last year, police uncle enrolled me in this school. They gave me a uniform and books. I secured 83.6 per cent in my [annual] exams,” Aakash, who loves speaking English, tells The Better India.

“English and Math are my favourite subjects. I want to become a software engineer when I grow up. My father wants me to,” says the Class 4 kid, whose father does labour jobs to support his family. Due to the financial crisis, Aakash had been forced into begging.

The children of today are assets of tomorrow. But education –  a fundamental right – remains a utopian fantasy for many oppressed and impoverished children who are pushed into begging, often by their parents. Their dreams crushed, thousands zigzag their way daily through crowds towards tea shops, markets, over bridges, signals, buses, and trains, begging for alms from every passerby with innocence in their eyes.

Since the decades after the Children Act 1960 came into force, child begging still remains a worry for the country.

Mukti from begging

In a move to rid children of begging, the Director General of Police (DGP) Uttarakhand launched a special drive – Operation Mukti in 2017.

“Operation Mukti aims at mukti (liberation) from child begging and labour. We need to ensure their childhood is not ruined. People think that by giving these kids money, they are helping them. In fact, it is pushing them further into child begging,” the DGP Ashok Kumar tells The Better India.

“Bhiksha nahi, shiksha do,” he adds. The theme of the campaign is “Don’t beg, give education”.

What motivated Kumar was an incident when a child was begging in front of the police car, but instead of offering Rs 5 or Rs 10, the DGP wanted to find a better solution.

“We wanted to help them in an organised manner by ending this from the root. Due to a lack of education, some children could turn towards crime. Their going to school will also stop the tendency to crimes. We want them to connect in the mainstream,” says Kumar, who has been in the force for over 33 years.

The campaign, which is the DGP’s brainchild, aims to rehabilitate these children by enrolling them in government schools. Of over 4,000 child beggars in the age bracket of 5-15 years identified in the hill state, the DGP and his team of anti-human trafficking unit have rescued more than half from begging in the past five years, he says. Of these, 1,700 kids are presently at school — learning, playing and envisioning a better future.

For a better tomorrow

“Last year, the police enrolled 19 kids in the age group of 6-11 years. They were into begging work or used to picking waste or selling balloons for money. These kids — Neha, Meena, Aakash, Karan — are devoted to studies more than any regular kids here. They have a past, are young, but have a hunger for education,” Indu Jyoti, Aakash’s teacher says.

“Such kids get a good environment in school. They are learning subtraction, multiplication, addition, counting, and learning tables. Thanks to the efforts of the police, these kids will be able to work towards a better future,” she adds.

How challenging is it for these children to adapt to the school environment with regular children? “Since these are very young children, it is not very difficult to teach them. In fact, their grasping power is good,” says Jyoti.

Giving an example of Class 2 student Neha, the teacher says, “You teach her anything once, and she will remember it, whether it’s Math or English. She is a very intelligent and bright girl.”

However, it is a little challenging to teach children who are money-oriented, or drug-addicted, she notes. “Even teaching them basic things becomes difficult, though we spend extra hours to make them comfortable in the school environment.”

Children constitute 14 per cent of the total beggars in the country, according to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. It is estimated that more than three lakh children across India are forced to beg, using everything from addiction to drugs, threats of violence and actual beatings.

In 99 per cent of cases, “We have found that children are forced into child begging by parents because they do not want to work. On average, a child gets Rs 500 a day from begging. This comes to a total of around Rs 15,000 a month. Even a daily wager earns less. So parents become idle and make their kids beg”, Kumar explains.

Therefore, sustainability becomes cumbersome.

Finding solutions

“Identifying such children is easy. Enrolling and retaining them in schools is challenging. Many times, children drop out of schools where we enrol them. Parents remove them from schools forcefully. So we have to make consistent efforts. With regular follow-ups and counselling parents, we motivate them to work. In the initial phase, the dropout was 50 per cent, this has reduced to twenty per cent now,” says the DGP.

“Forcing kids to beg is a crime, and parents could be jailed for this. However, we try to counsel them because if we send them to jail, the innocent child would lose their caretakers,” says the lDGP. “But it does not mean, they can get away with committing crime again and again.”

Since sustainability is challenging, the police also counsel parents and encourage them to work. Apart from this, they also provide them with means to earn their livelihood. For instance, Asha, a mother of five, was given a sewing machine eight months ago.

“My husband died four years back. It was difficult for me to support the education of my children. Now with this income, I am able to look after my five children — four daughters and one son — and I save up to Rs 2,000,” the 30-year-old says.

“My Chanda [aged 9] and Bhishan [aged 7] were enrolled in school this year. They were given uniforms, books, shoes, and water bottles. They [the police] did not take a single penny from us for this. Earlier, they would roam here and there but now they regularly go to school,” says the mother, who was going to cook lunch for her kids, who will be home soon after the school bell rings.

With the help of more than 100 police persons of the anti-human trafficking unit of the government, the DGP conducts awareness drives including organising nukkad natak (street plays). 

“We have at least five police persons actively working on this campaign in all thirteen districts of the state. Sometimes our police personnel take time out to teach these kids to make them comfortable when they attend school. Many times kids escape from schools because they find it difficult to adapt to the environment,” says Kumar.

“We review the progress of the campaign and work concentrated in two months during January and February, the period before admissions are announced in April. It takes us around two months to identify such kids, counsel them and their parents, and enrol them in government schools,” says 59-year-old DGP.

In this campaign, people have also been made aware that they should do their duty by giving education to the children and not giving alms. “Police are not doing this alone. With citizen engagement, the police could make it possible. People have come in front and offered kids books and uniforms. Since we do not believe in opening a donation account, the public directly donates to the child. We do not take any financial support,” says Kumar.

“It’s a great satisfaction to see these children go to school. In the next step, we are trying to track brilliant kids out of these and support their higher education,” concludes the DGP.

The DGP’s work was also highlighted in the 2022 book titled Best Practices On Smart Policing – a book on the good work done by the police and other police organisations of different states across the country.

Edited by Divya Sethu.

The nearest school for Savanulu children in the ‘50s was 7 kilometres away in Belthangady. Since transport was difficult, a group of youngsters from the village came together, formed a trust, and built a school in the heart of Savanulu to give their children the gift of education in 1953. 

The government aided school has been run by Sri Laxminarayana Education Trust for the last 69 years. Today, the village has a government high school as well as another primary school. 

What has remained unchanged over the decades, say the alumni, is the quality of education imparted in the Aided Higher Primary School, Savanalu.

“Almost seven decades ago, there was no school in this village. It was very difficult in those days to send children far away to study. These trustees did a big thing by building this school. Generations have benefitted thanks to them. Students from here have gone on to achieve big things in life in various fields,” says Shekhar, an alumni of the school and an advocate at the Supreme Court.  

The difference a school makes

This Kannada-medium school teaches students from classes 1 to 7. 

Ranganatha Rao, a resident of Savanalu, says, “In the ‘50s, villagers wanted to sponsor a good school. But there was no school at that time and the village wasn’t developed. Even Belthangady, the nearest town, was on the path to development. So these trustees took a lot of effort, pooled in their money, and built this from scratch. They started the school till Class 5 and gradually increased it till Class 7.” 

This school helped change the face of the village.

Thanks to the quality of education and dedication of the teachers, the first school of Savanalu helped produce scientists, engineers, IAS officers, advocates, teachers etc, says Shekhar.  

“This school was the biggest gift to our village, started by our forefathers,” says Krishnappa Gowda, president of the trust. “My brothers are well educated and my children are lawyers thanks to this institution. We all would have simply not gone to a school far away as our parents couldn’t afford or arrange for transport.” 

“For several families like ours, it’s been a blessing. Since it’s in the middle of the village, children just walk to the school. Children of poor families like ours have been given access to a great education.” 

The alumni of the school have been taking efforts to ensure that it keeps up with the times. Along with a few NGOs, they contributed for a new building in the school, as well as renovation and repairs.  

“I studied here almost 15 years ago. It was absolutely wonderful and I have such good memories associated with the school. The teachers were great and impart quality education. The school also has a huge playground and the greenery around is an additional advantage,” says Nagaraj, an engineer and alumni.

Even today, the school charges a nominal fee from its students. The government provides free food in the afternoon through its midday meals scheme.

Over the years, as the strength of students increased, the trust has found it difficult to pay the increasing expenses. 

“Over the years, while quality has remained the same, expenses have increased. Government pays only for teachers’ salaries and food. Maintenance, modernisation and newer equipment for the students burns a hole in their pocket,” adds Rao.

The government pays the salary of two teachers, while the school needs more to handle seven classes. 

“We need at least five more teachers, one for each class. We need to pay each teacher at least Rs 10,000 per month. Our trust is in dire need of funds. We want to continue to run this school with the same quality,” adds Gowda. 

The school needs at least Rs 50,000 per month for the salary of teachers.

To help them, you can donate to: 

Account name: Sri Laxminarayan Education Trust

Account number: 45150200000179

IFSC Code: BARBOBELTHA

Bank of Baroda, Belthangady branch

When he was in class 6, the money ran out, and he had to be taken out of school.

“This incident changed me,” Uddeshya (31) tells The Better India. “My studies had to stop and I was never able to forget this.”

Years later in 2019, he went on to start a unique initiative called Gurukulam — Khushiyon Wala School (school of happiness). True to its name, this school is a place where children learn life lessons.

“I wanted to do my bit for the world.”

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A post shared by Gurukulam (@gurukulam_khusiyonwalaschool)

Following the class 6 incident, Uddeshya’s life took a brighter turn when his father’s business picked up. He was re-admitted to a different school where he continued his education.

He did not stop at school and even went on to college where he graduated in philosophy. He says his middle-class family was elated.

“They wanted me to get a well-paying job and settle down, but I always felt underconfident. I didn’t think I had the skills to work and neither did I want to join the crowd who runs behind things in life. I saw the world as a very unhappy place,” he says adding that this way of thinking shaped his idea to start Gurukulam.

“Children are usually taught only how to succeed. But, I wanted to also teach them how to enjoy life,” says Uddeshya.

So in 2019, with a class of five children belonging to the nearby slum and a whiteboard, he began teaching in a rented room. Today, the humble number has grown to 150 kids, who say they love coming to school.

While at first glance the school may seem a regular one with a board and students, a closer look will tell you it’s a completely different world.

At the Gurukulam school, the modus operandi is simple — no mugging concepts.

“Children need life hacks to survive in the world,” says Uddeshya. “We teach them these at the school and also introduce them to different books. The older kids share their life learnings with the younger ones, and one such class topic was how to get over a breakup!”

The school has opened its doors to 400 kids to date, says Uddeshya, who is joined by three teachers and several older kids, who after completing their time at Gurukulam volunteer in the school to share insights on different topics like science, maths and music.

Yoga, music, math and more

A regular school day in Gurukulam begins with a yoga session at 5 am that the older kids attend. This is followed by an hour of meditation, after which they return to their homes and come back at 8 am when they are joined by the younger kids.

“The syllabus is tailored according to the age group being taught. They learn through movies, theatre, news, science videos, documentaries, etc. We even hold discussions on various topics. It’s a very homely environment,” shares Uddeshya. The students go home at 2 pm and return at 4 pm when the learning continues; the day ends at 5 pm.

Radhika, one of the students, says that she likes the learning environment the most. “We learn so much without anyone forcing us to do it.”

Another child Shiva says the place feels like home. “I have learnt to play the basuri (flute) here and enjoy making my own tunes. There’s always something new to learn or do here,” he says.

Don’t the kids miss out on regular school in the process?

“Most of these kids don’t go to school at all as they are from bastiyaans (slum). Some of them are orphans and Gurukulam is where they find friends,” says Uddeshya adding that if a child who goes to regular school wishes to join, they are welcome after their school timings.

What started out as a single-room initiative now has eight rooms gratis an ed-tech platform that took an interest in Uddeshya’s work and funded the venture.

Around the “campus”, one will find musical instruments such as harmonium and flute, and a couple of TVs — media through which lessons are conducted.

However, in spite of an inspiring initiative, Uddeshya says it has been tough to set this up.

“I’m from a middle-class family, who never want to take risks. They want their child to succeed before trying to help anyone else. So, convincing them was a task. To add to this, we rely on donations and people are not always very willing to contribute,” he says.

But, he adds that these problems never dimmed his spirit. He continues to peddle the promise he made to himself all those years ago, in spite of all the hardships.

As Uddeshya switches the alarm off at 5 am every morning, ready for another day at school, he calls it the best feeling in the world.

“One day, Gurukulam’s name will spread around the world as the school that teaches people lessons for life. I was removed from school, and so, I created a school that is for anyone and everyone.”

Edited by Pranita Bhat

Which hospital should one go to? Which book should parents read? Which yoga class must one join? And then comes a debate of recent origin — which is the best school and board for our child? 

In the interconnected world of WhatsApp, I encounter conversations almost every day about selecting the ‘right’ school. 

In the last few weeks, my team and I surveyed different stakeholders including parents, administrators and teachers about different boards in Jaipur, as well as a few from NCR. This article presents the findings of our survey. 

It may be helpful to parents, students and everyone interested in exploring the contemporary Indian school education system. We begin with highlights of the recent Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) report by the Department of School Education and Literacy, presenting data on schools.

MoE’s UDISE+ Report 2021-22: Key highlights

India has one of the world’s largest school education systems. 

As per the recent UDISE+ report, over 26.5 crore students are enrolled in pre-primary to higher secondary levels in 14.89 lakh schools, employing more than 95 lakh teachers. The Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) for primary to higher secondary levels increased in 2020-21 compared to the previous year, as did the numbers of SC, ST, OBC and students with disabilities. All major infrastructural facilities improved. However, the number of schools and teachers declined by 1.34 and 1.99 per cent respectively, due to the shutting down of some schools. 

The report presents disaggregated data for the first time for government, semi-government and private schools, as well as data on indicators like integrated science labs, co-curricular activity rooms, initiatives for sustainable development etc, in line with the NEP 2020.

Out of 14.89 lakh schools, affiliation is not applicable up to the elementary level for almost 11.96 lakh schools. Nearly 2.5 lakh are affiliated with CBSE, 1.5 lakh with the State board, 22,000 with both State and ICSE, 351 with ICSE, and 2,200 with others. 

According to an IBEF report, almost 85 per cent of schools in India are in rural areas. Thus, the spectrum of schools is vast. On one end, some in rural areas struggle with basic infrastructural needs. On the other hand, posh urban ones compete for state-of-the-art facilities. Among the latter, there are various education boards, as discussed ahead.

A comparison between the boards

Apart from CBSE, ICSE, and State board, there are international boards like IB (International Baccalaureate) and Cambridge Assessment International Education, different systems like Waldorf, and ‘radical’ options like homeschooling, unschooling, and road schooling. 

We surveyed stakeholders to understand the boards based on parameters like (a) minimum age for admission, (b) curriculum, (c) assessment, (d) recognition, (e) cost, (f) learning pace, (g) relationship with parents, (h) diversity and inclusion, etc. Key inferences follow.

I) Age for Admission

According to the Right to Education Act of 2009, elementary education must be free and compulsory for all students starting at six years. The minimum age for admission in India to Class 1 is usually between five and six years for all boards. 

Structurally, CBSE, ICSE and the state boards follow the Class I-XII pattern. At the same time, IB has introduced the primary-years, middle-years, and diploma programmes comparable to class I-V, VI-X, and XI-XII, respectively.

II) Curriculum

On average, at the primary level, the boards offer six to eight subjects, including English, Mathematics, Science, Computers, Physical Education, Arts and a Second Language. IB and Cambridge provide additional courses like yoga and stretching, life experiences, global perspectives, digital literacy, music and students’ engagement in creativity, activity, and service. Waldorf, along with basic subjects, provides exposure to theatre, movements, recorder (musical instrument) and handwork, including knitting and crocheting.  

These subjects appeared to be very interesting to us. But the expert opinion was divided. 

Anita Sharma, who teaches in a primary school in Jaipur, said, “It is amazing how our children have opportunities to explore so much these days. They are exposed to diverse skills, and finding their calling very young will benefit their mental and physical well-being in the long run.”

Anshita Gupta, founder of Sun-India pre-school in Jaipur, said, “Advertisements must not sway parents and disregarding options without any analysis is not useful. Each board has its advantages and disadvantages. IB boards provide more room for experimentation and nurture an aptitude for research. Similarly, CBSE enables the child to handle pressure and become hard-working.” 

She emphasised the need for a “balanced approach” in all the schools. For instance, some schools focus mainly on typing or oral communication. While students must know how to work with computers, they must also write. A skill like writing is inextricably linked to a child’s future development.

III) Assessment

For assessment, CBSE, ICSE and State boards employ a combination of written tests, projects and viva. The evaluation also includes fieldwork, artistic performances, essay writing and case studies in IB. Cambridge supports written, oral, coursework and practical evaluation. In comparison, Waldorf follows child-centric learning, and there is scope to modify the pace to suit each child. They provide detailed individual feedback. Unschooling and homeschooling parents may opt for open-board examinations.

While traditional assessment focuses on lower levels of Bloom’s taxonomy — like remembering and understanding — the international boards emphasise higher levels, like evaluation and creation. 

Monika Gupta, who returned from the US a few years ago and chose IB for her children, said, “I am delighted with the assessments in IB because rote learning is not encouraged. IB aims to create lifelong learners who are responsible, caring and open-minded citizens worldwide. It takes more of a holistic approach to education. I did not have many opportunities in my school to experiment, and sports were almost negligible. The only challenge is that we are engaged throughout the year because the assessment is continuous.”

IV) Cost

In our survey, the cost of education emerged as an essential factor affecting school choice. 

The international boards are relatively expensive. To put things in perspective, on average, a centrally-located CBSE school in Jaipur charges nearly INR 75,000 per annum for Class I, Waldorf around INR 1.25 lakh, and an IB school almost INR 2.5 lakh. 

The fees may change based on location, brand, and type of facilities. Nisha Gupta, an HR professional, consciously chose a CBSE school for her child over an IB school. In her opinion, school is only a part of a child’s life, and learning happens everywhere — at home, in a park, and at social gatherings.

“What happens beyond school is equally important. I chose the CBSE board because I wanted my child to remain grounded and study amongst students from all socio-economic backgrounds. Such an environment is missing in an IB school because it is affordable only by upper-middle class families,” she said.

V) Diversity and inclusion

Apart from socio-economic diversity, the boards express varying degrees of concern towards students with different abilities and needs. In a 2019 circular, CBSE provided details of exemptions for special-needs students. In some cases, as explained by experts, for instance in the case of students with Attention Deficit Hypersensitivity Disorder (ADHD), IB shall be more appropriate at initial levels. But when there is little scope for modifying the pace of learning in a system, the school unintentionally admits students with similar abilities or needs.

Waldorf is suitable for students with varying needs as the system adopts a child-led learning approach. 

Gurpreet Kaur, the founder of Uday Waldorf Inspired School in Jaipur, shared, “My search for a school for my daughter led me to start Uday Waldorf in Jaipur. The journey has been challenging but fulfilling. Inspired by Waldorf’s philosophy, the school aims to develop a child’s uniqueness and love for learning. The curriculum places an equal emphasis on the head, heart and hands, unlike the traditional approach focusing mostly on the head. Music and theatre are integrated into the curriculum. Our design is backed by scientific research into stages of human development.”

VI) Pace of learning

In a school, the learning pace is similar because everyone moves together, unlike homeschooling or unschooling. In simple terms, unschooling is a conscious decision to not enrol a child in a regular school. 

Pooja Somani, a freelance writer, chose to unschool her daughter. “The pace at which she is learning is faster. She is an avid reader and grasps logic easily. We spend an hour on studies daily, and the rest of learning is naturally built into our routines.” 

According to her, unschooling seems unconventional, but it has been the best experience. We asked if she ever felt worried about her daughter’s social wellness. She did not and shared that her daughter has many friends; from the neighbourhood, common circles, community gatherings and extra classes she chooses to attend. Pooja is a part of many unschooling communities and online groups where parents lend each other support and advice. Some prefer unschooling because of moving careers and frequent changes in cities.

VII) Recognition

Homeschooling or unschooling is illegal in countries like Germany, Greece, Greenland, Turkey and Iran. Apart from that, all the boards are internationally recognised, with a presence in several countries. For instance, CBSE has more than 250 schools in 26 countries worldwide. 

Biju MP, vice principal at a well-renowned CBSE school in the city with an experience of more than 28 years, said, “The schools have come a long way. Even CBSE schools have gone international. We now offer electives that are creative and unique. However, implementation is a challenge. In the higher secondary, students hardly show any interest — they are engaged in preparing for competitive exams.”

VIII) Relationship with parents

Another factor not discussed often but emerged in our survey is the school’s relationship with parents. 

Some parents prefer a school open to feedback, which is not encouraged in older, established schools. Vaibhav Aggarwal, founder of an NGO promoting sustainable development in Jaipur, shared, “We chose Waldorf because we felt connected when we visited the school. They were very open to listening to us, unlike an older school where we were not allowed to go beyond the gate. Even today, the most important aspect is that our child is happy and does not feel scared or anxious going to school.”

Making the final choice

In our survey, we came across diverse opinions. Each had a story. In some cases, the story originated in the parents’ childhood. In others, it was rooted in the family’s culture. We encountered that the choices made by parents were neither good nor bad — they were diverse and real.

Harshita Aggarwal, a freelance corporate trainer based in Bangalore and Jaipur, researched for many months before finalising a school for her daughter. She said, “To me, the boards can be compared to different feeding types. While some follow spoon-feeding, others are similar to baby-led weaning. Both options exist.” 

Thus, each board has its advantages and disadvantages. To begin with, affordability is a fundamental factor. Then comes curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. The overall philosophy, culture and relationships are also significant. 

But a lesser-known aspect that stood out in our survey is the quality of teachers. Harshita expressed, “During my visits to various schools, I felt teachers had a key role in driving the curriculum. The best teachers never encouraged rote learning, even if the curriculum or examinations were designed to measure the capability to remember the solution rather than analyse the problem.” 

On a final note, the choice of school must rest with the child — parents may facilitate accessibility. 

Anil Sharma, a child psychologist, said, “Until the children become old enough to understand if they have made the right choice, the parents may gauge if the school is their child’s happy place. It can create a negative impact to be part of a system where one is unhappy or uncomfortable. There are no rules to explain; the parents would just know.” 

Written by Ritika Mahajan, assistant professor at the Department of Management Studies (DMS), Malaviya National Institute of Technology; Survey conducted in collaboration with Manish Joshi and Sebin S John, second year MBA students at DMS, MNIT Jaipur.

Edited by Divya Sethu

The summer of 2022 was unforgiving for India, and more so for its villages, which often bear the brunt of extreme heat. One such village is Nande in Maharashtra.

While the farmers wished for some respite from the scorching sun, they feared the oncoming monsoon season for the harsh rains they can bring, which can be equally damaging. Year after year, farmers have been devastated as their crops are submerged and the produce destroyed.

So, this year, the students of class 8 of the Zilla Parishad School in the village decided to bring in a change.

The school had recently had an Amazon Future Engineer (AFE) Lab equipped with raspberry pi and physical computing sensors set up by the Pi Jam Foundation. Along with the resources and necessary tech tools to give the students hands-on experience in computer science, the AFE program also provided a dedicated mentor who helps kids learn computer science.

The students began to wonder if they could put their lab time to greater use.

“Why not use these tools to help the farmers?” they thought.

A weather station brings hope to Nande

Under the guidance of their mentor Manomeet Paikroy from the Pi Jam Foundation, the students began ideating and troubleshooting.

The problem they wished to address through the innovation was simple — help the farmers get information on the weather that lay ahead, so they’d have ample time to prepare their fields and secure the produce.

The children coupled the knowledge they gained in science class — scientific principles of temperature, pressure, humidity and wind speed — with the tools provided in the AFE Lab. 

Within a month, they had their innovation ready to be tested.

What influenced this radical transformation in the children, where they no longer see a problem as an obstruction but rather a challenge?

Their mentor says their confidence stems from the access that they now have to various resources.

“The kids in these rural schools had limited access to various learning tools. Because of this, they weren’t able to explore new learning opportunities,” he says, adding that today, this reality has changed by associating with the Amazon Future Engineer (AFE) programme.

The Pi Jam Foundation, a non-profit venture, has been enhancing the quality of computer science education across India since 2017. As Pranjali Pathak from the foundation explains, “they envision a world where all children have access to excellent and relevant computer education.”

The foundation is dedicated to bringing computer science to kids and Amazon is supporting them in setting up labs as centers of innovation to demystify technology education for students, educators and the government school systems.

Pranjali emphasises that these labs are hubs where children can learn to code and also build live projects while adhering to the school curriculum.

“The labs have sensors, computers and more that children can use while they work on a project,” she adds.

Elaborating on how they built the weather system in the lab, Pranjali says it was a series of steps that led to the final outcome. 

“The children knew how they wanted the final weather system to perform and worked backwards. They knew they needed to understand concepts such as temperature, humidity and pressure thoroughly, and they were learning these in their classes at school. They would then chart out the tools they would need from the Pi Lab and also ideate on how to write codes for the different functions,” she adds. 

From access, to the outcome: Bridging the gap in technology

“We want to democratise computer science learning”, says Pranjali when asked about the objective of these labs. “The goal is to remove access barriers to affordable and high-quality computer science education for underprivileged students.”

She notes that the first step is to empower educators – by arming them with the necessary knowledge and skills so that children can learn core concepts right in the classroom instead of depending upon an external source.

“But it does not end here. The problem is deeper,” she says. “Even with educators having the right knowledge, there must be a means through which they can communicate the same to the students. This is where labs come into play. Unfortunately, the government schools we are speaking of either don’t have computer labs or have labs that don’t function.”

“The AFE Labs are a space brimming with innovation and ideas and we achieve this at one-third the cost due to the use of Rasberry Pis. The labs allow for a lot of tinkering and hands-on practice, enabling the students to explore problems, and possible solutions and learn computer science in the process,” she adds.

“Students are encouraged to spot problems in their surroundings and come up with solutions using resources in the lab. For instance, the weather station they built was a solution to the summer heat.”

In partnership with AFE, 15 such labs have been set up in schools across Maharashtra, and they claim to have “brought about a transformation in students”. These labs combined with the voluntary computer science fundamentals course offered to educators are building the overall capacity of the education system to deliver high-quality computer science education.

Pranjali says they now use technology to solve problems they encounter. “The curriculum too is highly on par with national and international schools, and I can see an improved level of skill,” she concludes.

When Seema Kumari received the news that she had been accepted into Harvard University last year, she knew it was nothing short of revolutionary. 

Growing up in a farming family in the village of Dahu, Jharkhand, she was aware that life could have turned out very differently. The state has the highest school dropout rate in the country, and most girls from homes like hers are unable to finish their education in order to contribute to their family’s income. 

When her Harvard acceptance came, among the first people that Seema called to give the good news were Franz and Rose Gastler, the founders of Yuwa — the school she attended and the biggest reason why she had been given this chance. 

For the 19-year-old, the duo are her “second parents”. “If I need anything, I go to them. My parents can’t understand what I am dealing with. They know where I come from, and they know who I am,” she says. 

With a vision for a brighter future 

Franz Gastler founded Yuwa, an organisation that uses sports to fuel social development, in Jharkhand in 2009. He had moved from the US to India the year before to work for an NGO, but decided he wanted to work directly with the local community in Rukka village, Ormanjhi.

Yuwa began by funding academic scholarships to a private school and provided tuitions in English and Maths. Classes in the morning started at 5 am and were often taught by candlelight since electricity was in short supply.

The idea to use sports to initiate change, however, came during a conversation with a group of girls he was working with. 

When a 12-year-old named Suman casually said she would like to play football, Franz realised he had never seen any of the girls playing any sport. He decided a football programme was worth trying, even though he had never played it himself. 

“Sports is a really good way to increase school attendance,” explains the 41-year-old. “Before football, girls were individuals. Now they are a team. If one girl drops out of school, her teammates work together to bring her back.”

That’s why a key condition for his football programme was that the girls had to stay in school.

Franz wanted to create a safe and encouraging space for the girls, so he focused on positive coaching and having fun. But over the years, the girls told him they wanted harder practices. “I wasn’t surprised that they wanted to play football, but I was surprised that they took it so seriously,” he recalls. 

The football programme quickly took off and became far more popular than Franz had ever expected. He even took a few teams to compete in Spain and the United States. In 2019, Yuwa received the Laureus Sport for Good award for its football programme. The award honours those who have demonstrated “tremendous contribution to sport or to society through sport”. 

Today, Yuwa has 29 teams with around 600 players, who play six days a week. All the girls come from about 15 to 20 villages in Ormanjhi block. The BookASmile Yuwa football programme also has about 50 female coaches, all of whom have come through the football programme. The organisation recently added an Ultimate Frisbee programme and in September 2022, nine girls from the organisation participated in an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament in New Delhi. 

Challenging archaic notions 

Seema had joined the football programme in 2012 at the age of nine. Unlike a lot of other girls, her parents had not objected. 

“Neither my parents nor my [elder] brother ever stopped me from doing something. It was my decision and they respected that,” she says.

One of the more exciting aspects of the programme for Seema was getting to meet and talk to volunteers from different countries, which opened her eyes to the wider world. “I thought if they can come here, why can’t I go there and see what it looks like?”

The year that Seema joined Yuwa was the same year Franz met Rose (then Rose Thompson), in Mumbai. Rose was in India on a fellowship focused on the impact of sports on girls’ development. Franz invited her to Jharkhand and Rose spent a couple of months there. She returned to Jharkhand in 2013 and joined Yuwa full-time in September. The two would later get married. 

Rose led the before-and-after school education programme, but over time, it became evident that they needed to do more. “After doing this for a year and a half, I started to feel like we were not meeting our goal of putting the girls’ futures in their own hands,” she explains. “Instead of being 16-year-old brides, they were just becoming 18-year-old brides.” 

Franz agrees and notes, “The parents were happy their girls were enrolled, but they saw it as a route to a better marriage prospect for their daughters, not as something that could help them build their own lives.” 

The pair realised the only way they could guarantee the quality of education they aspired to was to start their own school. 

However, Franz wasn’t convinced it was the right move. “I felt like there were too many roadblocks and we would get stuck,” he says. 

But they found an able ally in IAS officer Manish Ranjan — the then director of secondary education, Government of Jharkhand — who helped them through the process. “He deserves a lot of credit,” Franz says. 

Meanwhile, Rose diligently recruited teachers, sifting through hundreds of applications to pick the ones she felt best fit their mission. In April 2015, Yuwa opened the school with 45 students from classes 3 to 8. 

From its inception, the Yuwa school wanted to create an environment that would foster critical thinking and enable the girls to feel empowered as members of their communities. 

“A lot of people here still think women should not be educated …We want [the children] to be prepared to challenge those notions and to have the confidence to do that in a way that is empathetic and unwavering,” Rose says. 

There’s no admission test for the school. Admission is granted on the basis of financial need and a commitment to the football programme. 

In an area where family support for girls is mostly lacking, the football teams double as a social support network. “It is really important to have a larger community that supports and defends their choices and connects them with older girls who have taken this path,” Rose says. “When you see other examples, it is very powerful. They know it can be done.” 

Where girls find the right to dream  

Since 2015, the football programme has been running in collaboration with BookASmile, the charity initiative of BookMyShow. 

The programme also helps develop the girls’ personalities. Seema says it gave her more confidence and made her a better leader and communicator. “Now that I have seen it, I feel like I am one of those people who believes in [the power of] sports,” she says. 

During the initial phase of the pandemic, Franz and Rose ran the school remotely, which was challenging because only a few girls had access to the internet. But the school thrived despite these hurdles. “The key was how good our staff is and how dedicated the kids are to keeping it going,” Franz says.

The pandemic also hit their fundraising hard, but Yuwa was rescued by Alka Tiwari, a C-suite executive in Mumbai. “She and her IIM women’s alumni group kept our organisation afloat for a year and a half,” Franz says. 

The first class of nine students graduated in 2020, with eight of the nine getting full scholarships to universities in Spain, India, and Bangladesh. Yuwa also offers the opportunity of a high school year abroad in the US on a programme sponsored by the US Government. This year, three students from Yuwa were selected.

In 2022, Rose handed over the reins as principal to Sheena Chacko, who had previously worked at the International Labour Organisation in New Delhi. When Chacko’s husband was posted to Ranchi, she, too, had to look for a job, and came across the opening for principal on LinkedIn. “Frankly speaking, I was moved, and wanted to be part of Yuwa,” says Chacko, who took over in July this year. 

Though she has only been in the position a few months, Chacko has been impressed by the effort and determination shown by the students. 

She says a typical day for the girls involves waking up around 4 am, going for practice, then going back home to do household chores. School hours are 9.00 am to 3.00 pm, after which some girls have football practice again. Then there are more household chores or work to be done in fields. 

The girls somehow also find time to study and take part in various programmes run by the school such as Kick-off Solutions and Goals for Girls. 

“Students of Yuwa are very inspiring and when you look at their day-to-day schedule, it motivates you to work harder in life,” Chacko says. “It’s a totally different and satisfying feeling working here after having a career of 14-plus years across the corporate world, diplomatic community, UN…It’s adding meaning to what I am doing.”

Among the challenges she faces is the continuing opposition to what Yuwa is doing from some within the community, who believe that girls do not need an education. 

This notion undoubtedly affects the girls who are part of Yuwa’s programmes as well. Seema, who is now in her second year of Harvard, says she has felt afraid at times, like when she went to visit her parents during her summer vacation earlier this year. “There are people who believe that what I am doing is wrong,” she says. “Jealousy is another issue you have to go through.”

Seema plans to major in Economics, and despite her fears, hopes to one day return to Jharkhand to help improve the lives of others in the area. 

According to Chacko, the girls also have to deal with alcoholism and drug abuse within their families. That’s why Yuwa also has a team of counsellors to support them. Seema mentions Laura, one of the counsellors, as someone who gave her good advice.

‘The programme taught me that girls can think for themselves.’ 

Yuwa will graduate its fourth batch of students next year. Among them will be Riya Kumari, a Class 12 student who comes from a village called Singiri. 

Riya joined Yuwa when she was 10. She had noticed some girls in her village playing football and thought it would be a good way to make friends. But when she asked her father, who sells clothes at the local market, if she could join, he said no because “football is meant for boys, not girls”.

Riya decided to go without telling her family, but her neighbours would see her leaving the house wearing shorts and eventually told her parents. “They didn’t like that and they provoked my parents to stop me from playing,” Riya says. “Starting was really hard … it took one or two months for [my parents] to accept it.” 

Today, Riya coaches the younger girls and has set up two 16-member teams in her village. “Through football, I am giving them awareness,” she says. “Some of them are not even aware of what periods are and they are asking me questions.” She also gets paid to coach and uses this money for her school fees and to support her family.

She’s currently in the process of applying to colleges in the US, the UK and India. Like Seema, she plans to study economics in college, but she is also interested in astrobiology.

“My thinking has changed. Before joining Yuwa, I had no clear idea about my future. In my community, it is very common for a girl to get married after Class 10 or after she starts menstruating. I also thought the same would happen to me. I got to know after joining [Yuwa] that girls can think for themselves.”

Edited by Divya Sethu

Before delving into any details about this framework, it’s important to understand the manner in which NEP is looking to reconfigure our school system. 

Currently, we have a 10+2 curricular model of school education. NEP talks of switching that to four curricular stages — foundation, preparatory, middle and secondary.

Foundation refers to ages 3 to 8 (Class 1 and 2 and three years before that), and then you have ages 8-11 (Preparatory), 11-14 (Middle) and 14-18 (Secondary). So, from the current 10+2 system of school education, the NEP envisages moving to a 5+4+3+4.

To get a better understanding of NCF-FS and the impact it’s likely to have on future generations, The Better India spoke to Shankar Maruwada, CEO and Co-founder of EkStep Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to improving access to learning opportunities. He is also a member of the National Steering Committee appointed by the Government of India to develop the National Curriculum Frameworks.  

“This is the first time, as a country, that we are creating a curriculum framework for the Foundational stage. That is one reason why this is a landmark document,” says Shankar. 

But why is there such an emphasis on the Foundational stage? 

This is driven by the deep and long-term implications that the first eight years of a child’s life have on their physical, cognitive and socio-emotional development. Neuroscience research tells us that about 85% of a person’s brain development happens by the age of 8. Thus, early childhood care and education (ECCE), which refers to care and education of children from the time they’re born to age 8, is of immense importance. Recognising this, many developed countries have invested heavily in ECCE.           

Children between the age of 0 and 3 are cared for at home. Once they cross 3, children move into institutional settings like pre-school, kindergartens, nursery, Balvatikas and Anganwadi for their overall development until they turn 6, which is then followed by Class 1 and 2 in school. 

Needless to say, it is difficult to overstate the importance of foundational stage education for children between the ages of 3 and 8. It’s the foundation that prepares children for formal education from Class 3 onwards and their life-long journey of learning. If the foundations are strong, the rest of the edifice can stand tall. 

The NCF-FS prepared by a National Steering Committee led by former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan presents a detailed framework of how India can impart quality foundational stage education.     

“Before the Standing Committee even came together, over 1.3 lakh teachers and educators were consulted. There were more than 1,550 district-level consultations. These resulted in more than 500 papers on 25 topics put together by 4,000 experts all over India. And then at the national level, 175 experts deliberated on these findings and came out with 25 papers, one on each topic. This was the wealth of material and experience put before the Steering Committee. The challenge was harmonising these inputs, making it coherent and balancing the multiplicity of views into one framework. That was an extremely challenging task,” notes Shankar. 

Setting the framework

What is a curriculum? It’s the entirety of organised experiences students have in any institutional setting like a school, pre-school or Anganwadi centre directed towards educational goals. 

“This includes learning and developmental goals, syllabi, content to be taught and learnt, pedagogical practices and assessment (exams), teaching-learning materials, school and classroom practices, the learning environment, culture of the institution and more,” noted Anurag Behar, member of the Mandate Group for NCF, in a recent column for The Mint.  

Every state is supposed to develop its own curriculum. But what’s the national blueprint that states can follow so that we are working towards a collective national goal? 

The NCF is laying down a framework which states can use to create their own curriculum. But how do they think about creating curricula? What should they think about when developing it? 

A year ago, the Steering Committee began working in this regard to develop a national framework for this, which concluded with the release of the NCF-FS in October. 

Play-based learning

Educationists note that at the heart of ECCE and the foundational stage is play-based learning, This stands in contrast to the more traditional system, which over time has forgotten the experience and activity aspects of learning. 

“Based on science and what we know, and from a lot of experience, play is an important way for the child to learn. In this context, it is not just ‘playing’ as we know it. It includes singing songs, conversations, stories, music, puzzles, dancing, etc. It is what the child does naturally, or as we say, ‘play is child’s work’. When a child is playing, they are learning. This isn’t groundbreaking insight. The NCF-FS is legitimising what everybody knows instinctively,” says Shankar. 

“Learning is not just when the child is sitting down in attention, writing something. In fact, between the age of 3 and 8, different children learn at different paces, and in different ways. It’s imperative not to force a particular style of learning. Let the child play! Whatever catches the attention of the child and is safe is good,” he adds. 

Domains, curricular goals and learning outcomes  

The NCF-FS articulates what are the curricular goals we are setting for our children. These are non-negotiable. In Hindi, we talk of padhai (studying) and poshan (nutrition). 

“Padhai traditionally means studying, but if you change that to development and learning, the definition of the curricular goals expands to five domains of learning and development. These domains have been arrived at from science, NEP 2020 and Indian civilisational knowledge and traditions. The five key domains are physical and motor development, cognitive development, socio-emotional-ethical development, cultural/artistic development and development of communication and early language, literacy, and numeracy,” says Shankar. 

Typically, language, literacy and maths is seen as padhai in the Indian context of rote learning, but as this framework emphasises, it’s much more than that. Against these five domains, NCF has listed 13 curriculum goals, with each being further broken into competencies, and each competency into illustrative learning outcomes. 

“These illustrative learning outcomes are what a teacher or a parent can observe day to day. So, if these learning outcomes are achieved, you know that a child is making progress towards a competency. When the particular competency is achieved, you know that the child is making progress in the curriculum,” he explains.

“The NCF-FS sets the curricular goals. It lays out some competencies, learning outcomes to illustrate, but those are not prescriptive. The states and other autonomous educational bodies are free to change them provided there is a logic behind it, and it achieves the curricular goal.” 

Learning at your own pace

We can delve further into these curricular goals, competencies and learning outcomes with some examples. 

Under the domain of Language and Literacy Development, one of the curricular goals is that “children develop fluency in reading and writing in Language 1 (L1)”. Here, L1 refers to their language/mother tongue. Under this goal, a required competency is “reads short stories and comprehends their meaning — by identifying characters, storyline and what the author wants to say — on their own”. 

What sort of learning outcomes is the NCF-FS expecting here?

Starting out, the child listens to “Read Alouds” and responds to the questions posed by the teacher or reads picture books and identifies objects and actions. By the age of 8, as it gets more sophisticated, the child is expected to do “independent reading” of books with more textual than visual content and identify characters, plots, sequences, and point of view of the author. 

It’s imperative to understand that not all children will have a linear path to achieving the learning outcome of “independent reading” of books with more textual content than visual content. After all, between the ages of 3 and 8, every child has their own pathway towards learning. They will have their own peaks and valleys and take their own time in achieving these learning outcomes. 

“By the age of 6, for example, one child may have achieved a certain learning outcome, but not reached the level of her peers. Teachers mustn’t judge one child as better, smarter, faster than the other. It’s only at the age of 8 that their learning paths start to converge,” says Shankar. 

And the learning outcomes listed in the NCF-FS aren’t set in stone. 

Some states may want their children to be able to listen and act out the emotions of the character or want them to listen and draw out what’s happening in a story. 

“Suppose I read a story to a child. Now, I’ll ask the child to tell me the story from the perspective of not the main protagonist, but another character. I ask the child what this character is feeling at the end. When a child answers that question, there is a massive cognitive leap of comprehension, of relating to that particular character. Different children will come up with different interpretations,” he says. 

“Let the child be curious, converse with them because a child learns through conversations. . At that point, the NCF-FS is telling teachers ‘Don’t judge the child’ for their varied interpretations. And more importantly, don’t try to achieve each curricular goal, learning outcome or competency separately. Sometimes, by telling a story through a conversation or playing a game, you can achieve a variety of different curricular goals and competencies,” he adds.   

In this context, a key point NCF talks about is that autonomy should be given to the teacher to do what they think is right in that classroom context. The NCF-FS offers a detailed framework that teachers can lean on to do their work. 

But why is this such a detailed document? “Because without the details, there is a high chance of misinterpretation and lack of understanding. This document is meant for academics, administrators and officials, but primarily the teacher,” notes Shankar.

Primacy of mother tongue 

The child has a mother tongue or a language spoken at home. According to NCF, it’s good if the child expresses in that language because at that age, they want the child to be able to express. 

According to a 2022 report published in UNESCO, “Research shows that education in the mother tongue is a key factor for inclusion and quality learning, and it also improves learning outcomes and academic performance. This is crucial, especially in primary school to avoid knowledge gaps and increase the speed of learning and comprehension.”

“Early education is best provided in the language the child speaks at home. NCF calls upon educators, curriculum developers and teachers to structure the child’s learning experience in her home language. A child at the age 3 learns the language spoken at home. She is just about starting to express herself. At this stage, it’s more important for her to be able to communicate than learn a language. Our framework presents a pathway on how a child can communicate better, and science says the best way is to learn in their mother tongue,” says Shankar. 

Any rejection of the child’s mother tongue in a classroom setting could prove very detrimental to her confidence. But how do you implement this recommendation, particularly in major urban centres that are home to a variety of languages and social and cultural contexts?

“Teachers have to get creative. In a practical situation, there will be a child in the classroom who knows more than one language. They can take assistance from that child to understand what her classmate is saying. In that situation, there is a natural way of handling it,” says Shankar. 

“The NCF-FS is not prescribing it because every context is different. There is also technology which can translate simple sentences. But more importantly, the teacher has to put in that effort to actually communicate with children. They must leverage every resource around them, including the community. And the teacher in a classroom isn’t the only person who can impart learning. You have parents, community elders and people from different walks of life like a local farmer who can take them out on field trips to explain how they grow their crops or the local policeman or blacksmith,” he adds. 

Assessing children 

What should be the guiding principle for assessing a child’s progress between the ages of 3 and 8? According to the NCF, assessment should not contribute to any additional burden for the child, should not overly burden the teacher and care must be taken not to label the child. 

“Every child is unique. Our advice to teachers is to give each child individual care and attention and keep observing what they’re seeing. The idea is to work with that child in that way,” he says. 

No textbooks up to Class 1

NCF has suggested that textbooks should act as work books to give opportunities for children to work on their own and record their work. The vital distinction is textbooks versus books. 

“The NCF-FS is clearly saying no textbooks till Class 1. But books, yes — picture books, story books, activity books, worksheets, etc. Worksheets in particular have been highlighted as a necessary tool for both teachers and children in the NCF-FS. For example, in the worksheet, there is an outline of a cat and the child is tasked with painting within the lines. On page 1 of the worksheet, the child may paint outside a line a little. By page 20, there is an outline of another animal. But in this painting, the child has coloured entirely within the lines. Thus, over a period of time, a teacher can assess whether a child’s dexterity has improved by seeing whether she can colour within the lines in their worksheet. Therefore, the workbook also becomes a record of the child’s progress without making it look like a formal examination,” he explains. 

It’s important to go beyond textbooks and employ a variety of teaching learning material (TLM). The idea is to make the process of learning natural. “If a child is interested in a toy, that is the TLM for the day. Similarly,  if a child has picked up a leaf or somebody has brought a toothpaste cap to the class, that item becomes a TLM. If somebody is singing a Hindi film song and heard it the previous day, that is also a teaching learning material. Do not be constrained by textbooks and only books. That is an important direction that NCF talks about,” he adds.  

Care, love and roadmap ahead

“At the very core, if children receive care and love, they will learn. If nothing else, teachers should be caring human beings. They must provide a safe environment. For this new framework being built, it’s important to understand children. Don’t look at them from the lens of an adult. Look at it from the lens of a child. There are three kinds of teachers. The first is the parent. The second, most important teacher is the one in class. The third teacher is the environment in the classroom or where the child resides,” he says.  

Before implementing this model of foundational education, however, it’s important for stakeholders across India to attain what Shankar calls ‘NCF literacy’. 

Stakeholders like teachers, school administrators and officials in autonomous school boards must understand the letter and spirit of NCF, and what states can take away from it. He reckons that it will take up to 3-5 years for the states and autonomous bodies to fully implement NCF, train their teachers, design a syllabus and TLM based on this new model. There is still some way to go.  

(Edited by Divya Sethu)

(Feature Image courtesy UNICEF/UN05810/Kiron. Other images courtesy Medium/Swetha Guhan, UNICEF, Global Indian School Blog and Pixabay)

In a government school in Ramanjeri on the outskirts of Chennai, teacher Sitaezhularasi’s classes are a riot of fun. Here, computer science and technology take on a whole new meaning as children learn coding through ‘cup games’ and grids drawn on the floor with chalk. Each of these cups represent a ‘command’ and kids use these cups in a sequence to make a ‘program’ while learning the basics of computer science like sequencing , algorithms, and loops. 

After engaging in these ‘unplugged’ activities, students put their skills to the real test on computers and laptops provided by Amazon. 

“The children love these activities as we make them interesting,” says their teacher. 

Sitaezhularasi’s role as a computer teacher associated with ASHA Chennai, an NGO that works to educate underprivileged children, has been inspiring. 

The computer skills she imparts to these children have helped embolden students in thinking logically and becoming adept with creating technology and not just consuming it. As she watches her class become maestros in software such as Blockly and Scratch, it gives Sitaezhularasi a sense of pride. 

While ASHA Chennai has been supporting government schools in the city since 2004 by way of sending teachers to rural areas, in 2015, they decided to bring in a change. 

Students need to be equipped with technological tools that would stand them in good stead in the time to come. And so, the NGO began sending them computer teachers. 

And the results were truly remarkable. 

Future Engineer Programme

“Children began to excel in computers even though they were weak in other subjects,” notes Sitaezhularasi. 

In 2022, Amazon’s Future Engineer programme stepped in to help the NGO scale to an additional 100 schools. This was done by helping them hire teachers and providing equipment like laptops that teachers could use in their classes. Amazon also offered numerous Class Chats in these schools through which Amazon employees connect with students and share their journey to demystify careers in the technology industry for students. This further augmented the quality of teaching. To further the program beyond these 100 schools, Amazon and ASHA will also offer exploratory computer science lessons to an additional 150 schools and 90,000 students.

As Rajaraman, a volunteer at ASHA Chennai and coordinator of the programme explains, the partnership with Amazon has been “exemplary”. 

The educator is among several senior professionals who are associated with the Chennai chapter of the NGO. Rajaraman recounts the time he has spent volunteering here as “wonderful”. 

“Before joining Asha Chennai in 2002, I was associated with the chapter in North Carolina, where I was working,” he says, adding that he resonates with the NGO’s goal of providing basic education to the underprivileged. 

“There’s also a lot of freedom that each chapter of the NGO is given, to take an approach that they deem fit. Today, this is important, as education is critical for change to be brought about in society. It is as basic a need as food, water and a roof to live under.” 

He says that they would earlier send computer teachers to schools in the rural areas of Tamil Nadu including Tiruvallur, Tirunelveli and Chennai Kanchipuram, but the numbers have since grown.  “The teacher visits the school one day in the week and slowly the frequency increases. During this time, the curriculum is designed in a way that addresses different aspects of computer literacy.”

Elaborating on this, Rajaraman says for classes 1 and 2, the curriculum is aimed at familiarising them with the keyboard, mouse, and other parts of the hardware. “We then move on to simple games wherein they get comfortable with these features. As we move to higher levels, the complexity increases. Students are taught paint tools, equivalents of Powerpoint, Excel and Word applications.”

Whichever the level may be, the focus lies on a practical approach. One term is dedicated to a project wherein students are assessed on the basis of what they deliver. “During this time, students are expected to come up with a sophisticated, complex presentation using the skills they have learnt,” he adds.  

When the students are not practising, they are engaging in unplugged activities. 

“These include grid games played on the floor, or Robo games, wherein students alternate between playing the role of a robot and human and thus revise the codes they have learnt,” says Rajaraman. 

These activities are meant to spark the children’s imagination and curiosity towards tech-based learning even without technology, for instance when the school sees frequent power cuts.

Rajaraman notes that the programme has indeed instilled a sense of confidence in the young minds of Chennai’s rural schools. “I have seen a shift in their attitude towards computers and tech,” he adds. “Many of the kids who come to these schools do not have an opportunity to handle computers both, at the home or outside of it. So, when our teachers introduce them to these devices, it is their only opportunity.”

Recounting his own experiences with the children, he says, “In contrast to earlier, now when I visit these schools and shoot questions like ‘What’s the memory of the computer?’, ‘Where is the hard drive and what is its role?’, they figure out the answer themselves.” 

Such is the talent that the children demonstrate that as he walks into the classrooms, Rajaraman is left inspired. “Ask them what they want to grow up to be, and pat comes the reply — a computer teacher, an engineer…”

“With Amazon Future Engineer, ASHA is now part of a strong collective of organisations dedicated to supporting computer science education for students who do not traditionally get access. In the past year of this association, we have gained a lot through constant engagement with this cohort and have built a scalable approach to our intervention” Rajaraman adds.

Through the efforts of the programme and the NGO’s support, the children of Chennai are seeing a new wave in teaching methods, and Rajaraman says it is the start of a better tomorrow. 

Here, they provide these people with training in liveability and equip them with skills like functional academics, social skills, physical wellness, daily activity training, and extracurriculars. The other area of their training is workability, where they train them to make them job-ready and find age-appropriate employment. Around 250 people with disabilities are today working at restaurants, corporates, supermarkets, and other hospitality sectors.

Launched in 2011, Mann Center For Individuals With Special Needs is helmed by three friends and special educators Beverly Louis, Geetanjali Gaur and Dilshad Mehershahi, as well as a fourth co-founder Gautam Lalwani, who manages the finances.

So far, they have trained more than 500 people. 

In conversation with The Better India, Beverly explains, “The three of us met at a training centre for special educators in 2004. What always bothered us was that people with disabilities were always sheltered and trained to make certain kinds of products, like agarbattis etc. While they were all similar in age to us, their life experiences were completely different. They were not provided age-appropriate activities.”  

According to a Ministry of Statistics report, nearly 64 per cent of persons with disabilities in India don’t have jobs. The report states that of the 26.9 million persons with disabilities in the country, only 36 per cent are employed. 

A stellar transformation 

Unhappy with the vast difference in training, opportunities and life experiences of people with disabilities, they decided to do something to bridge the gap. 

“We started asking the people we met if they had gone to watch a movie, or for shopping. Most of them hadn’t. We then started taking them to watch movies, to a club, to a restaurant etc. We also took them to Goa on a holiday by train. The difference in their demeanour was astounding,” adds Beverly.

They realised that this exposure to society made them communicative and receptive. Small steps made a huge difference in the lives of those youngsters.

“When they understood that they were valued, they progressed in skills, communication and self-care,” she adds.

They also realised that there were no training centres for people who came from poor families like children of house-helps, taxi drivers, and auto drivers. So the three friends started a weekend hobby class from 2008-2010, during which they were pursuing their Master’s degrees in Special Education.

“The progress reports from their parents were phenomenal. As many had to work full-time, they didn’t have time to spend with their children. Seeing the change in our students with leisure activities two days in a week, we knew we had to pursue this full-time. We saw that they were able to communicate better, learnt the concept of time, and were able to be self-sufficient. For their parents, this was a big bonus, as their children were able to do daily activities like getting ready, eating, and taking care of themselves,” adds Beverly.

Mann was started in 2011 with 25 beneficiaries in Santacruz, Mumbai.

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The space was given to them by their trustee. 

While they initially started by providing training, an incident in 2014 made them stand up and take notice.

“From 25 beneficiaries in 2011, we gradually grew to 50 the next year, then 75, and so on. But we were just three trainers and found it difficult. In 2013-14 we observed that four of our beneficiaries had started imitating us as trainers. They grasped all our skills without being trained to be teachers,” says Dilshad. 

So the founders decided to give an opportunity to their four students to become assistant teachers. Their work ethic and joy at being employed made the founders create a full-fledged training module around employment.

“When they received their first cheque, they were overjoyed. The reaction of their parents too completely transformed us. They were appreciated by their parents for the first time. So we developed an intensive curriculum to make them employable,” says Beverly.

‘Their presence is precious to us’

The training takes anywhere between one to three years, depending on the disability of the student and how they pick up. While they trained their students, convincing people to employ them was a huge challenge. 

“Most people just shunned us. They questioned how a person with an intellectual disability can work. Finally, Cafe Zoe in Mumbai gave us our first opportunity. After that, thanks to their recommendations and word of mouth, our students have been employed in companies like Microsoft, JW Marriott, Inox, Olive etc,” says Beverly.  

“In food & beverages, they work as kitchen assistants or in customer service roles. In offices, they do data entry or pantry work. In multiplexes like Inox, they do usher, kitchen work or at the box office. We train them depending on the industry,” says Dilshad.

The response from employers has been tremendous, according to the founders. “They always come back to hire more of our students,” says Beverly proudly.

Sohan Shah, an employer of a Mann student, explains, “Hazique, who trained and graduated from Mann, has been working with us for almost two years now. From just helping our housekeeping person initially, he now manages the kitchen almost single-handedly when our housekeeping person is absent. This is awesome growth, and more importantly, he is a constant source of positive energy and enthusiasm for our team. His presence is now precious to us.” 

Since employers from cities other than Mumbai wanted to hire their students, Mann has now started training centres/schools in other cities Bengaluru, Pune, Dehradun, Chennai, and Kashmir to make their students employable. This was also done thanks to COVID.

“During the lockdowns, we couldn’t conduct our physical classes. We also wanted to ensure that our students don’t lose their progress. So we digitised our entire curriculum and put it on an open-source platform called Zoho. This helped our students and their parents continue their education,” adds Beverly.

Using this platform, the curriculum is shared with other organisations imparting training to children with special needs. Beverly says that they have trained 14 organisations like the Prem Nidhi Special School, Muni Seva Ashram, and Voluntary Medicare Society so far using the Mann curriculum. 

While Mann continues to provide employment training to many, there are some students who may not be able to work in mainstream roles due to the extent of their disability. To provide employment to such students, they started Karmann. 

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“Some of our students who are on the moderate to severe end of the spectrum can’t travel on their own, or work in companies. To help them, we started Karmann. We train them in crafts like appliqué, patchwork, embroidery, and quilting. They make home decor and lifestyle products,” says Dilshad.

Karmann has twenty employees currently and more students are being trained to work there. One of the main investors in Karmann is Sudhir Shenoy,  senior vice president at EQUATE.

Meanwhile, the founders hope that more people come forward to employ people with intellectual disabilities. “We want to impact 5,000 students per year. Our long-term goal is to have a setup where they can stay as a community, perhaps an apartment complex,” says Beverly. 

You can donate to Mann here: https://rzp.io/l/mann.

Edited by Divya Sethu

Sources

‘News By Numbers: Only 36% of India’s 26 million persons with disabilities are employed’ by Rucha Sharma for Forbes India, Published on 10 June, 2021

For Manoj Panchal, a highlight of teaching at the Zilla Parishad Primary School in Maharashtra’s Bahuli, is watching his students’ faces light up with joy when they learn something new. “It makes me feel like my purpose of being a teacher is being fulfilled,” he says. 

Narrating how his classroom transformed from a textbook-oriented learning environment to one that infuses technology with everyday knowledge, Manoj says he credits the Amazon Future Engineer (AFE) programme for this. 

Under this programme, Amazon launched the Certificate Course for Coding Fundamentals (C3F) for government school teachers in January 2022. This course aimed to provide teachers from across Pune’s rural schools a platform through which they could familiarise themselves with the fundamentals of computer science. 

Over the next five months, the educators spent a total of 40 hours learning coding, different software technologies, and design principles that they would then impart to children in their individual classrooms. 

In May, Manoj and other educators stood on the cusp of a new style of teaching. They felt “future ready”. 

He says when he went back to teaching his class armed with these new coding insights and computer science hacks, the students sat up straight. 

Learning was now fun. 

21st-century skills 

The Amazon programme was run in association with DIET Pune — the academic body of the district that is responsible for teachers’ professional development.

Tejas Bhirud from Leadership for Equity — an NGO that works towards improving the quality of education — and project associate for the AFE programme says it was “a step in the right direction”. 

“Take, for instance, Manoj sir, who was always a techno-savvy teacher and well-versed in using different applications. The AFE course gave his skills a boost and now along with knowing and understanding coding himself, he is even able to share this knowledge with his students. This circular model fulfils the aim of the course.”

Tejas says that in the following months, the teachers saw a visible difference in their classrooms. 

“Manoj’s classes were a riot of activity — students who were used to learning concepts through a textbook were now seen integrating coding into subjects like Mathematics,” he notes. “For example, to draw a square manually, students follow a series of steps which essentially is an algorithm. But the same square can be drawn quicker and more easily using a set of codes.” 

He adds that this not only simplifies the learning process, but teaches children to apply the skills they learn.  

However, when one places this change in teaching modules in the context of rural India, there are several variables at play. For instance, what about access to devices and the acceptance of technology?

“This is where unplugged activities come in,” says Tejas. “We take into account that while the teachers are equipped with the knowledge of tech, it may not always be possible for the students to have the resources to practice.”

‘Technology is something that’s no longer in the background.’

“While asking students about their understanding of sequencing, we conduct a roleplay exercise. One student plays the human and the other the robot. This unplugged activity tests their knowledge while making learning fun,” he adds. 

Additionally, Scratch —  a block-based visual programming language — fascinates children with its block-based design. The software aims to teach students the basics of coding and computing. Manoj uses the software to help children create animations, games and interactive stories. 

“While 576 teachers from Pune enrolled for the course, 3,000 students were impacted in the process. The reach is wide,” says Tejas, adding that the AFE programme has goals that are “beyond the horizons of the classroom”. 

“Yes, it does equip children with the necessary skills they need for a career in, let’s say, engineering or robotics. But what it also does in the process is arm teachers with 21st-century skills. This is the broader objective.”

Tejas adds that in the months to come, these coding sessions will be formally integrated into the timetables at schools. At the moment, it is up to the teacher’s discretion as to how often they wish to have these lectures. 

Meanwhile, anyone who walks by Manoj’s classes will be met with a fascinating sight. 

A projector on the board is filled with text and visuals relating to topics of science and maths. The fascination with learning these concepts reflects on the students’ faces, who scramble to get a good look at what’s going on. 

Will India’s classrooms soon reflect this transformation? 

“Computer science is a part of life now. Technology is no longer something in the background, but rather the highlight of our lives,” says Tejas. 

“The sooner India’s children are equipped with these skills, the better the future that awaits.” 

IIT Kanpur is offering to teach two new online courses — data science With R software 1: Probability And Statistical Inference, and data science With R software 2: Sampling theory and linear regression analysis. 

Meanwhile, Kharagpur is offering a free applied linear algebra course in artificial intelligence and machine learning that can be completed in 12 weeks. 

Things to know: 

IIT Kanpur: 

• The course will be conducted by Dr Shalabh, a professor of statistics at IIT Kanpur. 
• The last day to apply is 30 January 2023. 
• It will start on 23 January and end on 14 April, 2023. 
• More than 150 students have already enrolled for the course. 

IIT Kharagpur:

• IIT Kharagpur’s course on artificial machine learning will be conducted by professor Swanand Khare, MSc and PhD IIT Bombay. He is currently an associate professor in the department of mathematics and in the centre of excellence in artificial intelligence at IIT Kharagpur. 
• The course will start on 3 January 2023 and will go on till 14 April 2023. The last day of enrolling is 23 January 2023. 
• Participants will also receive a certificate if they take an examination after completing the course by paying Rs 1,000. 

Both the courses are available for enrollment on the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) platform. 

Who can apply? 

Kharagpur’s course is suitable for senior undergraduates and postgraduates in the field of Computer Science Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Communication Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, or Mathematics.

IIT Kanpur’s course can be taken up by anyone with a mathematics background up to class 12. It is more suitable for undergraduate students of science and engineering, students of humanities with basic mathematical and statistical background, and working professionals in analytics.

How to apply? 

• The online courses by both the institutes are open for enrollment on the NPTEL online website. 
• Interested candidates can apply for free by logging into an existing account or signing up for a new one. 
• For more information visit : Swayam NPTEL

Edited by Divya Sethu

Things to know:

• The course is offered as part of the Antriksh Jigyasa (space curiosity) initiative of ISRO.
• The basics of remote sensing technology, as prescribed by the NCERT syllabus, will be taught to the students.
• Classes will be conducted by scientists and professors from various centres of ISRO.
• The course will be engaging with the use of simple language, images and animations.
• It will cover topics like stages in remote sensing, electromagnetic radiation (EMR), geostationary and sun-synchronous satellites, types of remote sensors, and multispectral scanners.
• The aim of the course is to make secondary and higher secondary students aware of remote sensing technology and its use for the study of planet Earth and its environment through informative lectures.

How to apply:

• Register on the official website.
• Upload necessary details including information about the school.
• Take approval from the school administration.
• Details about starting date and syllabus will be notified via email.

In case of queries, write to websupport@iirs.gov.in.

Edited by Pranita Bhat