Meet Tsering Tashi, the first scientist from Ladakh working for the prestigious Indian Space Research Organisation and the founder of a charitable trust named Ladakh Science Foundation.
LSF is not only promoting the sciences across the region but also helping students from low-income families secure various government scholarship schemes and attend some of the most premier institutions in this country.
Although the foundation was only registered as a charitable trust in May 2019, Tashi has been assisting promising students since 2002, when he first got a job with ISRO.
Tsering Tashi (Source: Facebook/Tsering Tashi)
“It began with 20 students in the first year. Last year the number touched 300, and this year, 350. Although there are drop-outs, the overall success rate of students pursuing their studies is about 80%. Most students who approach us are going after professional courses. We are also working on their career growth and placements as well, besides helping them pursue their entrepreneurial ambitions,” says Tashi, speaking to The Better India.
For the 2019-20 academic session, his foundation has helped more than 350 Ladakhi students obtain admission into courses and colleges of their choice through the Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS). Each student is eligible for a scholarship amount of Rs 4-9 lakh, depending on the course and all them come from economically weaker households.
“LSF has carried out career counselling sessions for the PMSSS scholarship scheme and various other competitive examinations like IIT-JEE, NEET etc. Our mentors guided more than 700 students in 2019, and our volunteers have supported the students in various phases such as online form registration, counselling, college finalization/selection, and travelling, among others,” says Tashi.
LSF has volunteers across major Indian cities ranging from Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune to Darjeeling and Cochin.
“For scholarships, we look for students from Ladakh coming from economically weaker sections. We visit schools and interact with the students and provide awareness, career counselling and connect with them through social media. We guide them through WhatsApp, Skype etc,” informs Tashi.
Why is Tashi so invested in the future of Ladakhi students?
The answer, he believes, lies in his upbringing, which stirred his appetite for learning.
Born in Matho, a picturesque village located 25 km away from Leh, Tashi’s father was a jawan in the paramilitary forces and mother a homemaker.
Studying in a local village school till Class 8, he moved to the Government High School in the Chuchot Gongma village, which was six km away.
He passed out of the Government Boys Higher Secondary School in Leh town, following which he did his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from the Govt College of Engineering & Technology, Jammu. Alongside, he also completed a diploma in computer science.
After that, he worked at a few places, including the Ladakh Renewable Energy Development and the Indian Astronomical Observatory, before finally landing a job with ISRO in 2002 as a scientist and engineer.
Subsequently, in 2010, he completed his Masters in Satellite Navigation from Politecnico Di Torino, Turin, Italy in 2010 under a United Nations fellowship programme.
Tsering Tashi, the first ISRO scientist from Ladakh. (Source: Facebook)
At present, he is the Deputy Project Director (Elect.), IRNSS Satellite at UR Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru.
Inspired by teachers and family, and understanding the limitations of the higher education system in Ladakh, he began working towards helping others acquire better opportunities for higher education.
“I have gone through many hardships, but there is one thing I have learnt through my experiences. If you have the will-power, you can achieve whatever you want in life. If I can study in a government school and reach this level in my life, others can do the same and reach greater heights. Our children must get opportunities and exposure so that they can benefit in a big way, and go very far,” says Tashi.
“Growing up, I also endured a lack of financial support. This is why I want to support others so that they can be successful,” he adds.
At ISRO, Tashi has worked on a series of projects—Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, GAGAN-TDS, Navigation and Communication Spacecraft and application projects.
Tsering Tashi at a counselling session for school students. (Source: Ladakh Science Foundation)
“I had heard about ISRO sometime in my final year of engineering. Fascinated by their work in harnessing space technology for national development, I wanted to do my bit in the development of space technology and its applications. Of course, I had also read quite a bit about some of the eminent scientists at ISRO like Dr Vikram Sarabhai and Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and was inspired by their work. Thus, when the opportunity to work at ISRO came along, I didn’t hesitate,” he says.
For Tashi, the ultimate objective is to generate a genuine interest in science among young Ladakhis and make it interesting for them.
“Next week, the LSF is conducting a Ladakh Science Olympiad with school students from Class 9-12 participating in it. We shall also like to work with local authorities in the field of science education and related matters. Whatever we are doing today should help future generations,” he concludes.
If you want to contribute to Ladakh Science Foundation, click here.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
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Empty stomachs and equally empty pockets bind lakhs of farmers and daily-wage earners living in the villages of India. Life does not come easy to those who work their entire lives filling the belly of the nation, and go to sleep hungry themselves. To earn a pittance, village children have to abandon their dreams of sitting in a classroom and pick up farm tools or go to cities in search of work to send money back home. And for those who want to challenge their fate, there lies a long road of constant struggles.
Ramjal Meena’s tale echoes the same.
He migrated to Delhi from Rajasthan in search of a livelihood. Having been married off at a young age, he had to leave his studies to look after his parents and his wife.
Speaking to The Better India (TBI), Ramjal shares, “It was in 2003 when I was got married at just 18. I was pursuing my BSc degree but had to give it up. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, my parents were old and could not work anymore to feed our family. Secondly, I had to provide for my wife too. It was decided that I abandon my education and focus on earning instead.”
Ramjal has been working as a security guard at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi since November 2014.
Though he had to leave the education he had always wanted to acquire, the vestiges of the long-abandoned dream remained somewhere in his heart.
And Ramjal chose to rekindle the flame and fight his destiny.
This year, he appeared for the entrance exam of JNU’s Bachelor’s course in the Russian Language. The results of the entrance exam have been declared, and Ramjal’s perseverance has paid off!
Soon, the conscientious student would start his course in the same college where he works as a security guard.
Ramjal’s voice becomes heavy with emotion when he speaks of his struggles, “For two years, I did labour work and kept looking for a steady job. It was only in 2005 that I got a job as a security guard with a salary of Rs 3000 per month with which I had to take care of my entire family.”
Neither the low salary nor the time crunch could deter Ramjal from his goal of studying. He bought second-hand books and took them to his workplace.
Often, the senior employees where he worked scolded him for studying during his working hours.
It took a few years for Ramjal to settle down with this income. It was then that he applied for and completed his Bachelor’s degree from Rajasthan University via the open learning system. But that wasn’t enough for him.
“I managed to get a degree from the University while juggling the responsibilities of my job and home. But that was never the aim. I always wanted to study at a regular college, like a regular student. I knew that I would realise this dream someday. But the fact that it would take 16 years was something I never thought of,” says the 33-year-old.
After completing his graduation, Ramjal, who was still in search of a better paying job, landed the security guard post at JNU for the night shift. He made it a point to carry his books and study during whatever free time he could find.
“I have three children and my wife is a homemaker. We live in a small house in the Munirka village near JNU.
When I am at home, I lend a hand in the domestic chores and also help my kids in their studies. I had no option but to study while on my shifts. There was no other time for me during the day. Of course, it was difficult in the beginning, but now I have learned to manage my time.”
Ramjal earns Rs 15,000 per month. After Provident fund (PF) and tax deductions, he is left with Rs 13,000 in hand. “Delhi is a city that gives a poor person generously but also takes away from him. Of the Rs 13,000 I earn, Rs 5000 go toward my house rent, and the rest is spent on the kids’ education, and food etc. My wife and I spend as little as possible on ourselves. I am confident in my hard work, and I know that these days of poverty too will end,” he shares.
Ramjal always wanted to prepare for the UPSC exams with the hope to become an IAS officer. He also appeared in two entrance tests of Rajasthan government services and even managed to pass the prelims, but unfortunately, he could not make it to the merit list.
But he is not one to give up easily.
“Why should the bad days pull you down? There’s no shame in struggling till you achieve your goal. In any case, I am the son of a labourer and I have learnt from them to work hard. Now there are only two aims in life. I want my kids to get a good education, and I want to complete my studies too. It doesn’t matter how hard I have to struggle, I will ensure I achieve these goals,” Ramjal says confidently.
Fragile walls barely hold the building up, the leaking roofs interrupt the lessons and toilets are a “luxury” that the schools can rarely afford. In some of the same schools, students sit on a thin carpet, their backs bent over their books. As the teacher dictates spellings to the class, the 5 to 6-year-olds hunch over further, trying to write in clean, crisp handwriting. This scene is not uncommon in India and a visit to a rural or even an urban one will confirm that a shocking number of schools in India are falling in on themselves.
Getting their eyes as close to the books as possible, the students unknowingly damage both their eyes and their backs. The young children have to endure this strain for more than six hours.
Prolonged hours of sitting in a bad posture have medically proven side-effects, Kyphosis is one of them. This condition affects the back making it look rounded and hunched over.
Add to such inevitable problems the fact that children in their formative years, easily adapt to daily habits that lead to a bad posture affecting them for life.
How the students would typically sit. Image courtesy: Eshan Sadasivan.
When Eshan Sadasivan, an alumnus of IIT-Kanpur, saw children ruining their eyes while bending over and trying to read, it moved him to design a low-cost, lightweight, portable and collapsible desk that doubles as a bag!
“In IIT-Kanpur, we had a volunteer programme to teach the underprivileged students around the campus. We would primarily teach English and Mathematics to the students who would eagerly come to class every day. Unfortunately, we did not have the infrastructure to place them in a proper class with basic amenities like a desk or a bench and so, I had to teach a group of 20-30 students who were sitting hunch-backed on the floor. It didn’t take me long to understand that this was extremely damaging to them,” Eshan tells The Better India (TBI).
After a few experiments, he finalised Deskit, a product that has changed the lives of about 1 lakh students across 16 states in India.
“The health problems are not limited to a hunchback. It wouldn’t be surprised if the children develop eyesight problems at a very young age,” elaborates Eshan.
If you remember, during school days, sitting on chairs and bending over the desks often strained our shoulders and put a kink in our backs. At times, we would even rest our heads on the desk while still writing.
If this was the case when we had wooden desks to be able to sit right, imagine what must be happening to the backs of the kids who don’t even have any desks at all.
The innovator who has helped about 1 lakh students. Image courtesy: Eshan Sadasivan.
Eye Way, an organisation that does extensive research on visual impairment, guidelines and problems in India notes, “Your body follows your eyes. To preserve proper posture, your visual target should be nearly parallel to your face and within your line of sight. Poor visual target position forces your spine to compensate by bending. This occurs when you try to sit in an erect posture to write on a flat surface.”
Ideal reading angles are at about 60°, give or take . . . Ideal writing surface angles are somewhere between 10° and 20°. This is not ideal for vision and your spine, as both your neck and back will have to bend forward somewhat . . . Ideal focus distances for reading and writing average between 15 to 25 inches from the eyes, adds the report.
Eshan could clearly understand that his students have to violate these guidelines. And the issue was not specific to the underprivileged kids that he taught in Kanpur. Over the next few years, as part of his educational and professional projects, Eshan travelled to various villages in India and saw that the problem is constant among thousands of students.
So, he started designing desks that the children themselves could carry to the school. He did this as a part of his social enterprise PROSOC Innovators—an abbreviated form of Products for Society.
Image courtesy: Eshan Sadasivan.
The final product, Deskit, is a school bag that can be converted into a study table which opens at a comfortable height for the students to use while sitting down. This innovation solves two crucial problems. One, that it helps improve posture and prevent eyesight damage and secondly, the cost of doing this need not be borne by the schools facing fund-crunches.
“We weren’t successful with the design in the first go. We had over 40 experiments, most of which failed and taught us what to do better. We tried many combinations of wooden, metal and fabric materials before we finalised plywood for the desk, mild steel tubes for its legs and a waterproof fabric for the bag. Currently, the entire bag weighs about 1 kg but we are trying to bring the weight down even further,” the 28-year-old founder tells TBI.
Aluminium, for instance, is lighter than mild steel and could reduce the weight of the bag considerably. But, Eshan clarifies, that will raise the cost of the bag which will work against its purpose of helping underprivileged students.
The children can now sit with their backs upright. Image courtesy: Eshan Sadasivan.
The price depends on the size of the bag.
“We had spoken to doctors about the health issues caused due to improper posture and we consulted with them while finalising the design. It is under their guidance that we designed these desks whose heights can be adjusted,” Eshan says.
Since Deskit was made available commercially, several corporations came forward to buy them as part of their CSR, distributing the much-needed desks to rural students free of cost. As of today, about 1 lakh students have availed its benefits.
Says the 28-year-old entrepreneur, “I have met hundreds of these students since they started using Deskit. At Prosoc, we wanted to take their feedback. The overwhelming majority of beneficiaries, as well as their teachers and parents, have one thing to say, that school has become much more enjoyable thanks to these customised desks. The young kids can now study without straining their backs too much and that has reduced the stress of school hours in an unimaginable way. And we are glad they have had such a positive outcome.”
The smallest of details can have a long-lasting impact on young children. With a simple innovation, Prosoc’s Deskit is addressing a lot of issues that affect children and that too at a very low cost! If you wish to purchase the desks, click on the following link.
(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)
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Manan Agarwal, a resident of Sonepat, Haryana secured the 14th rank in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced 2019. Having obtained 302 marks out of 372, Manan is the state topper as well. A very diligent student, Manan has performed well in academics all through his school scoring 95 per cent in his grade 12 board examination.
In this article, The Better India, spoke to Manan to find out what strategy he adopted while preparing for the JEE, the resource material he used, and tips to follow right before attempting the examination. Manan wrote a novella during his grade 8 about his and his friends’ lives at school and became a published author in grade 9.
I asked him about the routine he followed during his preparation to which he replied, “My day would begin early, around 6 a.m. and I either went out for a walk or worked out for some time at the gym.”
I would then start studying after breakfast and put about three to four hours of studying, taking an hourly break, he shares.
Manan
He would, on an average, study for 12 hours each day.
Manan also enrolled at FIITJEE in West Delhi, which consumed three hours each day thrice a week.
He says, I came for three days for the class and it helped me a great deal. These classes helped in clearing my doubts and attempting mock papers.
Manan Agarwal
For Manan, attempting and clearing competitive examinations, isn’t new. He qualified the National Talent Search Examination (NTSE), stage 1 and 2 and also cleared the prestigious exam for Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana, a scholarship programme funded by the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India.
Not just this, the studious teen also cleared the National Standard Examination in Physics (NSEP), National Standard Examination in Chemistry (NSEC), and National Standard Examination in Astronomy (NSEA), the Olympiads in physics, chemistry, and astronomy respectively.
“I enjoy studying physics and mathematics. In particular I like to understand and learn about electromagnetism and mechanics, which are two topics that I find very interesting.” It was in grade 10 that Manan decided he would attempt the JEE and he says that he started preparing for it around that time.
So dedicated and focussed was Manan on cracking the examination that he stayed away from social media. “I joined Facebook only after I cleared the examinations, until then my only source of entertainment were the breaks that I would take in-between the preparation,” he says.
What resource materials did you use?
Manan with his family
Manan extensively used the FIITJEE modules, their home assignments also helped him a great deal. For physics, Manan relied on two resources– one by H C Verma and the other by D C Pandey. For math, he extensively used Vikas Gupta books and J D Lee’s Inorganic Chemistry and Peter Syke’s Mechanism in Organic Chemistry for his chemistry preparation.
Manan mentions here that it is imperative for aspirants to attempt as many mock tests as possible. “It helps understand at what level of preparedness one is. In fact for the last two months I would attempt almost two mock tests a day,” he says.
I ask him what an aspirant must focus on a week prior to the examination, and he replies that mock tests, and concentrating on topics where they feel they are least prepared.
“Revising them will help when they are finally attempting the paper,” he shares.
In conclusion, he leaves students preparing for IIT-JEE exams with these tips to remember while at the examination centre:
1. There are two parts to this examination and Manan says that after attempting part 1, one should refrain from looking at the question paper and discussing it with others during the break. Use this time to stay focussed and prepare for the part 2 of the examination.
2. Use the break to just relax and eat something substantial since you will have another few hours of writing and thinking to do.
3. Be prepared as the second test might be more tiring than the first part.
Manan will be joining the prestigious IIT-Bombay where he will be studying Computer Science.
Charity can mean different things to different people, but for Loganathan, it has only one meaning—an opportunity to serve others.
Born in a family of daily-wage labourers, he could not study beyond Class 6 because of financial constraints.
“I was 12 when I began working in paper mills and workshops. I don’t want any child to face such difficulties and give up on their dreams, so I do whatever I can to help,” he says, speaking to The Better India (TBI).
Motivated by personal hardships, the 52-year-old has been cleaning toilets for the past 17 years to earn extra money that can help fund the education of underprivileged children.
Every day, Loganathan finishes his welding work and heads to clean the bathrooms of private companies in Coimbatore.
“People associate a lot of shame to this job of cleaning washrooms, but I feel nothing of that sort. Is it shameful that I am contributing to the sanitary hygiene of hundreds of people who use them, or is it a shame that I use the money to help hundreds of children have a better future? It is those people who need to feel shameful for their narrow ideas!” he asserts.
A native of Kannampalayam, Coimbatore, he started the initiative in 2002, and began collecting clothes and books from well-to-do families to distribute them to orphanages. In addition to this, he continues to send Rs 10,000 every year to the district collector of the city to be sent to government orphanages and has also been instrumental in providing primary education to almost 1,600 students living in orphanages.
Nothing in life is simple, though. Despite his noble intentions, Loganathan had to face criticism from all directions for the one hour job he does after his welding shift. “Friends and family were not happy with the work I was doing. Many even stopped talking to me, but I didn’t let it bother me. I began by earning Rs 50 for an hour, and it eventually increased to Rs. 2,000 every month and all of it goes to the orphanages,” he adds. Loganathan’s reasoning was pretty basic, less labour, more money in less time, and this forward-thinking man did not let taboos, stigmas or even the taunts from friends stop him from doing what he believes in—education for all.
To help support his family and his vision, he managed to start his welding shop in 2018, as his previous employers were skeptical about his part-time toilet-cleaning job.
“I did not want to be fired from work and then struggle to find a balance between my family and the orphanages. I can never choose between the two. My workshop now allows me the flexibility to continue cleaning toilets, without any judgement,” says the man.
After years of good work, the criticism has faded, and many of his family members feel proud of him. “My daughter is now studying in Class 12, and my son is doing his MBA. I hope that they keep helping others after I am gone,” says Loganathan, who dreams of creating a charitable, educational trust in the coming future to ensure that poor children of Tamil Nadu never have to compromise on education for the lack of funds!
Loganathan’s inspiring journey is a testimony of how a common man can bring a sea of change by doing instead of just speaking that no work is beneath anyone.
Loganathan giving books to children of an orphanage
For children, parents are the first and immediate teachers, teaching them values that play an integral role in determining their character, habits, and lifestyle choices.
But for Aban Gandhi, mother of a 12-year-old in Delhi, the roles were reversed. Her daughter, Rhea, is not only raising awareness on waste management but is also finding feasible solutions to curb garbage generation.
It started with Rhea’s insistence on using cloth bags instead of plastic ones, followed by teaching the domestic help to separate wet and dry garbage.
While Aban was surprised to see her little one raise environmental issues, which even adults are ignorant of, she was happy to know that Rhea is excelling in lessons that are beyond academics.
There is a sense of responsibility and interest that Rhea takes towards everything she does, even something as simple as switching off the fan to save electricity when she’s not in the room, Aban tells The Better India.
The actions of the class 7 student are also a reflection of what she learns at school.
The Foundation School, a sister establishment of The Indian School in Delhi, is not your regular school where a child sits in a classroom for 5-6 hours, giving regular tests and examinations, to graduate with half-baked life lessons.
The Foundation School in Delhi has made eco-friendly steps an integral part of their academics
The school has championed multiple sustainable initiatives that teach children to coexist with nature via experiential-based learning activities. They have two Rain Water Harvesting systems that recharge groundwater tables every year, and during monsoons, the students from the middle school are taken to the structure to see the process.
65 per cent of the school’s electricity is produced from the solar plant of 71.2 KiloWatt placed on the terrace. Every year, the school saves close to Rs 10 lakh on the electricity bill.
Students during the plantation activitiy
The school prevented 87 tonnes of carbon dioxide in the first year of its installation in 2014, which is equivalent to the pollution produced by running a passenger vehicle around the Earth’s equator nine times, Susan Thomas tells The Better India. She is the Development Advisor associated with The Foundation School.
65 per cent of the school’s electricity is produced from the solar plant
The school has two composting units, the smaller one known as ‘rolly polly’, to convert biodegradable waste into manure. It is a process in which students participate—they deposit the waste in the unit and roll it on the ground a few times to make sure that waste is properly mixed with the organic fertiliser. The second is a bio composter which uses bio-enzymes for horticultural waste generated on the campus.
Since its installation last year, the unit has generated manure three times.
The school also has a farm-cum-forest where each student gets to pluck vegetables. On the farm, teachers explain natural farming and introduce children to organic vegetables. The farm has life-size science models as well to give students a hands-on experience.
The urban farm introduces students to agricultural concepts
In this scenario, Rhea’s efforts to reduce plastic at home stem from the school’s philosophy of a plastic-free environment.
We have put a blanket ban on single-use plastics, and our canteens have replaced all plastic cutlery with steel. Once a week, we also observe Mute-Food Day, where children bring no item that has the potential to generate waste. Moreover, they do not bring any food item that has packaging or peels, says Susan.
Bridging the Education Gap
Despite a 40 per cent rise in the number of private schools in Delhi in the last four years, securing admission for children is nothing less than a race.
Demand for quality education in India is extremely high, and every year, millions of parents join the race for admissions. As a solution, our school started afternoon shifts in 2011 to judiciously utilise space and academic resources. In a populous country like ours, with resource constraints, a double-shift school offers learning opportunities to a large segment of our student population, says Susan.
The Foundation School is a K-8 institution recognised by the Delhi Directorate of Education till the senior secondary level. It has 600 students in two batches—7.30 am-1.30pm for the morning batch; and 12.30-5.30 pm for the afternoon batch. The school has allocated the same resources, including classrooms, computer rooms, playgrounds, boards, library, and so on, in both shifts.
For many parents, especially in Delhi, afternoon schools seem unusual, but it is quite common in Maharashtra.
With insufficient open spaces in Delhi for new schools, the afternoon shift is an excellent option, says Vice Chairperson of Foundation School, Brinda Shroff. She adds, “It also saves commute time for children living in the vicinity if the only other available morning school is at a great distance.”
Some parents believe that an afternoon school leaves very time for children to pursue extra-curricular activities, while others argue that kids would stay up late at night with schools beginning later in the day. Thus, many parents frown upon afternoon shifts.
However, there also exists a group of parents who favour afternoon shifts as it would help complete the child’s sleep cycle.
“Waking up early may not allow children to pay full attention during school hours. As a parent, I have the additional fear of addiction of caffeine in my child,” says Aban, who happily shifted her daughter to the afternoon shift in 2011.
With education being the key to socio-economic development, schools play an integral part in a child’s growth. In this scenario, it is crucial that they continuously evolve their policy, both theoretically and practically.
For nearly three years, Chandigarh-based Sandeep Kumar has maintained a routine of attending calls, listing down details, hopping on to his Activa, travelling to said locations and returning with heaps of old/used books and stationery.
The 28-year-old founder of an NGO, Open Eyes Foundation, has been running a unique initiative called ‘Raddi se Shiksha’ where he goes from door-to-door to collect these books and stationery, later distributing them to underprivileged students.
Driving change. Sandeep Kumar.
The initiative has helped empower hundreds of government school and college students with more than 10,000 books till date.
In an exclusive interview with The Better India, Kumar narrates how he was born to a farmer in the village of Dhani Mau in Haryana’s Bhiwani district. He stayed in the village until he could complete class 12, after which he moved to Chandigarh where his bureaucrat brother and sister-in-law were posted.
After graduation, he took up the Junior Basic Training Course, which presented him with the prospect of teaching students in government and private schools until class 5.
As part of his training in the final year, he worked with a government school in Bhiwani. The exposure caused him to identify some jarring gaps in the ‘free education’ system.
“The students were very intelligent and would pick up all the concepts we taught in class. But when I asked them if they were taking notes, they would stare at me with blank faces.”
‘We don’t have books, pens or pencils, masterji,’ the kids would lament.
Initially, the youngster shelled money from his pocket to fund these basic requirements for some deserving students. But as soon as word spread that a teacher was giving out free copies, many students started asking him for free books. This led him to probe the matter.
“According to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, the government provides free education to these kids until class 8 along with a certain amount of money for books and stationery. A lot of times, this money is transferred directly to their accounts but ends up being used for other things. But when I visited some students who were taking books from me, I realised they were living in abject poverty. Their families did not have enough money to put a square meal on the table, how would they use the allocated money to buy books? I was deeply disturbed, but I was clueless about what to do.”
After returning to Chandigarh, he saw similar issues in city-based government schools and colleges. But this time, he decided to visit these institutions and identify students he could help.
“Because of a lack of textbooks and other study material, these students feel isolated from the rest of their class. I wanted to find a way to help them.”
What happens to textbooks, guides, half-used books, and stationery once a student completes an academic year, he wondered. Well, they are thrown out or land up with the raddiwala.
So he took the first step of his journey from his own home.
“I found some of my old textbooks and half-used notebooks that had blank pages. I separated the unused pages and bound them together to make ready-to-use books and refilled old pens. I thought if I could inspire other people to do the same, we could help some deserving students.”
Many encouraged him to formalise the initiative and build a trusted network. This led to the establishment of his NGO, Open Eyes Foundation.
A journey that he began alone has a network of 200 volunteers across the city today.
‘Raddi se Shiksha’ works under a rotation system, where they reuse old books and make new notebooks using old copies, registers, and files.
“We also collect these books at our office in Sector 39B. Before issuing them books to needy students, we request them to fill a form that says that they will return them (textbooks/study material) once their purpose is served. In this way, we expand the circle of change.”
The initiative appeals to willing individuals, housing societies, educational institutions, and corporations. One way to get involved is to organise a donation/collection drive and notify the team, who will arrange for a pick-up from your doorstep in Chandigarh.
Kumar adds, “Hotels, corporates, and educational institutes can also donate their one month’s dry waste as a CSR activity to support the project.”
Apart from Raddi se Shiksha, Open Eyes Foundation also conducts remedial classes or free tuition in slums, enrolling kids in government schools. They have distributed sanitary pads to more than 600 women for four months, and regularly organise awareness sessions on menstrual hygiene.
Where does the Foundation get the funds? Well, Sandeep owns a car service station in Bhiwani, proceeds of which sustain these initiatives. Donations from members, volunteers, and good samaritans also make things easier.
To know more, or to be a part of this change, get in touch with Sandeep on 75084 08205 or write to him at openeyes712@gmail.com. Visit his website here.
In other places that I worked, people would know me just as a school bus driver and sometimes not even know my name. But, in my ten years at Riverside, teachers and students noticed me and addressed me by name, and made me feel that the work I do is of great value!”
-Hemant Shah, Transport Team Member, The Riverside School
We hear a lot about culture in the corporate world. Lately, it has also become a topic of discussion in the education arena. In my visits to educational institutions across the world, I see a growing aspiration to establish a culture that is positive and nurturing.
But how does one go about cultivating it? Well, I believe it starts with the leadership, and it is more about what they do rather than what they say.
When I was setting up Riverside in 2001, we looked at culture as an essential piece. In hindsight, the fact that we grew slowly was a blessing. Since we began with five teachers and 25 students, we had the luxury of time and numbers to co-create our systems and processes.
With the inflow of more teachers and students, we grew year on year, and today, we have 85 teachers, 35 support team members, and 407 children on campus!
In all these years, we have moved from vision to action by constant co-creation.
Setting the culture in motion is, of course, an ongoing effort and not without some slips and misses. Through this article, I share how leaders can be catalysts in cultivating and enriching the culture of any organisation. Not that we are culture Gurus, but the endeavour is to put forth from our wonderful journey of 19 years, ideas that have worked for us instinctively, and through practice.
1. Culture is a shared set of value systems and behaviours
These are upheld by the stakeholders of an ecosystem every day. Since it is intangible, it becomes very difficult to identify and change, but it is like the smell of the place that you will always pick up!
More often than not, in schools, the focus is on pedagogy and curriculum. What many leaders miss is the opportunity to build cultures by recognising that people build the culture, and not a single practice.
As a team, we realised early that our ecosystem was built on several touch-points with our various stakeholders like students, parents, teachers, support teams, and the community at large. While it may seem like an abstract idea, it can be intentionally planted and sowed. The intentionality comes in the design of processes, keeping in mind the People, Purpose and Practices which allow that value system to be inculcated.
Add to this, the fourth P of Professionalism, and you will have the perfect DNA strand to build a robust culture.
2. While building Culture, don’t miss the WHO and the WHY
If leaders spent more time in determining the WHO and the WHY, the WHAT and the HOW would never be a concern.
Building a culture is a slow process since it a human-centered interaction; so, to think that everybody will get it just because the process has been clearly defined as a written policy is an ambitious prospect.
Likewise, skills, mindsets, and competencies also differ from person to person. So, cultures are built with more alignment when the teams can see the leaders live the values rather than merely read about them in a vision and mission statement.
3. Work around belief systems and mindsets
As a leader, my primary work is around belief systems and mindsets. Giving the team the opportunity to dream big, explore possibilities, and make them into reality has been my biggest role. My practice served as an example as I taught full-time every day for the first seven years.
4. Be receptive to messages
There will be occasions when you might feel fatigued and fumble about what to do. At such times, look for sources that can give you hope because leadership is where hope resides. So, it doesn’t matter where the message comes from; it’s important that you are receptive. This means that leaders have to be more optimistic than others because everybody else looks up to you, and you have to believe that your dreams are possible and convey this to the team.
Be authentic because your teams will know when you are not.
5. Bring self-worth to your people
This reassures each person that they are valuable and have their space in the organisation. It comes from intentionality in a leader—where you are intentional about taking out time for each person—through congenial meetings, collegial support, and mentoring. When people walk into the school ecosystem and see fewer cribs, complaints and pettiness, they see that this is the way to go.
6. Lead from your strengths and not weaknesses
When you lead from your weaknesses, ego, defensiveness, and frustration come into play. But when you are self-aware and recognise your limitations, you will bring in people who are competent to do the job. Leaders must appreciate the value of leading from competency rather than positional authority.
7. Invest time and build the organisation block by block
The leader has to be the first to take ownership. My investment in the first five years was immersive and intense. I would take the lead in training, learning, and teaching, and be the ‘go-to person’ 24×7. Our culture naturally evolved as one of collaboration and completion rather than competition.
Together, we test new practices, seed them into the system, and evaluate which work best to be rolled out into the following year.
8. Make your practice iterative and reflective
For the first seven years, we were growing at a pace that allowed us to reflect deeply. The school leaders, along with teachers, students, and support team, regularly reviewed the processes to evaluate what was going into the lesson plan and how it was being translated into the classroom. Today, because of a structure to the practice, that intentionality is visible and easily replicable.
9. Time-table for Professional Development
The first two years were also organic, where I would read to my team and share whatever I was gathering about practices in other ecosystems, and attending workshops. Initially, a lot of what we did came from sheer practice, and after the first two years, we followed a time-table of professional development with structured in-service training.
10. Autonomy, Accountability, and Audacity–The 3 As of a Culture
Knowing your team helps you determine how much autonomy can be given to them, a practice that builds accountability and brings audacity to their practice.
Since it takes time to grow into a leadership role, be mindful in nurturing your second and third tiers of leadership.
11. Keep up your stamina and patience
Recognise that each person in the team has a different pace and rhythm. It is the responsibility of the leaders to have stamina and patience to encourage growth and excellence, individually and together.
How to preserve your organisation’s culture amidst challenges
Culture blends with a leader’s ability to foresee challenges, attrition being a crucial one. At present, about 60 percent of our team has been with us for more than seven years, acting as custodians of the culture and helping propagate it.
Another vital challenge is Professional Development, as it can easily be missed or overridden by other priorities. So, always prioritise it.
In all that you do, see that your practice always comes from moral authority; otherwise, it can become superfluous and will not have the desired impact on your stakeholders.
Remember that emotional and social issues will always crop up, so it is best to institute an upward redressal system from the beginning. This makes people feel heard, where they do not struggle to voice their concerns or problems. When you trust your team, you know that you are not alone.
Lastly, be the best storyteller for your organisation, because nothing is more inspiring and encouraging for the team than a nostalgic recapitulation of their incredible journey!
About the author: Kiran Bir Sethi is an Indian educationist, designer and thinker. She founded the Riverside School in 2001 and since then has infected millions of students and educators with the ‘I CAN Mindset’ through her design thinking framework of ‘Feel-Imagine-Do-Share’ (FIDS).
On my first day at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras in August 2006, the first thing that struck me was the sheer size of the campus, measuring over 600 acres. It was a lush and verdant heaven, full of movement and life.
It’s the same feeling that Shashanka Ala, a 2014-batch Indian Administrative Officer (IAS) serving in Mizoram felt when she first entered the campus as an aspiring electrical engineer in 2006. “Besides the size of the campus, it was also my first time stepping out of the home to live in a hostel. That was initially overwhelming,” she tells The Better India.
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For V Shankar too, living away from home for the first time back in 1976 to pursue mechanical engineering at only 16 years of age, the feeling was mutual when he first set foot on campus. However, for the 76-year-old S Srinivasan, who was part of the very first batch at IIT-Madras joining in 1959, there was no campus to even speak of.
As IIT-Madras celebrates its 60th anniversary, The Better India speaks to students across three generations about their time there and how it moulded them.
Until his uncle found a small news clip in The Hindu announcing the opening of IIT-M for admissions, Srinivasan had his heart set on studying mechanical engineering at the local College of Engineering, Guindy (CEG). He hadn’t even heard of institutions like the IITs.
“The normal practise back then was that once you finish pre-university, you apply for an engineering college. For most of us, College of Engineering, Guindy, was the first choice. I was all set to go there until my uncle saw this ad in the paper. He thought this was a better option and asked me to apply. There was no entrance test, but a tough interview conducted by a large panel of German and Indian professors. It was a fairly detailed technical interview with questions about basic mathematics and physics,” he recalls.
With 120 students from across India, of which 16 were from Tamil Nadu, the first batch of students began their sojourn at this famed institute. Srinivasan enrolled in the mechanical engineering programme, the course of choice for most students.
For the first year, all classes were conducted at the Alagappa Chettiar (AC) College of Engineering, which was opposite CEG. Students, meanwhile, were given accommodation in two hostels—one for non-vegetarians in the Guindy area, while the other for vegetarians was in Saidapet. Srinivasan was lodged in the Saidapet hostel.
“To reach AC College, we had to ferry across Adyar River. From Saidapet, we cycled through a shortcut to the Adyar Riverbank, and from there, a ferryman would take us along with our cycles. Once he dropped us on the other side, we would walk or cycle to college. It was during our second year when hostels came up, which was sometime in the middle of 1960. Once we moved into the campus, things got easier. Cauvery and Krishna were the first hostels to come up, and I was lodged in the former,” recalls Srinivasan.
His first impression of the college was that it was more of a jungle than a campus with deers, blackbucks, monkeys and snakes running riot. Gradually, over the years the infrastructure came up with the famous Open Air Theatre (built in 1961), where movies are screened every Saturday. The campus was a lot better developed when he came back to teach as a faculty member in the computer science department in 1978.
Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT-M with the first batch that graduated from the Institute in 1964 during Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Srinivasan standing second from extreme right. (Source: IIT Madras)
Life on campus as a student in the early days revolved around either academics or games in the hostel. “In our common room, we assembled to listen to the radio for cricket commentary, play carrom board or engage in typical classroom gossip. Once the grounds for football and hockey came up, we would play there in the evenings, besides badminton. However, the primary focus was on academics with an outstanding faculty. We had the benefit of having some of the most experienced professors in the country,” he recalls.
There were a lot of surprise tests. Students had to be on their toes every day. “There was pressure to keep up to date with our studies,” he adds.
However, his most memorable moment was the convocation, when he received his degree in 1965 from the then President of India Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, calling it a “special honour”. Following 12 years in the job market, he came back to teach for nine years until he started his own software company in Chennai.
“It wasn’t merely the technical stuff they taught, but also how to think analytically. Also, there were people from all states. At the time, you had quotas of students from each state, giving us a chance to mix with people of different regions, including the Northeast. It was a very enriching experience understanding and interacting with different cultures,” says Srinivasan.
“While doing my M.Sc. at IIT Madras, I was introduced to computers. I took a course in Fortran (Programming language) and, as they say, the rest is history. Its role in transforming and building institutions across the world, across the industry, academic and Government stands testimony to the impact of this Institution,” says Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-founder of Infosys and Chairman of Axilor Ventures.
When Shankar joined IIT-M in 1976 to do his BTech in mechanical engineering, it wasn’t considered a big deal like today. “In fact, I had to explain to people what the IITs were all about. It’s not like today. The admission process was more or less the same, except that we only had to give one exam instead of two, followed by counselling,” he recalls.
Like Shankar, the rest of his batch was filled with a diverse set of students.
“It’s such a formative phase of your life. What you learn there, the friendships you make and values you imbibe stick with you for the rest of your life. It’s not just an excellent education but a value system that I learnt from the institution. Many give credit to the excellent academic system on campus but often ignore the value system. It’s been 43 years since I first set foot on campus, but I’m still in touch with many of my friends. Whenever any of them visit Chennai, we step out for coffee and reminisce about old times,” recalls Shankar.
Lodged in Godavari Hostel, students back then didn’t have the distraction of the internet. Other than studies, everything else was a communal affair either in the common room or the quadrangle where hostelers played volleyball or football. Even the mess was in the hostel.
Entrance to Godavari Hostel (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
“Life in the hostel was very much about socializing, hanging around in somebody else’s wing and listening to music, etc. There was no concept of relegating yourself to your room, sitting with your laptop or playing computer games. On weekends, we would cycle out to Mahabalipuram or the Theosophical Society. Hanging out in campus was itself a good enough past time. Academics was pretty much the same, although we had a lot more physical work than current batches because we had an entire week full of workshop sessions every alternate week. So, it was physically quite taxing,” he recalls.
After college, Shankar went to the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta, following which he worked in Ponds (FMCG company) for a few years before starting his own mutual funds company in 1987. Off late, he has stepped away a little from the company, helping startups and going around the country to see how he can help future entrepreneurs.
Life on campus: Flashmob by students on campus. (Source: Facebook/IIT Madras)
Rat race, & finding yourself
For Hyderabad-native Shashanka, it was all about studying engineering and getting into the prestigious IITs. In a city famous for its coaching classes, it was either medicine or engineering. Once set on engineering, it was a mind-numbing grind of coaching classes until she made it.
“On campus, the thing that struck me was the massive gender imbalance. There were like 42 girls for 700+ guys in the engineering batch. The gender ratio was very bad. In electrical or mechanical engineering classes you’d have three or five girls in a class of 100. However, I didn’t feel the need to navigate that imbalance. For me, it was more of a privilege to get into the institute in the first place,” says Shashanka.
“My biggest take away from the institute was the confidence that I will make it no matter what. Even though I didn’t have the best academic record in IIT, I learned critical skills like logical thinking and the ability to make quick decisions. Cracking JEE in my first attempt and studying at a premier institution through five years without major hiccups gave me both the ambition and confidence to eventually crack the civil services,” she adds.
Once again, she has very fond memories of the place include hostel nights, staying up late at night, watching movies with friends, bonding with them and the highlight, of course, was watching the Cricket World Cup Final inside the Open Air Theatre in March 2011.
Shashanka Ala is today an IAS officer despite not having the best academic record in college. (Source: Facebook)
Despite having a great time in college, she knew deep down that engineering wasn’t for her. It wasn’t a conscious choice she had made, but something her parents had decided for her.
“By my fourth year, I knew that getting into the civil services was the main objective. I did not even sit for placements. During my UPSC preparations, people would often ask me if I was wasting an engineering seat by preparing for the civil services. My response was that the confidence to clear UPSC came from my time in IIT,” she recalls.
“Unlike back in my day, students are a lot more goal-oriented in terms of what they want to do following their time at IIT. We didn’t have the same sort of academic pressures that students undergo today. We weren’t very focused on what we wanted to do post IIT. Most would look to apply to other universities. If everyone wants to get a job in Google or Mckenzie, then there is going to be pressure. In my view, it’s needless. See, the intake quality is so high that regardless of where you’re coming out in the pecking order, you’re still better than the rest. I wish students had more confidence in themselves,” says Shankar.
During my time in IIT from 2006-2011, I saw many bright students who struggled in their academics, often suffering from a great deal of pressure to keep up. Some didn’t even want to pursue engineering even after getting into one of India’s most prestigious institutions. This would result in depression, drugs, and even drastic steps like suicides. If you didn’t do well in the first few semesters, most of them would get into their shells.
However, what Shashanka’s example tells us that there is more to life; that if engineering doesn’t work out, there are so many choices in life. Some of her batchmates were earning lakhs, while she was slogging for the civil services cut off from the world. But today she is a bonafide IAS officer. I know of some IITians who’ve become world-class musicians, schoolteachers and working in non-profits in remote corners of the country.
For students who are not doing very well, they must remember it’s not the end of the world. There are always options in life post IIT. Have the courage to pursue other things as well rather than rooting for a fat paycheck or dreams of starting a billion-dollar venture.
(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)
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With a school that has a different approach toward education and is also visually appealing, wouldn’t you be excited to sit in the classrooms every day?
Bangalore-based NGO, Building Blocks has created just such a green haven for pre-primary children from underprivileged backgrounds to express themselves in and learn in the process. What’s better? 40 children in Coorg’s Siddapura district are currently attending this unique and unconventional school.
Building Blocks provides primary education to 840 children aged between 3-6 in its ten centres. James Ambat, the founder of the NGO, feels that children of slum dwellers and wage labourers miss out on kindergarten and are admitted directly in class 1 in government schools. Zero literacy makes it difficult for them to cope up with the syllabus of a higher level when they don’t even know how to hold a pencil.
Morning Glory is an eco-friendly school in Coorg
Speaking to The Better India (TBI) about the dire need of establishing pre-primary schools for underprivileged kids, James says:
On the one hand, we have numerous international and private pre-primary schools across India where the young ones learn basic etiquette, conversational skills, writing letters, and so on. And on the other hand, are kids who spend their early years at construction sites. Our organisation is working toward bridging this gap since 2014. Pre-primary schools are the starting point of a child’s academic journey.
Known as ‘Morning Glory’, the eco-friendly pre-primary school provides free education to the children of labourers.
The school provides free education to children of labourers
With eucalyptus poles hanging from its ceilings; large windows welcoming the sunlight and roofs carved out of upcycled waste wood, this school is different and how. If it is summer, the children do not feel the heat as uninterrupted breeze cools them. And during winters, the mud walls trap the heat to keep them warm.
This English medium school provides the students with books, stationery, and bags along with two meals each day. It also conducts sessions for parents to help them understand the importance of nutrition. The school follows age-appropriate practices aimed at imparting a sense of living with nature which grooms the kids in understanding the value of the environment.
Some of the methods include teaching the children about the three Rs-Reduce, Reuse, Recycle through interactive exercises encouraging student participation. The learners are also encouraged to take care of the plants in the school campus and are trained in waste segregation through practice. All these life lessons are taught with the use of eco-friendly teaching aids like leaves, pebbles, sticks, pressed flowers, sand, bamboo.
The school is funded by Evolve Back Resort (also known as Orange County). The company has a chain of hotel properties promoting green hospitality. The idea to make Morning Glory an eco-friendly school stems from the company’s principles of harmony with nature.
“Morning Glory is an initiative to create a clean, healthy and environment-friendly atmosphere for young underprivileged children to learn in. We want children to grow with an understanding of environmental sustainability and the need to preserve mother nature. This all-inclusive free school is our way of giving back to the community that has been the backbone to our growth and success,” Evolve Back Executive Director Jose Ramapuram tells Edex Live.
A group of architects has designed the school, and one of them spoke to TBI explaining how green schools are a way to raise kids responsibly.
“The environment in which children spend the majority of time has a huge impact on their view of the world at a very tender age. It exposes children to various possibilities and brings them closer to nature. And the people around are also aware that one does not need to step away from nature to create a piece of art,” says George Ramapuram, CEO of Earthitects.
Whether it is the design of a table, a window, the blackboard or the lighting system, this concept that nothing needs to be the way it is, is communicated through design. We have built it in a way that brings children closer to nature by blurring the boundaries between the interior and exterior. The windows are big, with very few railings.
As for the curriculum, it is a balance between numbers and literature; life and leadership skills, hygiene practices and personality development.
Morning Glory is a perfect blend of inclusivity, academics, life skills and a lesson on coexisting with nature!
This article has been sponsored by Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation
In 1946, Arunaben Shankarprasad Desai was a young college graduate. Even as the entire country was in the midst of the freedom struggle, Arunaben believed that true independence would be a myth if its people, especially the marginalised sections, were not individually independent.
This thought eventually gave birth to Vikas Vidyalaya in 1946, which has been working towards achieving the welfare of women and children, living in poor social and economic circumstances.
What started in Wadhwan, with just 40 individuals, has now spread all across Gujarat with over 80,000 beneficiaries in the last 73 years.
In 2005, speaking at an award function about her journey, she had said, “I had just graduated from college when I started social work. At that time, it was very difficult to convince the society that a woman is an independent person. Nowadays it has become comparatively easier and women are participating in each and every field even though the status of women in society has not changed a lot.”
Her journey to make India a better and safer place for women and children began after she came across several reports of human trafficking in Saurashtra.
Source: Jamnanlal Bajaj Foundation
She began her research into some of the pressing issues of the time, including cruelty against women and untouchability, and Vikas Vidyalaya was established to eradicate these concerns through education, shelter and empowerment.
Under Vikas Vidyalaya, Arunaben started a primary school, two high schools for girls, a polytechnic college, a college for handicrafts as well as colleges for teacher training and vocational training programmes, focused on knitting, tailoring, and embroidery, among others.
She even started a centre that trained women in Amber and Bardoli charkhas.
She also wanted to uplift and empower women holistically. So, started a founding home to provide shelter, healthcare, education and rehabilitation through employment, marriage and even adoption (of younger girls). To bolster the adoption procedure, a rigorous process was initiated.
The founding home also provides counselling to women and helps them find practical solutions to the problems that they face in their marriage or families. So far, this service has benefitted 2,600 women. She even started a cosmopolitan hostel, that has helped more than 800 girls till date.
Extending welfare for the differently-abled, she opened several schools for them as well as students with learning disabilities. Further, to ensure empowerment through education and healthcare, she also started an orthopaedic centre, a hospital for the mentally ill, and hygiene centre.
In one of her public speeches, she shared that Jankidevi Bajaj, an Indian independence activist and the wife of Jamnalal Bajaj, provided her with unwavering support and encouragement, which pushed her to do better.
Thanks to her tireless efforts, Arunaben was conferred with the Jamnalal Bajaj Award for Development and Welfare of Women and Children in 2005.
In addition to this, she also received a State Government award, in the field of Child Welfare, in 1981, a Mahila Suraksha Award in 1989 and the Shri Rajiv Gandhi Human Services Award in 2002. Unfortunately, on February 18, 2007, she breathed her last at the age of 83, leaving the nation a great legacy of social and academic excellence.
Today, Vikas Vidyalaya is considered a ‘Fit Person Institution’ providing safe custody to children under the provisions of the Saurashtra Children Act by the Government of Gujarat.
Over the years, the numerous institutions started by her have helped hundreds, immortalising her name as one of the most prominent social workers in India.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
Find more details about the Jamnalal Bajaj Awards here.
On 31 May 2019, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) released a draft of the National Education Policy (NEP). This is the first update to India’s education policy in nearly 30 years, and there has been plenty of debate on the recommendations, and it was open to the public for feedback and suggestions till July 31.
Central Square Foundation’s (CSF) monthly newsletter The EDge asked eminent names from the education sector to share their thoughts on some key aspects of the policy.
1. Ashish Dhawan, Founder and Chairman, Central Square Foundation
What is your initial response to the draft NEP? If implemented, how do you see the impact of the policy on our education system?
The draft NEP was a long time coming, but it has made some bold and welcome recommendations to shift the focus of the education system towards quality, and improving student learning outcomes. It takes a long-term view in terms of the emphasis on flexibility and skills to ensure that our children are equipped for a rapidly changing job scenario.
When I read it, my immediate thought was that we now have a policy document, even though it’s a draft, that explicitly recognises that we are currently in a severe learning crisis, and that this crisis starts in the early years. This is significant. If we were to focus and get this one thing right, i.e., ensure all children have foundational literacy and numeracy skills, this in itself would have a tremendous impact on the education system.
What are some of the key steps the government can take for the successful implementation of the policy? How can the policy translate into real action?
The challenge is that current state capacity to deliver quality education is weak, and we do not have the resources to focus on so many things at the same time. My one advice to the government would be that they should almost ruthlessly prioritise–they should first focus on ensuring that all children achieve foundational literacy and numeracy, and then phase in other priorities, as needed.
Separately, I think it’s important to remember that implementation rests with states. The centre’s role is primarily one of catalysing demand for critical reforms with the states, setting broader policy goals, providing funding to states, and so on. The centre cannot be too prescriptive in terms of ‘how’ states need to implement. In fact, it needs to give states the autonomy to choose the most cost-effective pathways, while maintaining accountability for the right outcomes. The centre should also think about enabling states to develop 3-5 year plans, and not annual plans.
What, according to you, are the big misses of the draft NEP, if any?
One of the key concerns with the draft education policy is that like many other policies, it may be attempting to do too much. As a system, we first need to focus on getting the basics right–ensure that all our children achieve foundational literacy and numeracy by class 3. Without this prioritisation, the system will continue to grapple with multiple competing priorities.
We cannot hope to achieve foundational learning for all our children if we don’t measure it correctly. Therefore, one of the biggest areas of reform in this regard, which is not adequately addressed by the policy in its current form, is the need to ensure independent and reliable learning data to measure early grade learning outcomes.
While the NEP does call out regular adaptive assessments, there is a need to have a large-scale, independent, household-based, government-backed assessment, which measures outcomes for children attending public and private schools. This survey must be housed in and administered by an autonomous institution, which is at arm’s length from the delivery ministry, ensuring there is no conflict of interest. This learning data is critical for the government to meaningfully hold the system accountable and keep us honest.
Read CSF’s full interview with Ashish Dhawan, here.
2. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, Professor, University College London and President, City Montessori School, Lucknow
The NEP refers to the creation of an independent agency to gather and analyse data for the education system. What are crucial data gaps on private schools that the government should strive to fill?
There is hardly any data on private schools because they are rarely included in studies or surveys done by the government. It is as if private school students belong to another country. For example, the National Achievement Survey (NAS) is conducted only in government and aided schools and excludes private unaided schools. We need more information about private schools to get a fuller picture of the education sector.
What do you think of the proposition to separate regulation, provision, and policy-making in the NEP? How do overlapping interests between these functions presently impact private schools?
The idea of separating roles is very good, because if the government performs all the roles–funder, provider, regulator, policy maker, assessor–it leads to many conflicts of interest. However, the NEP does not go far enough because it does not separate funding and provision–the government is both the funder and producer of education, i.e., it runs schools itself.
The NEP does not consider public funding for privately produced education (public-private partnerships). It is a myth that in educationally developed countries, all schools are state-run. Actually, they are only publicly funded, not publicly run. This is an important distinction that many in government are unaware of.
In India, there is an entrenched belief that the government shouldn’t just fund education, it must also produce it (i.e., run the schools)–even when it has struggled to deliver quality. Our main focus should be to ensure that all elementary education is publicly funded, so that parents do not have to pay to send their children to school. But the operation of the schools could be in private hands if they are deemed to be more efficient, i.e., to deliver better child outcomes at lower costs.
The NEP has also proposed the establishment of an independent State School Regulatory Authority (SSRA) for each state, to handle all aspects of school regulation and accreditation. It recommends reducing the burden of over-regulation on private schools, and regulating public and private schools within the same framework/benchmarks. These are welcome proposals. Much depends, however, on how the SSRA will operate. Will it subject public schools to accountability pressures? Will government schools go through a process of recognition like private schools? And will they also be closed down if they do not comply with the norms of the RTE Act? The NEP doesn’t clarify this, leaving open the possibility of the continuation of non-accountable public schools and resultant poor learning outcomes.
Read CSF’s full interview with Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, here.
3. Rukmini Banerji, CEO, Pratham Education Foundation
The draft NEP includes pre-primary education as part of the ‘foundational stage’ (ages 3-8) and strongly recommends that this stage must be a continuum. Do you agree? How should we approach this?
I welcome the strong focus on the early years. Building strong foundations in the early years allows children to ‘leap forward’. The widespread phenomena of ‘falling behind’ that we see today, happens because the right things are not done at the right time.
The draft policy states that children in the 3-8 year age group should receive a flexible, “play-based, activity-based, and discovery-based” education. However, it is fair to say that the educational establishment in India, including the government bodies at the central, state, and district levels have little or no experience with the preschool age group.
Pre-primary classes are often part of primary schools in the private sector and much of the student intake happens in lower or upper kindergarten. However, research studies show that most activities in these institutions in the early age group are ‘school-like’ and do not provide the flexible, play-based, and developmentally appropriate activities that are suited for supporting the development of young minds. So, despite several years of preschool education, such children are still not ‘ready’ for class 1.
At the same time, the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) system run by the Ministry of Women & Child Development (MWCD) is typically overwhelmed by responsibilities in health, immunisation, and nutrition. So, in the anganwadis, early childhood stimulation or development has not received the high priority it needs.
Bringing these two ministries together, all the way from the centre to the states, districts, and villages, will be a huge and challenging task, but one that is certainly worth undertaking. Clear financial calculations will be needed to support this convergence exercise in a sustained way.
One of the objectives the draft NEP states is that every child in grade 5 and beyond should achieve foundational literacy and numeracy – can you talk about some of the specifics with regard to the pedagogical and curricular changes that will be needed to achieve this goal?
According to ASER data, only about 50 percent of class five children are able to read in class 2 (or higher). The other half is spread across several reading levels, starting from not being able to recognise letters to just about coping with simple sentences. This is one of the biggest challenges in primary schools, the wide dispersion of learning levels. The teacher’s daily dilemma is to figure out what to teach and to whom. To complete the curriculum guided by grade-level textbooks, teachers usually choose to focus on the ‘top of the class’, leaving others to catch up on their own. Even the RTE Act prescribes that teachers “must complete entire curriculum within specified time”.
The draft NEP highlights several causes for the learning crisis, including the lack of school readiness, but it doesn’t address the negative consequences of overambitious curricula or the common practice of teaching to the top of the class. The real challenge is, therefore, to schedule ‘catch-up’ routines into the regular school schedule. Given the size, depth, and magnitude of the ‘catch-up’ required, we will need a persistent and high-priority effort for at least five years or more.
The alignment of key elements of the school system such as teacher training, teaching-learning material, ongoing teacher support, mentoring-monitoring, assessment, and course correction towards achieving stated goals is critical. Perhaps this alignment for foundational learning will now be possible, given the overarching direction of the new policy.
Read CSF’s full interview with Rukmini Banerji, here.
4. Sridhar Rajagopalan, President and Chief Learning Officer, Educational Initiatives
The draft NEP calls for the appropriate integration of technology into all levels of education. What is your initial response to the draft in terms of how it envisions the role of technology in education?
The draft policy mentions India’s unique leadership in the technology space and acknowledges that the right policy and implementation can help India become a global leader in EdTech. Overall, the policy seems to have its heart in the right place, yet many challenges plague the successful implementation of EdTech in our country.
For example, one of the most common issues with all EdTech projects is the disproportionate focus on hardware as compared to the software or content.
One big miss. without a doubt, is that it fails to recognise the role of the private, for-profit players and their international experience. It would have been useful to look into what has been tried already in EdTech and the challenges those efforts faced. While the collective goal should be to strengthen state resources and capacities and help curate high-quality open resources, there should be an effort to learn from the for-profit EdTech players and view them as providers of co-existing and complementing solutions.
Again, for implementation of suggestions made in the policy, do you think we have adequate infrastructure and capacity in our schools and state systems? What could be the challenges in creating that infrastructure and capacity?
The infrastructure and capacity do not exist, but like with anything new, they can be developed over time as these projects expand. However, problems arise if the approach tends to focus more on scaling than on quality. Ironing out all possible issues at the scale of 20-100 schools is very important, and a disproportionate focus at this scale will ensure fewer challenges at a larger scale of say 1,000 or 2,000 schools.
What is important in all this is generating effective assessment solutions and protocols to provide learning feedback. Again, this should be done in a low-stake, quality-focused manner while gradually scaling up and taking key players and partners along.
Read CSF’s full interview with Sridhar Rajagopalan, here.
‘Meri zarooratein kam hai, isliye mere zameer mein dum hai’ (My needs are very less, and that’s why my conscience is strong)
This rousing dialogue from the action-packed movie ‘Singham’ is Saurabh Bhawania’s philosophy, of life which he hopes to live up to while discharging his duties as an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer.
A native of Dumka district Jharkhand, Saurabh cleared the UPSC Civil Services Examination (CSE) in 2018 with an All India Rank of 113. The 32-year-old scored third highest marks (201) in the interview round that took place in April this year. Saurabh cleared the competitive examination in his second attempt after he failed to crack the Mains in his first attempt in 2017.
Forging ahead despite many concerns, objections and ‘it’s not a good idea’, Saurabh topped the competitive exams while being a full-time parent and a working professional in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Life Before UPSC
Born and raised in a joint family that lay emphasis on education, Saurabh grew up perfecting the balance between studies and extracurricular activities.
My childhood was sans internet. I was provided with everything, and my childhood was a balance between my studies and interests. I could never compromise on cricket, poetry and books at any point of time in my life, including now, Saurabh shares with The Better India (TBI).
Saurabh’s academic life was pretty much on an auto-pilot mode. He moved to Kolkata and pursued a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from St Xavier’s College and later, went for CA and CS followed by an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies from the University of Delhi.
He worked Capgemini for 1.5 years before joining RBI Kolkata in December 2016. His wife, mother and father also moved to Kolkata to be with him.
It was during his preparations for the RBI tests and interviews when Saurabh realised his interests lay in more than just banking. So while studying for the tests, Saurabh also capitalised on exploring the do’s and don’ts of UPSC.
“I liked my job and banking was and is still interesting for me. But I always wanted my work to benefit people. Multiple factors advanced my liking for UPSC. My father owned a printing press where government officials often visited. He always held high regard for them,” he says.
One of the biggest influences for him was a District Collector of Dumka who interacted with people to understand their problems, “I saw a genuine curiosity [in her] to find out people’s problems and resolve them. She tried very hard to bridge the communication gap between the people and the government. Back then, I wished to be like her.”
Saurabh had casually mentioned UPSC to his wife Parul once, but then he got busy with his RBI job.
‘What happened to your IAS dreams?’ asked Parul a few months later.
I had just turned 29 when I joined RBI, and so for me age was like a time bomb. It was now or never. I decided to take a risk and start preparing for UPSC. My wife and father, as expected, became my biggest cheerleaders. Meanwhile, my mother had certain reservations, he smiles.
Two months into the preparations, Saurabh received the happy news that he and Parul were expecting. And like all expectant parents, Saurabh and Parul’s responsibilities had increased, but the duo was firm on Saurabh’s dream. He looked at parenting and his full-time job as an advantage as each second of his life had become more valuable.
Preparations: Reading Books In Clinics & More
Saurabh with his son Pranav and wife Parul
It took Saurabh nearly four to five months to get into the cycle of decoding study patterns, the preparation strategy, and memorising the content. Since there was no time left to join classes, Saurabh relied entirely on self-study.
Dedicating around nine hours a day is a standard plan adopted by most civil services aspirants. But due to a full-time job, Saurabh could only clock in four to five hours daily.
Setting a routine was the most challenging part, “Despite having a knack for Commerce, I chose Management as my optional. That was my first mistake. Beating myself up for not studying for five hours at a stretch was another,” says Saurabh.
Saurabh dropped the rigid approach and started studying whenever he would get time. “If I did not wake up early, I would cover it up by studying at night. I also used my coffee and lunch breaks for scrolling through the news. I tried to end the psychological pressure by thinking of ways to make up.”
Just a week before Prelims in June 2017, Parul delivered a baby boy, and Saurabh balanced his responsibilities well during this period. “I was never a fan of last-minute studies anyway, so my baby boy did not affect my preparations in any way. In the hospital, I was with my books right next to my wife and Pranav throughout.”
His hard work paid off when Saurabh cleared the Prelims with 117 marks and went straight to prepping for MAINS. But now his time had further divided among his family, work and studies.
This propelled Saurabh to work out how to strike a balance between General Studies (GS), Optional, Ethics and Essays. “Optional has the potential to fetch 60 per cent or more marks, and the questions on ethics and essay are more technical-based. I focussed more on these subjects.”
Saurabh made sure he did not miss out on hospital visits or special moments with Pranav. He installed news apps on his phone and found interstices between putting his child to sleep or waiting at the clinic.
However, appearing for the Mains was a wake-up call for Saurabh, “I had almost forgotten how to write in a limited time. My answers were not structured well, they were lengthy and mainly were irrelevant to the questions.”
“Completing entire syllabus was not possible anyway, so I tried studying only a few important topics. It was my self-consolation mode that helped me remain calm and composed,” Saurabh adds.
Falling short of 50 marks, Saurabh did not clear the Mains. His first thought was to give up, “Preparation took a toll on me. I already had a stable job, but something told me to give it another try. This time I had to eliminate the wrongs.”
Sadly, Saurabh had lost his father during this time and found solace, assurance and encouragement from his uncle, Dilip.
Saurabh began preparing anew for UPSC 2018, and this time he had a more organised and practical plan which included spending time with his son, being with him during vaccinations, giving a 100 per cent at his job and looking after his family.
He began with attempting several online mock tests and wrote down all that he had learnt.
No matter how good you are, answering in a structured way is very crucial. Preparing diagrams and flowcharts helped a lot. Mock tests gave me the confidence to answer efficiently in a limited time. I told myself that I had to answer the same way in the exam hall.
While he tried to lessen the pressure on his studies, the work at his office increased. There were days when he had to skip his preparation altogether. Believing that he had nothing to lose, Saurabh trusted his instincts and appeared for the Prelims.
And he cleared it!
A few months later, he appeared for the Mains and sailed through with 814 marks out of 1750. His biggest fear was now over.
“I have given several interviews, and so the interview part was much easier for me than the Mains. I already knew all I had to do now was to clear the Interview round. Taking no risk, I joined classes,” he says. Fortunately, the teacher was flexible enough to accommodate Saurabh anytime during the day. He even made friends at classes who would sit together and help each other work on their drawbacks.
Finally, the interview day arrived. He left home fully prepared and confident. A bit of nervousness did creep in as he was the first to appear for the Interview.
I was hoping not to be the first one, but fortunately I gave the Interview without a nervous breakdown. For the first few minutes, I had goosebumps, but the people taking the Interview made me very comfortable, he shares.
“From asking about issues in West Bengal and Jharkhand to the solutions about improving India’s economy, the questions were like a jackpot!” he beams.
After the Interview, Saurabh focussed on his work and gave as much time as possible to his little one. “I had no expectations, and I knew I had my job to fall back on.”
On 9 April 2019, he received a news that changed his life, “I had cleared the Interview. In my wildest dreams, I had not imagined getting the third highest marks in the Interview round and an AIR of 113. It was overwhelming and unbelievable.”
Two months later, Saurabh quit RBI. For now, he is dedicating all his time to his family before he moves to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie by August-end.
Age and Status Are Not Obstacles
“It does not matter if you are a parent or a working professional. Taking out five hours is not impossible. All you have to do is sustain the momentum. Do not let a small headache or a family function come in your way. Willpower and discipline are two of your biggest strengths, exploit it wisely. Set your goal and embark on it without fear and doubts,” says Saurabh.
Tips & Tricks
Just like serving people, UPSC preparations cannot be on a blanket approach. Each problem has to be addressed subjectively. Always keep a backup option so that even if you do not clear it, it is not the end of the world. Be careful in choosing your optional and focus on the writing practice. Maintain the continuity, and you are halfway there.
Saurabh’s journey proves that age or even a time crunch is no bar to clearing one of the toughest exams in the country. Experience and the right mental attitude can prove to be your best assets.
Had it not been for my years of experience with which I took every step, I would not have cleared it in my second attempt. The struggle throughout has helped me in some or other way. Age was in my favour, Saurabh signs off.
About 12 lakh candidates appeared for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) in 2018 and of this number around 2.2 lakh made the cut. Such numbers are enough for one to understand how difficult it is for IIT aspirants to clear the coveted examination.
All India Rank 1 in 2016 JEE Advanced, Deepanshu Jindal was one who had sailed through the tough JEE waters. This Delhi lad had also scored 98.6 per cent in the CBSE Class 12 exams!
I caught up with Deepanshu to find out how he balanced time between his school and JEE preparation, his motivation to join the IITs, and the tips and strategies he has for other aspirants.
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Currently in his fourth year of B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Delhi, Deepanshu is working in the domain of Artificial Intelligence. The son of a teacher, he credits his success to his family and teachers completely.
“My family supported me throughout my journey. So much so that my sister would not watch any television only so that I could concentrate and not get distracted,” the topper shares.
So how he did work on time management?
Deepanshu Jindal
Deepanshu says, “I attended a regular school, so typically the first half of my day was spent at school. After that I went to my coaching institute for about four hours of classes. At home, I revised and practice things done in the class for a couple of hours.” During this time, the IITian spent most of his weekends at the coaching institute and studying at home.
Deepanshu also says that it is very important to set aside some time everyday for self-study. “No matter how many coaching classes you attend, it is only during self-study that you will get time to revise and memorise all that you have learnt.” He also credits his coaching classes for instilling a sense of routine and discipline in him.
Deepanshu’s Strategy for Cracking the JEE
“During the initial phase of preparing, I was always insistent that I get comfortable with the concepts of the subjects I was studying and did not prepare for any specific kind of questions. Instead, I practiced all types of questions including subjective ones. In the latter half, my approach became more paper specific and I worked on solving question papers and multiple-choice questions.”
Around February, which is closer to the time of examination, Deepanshu informs that he started spending more time on solving previous years’ question papers which gave him a lot of insight in to the kind of questions asked and also provided him with much-needed confidence.
He believes that this strategy helped him a great deal. He focussed on the concepts and realised that practicing different types of questions helped him know things in and out.
When asked why he aimed for the JEE, he says, “I have been always interested in Science and Mathematics since childhood and thus choosing these as my subjects in Class 11 was a rather obvious choice. Many of us dream of studying in the IITs-considered to be some of India’s premier institutes. It was no different for me. Personally, being afforded the opportunity to work with the country’s best researchers and minds was a motivation that saw me through the preparation time.”
Tips on attempting the paper
AIR 1 – Deepanshu Jindal
The more mock papers one attempts the better understanding and grasp one will have, says Deepanshu. “It was through practice that I found I was able to do chemistry faster than the other subjects and thus my method was to get done with it first and then spend some extra time in solving mathematics problems.”
He suggests that one must go through the entire question paper before starting to answer. In doing so one gets a sense of what is being asked and you can allocate time accordingly to the different sections. As for Deepanshu, he started by answering the questions he was certain of and then went on to the tougher ones that needed more of his time.
“It is important that each aspirant learns about what works best for her/him. Identify what study patterns work for you and then stick to them.”
He reiterates that solving mock question papers is of utmost importance. “Attempting those will not only make you confident but also help in time management and handling the pressure of writing the exam later.”
At the cost of sounding cliché, it is the belief in one’s self and the discipline to see the decision through to the end that decides the outcome of any endeavour. So find what works best for you and keep working till you achieve your goal.
In 2018, nearly 1.49 lakh people lost their lives in road accidents in India. Despite strict rules and regulations in place, the number of road fatalities is showing a spike. Of the many reasons that may be cited for such deaths, sun glare is one of them; case in point, the recent accident in Dubai where a passenger vehicle rammed into a steel barrier killing 17 passengers, which included Indians, Omanis and Europeans. The driver had been blinded by sunlight and could not see the divider.
Though people are advised to wear sunglasses while driving during day time, few adhere to the rules.
Wanting to mitigate this deadly oversight, Souritra Garai and Jay Shah, 2nd-year Chemical Engineering students at the IIT-Gandhinagar have developed a device that can potentially save hundreds of lives.
Souritra and Jay
Extreme brightness and the harsh sun-rays can impair visibility and cause of accidents. While sunglasses offer protection, they are not the most effective solution. Souritra and Jay worked on developing a small electronic device that sits on the windshield of a car, shielding the drivers from sudden or bright sunlight that can cause the driver temporary blindness, turning them into a road hazard.
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Smart Sun Visor is a device that can help drivers drive more comfortably and safely.
Let’s look at what that means. Souritra says, “Our invention actively tracks the sun and positions a small disc of light-filtering material on the brightest area of the windshield, intercepting sunlight before it strikes the driver’s eyes.” Further explaining about the device, he adds, “The filter is small, semi-transparent, and discreet, with a very small footprint on the windshield, effectively blocking sunlight without obscuring the rest of the windshield or the drivers field of view.”
So how did they come together for this project? Souritra says, “On the first day, we had two professors come in to the class and make us do group activities.”
At the end of it, both Jay and I were asked if we were comfortable being paired together. That was what began this journey.
Working hard
Adding to this, Jay says, “We spent about one and a half weeks trying to find an idea that we could work on. It was finally Professor Alan who spoke about how sensitive his eyes are to the harsh sunlight. It was his request that we come up with something that would effectively keep the sunlight away.”
When asked if working together was fun, the reply comes almost in unison, “There were quarrels and ups and downs. What kept us going was the determination to see the project through.” Having worked on almost 30 prototypes, getting it right was a difficult phase, but both innovators persisted.
“I must clarify here that most of the quarrels were about how to present this prototype, while making it was one thing, there was a lot of emphasis on how to present it as well. We both had varied ideas of how to present, but managed to find a middle ground, ” adds Jay.
“While the prototype costs us about Rs 5,000 to make, it will cost much lesser once it goes into commercial-scale production,” informs Sourittra. They have also applied for a patent for Smart Sun Visor.
Some of the features of Smart Sun Visor include:
A Smart Visor is attached to the dashboard using suctions cups and powered by USB charging port.
It requires no effort to install and can be done manually.
Takes up only four per cent of the windshield.
It automatically tracks sun rays and then reorients to block the sun from the driver’s eyes.
The driver does not have to bother manually adjusting the visor every time he takes a turn.
When not in use, the device automatically shuts down.
There are currently 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) where some of the brightest minds study. In addition to academics, a constant focus is on research and in building and developing products that could solve problems that people face. We have seen innovations from developing intelligent streetlights to devices that change from bags to desks. We hope Smart Sun Visor helps to curb road accidents due to blinding sunlight.
“I do not know where or even when I was born,” says 24-year-old Amruta Karvande.
You might wonder how her age is mentioned here then. Well, it was only a few months ago that Amruta got it mapped from the Central Hospital in Pune so she would be able to apply for various government jobs.
While she is now famous in Maharashtra for having fought for 1 per cent reservation for orphans, her life has been anything but easy. In this conversation, she speaks about her life and all the hardships that she has had to encounter to get here.
“Everything for me began at Matruchhaya, the orphanage in Goa. I was brought there when I was two, and no one knew who my parents were. I spent my growing up years there wanting answers but didn’t know where to look for them,” she begins.
Amruta stayed on at the orphanage and attended school until she turned 18. When asked what happened at that time she pauses.
“I was told by the caretakers at the orphanage that I would have to get married since they would not be able to care for me any longer. I vehemently refused to get married and chose to leave and fend for myself instead. I moved to Pune and remembered the first night that I spent at the railway station platform—alone and scared,” she recollects.
I ask her how she managed to live, and she says, “I used to work in the homes of people; clean their bathrooms, look after their kids, keep their homes tidy. I took up whatever job I could—hospitals, offices, homes, shops, anything and everything. I made very little by doing all this but ensured that I managed somehow.”
There were times when Amruta felt so lonely that she even contemplated suicide. Then, one day, hope arrived in the form of an old, visually-impaired couple.
She says, “It was a particularly bad day for me, and I was sitting in a corner, thinking about ending my life. Suddenly, I saw this elderly blind couple walk past selling some toys. They had a tough life, but they were not giving up, and neither were they relying on anyone else to care for them. They were living a life of dignity and earning their own money. Seeing them did something to me and forced me to take charge.”
Acting on a friend’s suggestion, Amruta applied to Modern College, Pune and managed to not only secure admission but also a place to stay at the college hostel. That was a turning point for her.
Amruta pursued her education by attending night classes and during the day, she continued to work small jobs to sustain herself.
Amruta Karvande
Once she completed her college education, she appeared for the Maharashtra Public Service Commission examination in 2017, under the open category and scored 39 out of 100.
While she made the cut-off, which is 35 for girls in the open category, she never received a call. The primary reason cited was unavailability of a certificate to verify her parents’ caste.
“I spent all my life studying under the open category; I did not know where I came from or what my religion was. How was I to produce any certificate proving my lineage?” she asks.
Amruta – with her never give up attitude.
And with this began yet another struggle for Amruta.
“I did not want to give up having come this far. I knew that I had to get this reservation for not just myself but so many others like me. I met everyone who had some authority and power; from the Tehsildar to the Deputy Collector. I knocked on all doors possible, and everyone told me that there was no provision for them to help me and other orphans like me.”
These experiences only strengthened her resolve to fight.
“We, as orphans, had nothing, but we were the children of the State, and it had a responsibility to take care of us. It was at this point that I met the CM Devendra Fadnavis and put my recommendation forward.”
With the Chief Minister of Maharastra.
In 2018, a year after Amruta took up this cause; the State government decided to allocate 1 per cent reservation in government jobs for orphans.
This move will help orphan children secure their future and go a long way in helping them.
Amruta could have very well given up, but it was her determination and grit that has now ensured that other orphans like her, in Maharastra, are benefitted.
“New beginnings don’t see time and place, they just happen,” says 58-year-old Rajesh Vora, explaining his decision to return to college, after almost 40 years.
A resident of Mumbai, Rajesh is a father to three children, and two of them have had the unique opportunity to study in college, alongside him.
In a Humans of Bombay post, his daughter Dhruvi says:
“Believe it or not, now my father and I are in the same college, and he’s actually my junior! We have so much fun together—we talk about our professors, our classmates and even our assignments. In fact, even during our break, my father sits with my friends, and they all love his company!”
Speaking to The Better India, Rajesh says, “When I decided to resume my studies, I knew that it was going to be challenging. I knew that people would have a hard time digesting it, especially as it is something unique and unheard-of. But, the support of my family is what keeps me going.”
A fifth-year law student now, Rajesh rejoined the field of education in 2013.
“Due to financial problems, after completing my Class 12, I got a job instead of enrolling in college, full-time. Although I tried pursuing a part-time BCom course, juggling the two was becoming too much, and I realised it after I failed in the 2nd year. That’s when I decided to leave studies and concentrate on helping my family. Now, after so many years, my children have grown up so it was time to give myself another chance,” he shares.
However, the road to it was never easy for Rajesh, as he had to convince the college to allow him an admission, because of his age.
“There was some resistance in the beginning. They were citing rules which barred me from taking admission. But, I dug deeper, and with the help of a few friends and acquaintances in the legal sector, I found out that the latest gazette does not put an age cap on higher education. Eventually, I got it!” says Rajesh.
Speaking about her father’s interest in law, Dhruvi’s post elaborated, “My father was always interested in the world of law… He wanted to study law, but when he was younger, his family couldn’t afford it. So instead he became a consultant, and worked at a firm.”
Driven by his interest and sharp intellect, Rajesh was able to start his own legal consultancy firm in 1989, that primarily worked with the government revenue department. And, he did all this without a law degree.
“After spending years working in various firms, I had a fair knowledge of how things work in the sector, and so started my own firm some 30 years ago. Despite not having a degree, I could always do my job, but I wanted to grow. In some avenues, the lack of a degree becomes a hindrance, and I didn’t want that to happen to me,” he adds.
Thus determined he joined college, as his daughter’s junior. Two years, later, his son Meet, followed suit and joined the same law college.
“I was a junior to my daughter, who recently graduated and is practising. Now my son is my junior in college. We are the father-son-daughter lawyer trio!” he chuckles.
While he admits that there was a slight awkwardness within the initial days, their relationship eventually strengthened and grew into something strong and meaningful.
Dhruvi beautifully encapsulates just that, here. “I can’t wait for both us to start practising law! And I hope I can do for him, what he’s done for me — tell me that I’m the best at what I do, push me to reach for the stars! Life has come a full circle for us, and now we’re both out there, chasing our dreams!”
This is indeed a heartwarming story of a father rediscovering himself through education. If we can learn something from Rajesh, it is that dreams don’t ever age!
Eking out a living in Madras Presidency in British India was difficult for Jainulabudeen, a boat owner and his wife, Ashiamma. And they struggled to make ends meet with the birth of their son in October 1931. By the time their son turned a teenager, he was already selling newspapers and doing menial jobs to help his parents.
Seventy years later he became the 11th President of India after his path-breaking contributions in the field of science including India’s civilian space programme and development of millitary missiles.
The journey of APJ Abdul Kalam has inspired generations and proves that no dream is too big to achieve.
And what better way to honour the ‘Missile Man’ than the ‘Project 100 Kalam’ initiated by Indore District Administration. Under the project, 100 students from underprivileged backgrounds will be given free coaching for a year for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).
Furthermore, students coming from outside the district will be given free accommodation, food and transportation services.
Speaking to The Better India (TBI), Lokesh Kumar Jatav District Collector of Indore says:
Talents of several students get wasted due to insufficient resources and lack of guidance. Coaching for competitive examinations is a costly affair that deprives underprivileged students of pursuing their dreams. The project will give easy access to study materials and professors to students from socially and economically backward sections.
The one-year crash course will begin on 1 September this year.
The crash course is intended only for the children of single/widowed/divorced mothers, one disabled parent or grade III and IV government employees. Furthermore, students need a 70 per cent and above score in their class 12 exams to be eligible.
Of the 1,000-plus students who applied for the course, 150 were shortlisted after an entrance test conducted by the Extra Marks Institute. In the second level of screening to be held on 21 August, 100 students (50 each for engineering and medical entrance) will be selected based on their aptitude.
Extra Marks Institute has funded the project under its Corporate Social Responsibility.
For now, this project is only for the 2019-2020 session and the district administration is looking for donors or investors who can take this project forward. “To make it an annual initiative, we will need money. We hope that this project is successful so that we can bank on it to get CSR funding,” says Jatav.
The JEE and NEET aspirants outside Indore district can avail mock test papers for free at Test Practice Centres of National Testing Agency (NTA) across India, or by visiting their website, www.nta.ac.in or by downloading the ‘NTA Student’ App.
Based on the result of the mock tests, the students can discuss their results and mistakes with mentors at the NTA centres.
Responding to these local concerns, Sonam Wangchuk, the legendary social activist and entrepreneur, has set up a university in Phyang village of Ladakh called the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh (HIAL).
Partnering him in this endeavour as HIAL’s Co-founder-CEO is the remarkable Ms Gitanjali JB, a serial entrepreneur, educationist, Odissi and Russian Bolshoi ballet dancer and a certified karate black belt.
“Two years ago, upon hearing about the HIAL alternative education initiative in Ladakh and the prospect of its transformational impact on higher education in India, she gave up her corporate career and moved to Ladakh to help expedite the setting up of the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives (HIAL). What makes all this more touching is that she is offering her services pro-bono,” says Sonam Wangchuk, speaking to The Better India.
Born into a Punjabi Jain business family in Balasore, Odisha, 46-year-old Gitanjali’s grandfather had migrated from Lahore during Partition. It was her mother, a progressive homemaker, who sowed the seeds of learning and independence.
“My parents gave me the two best gifts a child can get—trust and freedom”, she begins.
A physics graduate, she completed her MBA from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar. What followed was a six-year corporate career working in a consulting company and leading the marketing division for a Copenhagen-based Indian multinational.
Following her stint in Denmark, she went on a 15-year long entrepreneurial spree, during which she established an engineering firm (Pushan Projects), a publishing house (Chennai-based Helios Books) and acquired a hospital (Puducherry-based AUM Hospitals).
Gitanjali JB
First tryst with the education sector
However, it was a short stint (2015) heading the Cambridge School in Chennai, which truly opened up Gitanjali to the education sector.
Back then, it was a school which had children until Class VIII, but planned to scale up their operations to adopt the IB programme for students in Class XI and XII.
In Gitanjali, the school management found a woman who was both a CEO and an educationist; that one year, she would spend Monday to Friday running the school, while on the weekends she would return to Puducherry and oversee operations at the hospital.
“Within a week of my joining, the maths and physics teachers had left, and they needed a short-term replacement. The school requested me to step in, and I accepted. Although I had never taught in a classroom, what helped me during my time there was being a life-long learner and a very engaged mother with my son, Aryan. Within a month, I found genuine happiness in teaching the students, and they, in turn, began loving the subjects,” she says.
One of her core principles in life is constant learning and reinventing oneself at all times.
“I found in myself a researcher, academician and someone who loved enterprise. Unfortunately, until my stint at Cambridge School, there was no avenue for me to combine all these passions in one career,” adds Gitanjali.
During her time there, she was working to obtain an IBDP affiliation for the school and relocate to a bigger campus in the city, and also attended several workshops that introduced her to the best education practices prevalent in the country. In addition to all this, she was already exposed to the educational practices and policies of the prestigious Doon School where her son, Aryan, is a student.
She wasn’t too impressed though, and believed that a lot more could be done in teaching indigenous knowledge, raising student-teacher engagement and learning by physically doing something.
After her contract with Cambridge School came to a close, she wanted to establish a school which would inculcate these elements, but mitigating circumstances came in the way.
Gitanjali in a traditional Ladakhi dress.
Multifaceted, interdisciplinary
Ever since she was a child, Gitanjali had varied interests that went much beyond the cursory. However, she felt pin-holed throughout her life.
“I found a lot of subjects, disciplines, art forms and sports fascinating, but this wasn’t considered normal. I was heading towards a full-blown identity crisis till three events changed everything for me,” she recalls.
In college, a professor told Gitanjali that someone with her varied interests and intellectual capacity would make for an entrepreneur and CEO, where she could see the big picture and take other people along.
The second event was a ballet performance she attended in Copenhagen watching a conductor managing 30 people in an orchestra and 50 dancers on stage. She noticed that the conductor wasn’t as skilled in playing an instrument or dancing compared to the performers on stage, but could take everyone along and create a symphony out of it.
Gitanjali is also a trained Russian Bolshoi ballet dancer, which she learnt in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Finally, it was her introduction to Sri Aurobindo, the 20th-century Indian philosopher, at the age of 16 and his principles of Integral Growth and Education, which helped her not only come to terms with her multifaceted personality but celebrate her diverse interests.
“I have always believed that we should develop all sides of our personality and pick up different skills in life. Leonardo da Vinci could draw the Vitruvian Man because he was trained as an artist, mathematician, botanist and a philosopher. It’s at the cross-section of disciplines where great ideas are born. Reality is composite and interdisciplinary,” argues Gitanjali.
HIAL & Beyond
It was a WhatsApp message in February 2017, which alerted Gitanjali to Sonam Wangchuk’s plans of starting HIAL.
By May, she had already begun raising funds for it. So far, HIAL has raised about Rs 10 crore, which has taken care of construction costs for this year and last year. The institute has another Rs 10 crore of funding in the pipeline.
“HIAL is about learning by doing, where students set up their own enterprises. There is an entrepreneurial aspect which comes out, but at the same time, it’s backed by a conceptual understanding of a business plan and industry. Finally, it’s all set within a particular geographic and cultural context along with all the awareness to become a responsible and socially conscious entrepreneur,” she says.
Standing with the VC of Kashmir University Talat Ahmad, Sonam Wangchuk and the first cohort of HILLs fellows.
In HIAL, as per the curriculum design, Gitanjali has taken up all the issues that the ecosystem in Ladakh faces alongside concerns like the migration of young people due to lack of opportunities.
For her, academia, research and entrepreneurship have come together here.
“In 2017, when I met Sonam Wangchuk in Mumbai, HIAL was at the inception stage. The crowdfunding process had begun a few months earlier. So, in May 2017, I relocated to Ladakh, becoming the first person after Sonam to join the initiative,” she recalls.
Right from registering the land, raising funds, setting up the 11-month HILLs (Himalayan Institute of Live Learnings) Fellowship (which seeks to empower the youth from mountain communities, particularly from the Hindu Kush-Himalayan regions) and designing the curriculum, Gitanjali has partnered Sonam Wangchuk.
There are four aspects to HIAL’s unique curriculum:
1) Contextual learning: This essentially looks at understanding the basic ecology of a mountainous cold desert-like Ladakh and applying key lessons in coming up with local solutions to real-life problems like building eco-responsive homes that stay +20 degrees Celsius in -20 degree Celsius temperatures or planting trees that help prevent flooding or landslides in these parts.
2) Entrepreneurship and experiential pedagogy: This is about identifying local issues, finding solutions and monetising it. An example is the module on responsible tourism, where questions like ‘how do you kick-start the rural economy by stopping urban migration from the villages of Leh district’ are addressed.
For example, HIAL has started farm stays in Phyang village. This is experiential pedagogy where students would be trained to run these farm stays, organise treks or build a traditional eco-friendly building and they would be learning while doing these real-life jobs. Only 30% of the classes are in a classroom, while the remaining time is spent in the field.
3) Reclaiming indigenous knowledge systems: “Words like sustainability did not exist in Ladakh’s traditional vocabulary because the people didn’t know how else to live. It was sustainable by design” says Gitanjali.
But, there are things that we can take from the past and blend it with the modern. One example is the traditional compost toilet where you do not waste water by flushing it, but instead, compost human waste, and that goes back into the field.
As this is not very comfortable for the average consumer, the students and faculty at HIAL are redesigning it on their campus to address this concern.
4) Interdisciplinary: Most modules are interdisciplinary. For instance, the fellowship started with the fellows planting a small forest of 600 square metres. Through this they understood the geology, hydrology, glaciology, botany and other aspects of Ladakh. Also they take care of the forest, thereby forming a relationship with the plants and developing empathy with the plant world.
This year, HIAL has taken on only ten students from Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. “Although it’s a post-graduate fellowship, we are an institution that values experience as much as educational qualification. While having a basic bachelor’s degree is an essential qualification, we have also taken those who don’t have a degree but have hands-on experience in tourism or afforestation, and they want to get better at it,” says Gitanjali.
Besides HIAL, she has also led the curriculum design and development for the Maharashtra International Educational Board (MIEB) in 2017 and is currently advising and helping Auroville start its own university.
In addition, Gitanjali also teaches karate to students at SECMOL, Sonam Wangchuk’s Alternative School, and has set up an initiative called Peaceful Warriors, where the objective is to make every girl in India a black belt.
Gitanjali and her ‘Peaceful Warriors’, including Sonam Wangchuk.
Nonetheless, her real contribution in Ladakh lies in setting the foundations for HIAL. Bringing this radically different approach to higher education in such a place has positive implications that are beyond the immediate.
Mountainous regions like Ladakh are the epicentre of the battle against climate change. Solving problems associated with it, developing an eco-friendly consciousness, and empowering people from the region economically and responsibly are facets that can only help them in the long term.
Through HIAL, people like Gitanjali and Sonam Wangchuk have built the first building blocks for the region’s future. What more can one ask for!
The 11-year-old boy stood aghast at the chaos of the New Delhi railway station. The melee of passengers-walking, running and pushing to get to their destination was overwhelming. As the tears began to fall from his eyes, the stark reality of his situation sank his heart; he had left home far, far behind, there was no going back.
None of the people rushing around him had an inkling that the little boy hunched up in the corner would someday be featured in both Forbes India’s 30 under 30 and Vogue India’s 40 under 40, get an invitation for dinner with Prince Edward at Buckingham Palace and join the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a photography fellow!
“I remember how I started crying at the thought of being completely alone in this big city. What will I do, where will I go was all I could think of. I was so scared,” recalls Vicky who ran away from home with dreams of becoming a movie actor.
“Hero banoonga, bade sheher jaunga, (will become a hero, go to a big city) was the fantasy that drove me,” he adds. From that crying child on the railway platform, to a world-famous photographer, Vicky Roy’s journey is nothing short of a script for a cinematic blockbuster!
Finding a New Home
Vicky was born in a poor family living in the interiors of Purulia, West Bengal. His father, a tailor by profession, earned Rs 25 per day which was not enough to sustain Vicky, his six siblings and their mother. Although his father dreamt of educating his kids and helping at least one child clear class 10, the lack of resources made it hard. Eventually, Vicky was sent to live with his grandparents.
“At my grandparents’, things were a little strict. I would be punished for the smallest of mistakes. I simply hated it. After sometime, I couldn’t take it anymore and so ran away,” says Vicky.
“Initially it was fine but things began to worsen. People would randomly pick fights and at times it was dangerous. So, after working as a ragpicker for almost six months, I decided to leave. This time, I got a job as a dishwasher in a small hotel in Paharganj. It was around that time, when I met Sanjay Srivastava, who changed my life forever,” he narrates.
A Good Samaritan, Sanjay helped Vicky get in touch with an NGO, Salaam Baalak Trust. Like Vicky, Sanjay too used to work at the railway station, until the NGO rehabilitated him and gave him a different and better life.
“Things changed after I started living at the Trust’s shelter home. They made an affidavit for me, as I didn’t have any documents to get an admission in school. I was admitted to class 6 in a government school in Paharganj. Although, I wasn’t too inclined towards education and was not really a good student, I completed my 10th. My teachers began to push me to take up vocational courses so that I could be independent,” informs Vicky.
Though the vocational courses included cooking, stitching or other technical skills, Vicky was yet to find his calling.
In 2000, when Vicky saw two boys being given an opportunity to visit Indonesia for a workshop as part of their photography course, he decided to pursue that.
To encourage me, the trust gave me a camera worth Rs 499 with three rolls a month, a huge deal at the time. Suddenly carrying a camera made me kind of important and gave me more respect. Friends began to bribe me with food to get their photos clicked! And, in all this, I didn’t realise when I began to truly enjoy and love this! says the 32-year-old, who was sent to Triveni Kala Sangam, Delhi, by the Trust to study photography.
Spreading wings of independence
After a few years, the 17-year-old Vicky left the Trust, as one could not live in their shelter home after the age of 18. However, the Trust helped his career with an apprenticeship with a Delhi-based photographer Anay Mann.
“I was blessed with such an amazing mentor. He taught me so much!” shares Vicky, recalling how Mann would not just polish his photography skills but also groom him to be a professional.
“He gave me a salary of Rs 3,000, a bike and a cell phone as part of the job. He works with high-profile people, so I got the chance to travel across India with him. But, he was very strict when it came to professionalism and etiquette. He taught me all that. I remember how he used to scold me if I wore the same shirt twice. So, as part of my grooming he would give me an additional Rs 500,” adds Vicky, who managed a few more odd jobs like catering to manage his life in the city, while paying off the loan taken from the Trust to buy a more expensive camera.
While he continued to gain knowledge and experience as Mann’s assistant, there was a lot more he wanted to do.
He was waiting for his big break.
And, that break came in 2007, when he had his first solo exhibition titled ‘Street Dream’, at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi.
Photos of his first solo work, Street Dreams
A mirror to Vicky’s inspiring journey, the exhibition became a turning point in his life. “Street Dream is more like a self portrait. I captured images of children of the age when I was alone. To my surprise, the exhibition did very well and was largely appreciated by big photographers. That really helped open many doors for me,” says the lensman.
A year later, the US-based Maybach Foundation approached Vicky to photo-document the reconstruction of the World Trade Centre in New York. The project also allowed him to take a course in Documentary Photography at the International Centre for Photography in the city.
This led to many exhibitions in India and across various countries including the UK, US, Singapore, Germany, Sri Lanka, Russia and Bahrain. In 2013, he shared the story of his life with the world in a monograph, ‘Home Street Home’.
“Life and learning go hand in hand and neither should stop. I’m lucky to have had so many people helping me out in this journey, but what keeps me going is honestly the lack of fear. Despite it all, I don’t have anything to lose. Everything that I got is a blessing, something extra!” he smiles.
An image worth immeasurable impact
Vicky says that his personal struggles and the life around him inspires his art. No wonder then his poignant photos have the power to speak to the audience.
“I do my work because it gives me joy and I will continue to do so for that!” he says, but, there is something else that motivates him further – social impact.
Recalling one such incident, Vicky narrates how a single photograph clicked by him helped transform the life of a family.
“I was working on a project for the NGO, Save The Children, when I clicked pictures of the daily life of a family living in a rickshaw outside Jama Masjid. I posted it on my Facebook wall and it touched the heart of a friend back in Silicon Valley, Rajeshwari Kannan who was moved by the fact that the family was content despite not having a house, amid the poverty.”
With Rajeshwari’s contribution of Rs 40,000 and Vicky’s Rs 10,000, he offered to buy them an E-rickshaw but the family refused.
“Instead they requested us to buy them a small shop in Rajasthan, near their home. We were able to fulfill that and the shop was handed over this January,” he beams.
After all these years of pure passion-driven hard work and international fame, Vicky Roy still does not consider himself a successful photographer. He says he is and will always be in pursuit of improving his skills.
However, there is a triumph he holds close to his heart, “The joy I felt seeing my family after years. Back in 2016, I was able to buy a three-bedroom house for my mother on Mother’s Day. That was something special!”
Twenty-one years later, following a rocky trail of several ups and downs, he is finally a ‘Hero’, not a reel one but a real one, who picked himself up, dusted off the challenges and made it big in life!
