Every state in India holds numerous private and government schools that are sufficient to accommodate all the children. Despite having such schools, the number of underprivileged kids not attending education is consistently rising. According to a report by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), over 30 million children of age up to 13 years in India have never attended an educational institution.

A report by Smile Foundation reveals that around 53 per cent of girls in the age group of 5 to 9 are uneducated, and only 50 per cent habitation has a primary school. India's government has also made regular efforts to provide education to all underprivileged kids, as the right to education is guaranteed by the constitution for children aged 6 to 14.

Incentives like scholarships, mid-day meals, and reservations in private schools are provided to encourage underprivileged children to attend school. Despite all the benefits, many children from poor-economic backgrounds don't attend school due to a lack of awareness.

Project 'Pa8shala' 

In 2016, project 'Pa8shala' was initiated by Parivartan, 'The Change', for enrolling and educating slum children in the tier 2 City Moradabad. Starting the project with just 25 slum kids, the team of youngsters has taught more than 700 children to date and successfully enrolled more than 250 kids in the formal education system by bridging the gap between having and have not.

It was not just limited to providing free education but uplifting children indulging in substance use (drugs, tobacco) and guiding them to live a life that will empower them to fulfil their aspirations. Founder Kapil Kumar said, "The first step for enrolling children in proper school and get them involved in education is to show and teach them the benefits and need of education in their respective lives. We at Parivartan teach them in the best possible way to generate interest."

As per the current scenario, they have expanded their footprints from Moradabad to Dehradun, Delhi-NCR, Rampur, and Kashipur. The Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) believes that the society and country as a whole will only develop when the youth are educated.

As part of their larger vision, they started "Residential School for Pa8shaala kids' this year with Rented Space School in Moradabad. Under this, the underprivileged kids are being educated as per New Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Other than providing education and uplifting children, the NGO is also indulged in organising blood donation camps, waste management, distribution of sanitary pads, and meal-kit distribution amongst the needy.

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The schools in Jharkhand and across the country were closed due to a pandemic-led lockdown. After reopening, the students of Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) were stressed and puzzled about the uncertainties in the board exams. The Deputy Commissioner of Koderma district, IAS Aditya Ranjan and his team started prioritising education through the Regular Assessment for Improved Learning (RAIL) project. The students of classes 10 and 12 (Science) were guided through regular mentoring and achieved milestones in the JAC board exam.

Koderma district scripted history by becoming the first-ever district to secure the first rank among all districts of Jharkhand by performing exceptionally well in both the board exams (10th and 12th, Science). The project RAIL played a crucial role in ensuring the students of the Koderma district were well prepared and confident to appear for the exams despite the gaps created due to the COVID shutdown.

Exam Fear After School Reopening 

Project RAIL was started with a vision to ensure student readiness, remove the fear of exams for board aspirants through weekly tests, and bridge the learning gap created by school closure due to COVID-19. The initiative began on a pilot phase in selected five schools targeting over 6,000 students of Koderma Block.

After a positive response, the initiative was scaled up in all schools of Koderma, and more than 12000 students became part of the project. A series of weekly tests were conducted on school premises to make them exam-ready. The weekly-tests results were shared with the students to help them assess their performance and plan accordingly.

The RAIL project, launched in December 2021, benefited over 12,000 students by April 2022. Through this project, the district administration ensured timely syllabus completion in all schools. As schools lack teachers of all subjects, the practice of those subjects was also assured where subject teachers were absent.

With time, the attendance of students on test days increased significantly, which signifies the success of the initiative. A parent-teacher meeting was also conducted with a specific discussion on their child's performance. Unlike the traditional one-way teaching-listening practised in government schools, students, through this project, got the opportunity to practice writing and active learning.

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The recent COVID-19 pandemic has impacted communities globally in unimaginable ways. Apart from the healthcare crisis, people had a huge economic impact when they slowly saw it unfolding before them.

The country's migrant labourers returned to their hometowns without any sight of income opportunities, leading to large-scale destruction of livelihoods.

In these tough and challenging times, many NGOs came forward to support the communities to get them out of this crisis.

However, through its innovative approach, one such NGO called 'Jagriti' started building one of India's largest entrepreneurship networks more than a decade back. It aims to nurture and incubate enterprise in a rural but promising region of the country (Purvanchal), starting from a Tier 3 district, Deoria. The vision is to motivate local and national leaders to start and grow local enterprises.

The NGO has a pronged strategy, including women-based micro-enterprises and livelihood programs involving SHGs; and preventing the decline of SME enterprises.

Jagriti was founded by Shashank Mani, a IIT Delhi pass out who had the privilege of exploring the corporate world globally. A pedigree of an Army and Civil services family background kept prompting him to do something for his motherland.

Some of the programs the NGO conducts are as follows:

Jagriti Yatra: Journey Of 7000 Yatris

Shashank undertook several initiatives, including the Azad Bharat Rail Yatra in the 90's to penning down his thoughts on the rising of Middle India (Tier 2/3 India) in 2007. This book's popularity challenged him to start what is known today as Jagriti Yatra in 2008.

It is an ambitious train journey of discovery and transformation that takes hundreds of India's highly motivated youth, especially those who are from small towns and villages of India, on a 15-day, 8000 km national odyssey to meet the role models (social and business entrepreneurs) of the country. The train journey starts at Mumbai, travels down south to the east and north of the country, and finally reaches back to its origin, forming a diamond on the Indian Map. This journey has been taken by over 7000 Yatris that have been part of this life-changing ideology

Yatra in its avatar today is an annual event that is celebrating its 15th year.

Initiating Momentum For Rural Entrepreneurship

Jagriti has also created a network of leaders over 120 districts of the country, that undertake the task of spreading awareness about entrepreneurship. This network is referred to as 'Jagriti Ambassador for District Entrepreneur' (JADE) and is the second pillar of the NGO. The idea is to initiate momentum for a movement of entrepreneurship at the district level of the country that can harness the power of enterprise growth in India.

Jagriti has already invested over 30 crores over the last 14 years of its operations and has successfully created partnerships with institutions such as Google, ICICI, SBI, SIDBI, Niti Aayog, LIC etc. This network has been able to drive impact projects such as Internet Saathi with Google, where they have trained over 1.7 million women in Middle India to be digitally literate.

While Jagriti runs these two pillars successfully, a key learning was the lack of physical infrastructures like new-age capital, incubator, mentors, trainers, talent migration, office infra etc, summing up the startup or entrepreneurship ecosystem is missing at the Middle India level. This is effectively like asking startups in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad or Gurugram to build business without the infrastructure and ecosystem they enjoyed over the last decade. This is a root deterrent to the budding entrepreneurs in rural India.

Jagriti took a pledge to solve this problem at scale, which was the seed of Jagriti Enterprise Center, the third pillar of the organisation. The idea is to create this missing ecosystem at four strategic points on the Indian map, also referred to as the "4 Dham of Udyamita'', and a research and policy institute, Middle of Diamond Institute. These dhams of enterprise will become exemplar of regional entrepreneurship ecosystems, which can then be replicated by JADE in their respective districts. Every district of the country has an ecosystem for Udyamita is the vision of Jagriti.

The first of this dham is planned in Deoria, Purvanchal.

Supporting Various Sectors, Robust Incubation Process

Jagriti Enterprise Center (Purvanchal) or JECP, is a 95 crore ambitious project with over 15 crores deployed in its phase 1. The centre is designed on a 3-I framework - Incubation, Innovation and Inspiration, and aims to bring world-class facilities and support to the entrepreneurs in Purvanchal (eastern Uttar Pradesh).

The concept of this center is based on two levels. First, being the main center spanning over 6 acres of campus covering a thoughtful ecosystem consisting of a 1 lakh sq ft of Physical infrastructure such as co-working space, conference facilities, innovation lab, video conferencing for startups and recording studios for artists, digital library and auditorium. The institution runs a robust incubation process under the Atal Innovation Mission and Niti Aayog. This is clubbed along with access to Working Capital Fund, Mentor network of Jagriti and the Market connect program. Under Innovation, the centre houses six centres of excellence focused on six sectors - Agriculture, Healthcare, Digital, Women, Rural Urbanisation, and Handicrafts & Apparel - and a Digital Library, an enterprise, culture, and IP resource centre.

The second level is a network of 15 district offices, each of this office shall replicate the center infrastructure at the district level to provide every entrepreneur with ease of working access and presence in each local market in the nearby surroundings. Built on the global concept of flexi office, it gives one easy access to multi markets with a touch of local adaptation to suit the Middle India requirements. Each of these 15 offices provides a 2000 sq ft working area to the entrepreneurs and three are already operational.

The NGO's on-ground operations include creating last-mile connectivity through a team of Udyam Corps and Mitras - facilitators to entrepreneurs. Each team, comprising one Udyam Corp and 2 Udyam Mitras, has a set goal of signing up local businesses and incubating them using a rigorously tested 6-M incubation process. The idea is to provide Farm Prenuer, Solo Prenuer, MSME and women-driven self-help groups the same ecosystem that urban India startups enjoy.

"We are in the process of setting up our seed fund, a Section 8 company, to support our incubated entrepreneurs through debt funding," Shashank said.

Jagriti is incubating around 100 such Micro, Small and Medium enterprises under JECP. The incubation process is drawn to be customised and inclusive of various industries' needs.

"It is our firm belief that the real growth story of our economy would be written in rural India through building business at grassroots level," Shashank added.

Jagriti is committed to support its communities by providing immediate relief, and build resilience through long-term efforts of microenterprise and livelihood programs. The aim is to reduce vulnerabilities of these communities, enabling them to better prepare for, mitigate and repose to any disaster like COVID-19.

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The older people in our country often find it challenging when it comes to operating digital technologies. It doesn't mean that they don't want to become tech-friendly. Many older people wish to click selfies and post them on social media platforms, order food and snacks through a food delivery company, and talk with colleagues through video calls. This might not become possible for them as they don't have hands-on experience handling digital apps and technologies.

According to a survey by HelpAge India, over 60 per cent of elderly people want to learn technology-driven lessons. The survey was conducted with responses from 1,600 older people. It revealed a majority of them are keen on learning how to order food online, pay electricity bills, and use banking portals for transactions.

Whereas others extended their wish to use video-calling applications, Google Maps, and Gmail accounts. The survey signifies that the elderly population wants to be friendly with technology, but they don't have any medium to enable them to do so.

Birth Of Social Pathshala

To break the roadblock, an alumnus of SP Jain School of Global Management, Mahima Bhalotia, kickstarted 'Social Paathshala' in 2020 amidst the pandemic. The new-age startup imparts digital empowerment sessions to older adults and mothers who want to step into the digital world.

According to Mahima, the idea culminated in an office canteen in 2019 when she worked as an employee. She witnessed how her boss' mother kept him calling to book an online cab. She initiated arranging resources and kickstarted training sessions for older adults to become tech-savvy.

Training Older Adults 'Senagers'

After catering to a lot of senior citizens, she realized that there are a lot of homemakers and other ladies who need help in becoming tech-savvy. Mahima started "Paathshala for Her", which aims to help these ladies take baby steps towards embracing technology.

While talking to The Logical Indian, she said, "My plans comprise of expanding this initiative globally as I know that there are a lot of senior citizens and homemakers in the world who are not digitally empowered. I firmly believe in the quote by Mahatma Gandhi that says- Be the change you wish to see in the word, and find pure joy by making a difference in people's lives."

As per current statistics, she has successfully trained over 4,000-plus older adults (called senagers), including people from diversified backgrounds like Advocates, Ex Indian Navy Captain, Scientists, Entrepreneurs, Doctors, Colonel, Civil Engineer, and Business Women.

The young entrepreneur said, "They have learned a vast number of topics ranging from using Google Tools productively to advanced Zoom, WhatsApp, Festive greeting cards, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook; Google Lens, to name a few. My students have also learned how to order Pizza from Dominoes; Frappuccinos from Starbucks. 

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