Growing up in Jalalabad village in Shahjahanpur district, Sakshi Srivastava saw how difficult it was for girls to continue their education. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, completing Class 12 was considered a significant achievement for girls in many such rural communities. Yet, with the support of her father, Sakshi went on to study at Miranda House in Delhi, an experience she says transformed her confidence and gave her a larger sense of purpose.
For Sakshi, that purpose began taking shape when she saw two children eating noodles from a dustbin. The plate had been thrown away by her. The sight made her question why a child could not distinguish between what was safe to eat and what was not. Her search for answers eventually led her towards education, community work and the creation of an organisation Anubhuti focused on children who are out of school or have dropped out.
From A Village Classroom To A Larger Purpose
Sakshi’s father played an important role in shaping her educational journey. At a time when people around her questioned whether educating daughters would be worthwhile, he remained determined to educate his children. Her elder sister went to Banaras Hindu University, another sister studied at Rohilkhand University in Bareilly, and eventually Sakshi moved to Delhi.
At Miranda House, where she completed her graduation and master’s, Sakshi says she worked on her communication skills, personality and confidence. The experience also made her think about how she could contribute to society.
That question became more urgent when she encountered two children eating discarded food. She began speaking with children and their parents and discovered that some had never attended school, while others had left school midway.
Initially, Sakshi started teaching around 15 to 30 children through NCC and NSS volunteers at Majnu Ka Tila. Later, after noticing a settlement near where she lived in Ghaziabad, she began teaching children there in a nearby park. The number gradually grew from 30 to 50 and eventually to around 150 children.
Learning To Build A Grassroots Organisation
As the number of children increased, Sakshi realised that teaching 150 children by herself was not sustainable. She began reaching out to people for guidance and learnt about iVolunteer, where volunteers could support organisations.
That experience made her realise that she needed to build an organisation of her own. But she also knew that she lacked experience in the social sector.
Sakshi began working on herself alongside her grassroots efforts. She completed her master’s, interned with Goonj. She then applied for the Gandhi Fellowship and was selected, working in Chikhaldara in Maharashtra’s Amravati district.
While continuing to support the children near her home, she also began developing a deeper understanding of education and community work.
It was during this journey that she met Dilip. Their conversations led to a shared understanding of the challenges faced by children who had been excluded from formal education. The two spent around two years designing a programme together. Sakshi later joined the Chief Minister’s Good Governance Associates fellowship in 2018 to understand policy and governance.
Taking Education Back To The Community
By 2019, Sakshi had begun to feel that although government programmes were doing important work, much of the effort was not reaching the grassroots in the way she wanted. She decided to work on a smaller scale but full-time, focusing directly on communities.
In 2020, she began working full-time on the initiative. Dilip continued working and became her first donor, supporting basic expenses during the initial six-month period. When the programme grew, they decided to scale their work.
Today, their organisation works across two states with around 12,000 out-of-school and dropout children and around 200 local youth. Its programmes include the Bridge Fellowship, EduCell and Hope School. In the last years organisation reached 1 million children and 30k govt teachers, impacted 27000+ drop out and out of school children and 700+ local youth
The Bridge Fellowship focuses on identifying local youth from within communities and developing them as education leaders. Fellows identify children aged 6 to 14 who are out of school or have dropped out, work with their families and support their return to government schools.
The model also includes children considered at risk of dropping out 6 to 16 yrs, including those studying in schools where teacher vacancies can affect classroom learning. Sakshi believes that involving local youth is important because they understand the communities they come from and can become role models for children and their families.
When Returning to School Was Not Enough
One of the most important lessons came when Sakshi and her team began tracking children after they were enrolled in school.
They found that around 30% of the children they had helped return to school dropped out again. This made the team reconsider its approach.
Their research suggested that some children struggled because they felt excluded in classrooms. According to Sakshi, children who had previously dropped out were sometimes treated differently by teachers or made to sit separately because they were considered less capable.
The organization therefore began working with government school teachers on socio-emotional learning, with the aim of helping teachers build stronger emotional connections with students and create safer classroom environments.
Sakshi says the organisation has worked with around 28,000 to 30,000 teachers who collectively work with around one million students. She also says that over five years, around 28,000 out-of-school children were brought back to school, with a reported 96% mainstreaming rate and 89% retention rate.
The Challenges Of Changing Lives Slowly
Sakshi’s work extends across rural villages, interior areas and urban slums, including communities in Sohna, Ballabhgarh, Nuh Mewat, Jalalabad and Banaras. The organisation works with communities including Musahar, Meo, Banjara and Sapera communities, along with rural youth.
But grassroots work comes with challenges. Sakshi identifies limited funding for remote areas as one major concern. She also points to the time required to convince families to support young women who become fellows, particularly when families begin pressuring them to marry.
Geography creates another challenge. Skilled professionals are often reluctant to relocate to remote areas, making it necessary to develop leadership among local youth. Sakshi acknowledges that this takes time, patience and sustained effort
The Logical Indian Perspective
Sakshi’s journey began with an opportunity her father insisted she should have: education. Years later, that opportunity became the foundation of her work with children who have been denied the same chance.
From a park classroom with a few dozen children to programmes reaching thousands of out-of-school and dropout children, her work reflects a gradual approach to grassroots change. Her experience also shows that bringing a child back to school is only one part of the challenge. Ensuring that the child feels included, supported and able to remain within the system requires work with families, communities and teachers as well.
For Sakshi, education is therefore not simply about entering a classroom. It is about creating the support systems that allow children to stay there, learn and imagine possibilities beyond the circumstances into which they were born.
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