"Sir, school has raised the fees again! I will not be able to send my child to school.

Does this initiative has

a school too?"

A parent said to me at Nithari Computer Literacy Program (NCLP a CSR initiative of TCS). At that point of
time I was only able to add grief to that parent woes.

I was volunteering at NCLP to work upon my idea of transforming education from literacy to learning by
taking out examples from history, which is a growth story of human family and the world as a whole
rather than a mere recital of facts, dates, wars and kings. I had achieved some success in it but after
listening to that parent, I understood that the problem is a gigantic one.

When I was searching for a solution, I came across many shocking facts about education, dropouts,
employment, child labor,

I was searching for a solution when I came across two institutions. One, Majhihira National Basic
Educational Institution (MNBEI) (https://www.majhihira-ashram.org), a school in a small village
Majhihira in the Purulia district of West Bengal which is running since pre independence days on
Gandhian Principles of Basic Education (Buniyadi Shiksha or Nai Talim) and the other, Fundacion
Paraguaya (https://www.fundacionparaguaya.org.py), a social enterprise in Paraguay that runs
agricultural high schools on the lines of self sustainability.

Inspired by the concepts of Self Sustainability and Nai Talim, and the live examples, I started working on
it at NCLP and volunteered for Teach India as well. With new impetus, I streamlined the operations of
NCLP, drafted a curriculum keeping in view the practical requirements, formed a content development
team to work on the drafted curriculum, organised the biggest event in TCS CSR history increasing the
student strength from 22 to 185, motivated others to join thereby increasing the volunteer strength
from 15 to 35, set up a digital education lab, and organised international maths olympiad for over 90
students after training them, in all modifying the initiative from a "only" computer literacy program to a
comprehensive learning program which gave me several accolades along with the Lead Volunteer
position.

Teaching has always been one my interests. I got third prize in pupil teaching competition in school, took
private tuitions for the first two years of college, took several workshops as the head of Robotics Club in
college, inducted new members into the team and took knowledge sharing sessions on value adds made
for the client by me. Also, I am currently mentoring the SAMUDRA, VAAYU and ROBOCON teams of my
college.

At present, I am blessed with an idea of learning, doing and earning which I believe can transform into a
self sufficient school for rural and underprivileged upliftment and a stage set in the form of NCLP backed
by the coordinating NGO "JWP". What I am looking for is a platform, which IIM Ahemedabad's doctoral
programme "Innovation and management in education" provides perfectly. At IIM Ahemedabad, I would
like to research on both the facets of my idea i.e. Curriculum and Implementation, gaining from the
experiences of professors such as Prof Rajeev Sharma in the field of social psychology and institution
building, Prof Vijaya Sherry Chand in the field of social entrepreneurship and school management, Prof
Anil Gupta in leadership and rural development and many more. I would also like to get exposure from
Teachers as Transfomers initiative of IIM A and Sristi initiative of Prof Anil Gupta which would help me in
fulfilling my goal of setting a self sufficient school.