“In 2011, Jagriti took core steps in changing the face of education for slum children. No child deserves to study in shabby uniforms, unhygienic schools and poor guidance.”
Jagriti’s Story
In 2001, Gujarat saw one of the worst Earthquakes in the history of mankind. Our founder, Mr. Jaikishan Jajoo was just as devastated, sitting 550 miles away from the epicentre. He motivated his peers in Jaipur to come together and help the people of Bhuj (the epicentre). Soon, they shipped ten trucks across the state with necessities, food and relief packets. Their aid reached the victims right after the Swiss aid. That’s when they realised even a small group with good intentions can move mountains.
Mr. Jajoo began to find various other domains where urban Jaipur needed help – garbage dumps, healthcare and green initiatives. After trying to change the mindset of slum communities, he saw that lack of good education was the foundation of all their issues. Breaking blind beliefs was the biggest challenge.
In 2011, Jagriti took core steps in changing the face of education for slum children. No child deserves to study in shabby uniform, unhygienic school and poor guidance, a harsh reality of most government schools in urban areas.
Jagriti has taken up the situation in its own hands to bring change.
We Work with Four M’s
Motivate to Drive Change
We identify underprivileged localities in Jaipur and understand their problems. We go door-to-door and sensitise them about education. Several resistance factors come forward from the locals to justify why they just cannot send their children to school. Our team patiently solves every such matter, from resources to livelihood.
Make Change Accessible
While it is easy to tell children to go to school, there are logistics issues – as basic as dropping the child to school everyday can be a challenge or no separate toilets for girls can hinder their inclination to continue.
Jagriti adopts government schools in the vicinity of the locality to ensure easy access. The schools are either rebuilt from scratch or repaired and elevated. Separate toilets for girls and boys are ensured along with provision of mid-day meals, safe drinking water, uniforms and stationery. This is only the starting to help children come to school. Next we work to provide quality education.
Maintain Quality of Education
Jagriti is not reliant on government teachers alone for their schools. Immense efforts are taken to find more teachers to balance the teacher-student ratio. We hold meetings with the teachers to check progress on lessons and test students at random to see if they are learning effectively.
Apart from teaching children by the books, we also organise camps to teach them about life values, interact with children from private schools and showcase their skills through an annual program.
Mobilise Communities
Jagriti handholds every child who joins their family. It runs skill development centres to help mothers learn any vocation or a skill to support their families. Organise cleanliness drives with the community to improve their living conditions and eliminate diseases.
Why Only Jaipur ?
Preparing a good school and convincing children to be educated takes time. Our first mission is to ensure that every underprivileged child in Jaipur has access to good education. We are still developing a model that can be taken to other cities. India’s diversity of culture is another challenge which hinders us from making this as a replicable model right away. It is a continuous process, which is not possible without extended support.