Q&A with Eklavya

Eklavya, a private non-profit organisation based in Madhya Pradesh, India, focuses on developing innovative educational programs for the underprivileged. Their learning spaces are extended beyond the school and into the community. They also provide educational materials such as magazines, storybooks, textbooks and other learning apparatus. Their unique approach helps children become life-long self-learners.

We got a chance to visit their headquarters and have a chat with Tultul Biswas, who has been with Eklavya since 1991 and has played various roles in the organization from being in the editorial team to marketing of their publications to training teachers. Here’s what she had to say:

What’s the motive behind Eklavya?

“The vision that Eklavya works for is to make education meaningful for every child, especially the less privileged. There has been a lot of interesting work in education, but most of it is only accessible to children from well off families. From its onset, it's been clear that Eklavya has wanted to work in a manner where we’ll be able to reach out to every child who needs it. We want the classrooms to be more friendly for both students and teachers, so that they would actually enjoy coming to school everyday. That's the dream.”

What made you decide to join Eklavya out of all organisations?

“I had a history of working in Eklavya from my high school days. I mainly got interested in the organization through their publications on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. What caught my eye was the point of view Eklavya took on, the rights of the people without questioning industrialization. It was a very different way of looking at the tragedy. The book that started my journey into Eklavya was called “Bhopal- The City of Death” by Eklavya. I always wanted to be a teacher but after a while I realized I wasn't meant for mainstream schools since no matter how hard I tried, I wasn't allowed to bring in any experimentation in my classroom, it was too rigid. On the other hand, Eklavya’s whole principle was to bring in experimentation and fun into the classroom. When I found out they had a spot open, I jumped at the chance and have been there ever since. Within Eklavya, there has always been this possibility of engaging with other groups and doing your own work, they also encourage paying attention to your own growth, space and ideas. That has been one of the main reasons which has kept me here for so long.”

What are your organization’s goals this year with the unexpected pandemic? “Currently we are working with six districts in Madhya Pradesh and three districts in Maharashtra. We have two goals: to be able to reach out to the children in rural areas and introduce neighborhood learning centers. The government education department in Madhya Pradesh claims that only 7% of children that attend government schools are able to engage with the digital material schools are sending out. Not only that, but there are so many concerns when it comes to digital education which are very worrying factors. This year, Eklavya has not only been working on school structure but also with the parents and the village community. We think it's very important for the parents to be involved in their children's schooling, even if they aren't literate. Often asking the children what's going on at school, what they are learning, cheering them up when they don't feel motivated to study makes a huge difference for the child. It'll definitely help bridge the gap between the home and the school divide.”

“We have started running these ‘Mohalla Learning Activity Centers’(neighborhood learning centers) in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. So far, we’ve run 700 such centers throughout last year and this year. About 500 hundred have restarted after the lock down. People for the neighborhood schools and volunteers are selected, who are then given orientation and training by Eklavya on how to take classes digitally or face-to-face for young students in primary school because human interaction is necessary for children at that age. Keep in mind, in these remote villages the virus isn't present as long as a carrier from outside comes, which we have measures for.”

Could you share any stories of individuals whose lives have been changed because of your organization?

“There was a boy from a very remote village in the Hoshangabad district who studied in the Eklavya programs and used to read Chakmak(Eklavya’s magazine). He often wrote to us and wanted to get involved in journalism. Few years later, we thought of taking him into the publishing program in Eklavya. Now, he leads one of the book publishing segments. He started as a student reading Chakmak, and now he works alongside them.”

“There was also a lady in a village in Rajpur. At the time we were identifying women who could be interested in helping out with rural education and training them so that they could bring the society interactions with the schools and teachers better. She used to send her children to private schools. She started working with us and started getting involved. Seeing her, other women also got interested, and started checking out the impact she made. The year before last, she pulled out her two kids and got them enrolled in the government school and we asked her- What happened? She said in the private school, I pay the fees but I am not even allowed to enter the school. I have to drop the children at the gate and come away. Here I am allowed to go inside. I can see what is happening. Now our school is very good so why should I send my kids to that school? After that, next year eight other children from that village were pulled out from the private school and put in the government scheme. Everyone had this ownership that this is our school and we are contributing towards making this school better. Amazing! She made such a big impact. She is still a simple woman, she does farming, raises goats, does housework etc, but her self-worth had risen. She's truly inspiring.”

How can people, like students, help other than making financial contributions?

“Come and intern with us. You will get several opportunities to explore a part of rural life that you’d have seen in films or read about. Get to know and work with the children, teachers, parents and communities in villages. You can learn and grow alongside them. We always enjoy taking in interns and making memorable experiences.”

The Eklavya headquarters are built sustainably, could you maybe explain more about it?

“We tried our best to use materials which consume less energy in their making. The raw material in our bricks only contains 2% cement, the rest is made up of mud and stone dust. Instead of firing the bricks we sun-dried them. Similarly we recycled a lot of scrap material that could be used to replace things around the building. Discarded train windows as a double layered exterior, leftover cardboard cylinders as room partitions etc.”

“Water conservation was one of our main goals while building this building. Rainwater collected from the roof is stored and redirected to aquifers. We also have four recharge wells built near our premises. No water is wasted in this building. We treat the unclean water and use it for gardening, mopping and flushing. It's called a closed water loop.”

“There are a lot of other small changes we have made to our building to help make it as sustainable as possible. There was a lot of experimentation involved to finally arrive at this result.”

What would make the greatest difference in helping your organization get better at what it does?

“Write and educate people about it. One of the things that Eklavya is not very savvy about is spreading the word about what we do. We tend to be a little lacking when it comes to our social media presence. Helping us out in that area could majorly improve our organizations presence and reach.”

We'd like to thank the Eklavya team for giving us this opportunity and help better understand the love and dedication that goes into this organisation.

Here are some more pictures we took during our visit to Eklavya: