Making their lives ujwal: NGO helps poor children

Bengaluru: Ten years ago, Anil Shetty had to rely on kerosene-oil lamps to study late at night. Back then he had no idea that he would grow up to become the first engineer in his village Shankarnarayana, and a reputed name in the city.

“My journey was not easy. I know there are many who have made similar journeys,” said Anil, a 29-year-old social entrepreneur and political activist, who has been the brain behind many successful ventures in the city. Many children from remote villages in the State could not achieve similar success due to lack of guidance and finance.

Though there are many government schools catering to rural children, but the academic standards in most of these schools are not up to the mark. Hence many promising students drop out to help their parents in supplementing their income.

To help such students Anil started Ujwal India Charitable Trust to reach out to talented students in the villages across the State. The trust, which began a year ago, has around thirty students getting quality education free of cost in good schools.

“We identify intelligent students in remote villages and then select them for proper education in class eleventh and twelfth because that is when they need close attention and guidance. There are many who know so much about space and science but sadly because of an improper education system they are not able to pursue a fulfilling career,” said Anil.

At present to identify talented students Anil uses tenth standard marks as a criteria. "By next year we will conduct a test along the lines of the Mesa test to identify exceptionally intelligent and talented children," he added.

Anil claimed he learnt English only when he was around twenty, but his desire to succeed never dampened because of external factors like lack of resources and money. "I know there are many children who are taking the same journey and this is to connect to them and make their lives better," he said. He aims to reach out to more children.  "My goal is to educate 1000 such children in the villages and inspire them to aim high," he says.

Other than 10th standard marks the Trust also looks at parent’s income for providing free residential education. Currently, the entire fees, '50,000 per student, including hostel expenses, is self-funded by Anil. He is looking for funding to attain his goal of reaching out to 1000 talented children.

He said, “The idea is to get a thousand exceptionally talented students from the State. We all talk about equal opportunities, but there is no level playing field. This move would certainly help us get that.”

The NGO has tied up with Edutel technologies, which provides satellite-based education for rural children. “We identify children and bring in the funds. We tie up with different colleges and place them in these colleges and provide hostel accommodation nearby,” he said. A two-member team goes to remote villages to identify such children.

“They need inspiration to succeed and we give them that. Only then will they become the biggest contributors to the nation's development,” he summed up. Currently his NGO is active in North Karnataka and Bengaluru outskirts. Impressed by his work, Manipal Global Education Chairman Mohandas Pai has agreed to help them in the future.