Bharti Foundation Is Changing Lives and #TransformingIndia

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Bhupinder lost his mother when he was just 10 years old. He had to drop out of school and start working at a food stall, serving tea. His meagre earnings supplemented his family’s income. One day, a teacher from Satya Bharti School visited his stall and told him about the school where education was free and encouraged him to enrol. After a counselling session with his family, Bhupinder enrolled at Satya Bharti Adarsh Senior Secondary School, Fattubhillah in Punjab, and since then his life has taken a whole new course. He was encouraged every day to never give up on education by his teachers. Today, Bhupinder is serving the nation by joining the Sikh Light Infantry of the Indian Armed Forces.

For more than two decades now, Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises, has been committed to its vision of transforming the lives of rural children like Bhupinder, so that they grow as better individuals and become agents for positive change in their communities and beyond. Starting with their first school in Punjab, over the years Bharti Foundation has impacted the lives of over nearly half a million students across India. This impact has been across 2500+ schools in 5900+ villages and 18 states, touching the lives of 2 million-plus Indians through their education programmes.

The Foundation runs their own schools, they even employs and trains teachers from local villages. All students are provided books, uniforms and mid-day meals. Besides this, Bharti Foundation is also actively involved in supporting government schools to help them enhance the overall schooling experience for students and teachers.

Satya Bharti Schools – Empowering rural children through education

Bharti Foundation's Satya Bharti School Programme, launched in 2006, aims to deliver free quality education to children in rural pockets of India, with a special focus on girl child. The programme runs primary, elementary and senior secondary schools, where each school emphasizes on experiential learning and takes the idea of education beyond classrooms. In every Satya Bharti School, separate toilets for boys and girls, CCTV surveillance, water and electricity connections, etc. are some of the provisions made available. The senior secondary schools are equipped with Art Lab, Beauty & Wellness Lab, Computer Lab, Science Lab, Robotic/Advanced Tech Lab and more to expose children to myriad skills and career opportunities. The curriculum in the schools not only follows academic sustenance, but also a variety of co-curricular and community-level activities that hone holistic development of every child. These activities range from annual celebrations to bal sabhas, house activities, language weeks, celebration of important days, school excursions, participation in external competitions, and more.

Holistic, value-based education

One of the core principles of the Satya Bharti School Programme is to instil a sense of social involvement, by helping children create links within their community and village. Community development campaigns form an integral part of the teaching learning process, wherein children are encouraged to work alongside community members to find, formulate and implement solutions to various social issues. Over the years, students have addressed several social issues such as empowerment of the girl child, respect for widows, eradication of child marriage, caste discrimination, environmental protection drives, etc.
One such student is Jannat, who was inspired to bring social transformation to her village.

Jannat, a student from Satya Bharti School in Kurukshetra, Haryana, realised an old couple in her village used fields for open defecation because their home didn’t have a toilet. Most children would have ignored the issue—after all, these are social issues that governments deal with. But, driven by the value-based education she received at her school, Jannat showed extraordinary courage in tackling the sensitive issue of open defecation. She convinced the village head (Sarpanch) and her school friends. Through government subsidies as well as fundraising, Jannat ensured the senior citizens soon had a toilet at their home.

Another inspiring story is that of Simranjeet Kaur, from Satya Bharti School in Khanpur village, Ludhiana, Punjab, who led a campaign on menstruation education in her school and community to unshackle the chains of myths and beliefs around menstruation. Her pioneering effort in changing mindsets was recognised with a bronze medal in the ‘Pramerica Spirit of Community Awards 2019,’ an annual nationwide search to identify and recognize school students who have made a positive difference in their communities.

Continued education during the pandemic

Much of Satya Bharti Schools’ learning delivery continued through the pandemic as Bharti Foundation adopted online learning models customised for villages and outskirts of cities where high-bandwidth video conferencing tools would not work.

Satya Bharti Quality Support Programme – Enhancing schooling experience in government schools

While Satya Bharti Schools became model schools for imparting learning, Bharti Foundation also worked towards enhancing capabilities at government schools, to drive a much larger transformation in education across the nation.

The Foundation has partnered with government schools, and best practices from Satya Bharti Schools were implemented in each of these government schools with the purpose of institutionalizing these in a time frame of three to five years. Since teacher empowerment is key when it comes to improving quality standards at government schools, thousands of teachers across India have been trained till date under this programme. These initiatives complement the efforts of government schools in enhancing the overall school experience—from student empowerment to teacher development, parent engagement and school environment improvement.

Thanks to the consistent efforts of the programme, students from these schools gain confidence to participate in competitive exams, and many have won awards at the national level, which has prepared them for the challenges of higher education and their careers in the long run.

Contribution towards the future of India

The success of any programme cannot be judged by statistics alone but by lives transformed. Many alumni from Satya Bharti Schools have started on their professional journeys, while supporting their families, and inspiring other students.

One such alumna is Sanjana, daughter of a farmer and an alumna of Satya Bharti School, Teek Village in Haryana. Sanjana cleared NEET 2020 and is currently pursuing an MBBS from PGIMS Rohtak. Yet another is Champa Ram, son of a farmer, for whom life had always been a struggle for basics in his family of seven. Champa Ram passed out of Satya Bharti School in class 8 and joined Navodaya Vidyalaya. He scored CGPA 10 in Class 10 Board Exams in 2017 and 93.6% in his Class 12 Board Exams. He is currently pursuing Civil Engineering from IIT Madras.

There are many such inspirations, thanks to the work of the Bharti Foundation and there will be many more in the years to come, as the Foundation stays focused on imparting quality education and values that transform lives.