Every Child Counts

Pune’s Door Step School

By Nisha Rojatkar on Sep 16, 2014 in Giving, People

In India and around the world, childhood education is a crucial development tool, contributing to both personal progress and an improved international economy. But in many countries, delivering educational opportunity to all sections of the population is still a challenge, resulting in students who might attend school sporadically or not at all.

In India, one of the major challenges is to convince the parents of especially impoverished children of the value of a formal education. Here in Pune, one non-profit has made it their mission to help every child have access to learning, and employees from Yardi’s office here are involved in the effort as volunteers.

The Door Step School has created a project called Every Child Counts (ECC), which helps counsel parents to enroll their children to Corporation Schools. Door Step School was established in Mumbai in 1988, responding to a massive need for literacy education in slum and pavement communities. It expanded to Pune in 1993.

Door Step School addresses literacy among those in the marginalized sections of society. The school provides education and support to the often-forgotten children of pavement and slum dwellers, construction site families, and many other underprivileged families.  Research indicates that there are 350 million illiterate people in India. More than 25 million children do not attend school, and 2 out of 5 first grade students do not complete their education

They focus on three major needs: school enrollment for children not currently attending, alternative means to education for those not enrolled in school, and retention to help those in school to stay in school.

The community programs are tailor-made for the children from the slum and pavement communities. Working in partnership with government-run schools (India’s Right to Education Act mandates free education for all children between age 6 to 14), Doorstep organizes competition, excursions, library services, reading classes and extra coaching to improve the quality of learning and enhance retention.

Drawing on the manpower of volunteers and community support, Doorstep helps more than 15,000 children annually with literacy programs at over 100 sites in Mumbai and Pune. They have also raised funds for educational resources and bus transportation to get students to class when unsafe obstacles or lack of walking paths might block the way.

This summer, eight volunteers from the Yardi Energy Solutions Pune team took part in the activities and volunteered to meet, counsel and convince parents to admit their children to school.

In the words of one of the Yardi volunteers: “It was more difficult than we had expected. Some of the people we spoke with doubted our intentions, and after much deliberation were ready to at least talk to us. We tried our best to counsel them about importance of education for their children. Some seemed convinced, and some uncertain. It will take more time and is certainly not an easy task. But we are ready for follow-ups, and will keep talking to them.”

Since September 2010, Ysocial (Yardi’s Pune-based Social Committee) has committed to funding two DSS construction site schools and two Reading and Library classes for next three years. With free, accessible education something that many Western countries take for granted, we hope to help provide that same privilege to every child in India.