Leading Industrialists Dr. B.K. Modi, founder of Modi Corp., and K.L. Chugh, former chairman of ITC, came to New England to share their vision to bring education to every village in India. Also present were Bhishma Agnihotri, India’s Ambassador-at-Large and Prashant Goyal, an Industrialist from Mumbai who is an alum of New England’s own Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They were here to raise awareness for the Ekal Vidyalaya program that has been successful in creating a scalable model to bring primary education to remote villages and tribal areas of India, which have been “forgotten” by the rest of the world.

“We are only strong as our weakest link. If India needs to develop we must make sure that the weakest links, who are the people in the remote villages have access to education,” said Dr. B.K Modi who is the Founder chairman of this movement. The movement that started only two years ago already has over 9000 schools and hopes to have 100,000 schools by the year 2010. Modi has resigned from his position at the Modi Corp and now devotes his time entirely to projects like this that is aimed at developing India.

Ekal Vidyalaya is a unique concept that is bringing non-formal education to the doorstep of a village, where children are offered five years of schooling free. The teachers are locally educated youths (who have passed class 8 or 9) and are specially trained for the purpose, and become key figures and catalysts of change and character building for the entire village. A panel of reputed educationists in consultation with villagers has developed the curriculum. Besides imparting basic alphabetic and numeric knowledge, great emphasis is placed on health and hygiene and character building. Other skills for the development of the entire community are also imparted.

“The entire setup operates on a shoe-string budget, and it only costs $365 to run an Ekal Vidyalaya for a whole year,” says K.L Chugh, Chairman Emeritus of ITC who is the President this foundation. “The school runs on such a small budget because the locals have bought into the concept and are excited to pitch in and help as much as they can. Everything we do is in consultation with the local people.”

“We also have been successful in recruiting some of greatest Indian minds to serve on our board. These include people like Dr. Abid Hussein, former Ambassador to USA, Justice P.N. Bhagawati and others,” said Chugh.

The final goal is make this a self- sustaining movement, but currently it needs impetus in the form of donations. “We have worked diligently to ensure complete transparency. We strongly urge our donors to come and visit the school that they have adopted. We urge donors to serve as mentors for the youngsters in the school. Often even a short visit can be valuable,” said Chugh.

Bharat and Punita Khateau hosted the event. Bharat Khateau is the Chairman and CEO of Trigent Software which a fast growing outsourcing company. Also present were Mr. Ramesh Motwani , founder of Eastern Contractors, Mr. Ajit Nagral, founder and CEO of Nugenesis, and Mr. Ram Nehra, the president of the local chapter of the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation. Mr. Mahesh Mehta who has been very active in directing this movement introduced the speakers.

“The joy of being the president of such an organization is great indeed. I once visited a school and ask a young boy what his aspirations were. ‘I want to become like this didi who is teaching us,’ he replied unhesitatingly. To me that was a moment to be treasured” said Chugh.

To learn more about Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation, please check out their web site at http://www.ekalvidyalaya.org. Former Ambassador to USA & Member, Constitutional Review Committee

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