AN IIT ALUM IS PURSUING HIS CHILDHOOD DREAM OF RESHAPING THE EDUCATION SYSTEM, AT GRASSROOTS LEVEL

Ashutosh Kumar, an IIT Kharagpur alumnus and an entrepreneur at heart with a passion for bringing the change and creating a positive impact in the society, starts the conversation with a short story of a young boy.

“A eleven year old school boy, after winning the elocution competition in school, gets a Hindi version of a book ‘Divaswapna’- a book on the struggle and success of a teacher, Gijubhai Badheka, who was passionate about changing the orthodox education system. Excited, he comes home and spends the entire night flipping the pages of the book. Time flew, the boy stepped into the real world and the book got buried somewhere but the story was always profoundly abided in his soul. A few years later, when the boy visited his hometown, he was pained to see the abject condition of education in his locality and this propelled him to look for solutions that brought him back to his childhood memories of that book. Inspired by the works of Gijubhai, the boy decided to follow his footsteps and then with his friends formed a team and thus was formed an organization that was aimed at bringing quality education to children especially those from rural areas.”

The zeal with which Ashutosh described the story, I didn’t have to second guess that the young boy in the story was him and the organization was ‘Divaswapna’, the name inspired by the book ‘Divaswapna’ by Gijubhai himself.

About the man

With a soft and modulated voice, Ashutosh had a flavor of a slight Bhojpuri accent. Born and brought up in West Bengal, Ashutosh Kumar hails from a small village in Bihar. After graduating from IIT-Kharagpur in 2007, he joined a software firm in Chennai and worked there for a year upon which he realized that he wasn’t meant to be confined in a small cubicle office developing technologies for others. And soon he left his luxurious corporate career with a zest for awakening the spirit of entrepreneurship and a passion to explore something new at the grassroots level.

The Inspiration

Having lived in a city and a village, Ashutosh was sensitive towards the stark rural-urban divide.

“I used to visit Sonebhadra — a small town in U.P. where my father used to work. Although the township was very resourceful with all the necessary amenities, the surrounding area comprising many small villages lacked basic infrastructure with a very poor state of education. This left me devastated and filled in me with a sense of responsibility towards the people and children of the area.”

This formed the genesis of the whole idea and thus was born- Divaswapna- a non-profit organization that aims at holistic development of every child with a belief that every child is unique and it firmly adheres to the education in local context by involving all the stakeholders in decision making.

The First Step

Ashutosh and his friends decided to conduct a survey of schools in Bijpur in Sonebhadra district to get a closer understanding. The survey revealed the fact that less than 10% of the schools had library. The pitiful conditions of schools and cost constraints gave birth to the idea of low cost Library that goes beyond the traditional humdrum system and provides a more interactive environment with educational toys and multimedia along with books, where kids can experiment and learn with fun with a few school teachers trained as instructors as well. Thus, they formed ‘Divalab’ which marked the first step towards redefining the educational space in rural schools.

Initial Setback

The Divalab was proposed in a local government school to which the authorities were supportive initially. They trained a few teachers to look after the library and also spent a good number of days in the school. As a result, the attendance increased drastically and children were filled in with a vigor for learning as well. On successfully running the library for over nine months, they lost support from the authorities and were asked to shut down, for reasons which are yet unknown.

The Journey so far

The Divaswapna team started approaching schools and in 2011, they established the first ‘Divalab’ in Bijpur in collaboration with Malviya Mission School. With great response from teachers and parents, the library has been running successfully since then motivating many to follow the suit.

Divaswapna School was inaugurated in 2012, with the focus on offering quality education at very affordable fees. Their efforts have brought the positive change in the life of hundreds of students and parents. In order to encourage local employment, Divaswapna has been recruiting like-minded people from the same community to manage operations. This has enabled the founding team to continue with full time jobs and still oversee the progress at Divaswapna.

The Vision Ahead

It’s been quite a while now but still the zest and passion in his tone were the same with which he started

“The biggest problem that we have realized is the lack of intellectuals and qualified teachers wanting to work and improve the system at the grassroots level. We are working on making use of the technology to revolutionize the Education system and provide parity to the students from rural areas and government schools.”

Advice to the young social Enthusiasts and Entrepreneurs

“Many people think that it is very difficult to be actively involved with a social cause along-with a regular job. Well, it is not. If you really want to do something, time is the least thing to worry about. In fact the lack of time is mostly just a state of mind! You can work on weekends which we lazily and extravagantly waste. And if you cannot find time, you can always find ways to contribute actively.”