The likes of this advocate-turned-educator who offers quality education to rural children and works for rural development, are an inspiration for society’s progress, says this young development professional.
Rajiv Gulati was the first in the Balrampur district to waive off his students’ fees during the pandemic when private schools elsewhere demanded fees. But then Gulati, the founder of ISG Convent Academy in Dharampur village, is no regular educator.
The Balrampur district magistrate made a special mention of this and other schools followed suit, waiving off fees for the students until schools resumed after the lockdown.
In many aspects, he is a trendsetter in rural education.
Gulati started the ISG school to offer free education to children from the economically weaker sections from nearby villages.
Reports of child labour and school dropouts are what prompted him to start the school.
As some parents were reluctant to enrol their children in government schools due to inadequate infrastructure and absentee teachers, but wanted to give them education, Gulati wanted to provide an alternative.
“Our vision was to enrol such students and fuel their curiosity with quality education, English being a medium of communication,” said Gulati.
Hema, the mother of one of the students, is happy that her son speaks in English. “Nowadays anywhere you go it is essential that one knows English,” she said. “My son has learnt a lot in school. I hope sir (Gulati) will continue to give such quality education.”
Gulati believes in the overall development of children through co-curricular activities.
“We teach taekwondo for self-defence and also to develop them into confident individuals,” he said. “Abacus helps in the development of visual, auditory and kinaesthetic senses.”
Gulati believes that overall development will help the students make informed decisions and even empower their family and peers alike.
Committed to practical learning, recently he took the students for a visit to the fire station for fire safety awareness and demonstration.
As word of the many co-curricular activities spread and how the school was equipped with well qualified teachers, many parents moved their children studying in other private schools to ISG.
“I joined ISG after hearing from my friends all the new things they were learning in this school. It’s also closer to my house,” said Anjani, a class V student who joined the school three years back.
As an educator Gulati strongly believes that the change he envisions for his district can be brought about by empowering all the children through education.
So he takes care of the educational and related expenses of 20 children from kindergarten to class V. Most of them are orphans or have a single parent.
“Sir helps me and my sisters with all that we require,” said Anjani. “After my father’s demise, sir has assured me that he’ll pay for my education as long as I wish to study.”
Agreeing that Anjani is a bright and hardworking student, Gulati desires to fulfil her late father’s wish of making her an IAS officer.
“Hopefully one day I will get to see her in a blue beacon car as an officer,” he said.
Gulati and his mother fund the education of 11 girls who are in inter-college and two students who recently enrolled in college.
In fact, this advocate-turned-educator gets his spirit of service from his mother who runs an NGO that works on government projects catering to girls’ literacy and training of adolescent girls and women.
Gulati extends support not only to students like Anjani, but to their families and other villagers too.
Premkumari, a helper at the school, said that Gulati provided employment to her six girls and all of them are doing well in life.
He has conducted several awareness programmes at the school for women from the nearby villages on the various social security schemes that they can avail.
He has employed destitute single women who sought his help, as unskilled workers. He has fully funded marriage of at least 10 young women and sponsored the surgery of several patients.
Gangajali, a villager, recalled how Gulati took care of the medical expenses for her cataract operation and surgery for her fractured hand, besides giving money for food, medicine and travel.
Rama, a caretaker at the ISG school, said that Gulati gave her a job after her own son threw her out of the house.
Such stories of Gulati’s support abound in Dharampur and nearby villages.
His immediate dreams for the school include providing scholarships to 100 meritorious students from nursery to college, a big library and a computer lab.
All his works are an attempt at developing rural Balrampur.
His vision is to work towards social and economic empowerment of women and to enrich young minds.
“One need not do extraordinary things to bring change in the society and impact lives of people. If one acts responsibly and does their work diligently, look out for each other, we can bring change in the society,” he said.
I believe every aspirational district needs such inspiring people who consistently work towards development and progress of the society they live in.
The lead image at the top of this page shows Rajiv Gulati with the staff and students of his school, the ISG Convent Academy (Photo courtesy Facebook, ISG).
Shreya Sarkar is an Aspirational District Fellow working in Balrampur district, Uttar Pradesh, where she enjoys documenting inspiring tales of people. She has a master’s degree in social work from TISS, Mumbai.
