New Delhi, February 9: Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises, was honoured at the 4th National Conference on School Education Leadership organised by Brainfeed, a monthly educational magazine. During the conference, the Foundation led Satya Bharti Adarsh Senior Secondary School, Chogawan, Amritsar (Punjab) won the award for ‘Best Innovative Practice Among Top Punjab Schools’, part of the Brainfeed School Excellence Awards for the top 500 schools of India (2017). This award commends the notable initiatives undertaken to achieve excellence in quality school education towards the development of society.
The Satya Bharti School Program is the flagship initiative of Bharti Foundation and has completed over 10 successful years of implementation in the villages of six states of India. The schools provide quality education to underprivileged children, completely free of cost, with a special focus on the girl child. With 254 schools reaching out to more than 43,000 children and engaging over 1700 teachers across rural India, the program is one of the largest end-to-end education initiatives by a corporate group in the country.
Mr Vijay Chadda, CEO, Bharti Foundation said, “This award validates our ongoing efforts in providing quality education to underprivileged children across rural India. The recognition for Satya Bharti Adarsh Senior Secondary School, Chogawan reinforces our commitment to create and support programs that bring about sustainable changes through education and use of technology.”
Mr. Gurmeet Singh, Principal, Satya Bharti Adarsh Senior Secondary School, Chogawan added, “It is a great day for every students and teacher engaged in Satya Bharti Schools. There is a buzz in the school with our Class XII students getting ready to appear for the CBSE Board exams for the first time. This award is a boost to the morale of all of us helping us face the upcoming task with greater confidence and an urge to strike for victory again!”
About Bharti Foundation:
Bharti Foundation was set up in the year 2000 as the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises. It implements and supports programs in the field of primary, elementary, senior secondary and higher education through the Satya Bharti School Program as well as Government School interventions under its Satya Bharti Quality Support Program and Satya Bharti Learning Centre Program. This year the Foundation has completed 10 successful years of its flagship initiative – the Satya Bharti School Program.
In addition to its primary focus area of education, the Foundation initiated ‘Satya Bharti Abhiyan’ in 2014, to improve sanitation facilities in rural Ludhiana and ‘Nyaya Bharti’ in 2015 to provide legal and financial assistance to deserving underprivileged under-trials languishing in jails across the country for petty offences.
Bharti Foundation is currently reaching out to over 1,30,000 students through 1,500 schools/centres, across 12 Indian states, engaging 4,500 teachers through its initiatives in the education sector. In addition, our programs have impacted over 1 million community members across rural India, since inception. These programs have already been recognized as one of the largest private enterprise initiatives of the country in the education sector. Satya Bharti Abhiyan has also achieved the distinction of having delivered over 17,500 household toilets, directly benefitting more than 86,000 beneficiaries and reaching out to over 1000 villages of Ludhiana. The Abhiyan has entered phase II of implementation by extending its footprint in the urban areas of Ludhiana. This is intended to support the District Administration’s initiative of declaring Ludhiana open defecation free.
Our initiatives:
Ø The Satya Bharti School Program:
The Satya Bharti School Program is the flagship initiative of Bharti Foundation. This rural education initiative provides quality education to underprivileged children, completely free of cost, with a special focus on the girl child. The program envisions transforming students into educated, confident, responsible and self-reliant employable citizens of India with a deep sense of commitment to their society. The program’s reach is multi-pronged, encouraging active involvement of the rural community, parents of students and like-minded organizations working in the field of education in India. Making a lasting and sustainable impact on the community where schools are present and finding innovative solutions, through its primary and senior secondary schools, to create replicable and scalable components in the program ensures delivery of quality education. The Satya Bharti School Program is being implemented with the intent to arrive at replicable and scalable components of quality education which may be adapted by the Government and other like-minded organizations. Reaching out to thousands of underprivileged children, the program, through its focus on holistic development, aims to bring forth a new generation of citizens eager to usher in positive change. Currently 249 primary/elementary Schools and five senior secondary schools are operational across Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal reaching out to 43,605 children and employing 1,717 teachers. Focusing on the girl child [49% girl students] and the weaker sections of society [75% of children from SC/ST/OBC Communities], the program is one of the largest end-to-end education initiatives by a corporate group in the country.
Ø Satya Bharti Quality Support Program:
The Satya Bharti Quality Support Program is an education initiative with Government Schools. Through this program, Bharti Foundation engages the school leadership, teachers, students and communities to enhance the schooling experience and strive for excellence. The approach focuses on identifying, integrating and optimising best practices from Satya Bharti Schools with the intent of encouraging innovation, participation, ownership and facilitating a sustainable change. Currently, the program is being run in 169 Government schools directly impacting 57,037 students and 2,555 teachers across seven states of India.
Ø Satya Bharti Learning Centre Program:
Bharti Foundation operates a remedial/bridge courses program with aim of bridging the education gap of out of school children and mainstreaming them into regular schools. The first phase of the program was deployed in partnership with the Government of Rajasthan and was scaled up to Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, extending program reach to the remote blocks of all three states. Currently, 321 Education Volunteers are engaged in teaching 4,447 out of school children, of which 48% are girls, enrolled at 344* Satya Bharti Learning Centres. Till now, 21,323 children have been mainstreamed, with the total impact reaching up to 29,498 children.
* 821 centres have been closed as most of the OOSC’s in these villages have been mainstreamed (number included in overall impact); in some villages the count of OOSC’s have dropped to such a low figure that it has gone below the minimum numbers required to run a centre, as per Government norms; of these, 58 Centres were closed due to of non-availability of qualified Education Volunteers.
Ø Nyaya Bharti
'Nyaya Bharti' is one-of-its-kind corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative by Bharti Enterprises, one of India's most respected business groups. The primary objective of Nyaya Bharti is to provide aid to underprivileged undertrials who are first time accused of petty offences and require financial and legal assistance to apply for bail and release. It also extends assistance to poor convicts undergoing imprisonment for petty offences due to their inability to pay petty fine imposed by the court. Nyaya Bharti's Governing Board is headed by Justice A.S. Anand (Retired Chief Justice of India). The Nyaya Bharti initiative aims at providing legal assistance and creating awareness about the undertrials' legal rights while complementing the legal aid work being undertaken by National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) and State Legal Services Authority (SLSAs) set up under statute legislated by the Parliament. Under this initiative 40 bail orders have been obtained till date and the release of 32 underprivileged undertrials has been effectuated.
Ø Satya Bharti Abhiyan:
On 18th August 2014, Bharti Foundation launched Satya Bharti Abhiyan, an initiative to improve sanitation facilities with rural Ludhiana as a focus area. Under this initiative, the Foundation has provided individual toilets in the villages of the District, fulfilling its objective of leaving no rural household across Ludhiana without a toilet. Till now, the Abhiyan has provided over 17,500 household toilets directly benefitting more than 86,000 beneficiaries and reaching out to over 1000 villages of Ludhiana. In addition, it has helped in improving sanitation facilities in Government schools by providing a separate toilet for girls in 14 Government schools of rural Ludhiana as identified by Department of Education (Punjab).