Back to School

The pandemic has hampered the education of children from low income households in Udaipur due to the dearth of financial resources to pay school fees. This has not only led to drop-outs from formal education but has also pushed children into child labor and early marriage. To secure continuous access to education for 500 children, especially girls, Vidya Bhawan seeks your support. A donation of ₹2,500 will cover all the educational expenses of a child in need for one month.

Vidya Bhawan urgently needs help to continue to provide education to 500 students who cannot pay their fees because of Covid-19. Without immediate assistance, many students - especially girls - will drop out and will never return. They will be forced into child labor and early marriage, and subjected to violence and abuse. If provided with support, they can go back to school and realize their dreams.

The average cost of educating a child at Vidya Bhawan is approximately 30,000 rupees ($410) per year. In order to ensure that our students can continue their schooling, by conservative estimates we need to raise 4 crores (40 million) rupees ($550,000) over the next three months. Whether you can help 1 child or 10 or 100, every bit of support will count.

Vidya Bhawan functions in a context where for many education is a lifeline to a better future. Based on a detailed survey of our student body, at present over two-thirds of our students come from working class households (construction workers, street vendors, gardeners, and so on). 72% of our students are from households earning less than 15,000 rupees ($210) per month. The survey revealed that as a result of Covid-19’s effects, most parents would not be able to pay school fees and might be forced to remove their children from school. To help our children continue their education despite Covid-19 Vidya Bhawan has started vigorous efforts to seek support on their behalf from generous institutions and individuals around the world.

We are also holding online classes while the government has declared that schools must remain physically shut. Teachers were given training to deal with online teaching. Study materials were prepared and circulated for offline studies for those who were not able to access the online classes. With these integrated efforts we could help children continue their studies as well as sustaining their interest in the process of learning. In this way we reached over 60 percent of our children.

Vidya Bhawan is committed to provide uncommon education to common people irrespective of their social or economic backgrounds. Vidya Bhawan is doing everything we can to prevent this temporary situation created by Covid-19 becoming a permanent barrier in our children’s education and lives. With your support children will be able to continue their education and realize their dreams. This support will ensure that they come out of this Covid-induced lockdown without missing out on the possibility of education in years to come. Also the learning gap created by the pandemic and post pandemic circumstance will be as minimal as it can be.