LIFI Changemakers' Fellowship (Learning Initiatives for India)

India has 32 million children who are out of school (NSSO 17-18). To put things into perspective, this number is more than the entire population of Australia. This population of Out of School Children(OoSC) is projected to double owing to the pandemic. Reaching these children and keeping them in school is one of the most difficult challenges in the Indian Education system.

With a large population of OoSC, our country loses out on the demographic dividend. It increases children’s exposure to violence and exploitation: early marriages are likely to increase, exploitation of girls rises, teenage pregnancies become more common and child labour grows. Many children and youth miss out on social contact that is essential to their learning and development. Lacking access to a proper education puts an individual at risk of falling into the poverty trap. This vicious cycle leads to rising inequity in our country.

Our technology backed and community enabled approach creates a highly rigorous program that puts out of School Children (OoSC) children on a lifelong learning path. Our solution caters to two broad segments of children - migrants and non-migrants. 

For the non-migrant communities, we run our community interventions, where we work with youth from the same communities. The program mentors these youth to work with OoSC in their individual contexts and facilitate the process of enrolling them to schools. We also partner with Government bodies within these communities, to facilitate admissions, track the progress of the children and ensure retention within schools.

For the migrant communities, we work with a network of non-profit organizations, to build an ecosystem for OoSC wherever they are in the country. We offer our partner organizations with program support, curriculum, technology, and monitoring and evaluation tools so that the children receive the same program quality. 

For children for whom formal schooling is not a sustainable solution, we work with them via our Youth Teacher Leaders and partner organizations and map them to alternate learning avenues (open schools/other vocational training centres) so they are under the purview of education.

The overarching goal of LIFI is to enable a lifelong learning path for all Out of School Children (OoSC). We are on a mission to create a collective of Youth Teacher Leaders (YTLs) and a network of organizations that can support out of school children in their contexts. We mentor and coach the collective to bridge the academic achievement gap in the children and put them on sustainable learning pathways. Our goals for 2022-2023 are :

• Objective 1: Recruit 50 YTLs across 5 states (UP, MP, Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand) who will be part of the LIFI Changemaker’s Fellowship. The Fellowship will be a way to outreach and support OoSC. 
• Objective 2: Impact 3000 OoSC (in the age group of 6 - 14 years) in one year
• Objective 3: 80% of 3000 OoSC are ready and enrolled in age-appropriate grade levels in school or any other alternative learning paths (open school)