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By:

Shoumojit Banerjee

27 August 2024 at 9:57:52 am

Classroom of Courage

In drought-scarred Maharashtra, a couple’s experiment in democratic schooling is turning child beggars into model citizens In the parched stretches of Maharashtra, from Solapur to the drought-hit villages of Marathwada, a modest social experiment has quietly unfolded for nearly two decades. It is neither a grand government scheme nor a corporate-backed charity. Since 2007, the Ajit Foundation, founded by Mahesh and Vinaya Nimbalkar, has worked with children living at the sharpest edges of...

Classroom of Courage

In drought-scarred Maharashtra, a couple’s experiment in democratic schooling is turning child beggars into model citizens In the parched stretches of Maharashtra, from Solapur to the drought-hit villages of Marathwada, a modest social experiment has quietly unfolded for nearly two decades. It is neither a grand government scheme nor a corporate-backed charity. Since 2007, the Ajit Foundation, founded by Mahesh and Vinaya Nimbalkar, has worked with children living at the sharpest edges of society in Maharashtra. The foundation has become a home for out-of-school children, those who have never enrolled, the children of migrant labourers and single parents, and those who scavenge at garbage dumps or drift between odd jobs. To call their foundation an “NGO” is to miss the point. Vinaya Nimbalkar describes it as a “democratic laboratory”, where education is not merely instruction but an initiation into citizenship. The couple were once government schoolteachers with the Solapur Zilla Parishad, leading stable lives. Yet what they witnessed unsettled them: children who had never held a pencil, begging at traffic signals or sorting refuse for a living. Prompted by this reality, the Nimbalkars resigned their jobs to work full-time for the education of such children. Leap of Faith They began modestly, teaching children in migrant settlements in Solapur and using their own salaries to pay small honorariums to activists. Funds soon ran dry, and volunteers drifted away. Forced out of their home because of their commitment to the cause, they started a one-room school where Vinaya, Mahesh, their infant son Srijan and forty children aged six to fourteen lived together as an unlikely family. The experiment later moved to Barshi in the Solapur district with support from Anandvan. Rural hardship, financial uncertainty and the pandemic repeatedly tested their resolve. At one stage, they assumed educational guardianship of nearly 200 children from families that survived by collecting scrap on the village outskirts. Eventually, the foundation relocated to Talegaon Dabhade near Pune, where it now runs a residential hostel. Twenty-five children currently live and study there. The numbers may seem modest, but the ambition is not. Democracy in Practice What distinguishes the Ajit Foundation is not only who it serves but also how it operates. Within its walls, democracy is practised through a Children’s Gram Panchayat and a miniature Municipal Council elected by the children themselves. Young candidates canvass, hold meetings and present their budgets. Children maintain accounts and share decisions about chores, activities and certain disciplinary matters. In a country where democratic culture is often reduced to voting, the foundation’s approach is quietly radical. It treats children from marginalised backgrounds as citizens in formation. The right to choose — whether to focus on sport, cooking, mathematics or cultural activities — is respected. “We try never to take away what is their own,” says Vinaya Nimbalkar. Rather than forcing every child into a uniform academic mould, individual abilities are encouraged. A boy skilled in daily calculations may not be pushed into hours of bookish study; a girl who excels in cooking may lead the kitchen team. For children who have known only precarity, standing for election, managing a budget or speaking at a meeting can be transformative. On International Women’s Day, the foundation seeks visibility not just for praise but for partnership. If you are inspired by their mission, consider supporting or collaborating—your involvement can help extend opportunities to more children in need.

Automobile industry blamed for stalling ethanol push

THE ETHANOL CONUNDRUM - Part - 3


Ethanol producers raced ahead of targets, but engine upgrades lag

Kolhapur: The current crisis confronting India’s ethanol industry is increasingly being attributed to the automobile sector’s sluggish pace in upgrading vehicle engines. The Centre’s ambitious ethanol blending programme rested on two pillars — ethanol production and vehicle manufacturing. While the ethanol industry surged ahead, meeting targets well before schedule and expanding capacity aggressively, the automobile sector failed to match that momentum. The resulting mismatch has pushed the ethanol ecosystem into serious difficulty.


India’s vehicle population continues to grow rapidly, to the point where even an expansive national highway network appears inadequate. There is little doubt that demand for ethanol-blended fuel will rise further in the coming years. However, parallel reforms in vehicle technology did not keep pace with the rapid scale-up in ethanol production, creating today’s bottleneck.


Linked Technology

The use of ethanol-blended petrol and the need for compatible engine technology are intrinsically linked. Conventional engines have coped reasonably well with petrol blended with up to 20 per cent ethanol. Beyond that threshold, engine modifications become unavoidable. The absence of such upgrades has triggered mixed reactions among consumers, with complaints surfacing about engine-related issues linked to higher ethanol blends.


Against this backdrop, ethanol producers have urged the government to raise the blending level by at least another two percentage points to absorb surplus supply. However, reliable sources indicate that the Centre is reluctant to move further, given the technical concerns associated with existing vehicle engines.


Brazil offers a stark contrast. The country has used ethanol-blended fuel for decades and routinely operates vehicles on blends as high as E80. This has been possible because E80-compatible and flex-fuel engines are widely available. In India, despite being one of the world’s largest automobile markets, manufacturers have been slow to embrace this transition.


While notable progress has been made in two-wheeler manufacturing, the sector continues to flag gaps in supporting infrastructure. In passenger vehicles, Maruti Suzuki has so far introduced the country’s first flex-fuel model, but the overall rollout remains limited. Industry watchers say the Centre will have to push the automobile industry harder — possibly through stricter regulatory timelines — to get it aligned with national biofuel goals.


Extended Delay

The consequences of this delay extend beyond ethanol producers. Pollution reduction efforts remain in limbo, both the sugar and ethanol industries are under strain, public investment risks remaining locked in, and potential savings in foreign exchange from reduced fuel imports are at stake.


In the interim, a possible middle path lies in the adoption of flex-fuel conversion kits. Such kits, already available in global markets, cost around Rs 15,000 on average. Promoting domestic manufacturing of these kits under the ‘Make in India’ programme could help bring costs down. If deployed at scale, they could mitigate engine-related issues associated with higher ethanol blends.


Until the automobile industry scales up production of flex-fuel vehicles, flex-fuel kits could offer a practical stopgap. Making flex-fuel engines mandatory in the future, industry experts argue, may be the only way to permanently resolve the crisis facing India’s ethanol sector.


To address the ethanol surplus, the Centre should consider providing export-linked subsidies that allow Indian ethanol to compete with global prices and reduce excess stocks. At present, maize-based ethanol receives an incentive of Rs 5 per litre. With a modest additional support, exports could become viable.


Beyond this, if India succeeds in scaling up domestic biofuel use while emerging as a major ethanol exporter, it could reap significant gains through carbon credits. This would require the government to establish a dedicated institutional mechanism to monetise such benefits. Dr Desai also underlined the need to strengthen infrastructure support for two-wheeler manufacturers that have made substantial advances in ethanol-compatible engine technology.

-Dr Deepak Desai, Chairman, Ethanol India


(Concludes)

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