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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.

Start-ups Have the Potential to Power India to a Viksit Bharat

Viksit Bharat

The Indian government’s Vision 2047 envisages turning India into a developed economy by the centenary of our Independence with a GDP of USD 30 trillion and a per-capita income of USD 18,000-20,000. One critical element for India to realise its ambitions is creating jobs. However, the capital-intensive model of development is not inherently labor-intensive, particularly in a post AI economy where robotic process automation is taking root.

Developing manufacturing sector to generate meaningful employment through Make in India, alone may not be sufficient to achieve the intended goal. This is where the role of government’s startup support programs that aim to spawn a million entrepreneurs in our entrepreneurial ecosystem comes in.


Incubators play a critical role in fostering entrepreneurship and nurturing tech start-ups by providing 'Start to Scale' support and taking ideas/research from labs to the market driving innovation and creating economic benefits. The Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), one of India’s earliest academia backed incubator birthed at IIT Bombay has been doing just that, by encouraging students, faculty members and alumni to become entrepreneurs, especially the students - turning them into job providers rather than simply job seekers.


As of June 2024, there were over 1,40,803 start-ups in India. The dual impact of incubators and the Government’s various startup support programmes is already beginning to show.


According to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) data, Indian startups created over 1.5 million jobs since in 2016. Barring the pandemic years, when the growth rate slowed, start-up jobs have been growing at over 25% year-on-year (Y-o-Y). In 2023, start-ups provided 391,000 jobs as compared to 274,000 in 2022 – a 42% growth rate.


Even if one assumes that in the future, jobs provided by start-ups grow at a more modest 10% Y-o-Y, they could employ over 18 crore people in the next 25 years, genuinely emerging as India's growth engine!


(The author is a Professor-In-Charge, Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, IIT Bombay. Views personal.)

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