About a dozen years ago, schools salesman Sanjeev Bolia, then 21 and academically equipped with a modest B.Com degree from St. Xaviers College, Kolkata took a momentous decision. He decided to stop hunting for a job. “I faced a problem that frustrates millions of youth in this country and decided to start doing my own thing,” he recalls.

Scanning the socio-economic horizon, he identified education as a high-potential growth area of the economy. This led to the promotion in 1994 of a proprietoral firm with the somewhat curious name of Afairs with a mission to stage fairs and exhibitions which would serve as marketing platforms for schools and education institutions across the country. Afairs’ very first education exhibition was held in Kolkata in 1994 and its broad theme was computer education. “It was a hit, though it didn’t make any money,” admits Bolia.

Ten years down the road it’s a different story. Afairs organises 20 education exhibitions or fairs every year. Looking back, schools salesman Sanjeev Bolia is convinced that his reading of the economy in 1994 was correct. The humble roadshow of 94 has come a long way since. For instance, India & International Premier Schools Exhibition (IIPSE) 2004 held in Delhi and Mumbai were the first school exhibitions of their kind staged in India. They attracted several top-grade international schools including Ecole Mondiale World School, Pathways World School, Starex International School, Podar World School, Prem Tinsulanonda International School, Lawrence School, Sanawar, The Asian School, The Heritage School, Indian Public School, USEFI, British Council, Canadian Education Centre, Singapore Education etc on a common platform. The exhibition was visited by more than 3,000 parents in each city.

This year in November-December, Afairs has scheduled a more ambitious IIPSE rotating through six cities — Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi, Kolkata, Ranchi and Patna, in that order. “IIPSE will showcase the finest schools from India and abroad whose represen-tatives will interact directly with parents, giving the latter a huge pile of information on best options for education of their children,” says Bolia.

He is particularly encouraged that the highly prestigious CIE- the international examinations board of Cambridge University- is IIPSE’s main sponsor and that EducationWorld is the official magazine for this six-venue travelling exhibition. With 40 million middle class households as his target group, Bolia is confident that the information asymmetry which characterised school choices hitherto, will soon be history.

Sujoy Gupta (Kolkata)

Also read: Lifteime Achievement in Education Leadership Award 2019: Sanjeev Bolia

Science education initiative

Internationally renowned outer space scientist and one of the founding fathers of India’s satellite programme, Bangalore-based Prof. U.R. Rao has been appointed chairman of the newly promoted Karnataka State Science and Technology Academy (KSSTA). Inaugurated on September 1, KSSTA is a state government initiative promoted with the objective of modernising and upgrading the quality of life in rural areas through effective utilisation of science and technology. The governing committee of the KSSTA comprises 21 members including the director of the science and technology department as member-secretary, and representatives from four science organisations — Indian Space Research Organisation, Defence Research and Development Organisation, Central Food Technological and Research Institute and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research.

“KSSTA has been promoted for the purpose of implementing the Union government’s science and technology policy. The main objective of the academy is to take science from labs to land in India’s villages to accelerate socio-economic development, poverty alleviation and improve the quality of life in Karnataka’s villages. An equally important objective is to popularise science education and inculcate a scientific temper among school students. We want to dispel the popular belief that science is a difficult subject, especially among rural students, and motivate them to pursue the study of pure sciences,” says Rao a physics postgraduate of Benaras Hindu University, Varanasi who was awarded a Ph D for his pioneering study on cosmic rays by the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad.

According to Rao, popularisation of science and technology in rural India will be accomplished by organising science exhibitions, promoting clubs, parks and publications. “Though India has made significant advances in science and technology, new technologies have not penetrated rural areas,” laments Rao, a fellow of several prestigious academies including the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, International Academy of Astronautics among others.

Rao regrets that despite India’s strides in space sciences, IT and biotechnology, more than one-third of the population (about 400 million people) continue to live below the poverty line, 25 percent do not have access to clean drinking water and over 40 percent are illiterate. “Our farmers are unaware of modern technologies and contemporary practices which can double productivity in short order. Through workshops, exhibitions and lecture-demonstrations which will be conducted in every taluk head-quarters, KSSTA will create this awareness. While simultaneously encouraging science learning by providing high quality inputs into primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities,” adds Rao.

A recipient of several national and international awards including the Padma Bhushan in 1976 for his pioneering work in space science and technology, Rao has delineated an ambitious blueprint for KSSTA. Top on the agenda is the establishment of District Science Centres (DSCs) in all 27 districts of the state within the next six months. “The main task of the DSCs will be to organise frequent science and technology exhibitions at the taluk and village levels and inspire rural students and public to accept new technologies as user-friendly enablers,” says Rao.

About time too.

Srinidhi Raghavendra (Bangalore)

Children’s champion

The life mission, indeed raison d’etre, of engineer turned children’s rights crusader Kailash Satyarthi is to free India’s working children from their bleak lives of drudgery and servitude and put them in school. Of the estimated 246 million child labour worldwide, India officially admits to 14 million working children (below 18 years of age) though Satyarthi estimates their number at a mind-blowing 69 million countrywide.

Born in Vidisha (Madhya Pradesh) Satyarthi graduated as an electrical engineer from his home town’s Samrat Ashoka Technical Institute and is a postgraduate of Bhopal University. But in 1980 he abandoned his technocrat career path to start a crusade against child labour in Madhya Pradesh and founded Bachpan Bachao Andolan, now popularly known as the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS). “That was a time when the injustices of child servitude and child labour were not on the agenda of political parties, academic researchers, or even judicial pronouncements. I made it my mission to create an awareness of this grave social injustice,” recalls Satyarthi.

Determined to get a fair deal for childhood deprived children worldwide, he has since traversed 100 nations across Africa, Latin America and Asia covering a distance of 80,000 km to mobilise world opinion on the plight of child labour and violation of their human rights in developing countries. As a result two civil society initiatives, Global March Against Child Labour and Global Campaign for Education have come into being and are keeping Satyarthi busy. Besides winning several laurels and honours including a profile in a US Public Broadcasting Service documentary 12 Social Entrepreneurs, the Raoul Wallenberg Human Rights Award and Aachener International Peace Prize, Satyarthi also chairs the International Center on Child Labour and Education, based in Washington DC.

Back home, SACCS (which has rescued and rehabilitated 67,000 children in India) has established several children’s villages to educate and empower them. “We must work to establish a Children’s Parliament in every country, as per the Delhi declaration of the Second Children’s World Congress on Child Labour and Education held in September under the aegis of SACCS and attended by over 200 child delegates,” says Satyarthi.

Satyarthi is also credited with pioneering the famous “rugmark initiative” a certification that no child labour is involved in the manufacturing of a product. “The international community agreed half a century ago that education is a basic human right. Although its implementation has eluded targets time and again, new initiatives both national and international including formation of high level groups under UNESCO, the creation of fast-track initiatives on education and resource mobilisation are encouraging developments. But children’s rights champions have to keep up the pressure until child labour is completely eliminated and children are pulled out of farms and factories and placed where they ought to be- in school,” says Satyarthi.

There’s hope on the horizon for the world’s 246 million working children.

Autar Nehru (Delhi)

Women empowerment pioneer

Perhaps Tamil Nadu;s most renowned women’s activist, dedicated social worker and founder/ trustee of several educational institutions, 84-years young Sarojini Varadappan shows no inclination to decelerate. Her involvement with education goes back to 1958 when the Bhaktavatsalam Educational Trust, which runs six schools in rural Tamil Nadu, a polytechnic in Kancheepuram and three residential schools in Conoor, Kodaikanal and Athur, was established on former Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Bhaktavatsalam’s 60th birthday. Presently, she is a trustee of the Bhaktavatsalam Memorial Trust, which runs a school and women’s college at Korattur in Chennai, the AVM Charitable Trust and several other educational societies.

A former executive council member of the Mother Teresa Women’s University in Kodaikanal and former member of the senate of Madras University, the indefatigable Varadappan is also the president of the Tamil Nadu branch of the Indian Red Cross Society (estb: 1920) and Women’s Indian Association (estb: 1954), and patron of the All India Women’s Conference (estb: 1928). On August 29 this year, she distributed scholarships to 320 needy students under the “Each one teach one” programme of the C.P. Ramaswamy Aiyar Foundation in Chennai of which she is the president.

“Educating a girl educates a family, hence women’s education and welfare has been my priority in all my professional involvements. But what distresses me is that schools today do not stress character building, spiritual education and patriotism, and neither do parents. Moreover, the dedication of teachers is sadly missing nowadays, and they need to be reoriented to the profession. I strongly believe in building a second line of leadership in all schools with which I’m associated,” says Varadappan, whose own path to higher education was strewn with difficulties.

Born in a conservative joint family, her father much to her grief, stopped her education when she attained the age of 13 and had merely completed class IX. Undeterred, she wrote her SSLC exam and Hindi Visharad from home. Nearly 50 years on, at age 60, she completed a postgraduate degree programme in political science of Mysore University. Under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi whom she volunteered to serve during the silver jubilee celebrations of the Hindi Prachar Sabha in Madras, she joined the WIA in 1941 and has since been working tirelessly for women’s empowerment and education.

Today, Varadappan has moved on from welfare of women to their empowerment. “Reservation for women in Parliament is a must and we must press for it. Women leaders in panchayats have set a good example of governance and proved their mettle and commitment,” says this never-say-die Padmashri awardee who also received the 2004 Jamnalal Bajaj Award for her samaritan work.

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)

India’s Spiderwoman

She has attained dizzy heights in her chosen vocation. She gets a high from scrubbing vertiginous buildings. That’s Suhag Khemlani (28), the country’s first and only woman window cleaner aka India’s Spiderwoman. Khemlani who features in the Limca Book of Records (2003) for her unusual attainments, is also a director of Technoclean India Pvt Limited (annual sales Rs.18 crore), a window cleaning firm promoted by her engineer father Ashok Khemlani in 1990.

A psychology graduate of Mumbai’s Mithibai College, Khemlani showed little hesitation in opting for the family business. While her peers scrambled to enroll in engineering, law and medical colleges, Khemlani signed up with the International Rope Access Training (IRAT) Institute, UK, one of the few training centres worldwide for professional window cleaners.

The 12-month training programme proved useful. “Since then, fear-lessness, fitness and focus has been my mantra,” says Khemlani. And while learning the ropes at IRAT, she was assigned to clean the windows of the 47th floor of BBC’s headquarters in London. “It was January and freezing cold. I could barely move my limbs after donning three layers of clothing. But I managed to clean the windows until they were squeaky clean. That’s been my toughest assignment,” she recalls.

When Khemlani returned to India in 1997, there were few women in the construction business. But she pressed on to take charge of the family firm and took it to great heights. A market leader with a pan-India presence and 600 employees, the company is the largest supplier of quality access equipment for high-rise buildings in India. It was the first to introduce its “Spiderman Service”, a window cleaning technique that involves abseiling from skyscrapers using rope access, descenders, safety locks and harnesses.

A keen student of new technologies in window dressing, Khemlani recently imported state-of-the-art hydraulic platforms for Technoclean and has introduced a streamlined “Reach and Wash” technology- a combination of a water purifying system and carbon fibre pipe which gushes purified water up to a height of 60 ft, simplifying the task of cleaning building exteriors.

“We’re already pioneers in our field in India, but I want us to achieve number one status in Asia,” she says aiming high, as usual.

Neeta Lal (Delhi)