Bharti

Bharti Foundation expands Satya Bharti Abhiyan to Rural Amritsar

Signs MoU with Punjab Government to jointly provide over 50,000 toilets in rural areas of Amritsar

• ● Bharti Foundation to collaborate with Department of Water Supply and Sanitation with a committed investment of up to Rs. 30 Crore; Bharti Foundation’s Satya Bharti Abhiyan is today one of the largest private sector supported interventions designed to contribute to Government’s Swachh Bharat Mission.
• ● Approx. 18000 toilets were constructed by Bharti Foundation to cover 1000 villages and parts of urban areas in Ludhiana District in the first phase of Satya Bharti Abhiyan;
• ● Satya Bharti Abhiyan’s efforts leveraged by DWSS Ludhiana, enabled Ludhiana (rural) to become second self-declared ‘Open Defecation Free’ (ODF) district of Punjab in November 2016.
• ● Initiative supported by grants from Bharti Airtel Limited and Bharti Infratel Limited.

New Delhi: September 13, 2017: Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Water Supply and Sanitation (‘DWSS’), Government of Punjab to jointly provide over 50,000 toilets for rural households in District Amritsar. Bharti Foundation will be collaborating with the Government under the ‘Satya Bharti Abhiyan’, its well-known sanitation initiative.

Under the MoU, Bharti Foundation will join hands with DWSS and will provide financial assistance for the construction of 20,000 toilets in four blocks (Chogawan, Majitha, Ajnala and Harsha Chhina) with an investment of up to Rs. 30 Crores. The remaining 30,000 plus toilets will be provided by DWSS in five blocks (Attari, Jandiala, Rayya, Tarsika and Verka). On completion, the joint initiative will impact over 2.5 lac individuals. The initiative will be supported by grants from two group companies – Bharti Airtel Limited and Bharti Infratel Limited.

Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Co-Chairman, Bharti Foundation said, “The Public-Private Partnership model has proven to be an effective approach to promote inclusive and sustainable development. Bharti Foundation has a rich legacy of actively supporting the Government’s social development agenda through its various initiatives. We are happy to be partnering with the district administration of Amritsar and the Government of Punjab to contribute towards alleviating the challenges of sanitation in the district. With the signing of this MoU, I am confident that our joint efforts would help us realize the dream of a healthier and cleaner Punjab.”

Satya Bharti Abhiyan is today recognized as one of the largest private sector supported interventions designed to contribute to Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission. Over 87,000 individuals across District Ludhiana benefited during the 1st phase of the Abhiyan. The success of the 1st phase of Satya Bharti Abhiyan helped Ludhiana (rural) to become the second self-declared ‘Open Defecation Free’ (ODF) district of Punjab in November 2016.

The Satya Bharti Abhiyan was launched by Bharti Foundation in August 2014 as a response to the call given by Shri Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, urging corporates to join the Government’s efforts in sanitation and health under the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’.

About Bharti Foundation:

Bharti Foundation was set up in the year 2000 as the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises. It implements and supports programs in the field of primary, elementary, senior secondary and higher education. The Foundation provides free and quality education to underprivileged children, with a focus on the girl child, across rural India through its flagship initiative - the Satya Bharti School Program. In the year 2016, the Foundation completed 10 successful years of the Satya Bharti School Program. The impact of quality education is being scaled up by transferring the learning and best practices of the Satya Bharti School Program to Government Schools through the Satya Bharti Quality Support Program and Satya Bharti Learning Centre Program.

In addition to its primary focus area of education, the Foundation initiated ‘Satya Bharti Abhiyan’ in 2014, to improve sanitation facilities in rural Ludhiana and ‘Nyaya Bharti’ in 2015 to provide legal and financial assistance to deserving underprivileged under-trials languishing in jails across the country for petty offences.

Bharti Foundation is reaching out to over 2,00,000 students through over 2,000 schools/centres, engaging 7,000 teachers across 13 Indian states through its initiatives in the education sector. In addition, the programs have impacted over 1 million community members across rural India since inception. These programs have already been recognized as one of the largest private enterprise initiatives of the country in the education sector. Satya Bharti Abhiyan has also achieved the distinction of having delivered over 17,800 individual toilets, directly benefitting more than 87,000 beneficiaries in the district of Ludhiana. On 15th July 2017, the Foundation announced the expanded outreach of the sanitation initiative with the launch of the Abhiyan in rural Amritsar.

Our Programs:

The Satya Bharti School Program:

The Satya Bharti School Program is the flagship initiative of Bharti Foundation. This rural education initiative provides quality education to underprivileged children, completely free of cost, with a special focus on the girl child. The program envisions transforming students into educated, confident, responsible and self-reliant employable citizens of India with a deep sense of commitment to their society. The program’s reach is multi-pronged, encouraging active involvement of the rural community, parents of students and like-minded organizations working in the field of education in India. Making a lasting and sustainable impact on the community where schools are present and finding innovative solutions, through its primary and senior secondary schools, to create replicable and scalable components in the program ensures delivery of quality education. The Satya Bharti School Program is being implemented with the intent to arrive at replicable and scalable components of quality education which may be adapted by the Government and other like-minded organizations. Reaching out to thousands of underprivileged children, the program, through its focus on holistic development, aims to bring forth a new generation of citizens eager to usher in positive change. Currently 249 primary/elementary Schools and five senior secondary schools are operational across Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal reaching out to 45,877 children and employing 1,667 teachers. Focusing on the girl child [49% girl students] and the weaker sections of society [76% of children from SC/ST/OBC Communities], the program is one of the largest end-to-end education initiatives by a corporate group in the country.

Satya Bharti Quality Support Program:

The Satya Bharti Quality Support Program is an education initiative with Government Schools. Through this program, Bharti Foundation engages the school leadership, teachers, students and communities to enhance the schooling experience and strive for excellence. The approach focuses on identifying, integrating and optimising best practices from Satya Bharti Schools with the intent of encouraging innovation, participation, ownership and facilitating a sustainable change. Currently, the program is being run in 324 Government schools directly impacting 1,38,286 students and 5,321 teachers across eight states of India.

Satya Bharti Learning Centre Program:

Bharti Foundation operates a remedial/bridge courses program with an aim of bridging the education gap of out of school children and mainstreaming them into regular schools. The first phase of the program was deployed in partnership with the Government of Rajasthan and was scaled up to Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, extending program reach to the remote blocks of all three states. Currently, 347 Education Volunteers are engaged in teaching 6,514 out of school children, of which 50% are girls, enrolled at 345* Satya Bharti Learning Centres. Till now, 26,061 children have been mainstreamed, with the total impact reaching up to 35,871 children.

*1102 centres have been closed as most of the OOSC’s in these villages has been mainstreamed (number included in overall impact)

Satya Bharti Abhiyan:

On 18th August 2014, Bharti Foundation launched the Satya Bharti Abhiyan, an initiative to improve sanitation facilities with rural Ludhiana as a focus area. Phase one of the program has been completed with over 17,800 individual toilets constructed and handed over across rural and urban Ludhiana. In addition, 14 Government schools, identified by Punjab Education Development Board, have been provided a separate toilet for girls in rural Ludhiana. For urban areas of Ludhiana district, a list of 493 toilets was shared by Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Company (PMIDC). All of the 201 households in this list that did not have a toilet, have been provided one. The Abhiyan is directly impacting more than 87,000 beneficiaries in the district of Ludhiana. On 15th July 2017, the Foundation announced the expanded outreach of the sanitation initiative with the launch of the Abhiyan in rural Amritsar.

Nyaya Bharti

'Nyaya Bharti' is one-of-its-kind corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative by Bharti Enterprises, one of India's most respected business groups. The primary objective of Nyaya Bharti is to provide aid to underprivileged undertrials who are first time accused of petty offences and require financial and legal assistance to apply for bail and release. It also extends assistance to poor convicts undergoing imprisonment for petty offences due to their inability to pay petty fine imposed by the court. Nyaya Bharti's Governing Board is headed by Justice A.S. Anand (Retired Chief Justice of India). The Nyaya Bharti initiative aims at providing legal assistance and creating awareness about the undertrials' legal rights while complementing the legal aid work being undertaken by National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) and State Legal Services Authority (SLSAs) set up under statute legislated by the Parliament. Under this initiative 49 bail orders have been obtained and the release of 48 underprivileged undertrials has been affected.