Bharti

Hon’ble President Shri Pranab Mukherjee inaugurates 10th Satya Bharti School in West Bengal

• ● Satya Bharti School at Kanidighi is the 10th School in West Bengal under Bharti Foundation’s flagship ‘Satya Bharti School’ Program
• ● The Program currently provides quality education to more than 1900 students across 10 schools in the State, 57% of them being girls
• ● Bharti Foundation reaches out to 2,00,000 children through 1700 schools / centres engaging 7,100 teachers across 13 States
• ● Over 12,00,000 community members impacted in 3500+ villages till date

New Delhi/Kanidighi (Murshidabad), July 14, 2017: Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises today announced the inauguration of the Satya Bharti School at Kanidighi in District Murshidabad (West Bengal). Hon’ble President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the school in the presence of Shri Abhijit Mukherjee, Member of Parliament, Jangipur, Shri Subrata Saha, MLA, Sagardighi, Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Co-Chairman, Bharti Foundation and Vijay Chadda, CEO, Bharti Foundation. The School at Kanidighi becomes the 10th school under the Satya Bharti School Program in West Bengal.

The Satya Bharti School Program, the flagship initiative of Bharti Foundation was started in 2009 in nine villages of District Murshidabad. Over the past eight years, the schools have been providing quality education to more than 1900 students in the state, 57% of them being girls.

Speaking on the occasion, Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Co-Chairman, Bharti Foundation said, “It is an honour and a privilege to once again welcome Hon’ble President Shri Pranab Mukherjee to one of our schools. With this new School at Kanidighi, we aim to continue delivering on our promise of quality education to every underprivileged child in the school’s vicinity. The new school marks the beginning of a new chapter for us and further strengthens our resolve to continue our journey in the State.”

The Kanidighi School is proposed to be an elementary school with Classes from Pre-Primary up to Class VIII. Currently, the school has Classes up to Class II, with one class to be added every subsequent year. In addition to local students, this school will also cater to students from neighbouring Satya Bharti Schools.

During the event, a special compendium was launched by the Hon’ble President that captures the dreams and aspirations of an ideal schooling experience as expressed by students under various education programs being run by Bharti Foundation across the country. The compendium showcases the varied forms of art-work by students to express their hopes and expectations from their education journey.

Vijay Chadda, CEO, Bharti Foundation said, “The Satya Bharti Schools not only provide quality education to students but also follow the holistic development approach towards fulfilling our mission of helping underprivileged children and young people of our country realise their potential.”

The Satya Bharti School program currently operates 249 primary / elementary schools and five senior secondary schools across six states ( Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal) reaching out to 43,664 children employing 1,667 teachers. With a focus on the girl child [49% girl students] and the weaker sections of society [75% of children from SC/ST/OBC Communities], the program is one of the largest end-to-end education initiatives by a corporate in the country. It also enhances the schooling experience in Government Schools under its Satya Bharti Quality Support Program and Satya Bharti Learning Centre Program. Overall, Bharti Foundation’s education initiatives are reaching out to close to 2,00,000 underprivileged children in 13 states.

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 across rural India through its flagship initiative - the Satya Bharti School Program. It also enhances the schooling experience in Government Schools under its Satya Bharti Quality Support Program and Satya Bharti Learning Centre Program. In the year 2016, the Foundation completed 10 successful years of the Satya Bharti School 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 approximately 2,00,000 students through over 1,700 schools/centres, engaging 7,100 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 17,500 individual toilets, directly benefitting more than 86,000 beneficiaries in the villages of Ludhiana. The Abhiyan is now extending its outreach to the urban areas of Ludhiana.

Other Education Initiatives:
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 323 Government schools directly impacting 1,24,856 students and 5,133 teachers across seven states of India.

Satya Bharti Learning Centre Program:

Bharti Foundation operates a remedial/bridge courses program with 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, 290 Education Volunteers are engaged in teaching 2,363 out of school children, of which 47% are girls, enrolled at 223* Satya Bharti Learning Centres. Till now, 23,676 children have been mainstreamed, with the total impact reaching up to 29,756 children.

* 942 centres have been closed as most of the OOSC’s in these villages have been mainstreamed (number included in overall impact); in some villages the count of OOSC’s have dropped to such a low figure that it has gone below the minimum numbers required to run a centre, as per Government norms; of these, 58 Centres were closed due to of non-availability of qualified Education Volunteers.

Other Initiatives:
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 43 bail orders have been obtained and the release of 38 underprivileged undertrials has been affected.

Satya Bharti Abhiyan:

On 18th August 2014, Bharti Foundation launched Satya Bharti Abhiyan, an initiative to improve sanitation facilities with rural Ludhiana as a focus area. Under this initiative, the Foundation has provided individual toilets in the villages of the District, fulfilling its objective of leaving no rural household across Ludhiana without a toilet. Till now, the Abhiyan has provided over 17,500 household toilets directly benefitting more than 86,000 beneficiaries in rural Ludhiana. In addition, it has helped in improving sanitation facilities in Government schools by providing a separate toilet for girls in 14 Government schools of rural Ludhiana as identified by Department of Education (Punjab). The Abhiyan has entered phase II of implementation by extending its footprint in the urban areas of Ludhiana.