While the enrolment rate in government schools across the country in the age-group of 6 to 14 has increased to more than 97%, the learning outcomes in the specially deprived tribal pockets which are marked by first-generation learners have remained dismal as shown by many reports like the ASER (Annual Status of Education Report). Moreover, with government schools running for not more than 200 days, there is need for supplementing spaces for ensuring better learning, socialization, development of world-view, and civic virtues coupled with value education, to the children as they grow up.

The reason for selecting tribal pockets of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh is that here the problems of undernourishment and dismal learning levels among children from impoverished tribal communities are very acute. This is well established by various government and non-government reports.

The Government of India’s National Family Health Survey-5 (conducted in 2019-21, available at https://mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/NFHS-5_Phase-II_0.pdf) showed dismal health conditions in Madhya Pradesh.

Some such indicators are highlighted below :

• Madhya Pradesh has an Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) of 41.3 per 1000 live births. Overall India’s IMR is 35.2%.

• The under-5 Mortality Rate of Madhya Pradesh is 49.2 against the national average of 41.9.

• Madhya Pradesh has the 3rd highest number of anemic children in India. Anaemia in MP is highest among tribals, the chief reason being poor diet.

• Only 29.3% of women have 10 or more years of schooling against the national average of 41%.

As far as education is concerned, the ASER 2022 Report underscores very low learning levels in rural Madhya Pradesh. Even within rural Madhya Pradesh, the areas where we have Seva Kutirs are at the bottom in terms of education and also other developmental parameters. Some of the key statistics showing indicators that raise great concern are :

• Only 35.6 % of Grade V students in rural Madhya Pradesh can read a Grade II-level Hindi text.

• 28.8 % of Grade II students cannot even read letters in Hindi.

• In Mathematics, only 19.1% of Grade V students can perform ‘division’ operations.

• Only 32.4% of children in Grade V can recognize numbers between 11-99.

• Only 13.8% of children in Grade V can read easy sentences in English.

(Source: Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2022, conducted by Pratham, available at https://asercentre.org/aser-2022/ ) .While the enrolment rate in government schools across the country in the age-group of 6 to 14 has increased to more than 97%, the learning outcomes in the specially deprived tribal pockets which are marked by first-generation learners have remained dismal as shown by many reports like the ASER (Annual Status of Education Report). Moreover, with government schools running for not more than 200 days, there is need for supplementing spaces for ensuring better learning, socialization, development of world-view, and civic virtues coupled with value education, to the children as they grow up.

The reason for selecting tribal pockets of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh is that here the problems of undernourishment and dismal learning levels among children from impoverished tribal communities are very acute. This is well established by various government and non-government reports.

The Government of India’s National Family Health Survey-5 (conducted in 2019-21, available at https://mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/NFHS-5_Phase-II_0.pdf) showed dismal health conditions in Madhya Pradesh.

Some such indicators are highlighted below :

Madhya Pradesh has an Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) of 41.3 per 1000 live births. Overall India’s IMR is 35.2%.

The under-5 Mortality Rate of Madhya Pradesh is 49.2 against the national average of 41.9.

Madhya Pradesh has the 3rd highest number of anemic children in India. Anaemia in MP is highest among tribals, the chief reason being poor diet.

Only 29.3% of women have 10 or more years of schooling against the national average of 41%.

As far as education is concerned, the ASER 2022 Report underscores very low learning levels in rural Madhya Pradesh. Even within rural Madhya Pradesh, the areas where we have Seva Kutirs are at the bottom in terms of education and also other developmental parameters. Some of the key statistics showing indicators that raise great concern are :

Only 35.6 % of Grade V students in rural Madhya Pradesh can read a Grade II-level Hindi text.

28.8 % of Grade II students cannot even read letters in Hindi.

In Mathematics, only 19.1% of Grade V students can perform ‘division’ operations.

Only 32.4% of children in Grade V can recognize numbers between 11-99.

Only 13.8% of children in Grade V can read easy sentences in English.

(Source: Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2022, conducted by Pratham, available at https://asercentre.org/aser-2022/ ) .

The villages where we have opened Kutirs are inhabited by tribal communities, who are impoverished and at the bottom on almost all the socio-economic and education indicators. The areas are mostly hilly and have considerable forest cover, and land which is not very suitable for agriculture. Many areas there are marked by severe water scarcity. They are engaged in subsistence farming and daily wage labour and their annual family income ranges between Rs 30 to 60 thousand. They are also dependent upon the forests in myriad ways, and collect firewood for their own consumption, but also fruits, seeds, leaves etc, selling much of it to local contractors. For instance, tendu leaves which are used for making bidis (cheap indigenous cigarettes) are collected by them. Similarly, mahua, chironji and other similar items are collected and sold.

As far as meals are concerned, there is no concept of breakfast (as understood by more privileged sections in the society) in these communities. If anyone, be it a child or an adult, is hungry, he / she would eat previous night’s stale rotis with black tea (as milk is not available) or just the rotis itself. Milk and milk products like curd, ghee etc, are mostly unavailable. They do not have the capacity to rear cattle (especially cows and buffaloes) because of lack of grazable pastures.

A general meal would consist of rotis (of wheat, jwar, bajra etc). Apart from rotis, pulses and vegetables are not available often. One thing to note is that any meal would consist of only roti with either pulses or vegetables or at many times, or when both these are not available, chutney of chillies is used or the rotis are taken with fried onions. For vegetables in the rainy season, the communities depend on the forest and use certain naturally growing plants or shrubs (that do not require tending) as vegetables. The diet lacks protein, vitamins and minerals. Anaemia is rampant and there are some cases of sickle cell anaemia as well, which is a deadly disease.

As far as education is concerned, children from tribal communities face a lot of hardships in accessing good quality education. Though there are primary schools in most villages, middle schools and high / higher secondary schools are only available in larger villages often located at a considerable distance. This leads to drop-outs or low attendance. The fact that an overwhelming percentage of children in these communities are first-generation learners makes their educational journey even more daunting. It is no surprise that the learning outcomes, as highlighted by various reports such as ASER report, are far behind the desired levels.

Sheopur and Shivpuri Districts

The main tribal community in this district villages is Sehariya community which is classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). They have one of the lowest life expectancies in the entire country, and undernourishment among children is the worst in the whole of Madhya Pradesh.

We started Seva Kutirs in Sheopur district in July 2019 and in Shivpuri district in December 2021.

Dindori and Anuppur Districts

The main tribal communities in these districts are the Baigas and Gonds. The Baigas also belong to the category of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). Baigas have been traditionally dependent upon the forests and they distinguish themselves from Gonds whom they call ‘Kisans’ meaning farmers. They do not engage in settled cultivation and traditionally used to practice shifting cultivation by slash and burn technique called ‘Bewar’. They have special knowledge of the medicinal values of herbs and other forest produce. Their simple houses are made up of mud. Early marriage is very common amongst them.

We started Seva Kutirs in Dindori district in March 2021 and in Anuppur district in July 2021.

Barwani and Alirajpur Districts

The main tribal community in these two districs is Bhil. Alirajpur district has about 87% population from Bhil tribal community and the rural side is completely having tribal population. It has a literacy rate of 37% which is the lowest among all 700 or so districts in the country. The female literacy rate is even worse.

Barwani district also has similar conditions. We have started Kutirs in a particularly poverty stricken area of this district, called Shoolpani Jhadi. Difficult in access, this has Bhil tribes who are also spread over some bordering districts of Gujarat (Chhota Udaipur, Dahod, Rajpipla), Maharashtra (Nandurbar) and Rajasthan (Banswara).

We started Kutirs in Barwani in January 2024 and in Alirajpur in July 2024.

Chhindwara District

The main tribal communities in this district are the Gonds and Bharias. Bharias also come under the ‘Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group’ (PVTG). The interior tribal villages suffer from a hilly terrain posing a great obstacle to access towards various basic amenities. The areas of Tamia and Harrai blocks are marked by undernourishment of children, poor learning outcomes, and very low family incomes.

We started Seva Kutirs here in August 2019

Betul and Khandwa Districts

The main tribal communities in these two districts are Gond and Korku. Our Kutirs serve vast interior areas of these districts which have forest covers and hilly terrain, making accessibility a major issue.

We started Seva Kutirs in Khandwa in October 2020 and in Betul in August 2021.

We started Seva Kutirs in Dindori district in March 2021 and in Anuppur district in July 2021.

Mandla District

The main tribal communities in this district are Gond and Baiga, the latter being a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group.

We started our first Kutir here in April 2018.

Sehore District

Sehore district, though neighboring the state capital of Bhopal has many interior tribal villages that have conditions similar to those that exist in other tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh. The main tribes inhabiting these villages are Bhil, Bhilala, Gond, and Korku.

We started Seva Kutirs in this district in February 2018.

Dewas District

Dewas town is an industrial town and is near to Indore. However, the district has some pockets of interior tribal villages quite far from the town and often in jungles, where tribal communities live and are generally impoverished. The main tribal communities in these villages are the Bhil, Bhilala, Gonda and Korku.

We started our first Seva Kutir in this district in April 2017.

Jhabua and Ratlam

The main tribal community in these districts is Bhil.

We started Seva Kutirs in Jhabua in August 2022 and in Ratlam in October 2021.

Sidhi District

The main tribal communities in the Kutir villages are Gond and Baigas, the latter being a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). Kusmi block of the district where we have our Kutirs is particularly impoverished and a part of it comes under the Sanjay National Park.

We started Seva Kutirs in this district in October 2021.

Harda District

The main tribal communities in the Kutir villages are Gond and Korkus.

We started Seva Kutirs in this district in November 2021.

Vidisha District

The Kutirs are mainly opened in villages where the Sehariya tribal community lives, which is a Particulary Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG).

We started Seva Kutirs in this district in October 2020.

Balaghat District

The main tribes are Baigas, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) and Gonds. The villages in blocks of Paraswada, Birsa, and Baihar here are extremely impoverished.

We started Seva Kutirs in this district in October 2024.

Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi District

This is a district in Chhattisgarh bordering Madhya Pradesh. The main tribes in these villages are Baiga (PVTG), Gond, and Agariya.

We started Seva Kutirs in this district in August 2024.

The Kutirs combine two key themes most crucial for children in interior rural areas in the country – undernourishment and education.

1. Village Community Provided Venue:

The village community has to invite us and offer a venue free. Usually, it is somebody’s house, Panchayat building, community hall, school in its non-functioning hours, or even a shed/godown. Thus we do not incur any infrastructure costs for this.

2. Morning and Evening Shifts:

All Kutirs follow a 2-shift engagement with the children (from morning 7 to 10:30 and from 4 to 6:30).

In the morning shift breakfast, with seasonal fruits and milk is given, and dinner (roti, sabzi, rice, and dal) is served in the evening shift.

During daytime, the children are sent to the local Government school so that a continued engagement is established with them. The Seva-Kutirs are aimed at complementing government schooling and not act as a substitute. But it has much more emphasis and inputs both nutritionally as well as educationally.

3. Local Human Resources:

To the extent possible we engage all local workforce (cooks, helpers are from the same village) and teachers from the same or nearby area.

4. Supervision Structure

The Kutirs in the same area are organised under one cluster which are usually supervised by two Cluster Coordinators. A district has a couple of District Anchors. Some districts like Sheopur which have a large number of Kutirs are divided into zones and have a zonal anchor.

5. Central Resource Team:

Resource persons experienced in pedagogy, teacher training, and curriculum design ensure planning and uniform implementation across Kutirs. They also perform a continuous Impact Assessment of Kutirs to encourage constant improvement of the programs. Sports, Value Education, and Civic Virtues are also components of the Kutirs.

6. Community ‘buy-in’ in the Program:

The program also involves Panchayats, ASHA and Anganwadi functionaries, and non Government bodies like Self Help Groups (SHGs) / community-based groups.

• Mobilizing action to get the benefit of government schemes: We continuously try to enlist all children and their families in various government schemes like Ayushman Bharat etc. There have been no insignificant number of children who have not had even basic documents like Adhar Card etc. which we help in getting furnished.

• Emphasis on Local Supply: To the extent possible, we are procuring vegetables, milk etc from local suppliers. We are encouraging the low-resource village communities to produce whatever is necessary for the Seva Kutirs locally.

Design, Approach and Implementation:

1. Curriculum:

Children between the ages of 3 and 14 years attend Seva Kutirs. Since the aim of the project is to enhance the learning outcomes of children and make them grade-ready, a baseline test is conducted to understand their present learning levels. On this basis, they are categorized into what we call Pre-Primary, Primary, and Upper Primary groups which correspond to students generally between ages 3-6, 6-10, and 10-14 years respectively. Once these three groups are formed, a year-long curriculum and syllabus are designed for each group, considering their present learning levels, and their textbooks. This mainly focuses on languages and Mathematics and also includes subjects such as social sciences and sciences.

2. Regular Trainings and Handholding of the Teachers:

As our teachers are from the same or nearby villages and have gone through the same educational backgrounds, their capacities need to be developed. We have appointed Education Coordinators, who are experts in education. They regularly train the teachers as well as handhold them on a regular basis. The cluster coordinators visit the Kutirs daily and handhold teachers there. Apart from this, several online and offline trainings are also provided by experts from partner organizations.

3. Educational Assessment:

We try to plan internal educational assessments at a regular interval of 6-8 months at most of our Seva Kutirs. As this happened to be a mass assessment, it is done on simple Pratham’s ASER Tool which tests basic language and arithmetic skills. The cluster coordinators along with the help of Kutir teachers do this assessment. The data is captured as discussed below:

a. First Level:

Baseline and Endline Assessment at Kutir by teachers/cluster coordinators

b. Second Level:

Compilation and analysis of data for a particular cluster by Cluster Coordinator

c. Third Level:

Compilation and analysis of data from all the clusters at district level by District & Education Coordinators

4. Educating Children and their Families on Basic Hygiene Practices:

We ensure that the basic hygiene practices such as washing hands, taking a bath daily, brushing teeth, maintaining cleanliness in and around their houses etc are learnt by children in Seva Kutirs. Through regular community meetings, we try to ensure that these hygiene practices are also followed by students in their homes and their parents also follow these practices.

5. Games and other Co-Curricular Activities:

Children at Seva Kutirs have various opportunities for their all-round development. Sports, Value Education, and Civic Virtues are also components of the Seva Kutirs. The children daily do prayers, yoga and exercises in the morning and get time to play in the evening. Some indoor and outdoor games,

sports items like Ludo, Carrom, Badminton, Handball, etc are also provided at the Seva Kutirs. Bal Sabha is organized every week at our Kutirs where children express their thoughts, creativity, and skills by drawing, singing, dancing, acting, etc. Apart from these, special days like Vivekanand Jayanti, Republic Day, Children’s Day etc are also celebrated with great joy at Seva Kutirs.

We have taken support of a number of entities in ensuring high effectiveness of this program. Some such entities are :

1. Nucleus Software Foundation (NSF)

a. Regular Training:

Nucleus Software Foundation (www.nucleussoftware.com) is helping Parivaar by providing regular training by subject experts to Kutir teachers, cluster coordinators, and education anchors for foundational literacy in Maths and English. Subject Experts from NSF provide physical training to the education coordinators every quarter and monthly online training to the teachers, cluster coordinators, and education coordinators.

b. TLMs for Teachers and Students:

NSF has also provided workbooks and other TLMs to the teachers and students of around 700 Kutirs across 16 districts.

c. Saat Seedhi Program:

English expert from the NSF team has developed and shared with us a mobile application that helps teachers and other coordinators track students’ activity and learning stages for the English language in a single place. Saat Seedhi (सात-सीढ़ी) is a comprehensive foundational English program that has 7 stages of learning basic concepts of English. The app allows teachers to add students’ data to it, mark their progress, and manage data easily. This platform lets the cluster and district coordinators monitor the progress of students at different levels as well as identify teachers’ performance through it.

d. Continuous Assessment:

• . Maths: The children up to grade 5 are provided with personal workbooks as per their learning levels. A worksheet is divided into different topics and these topics are further divided into sub-topics. Pre and Post Tests are planned for each topic in Maths.

A child has to go through a test before starting a new topic (Pre-Test) and has to again solve a test after the topic has been taught by the teacher and practiced by the child (Post-Test).

2. English: The children up to grade 5 are provided with personal learning books and workbooks as per their learning levels. The children practice through these books and their progress is marked on the Saat Seedhi App.

e. Kahoot Quiz:

A link to an online quiz is shared every Monday with the education team by NSF. There’s a new topic for the quiz every week and the link remains active for 6 days. The education team passes the link to the Kutir teachers and teachers open the link on their phones and let the students in higher classes participate in this quiz. Teachers themselves and cluster coordinators too participate in the quiz. The participants can check the leader board anytime

in the 6 days and know their rank among all the participants. Apart from the questions in the quiz, there are also several new things to learn while answering the quiz, which everyone likes the most. Participation details of each district is also shared by the NSF team at the end of the week.

f. Monthly Teachers’ Assessment:

The teachers of Seva Kutirs now undergo a monthly assessment for English subject. A test preparation document is shared with the teacher at the start of the month. This document helps teachers prepare for the test. Then the test is conducted in the second week of the month, which covers topics from the preparation document. The Education Coordinators conduct the tests and upload the marks on the Saat Seedhi app. The results of the tests are shared with the teachers. They are very happy with the monthly tests as they can know their shortcoming and flaws, and they are able to improve themselves based on the results.

g. National Ranking for Teachers’ Performance in NSF English Program:

NSF runs its programs with multiple organisations in different geographies of the country viz. schools from Noida, districts of Uttarakhand, etc. Starting July 2023, NSF’s subject expert for English release a National Ranking of the teachers. Teachers’ scores are calculated as the average number of levels completed by their students on the Saat Seedhi App. All 10 teachers from September and 9 teachers from October secured their positions in the Top 10 in the National Ranking. 3 of the teachers happen to be from 95 Kotak-supported Kutir in October. This kind of healthy competition motivates the Kutir teachers to give their best at Seva Kutirs. This kind of healthy competition motivates the Kutir teachers to give their best at Seva Kutirs.

2. Naraindas Morbai Budhrani Trust :

Value Education Program:

NMBT’s (www.nmbtmumbai.org) Value Education Program is designed to inculcate good citizenship values among the students along with the core academic teachings. Its Value Education module has 15 lessons to be taught to the students through 3 different stories and interesting activities. The lessons are ‘सत्य के सिवाय कुछ नहीं’, ‘अपने अहंकार को त्याग दो’, ‘प्रेम, करो और बाँटो’ etc to name a few. This module is adopted at 650+ Seva Kutirs from 15 districts and is being taught to the students of Primary and Upper Primary groups on a weekly basis. Trainers from NM Budhrani Trust visit at regular intervals to facilitate training sessions for teachers in these districts.

3. Self Reliant India

Self Reliant India (www.srindia.org) shares its expertise with Parivaar to help the Seva Kutir children get admission to the prestigious government residential schools- the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas or JNVs. SRI is implementing its ‘Nanhe Kalam’ model, where Seva Kutir teachers and education coordinators of Parivaar are trained to prepare the children in class-5 th for the JNV Selection Test (JNVST). These teachers and education coordinators receive online as well as offline training based on the curriculum and module created by SRI. Notes and other study materials are provided to the child and periodic tests are organized. SRI has also developed an app where the scores of regular tests are updated then the progress is analysed for better output. It is also providing guidance to Parivaar’s education coordinators for preparing Seva Kutir children for admission to some other govt residential schools such as Eklavya, Model Schools, Kanya Shiksha Parisars etc.

4. TIFO

We recently collaborated with Tifo which will support Parivaar’s leadership team in strengthening and streamlining the education function of Seva Kutir project. The focus will be on creating a framework to simplify the data, developing a uniform assessment mechanism and a focused approach towards internal capacity building. A well-defined process will be developed to create an internal team of Key Resource Persons (KRPs).

5. Open Links Foundation

Open Links Foundation (www.openlinksfoundation.org) supports Parivaar in improving the quality of education by supporting and motivating teachers. They have helped us manage apparatus- Kutir Heads, and Block Heads. They provided us with the Vinoba App which is helpful in automating routine tasks and identifying opportunities for process improvement. The teachers can share their notes, teaching methodology, classroom activities, etc in text, photo, or video posts on the app and get feedback, reactions and recognition on it.

This allows teachers to focus on what truly matters: providing quality education to our students. The app offers several features for program implementation, monitoring, and evaluation that have enabled us to make data-driven decisions and ensure that our programs are achieving their desired outcomes.

6. Ek Kadam Aage Foundation

We recently collaborated with Ek Kadam Aage Foundation to enhance Mathematical proficiency for class 4th and 5th non-remedial students and provide a comprehensive Hindi language curriculum for pre-class to class 5 at our Seva Kutirs. The phase-wise rollout of the program will cater to the foundational and advanced learning needs of students from pre-class to class 5th. A few copies of the books related to the program are also provided at all the targeted Seva Kutirs.

While the problem of tobacco consumption among adults and even teenagers is commonly prevalent in most areas of MP, it came as a shock to us to find children as young as 5 years old (both girls and boys) addicted to tobacco consumption (they call it pudiya) in villages of Karahal block of Sheopur district. In some villages nearly half of the children above 5 years were taking tobacco. It would be worthwhile to point out here that the Karahal block is among the worst areas in the entire Madhya Pradesh in terms of general deprivation and poverty and also one of the worst areas in the entire country when it comes to child malnourishment and other health and education indicators.

As soon as we found out the problem of rampant tobacco consumption among children, our District team started taking sessions with children and their parents to sensitize them about the disastrous effects of this addiction. We found out that in most cases, parents knew about this and were just careless about it. However, our efforts during the last few years have started yielding good results. Most of the young children (5 to 10 years bracket) in the villages have left the habit, though we haven’t had full success with the older children (10-16) yet, though a good percentage of them are leaving the habit.

The problem, though to a much lesser extent also exists in other districts where our Kutirs are located, and we are making also making efforts there in this direction.

Some of the important components of the de-addiction initiative are listed below:

1. Listing of all such children who are addicted to tobacco or alcohol consumption.

2. 10 minutes session in all Seva Kutirs by the teachers on the ill-effects of tobacco addiction at a regular frequency.