Subrat, one of our founders who lives in Bhopal, is well-acquainted with the lives of villagers in the vicinity of the city. While working on a project to skill the poorest of poor women to earn their livelihoods, he realised that their children needed as much support, if not more. Coming from families that rely on wage labour or subsistence farming for their livelihoods, the children were condemned to a life of drudgery and illiteracy. Even if they wanted to, the parents could not afford to send their children to school. And those boys and girls who did go to government-run school learnt very little due to poor quality of education and educators, lack of infrastructure or general apathy.

Thus was born the concept of Learning Grain. The idea is to encourage and support parents to send their kids to school by providing them with free monthly rations and books and uniforms required for schooling. Once the children start going to school, their education is scaffolded by remedial classes run before school hours by Learning Grain at its centre in Ghondipura village, 17 kilometres outside Bhopal.

One of the biggest challenges initially was to battle ignorance and antiquated social norms and create awareness about the dire need for education and a demand for the centre. Today, however, the perseverance and dedication of the Learning Grain team have borne fruit – and shine through in the confident smiles of the children and the aspirations of their parents for their future.

Our Team


Volunteers

Kavita Bhattacharya

Kavita, a teacher by profession, has been associated with Learning Grain right from the beginning, along with her brother Subrat. She is charge of the day-to-day operations of the Ghondipura centre as well for sustaining relations with the community within which the centre works. She also teaches at the centre, and ensures the children complete their school homework without problems and their doubts and issues are addressed.

Uzama Khan

Uzama is a self-taught enthusiast of all things to with art and craft, using a variety of media. She heard about Learning Grain from a parent in her village and decided to put her skill and time to good use. Uzama teaches all kinds of art and craft from painting and drawing to paper craft such as quilling. What enthuses her is the progress her students are making.

Dr. Nisha Srivastava

Nisha is a retired government servant and a pathologist and now runs a clinic from her home. When she first came to Learning Grain, she fell in love with the place and is now a regular twice a week. She teaches English and creates awareness about the larger world as well as personal hygiene and health. She also organises health check-ups at the centre.


Founders



Kapil Dhawan and Arnab Chatterjee

Kapil and Arnab are Delhi-based award-winning professionals and first generation entrepreneurs. They worked together as a young copy and art team at some of the best agencies in India before setting up two advertising and communications firms, Tree Frogs and Tree Design. Another thing they have in common is a passion to make the world a better place; they are responsible for funding Learning Grain.

Subrat Goswami

Subrat, a journalist by training, works for the Archaeological Survey of India in Bhopal but his passion lies elsewhere. His every available minute and resource is dedicated to serving people in any way he can. He is responsible for the overall local management of Learning Grain. Apart from this, he as an active member of another not-for-profit, Aham Bhumika, dedicated to skilling underprivileged women.