Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
Shakila Bano is in the final year of a three-year course of nursing at the Krishna Nursing and Paramedical Institute in Mohanlalganj, Lucknow. She is excited as she was recently interviewed for the job of a nurse at the Apollomedics Super Speciality Hospital in Lucknow, and she got the job.
“Who would have thought I would get the job! This wouldn’t have been possible without Swatantra Talim,” the 23-year-old exclaimed. She comes from a small village Ramdwari in Sitapur district, about 55 kilometres from the state capital of Uttar Pradesh. Her father is a farmer.
Swatantra Talim that she refers to is a non profit organisation founded in 2013 in Ramdwari village, which is helping realise the dream of skill-based jobs for thousands of rural children by offering them free training.
Swatantra Talim nurtures the children in discovering their talents through art, painting, story-telling and puppetry.
It was founded by Rahul Aggarwal and Riddhi Aggarwal, a married couple, who quit their jobs as a chartered accountant and a social worker respectively in New Delhi and moved to Uttar Pradesh to start Swatantra Talim. Riddhi belongs to Lucknow whereas Rahul is from New Delhi.
In the past ten years of its journey, Swatantra Talim has trained around 8,000 rural children and helped them find jobs in various fields such as nursing, design embroidery, music, communication, etc.
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It was in Ramdwari that Bano first met Rahul and Riddhi. She lived there with her farmer father, mother and four brothers. She joined Swatantra Talim 10 years ago as a student. She had dropped out after primary school as she had to stay home and help her mother. But when she came to the centre, Rahul helped her complete her schooling at a private school, and encouraged her to join the nursing school in Lucknow after that.
Swatantra Talim nurtures the children in discovering their talents through art, painting, story-telling, puppetry and so on. The aim is to increase the self confidence and articulation skills of the students.
The aim is to increase the self confidence and articulation skills of the students.
Some of the children who come to Swatantra Talim know no other school. Whatever they are learning is at this centre. The others who go to regular schools come here after school hours.
The children who visit the centre are between six and 18 years of age. There are about 23 teachers in total and 115 children who visit the three centres of Swatantra Talim.
Apart from the Ramdwari centre, its two other centres are located in Aashiyana in Lucknow, which was set up in 2014; and in Malsarai, Mahmudabad that was started last year.
Talking about the journey of Swatantra Talim, Rahul Aggarwal, its founder told Gaon Connection, “We had travelled to Ramdwari village when we met a bunch of lovely girls who told us about the terrible condition of schools in their village and how there was hardly any learning happening there.”
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He and his wife decided to do something about it. “We both knew right there exactly what we wanted to do. We resigned from our jobs in Delhi and set up a Swatantra Talim training centre in the village Ramdwari where we could impart skills to children so that they could make a life for themselves,” Rahul said.
The story of Zeenat Khatoon who also lives in Ramdwari, is very similar to that of Bano. She came to the Talim centre in 2013. She too was enrolled in a private school by Rahul after which she completed a B.Sc and then followed that up with a year of studying embroidery designing course at Kalhath Institute in Lucknow. Swatantra Talim takes care of the education fee.
Zeenat, 21, studied embroidery designing course and now runs an online gifting business, Swatantra Ibadat.
Zeenat is 21 years old now and is the sole breadwinner of her family of her mother, two younger brothers and a younger sister, ever since her father died in 2018.
“The unwavering support that I got from Rahul bhaiya and Ridhi didi made it easy for me to get here,” Zeenat told Gaon Connection
She now runs an online gifting business, Swatantra Ibadat, for which she makes embroidered boxes, photo frames, etc that are displayed on Instagram. She began her online business six months ago and has been getting a good response. Apart from this, she is also a centre-incharge at Swatantra Talim in her village.
“Talim has taught me to talk to people. I was under confident and didn’t know how to have a conversation. Talim taught me things nobody else did. Today when I look at myself I feel proud of who I have become,” said Zeenat.
Apart from providing skill-based training, Swatantra Talim also provides financial assistance to the needy students. The non-profit runs with the help of Wipro’s CSR (corporate social responsibility) funds and some individual donors, said Rahul.
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Swatantra Talim provided financial assistance to Kuldeep Kannojia, a second year student to complete his Bachelors in Journalism. Kannojia lives in Aashiyana, Lucknow and is also a trainer at the centre there. He comes from a humble family where his father irons clothes for a living while his mother is a domestic help.
“I came to Swatantra Talim in 2015, when I was in class seven, and my life changed,” Kannojia told Gaon Connection. “Talim has taught me to develop my communication skills which has made me so much more articulate,” he added.
He wants to work for children who come from a similar background like himself. “I want to help them think for themselves and build a future for themselves. Talim did that for me, and I want to take that forward,” he said.
