In May 2019, after my senior secondary examinations, I returned to my village for a three-month break. Being away from my village for seven years, I had always heard about the problems faced by my community. Still, I could never estimate the seriousness. This long vacation gave me the chance to experience them first-hand. Seventy-five percent of my primary school friends had given up on their education. They were working in the industries of Firozabad – a town in Uttar Pradesh, India which is the country’s glassmaking hub. These issues disturbed me deeply – I felt that it was imperative that the opportunities that I had had the privilege to access, be used for the betterment of my society. In July 2019, I launched my project, Sarathi: The Guide, with only two volunteers and 11 students from my village. The project aims to provide inclusive and quality education to the children of my community. Being a first-generation learner, I felt that it was my responsibility and moral duty to work towards empowering other children like me.

In July 2020, I was selected for the Millennium Fellowship. Organised by the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) and Millennium Campus Network (MCN), it was the first-ever international opportunity for me. I learned a lot from leaders across the globe. The cherry on the cake was that the team was mesmerised by my project. I was chosen as a Spotlight Fellow on International Youth Day. I got the opportunity to address the entire cohort of the Millennium Fellows and a range of guests from the UN.

The role of Campus Director was another responsibility that was bestowed on me. I would take sessions from MCN and pass them on to my cohort of 12 Millennium Fellows from Ashoka. As a student from a small town, dealing with all the information and circulating it gave me the impetus to work on my communication skills, in addition to boosting my confidence. I have continued to carry that momentum in my classes, and in my interactions on campus.

In a nutshell, the Fellowship provides young leaders with world-class training, recognition, and global connections. This has played a crucial role in my personal growth, as well as the exponential growth of Sarathi.

The founders of Beyond Textbooks, Simranjeet and Neha from Delhi University have joined us to conduct workshops on a wide range of topics including art, dance, and music. Our collaboration with Lila Mack from Stanford University will add the dimension of Peer Networking to the project. Recently, Aishwarya Sunaad (UG 2021) from Ashoka has started work on another initiative called Grantha, through which she will be creating a library for Sarathi. Personally, the Fellowship allowed me to be a part of global projects such as a research study on the impact of COVID-19 on education, in collaboration with Connecticut College, US.

We did not know that the world would suffer from a pandemic in 2020, but when we started the project, it was designed in such a way that we could run all activities remotely. At a time when the world came to a standstill owing to the pandemic, our project continued to educate five villages. We feel blessed when students get to learn from students and alumni of renowned institutions in India. Looking back, I realise how far we have come since the project’s inception. There have been a lot of challenges – from selecting volunteers, to arranging infrastructure and logistics, and the struggle to arrange for finances. Money from internships and other stipends have helped me sustain the project. At present, our team is working to seek funds that can be invested in essential equipment such as a projector. A bigger screen would allow us to accommodate more students in a class. Similarly, we also envisage investing in an electric scooter to make our project mobile, which would help us reach more villages.

In this way, Sarathi: The Guide is all set to achieve its ultimate aim of transforming society by educating the children of our community. We hope that they can go on to become future leaders, breaking the centuries-old nexus of illiteracy, gender inequality, and child labour in the glasswork industries of Firozabad, India.

Mohit Kumar is an undergraduate student from the class of 2022. He is the founder of a project, Sarathi: The Guide, that seeks to provide education to underprivileged children from Firozabad. Mohit was also one of the 12 students from Ashoka to be selected for the Millenium Fellowship in 2020.