THE PROBLEM:

While urban hubs and major cities in Telangana continue to advance, thousands of tribal and rural children across the state remain excluded from even the most basic education. These children now have access to schools, but many still live in isolated thandas and remote villages where reaching a government school can mean walking miles barefoot through rough terrain.

Although they have access to everything today, the absence of quality education and services in government schools remains the core issue. This lack of education leaves them vulnerable to child labour, early marriage, poor health, and deepening poverty. It’s not just an individual tragedy; it’s a collective national challenge.

Education is not a privilege. It is a right. And until every child, no matter where they are born, has access to it, we cannot claim real progress.

THE SOLUTION:

This campaign aims to raise funds for schools supported by the Telangana Chapter of Friends of Tribals Society (FTS), an organisation that works at the grassroots level to ensure every child has access to basic education. The Telangana Chapter began its work in 2016 and has since played a key role in the Ekal Vidyalaya movement.

FTS runs a unique One-Teacher School model, known as Ekal Vidyalaya, which brings education directly to remote villages where formal schools are often unavailable. These schools are simple, low-cost, and effective, making a real difference in the lives of children in underserved communities.

I am running this crowdfunding campaign in partnership with FTS, Telangana Chapter, to support their mission. The Ekal schools run for three hours a day and offer both basic and support education to village children, including those not attending any school and those who need extra help alongside formal schooling. Through this model, FTS not only provides access to education but has also helped reduce dropout rates significantly.

FTS Telangana has 1994 schools with over 49850 children (approx.).

GLIMPSES OF EKAL VIDYALAYAS :

With each school educating 25–30 children for an entire year at just INR 30,000, this model offers a powerful and sustainable solution to one of India’s most pressing challenges.

Help me raise INR 30000 and transform the lives of approximately 25-30 tribal/ rural kids for an entire year.

EKAL’s mission is to eradicate illiteracy from rural areas, particularly amongst tribal people, so that the people here can get access to basic education. These are informal, non-formal schools that operate in the most remote areas of India, reaching where no other school can. 

When you support the EKAL movement, you are empowering rural India for a truly sustainable change, because EKAL’s mission is to uplift villages by providing and creating awareness of Panchamukhi Shiksha (Five-Dimensional Education model), which consists of:-

When you support the EKAL movement, you are empowering rural India for a truly sustainable change, because EKAL’s mission is to uplift villages by providing and creating awareness of Panchamukhi Shiksha (Five-Dimensional Education), which consists of primary education, healthcare education, village development education, empowerment and cultural education.

Please fund this campaign, and let's together educate these tribal/ rural kids and make this nation progress at the highest level. 

THE STORY OF IMPACT:

There are millions of students who are being impacted every year by the EKAL VIDYALAYA initiative. Let's together fund more schools and transform the lives of more tribal/ rural kids like MALLESH.

SCHEDULE AT A TYPICAL SCHOOL:

A wide range of subjects and topics are taught at these schools. All schools typically have a student strength of 25-30 students. This ensures high-quality education and focuses on delivering high impact. 

ABOUT ME:

Through the pages of countless books and the diverse landscapes I’ve explored through my travels, I’ve learned to see the world not as it is, but as it could be. Those journeys, both literary and literal, forced me to confront a humbling truth: the comfort, security, and high-quality educational opportunities I experience on a daily basis are not rewards for any special effort of my own. They are the result of sheer, unearned geographical luck.

Recognising that privilege has fundamentally shaped how I view the world. While knowledge is vast and liberating, access to it remains deeply unequal, driven entirely by invisible lottery lines on a map.

For me, education is not merely a tool for individual advancement; it is the most powerful catalyst for systemic change. That conviction is what drives my deep-rooted commitment to tribal children, whose communities hold rich indigenous knowledge systems, oral histories, and ecological wisdom that mainstream curricula far too often overlook. Geographical isolation, systemic neglect, and language barriers should never dictate a child’s future simply because they weren't born with the same geographical advantages.

My vision to bridge this gap goes far beyond traditional philanthropy. As an avid reader who values critical thought and a traveler who believes in cultural empathy, I want to help dismantle the entrenched barriers that lock marginalised youth out of formal opportunities. Driven by an acute awareness of my own privilege, I want to help rewrite what equitable learning looks like—creating spaces where indigenous heritage is honoured, systemic norms are challenged, and every child has the tools to author their own destiny.

ABOUT FRIENDS OF TRIBALS SOCIETY:

The Friends of Tribals Society (FTS) is a national-level organisation working towards the holistic development of tribal communities through education, healthcare, and cultural preservation. FTS has been instrumental in establishing Ekal Vidyalayas, single-teacher schools that provide basic education to children in remote and inaccessible areas.

Apart from FTS, six other national organisations of the movement operating in India are Bharat Lok Shiksa Parishad (BLSP), Delhi; Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of India (EVFI), Delhi; Arogya Foundation, Mumbai; Gramothan Foundation, Delhi; Shri Hari Satsang Samiti (SHSS), Mumbai; and Ekal Sansthan, Delhi. All these organisations have several chapters all across India. All these organisations work for a common Ekal vision under the umbrella of the Ekal Abhiyan Trust.

The Telangana Chapter of FTS was formed in 2016. Since its inception, the Telangana Chapter has grown significantly. As of today, Friends of Tribals Society has 37 chapters.

LOCATION OF SCHOOLS ACROSS TELANGANA:

TAX BENEFITS:

Funding for this campaign is eligible for tax breaks, as FTS is a registered trust and you can avail of benefits under section 80G of the IT Act. 

FEEDBACK THAT YOU GET:

To ensure that there is complete transparency, we shall get a report with the details of how the funds were utilised. This will then be posted in the UPDATES section of the campaign. As soon as we post an update, the platform will send an EMAIL alert to all the funders - i.e., to you. That's transparent, right?

The image below is an example of the FEEDBACK FORMAT that we will share with all my funders.