Akshara-MUWCI/SEW

Akshara focuses on the following activities:
- Providing long-term educational support to participants.
- Creating awareness among parents to provide a home environment conducive to learning.
- Enhancing the skills of local school teachers.
- Encouraging the education of girls in order to overcome gender related inequalities.
- Offering career counseling to participants, helping them to gain vocational or professional employment.
- Providing supplementary healthcare and nutritious food.
The lack of availability of qualitative education, rigid social structures, high levels of poverty, and the overall inability of the educational system to cater to the needs of rural Indian communities has led to several adverse situations. The lack of adequate educational facilities has resulted in financial difficulties due to the villagers’ inability to participate in the market as well as emotional insecurities due to low self-esteem, lack of aspirations and a feeling of inadequacy – factors that are crucial for human creativity and growth. Breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and lack of access to opportunities is indeed difficult but not impossible.
The access to the opportunity to earn has been proven to be the fundamental stimulant for furthering the economic welfare of a community. Even with a significant growth rate, a large population of India remains disconnected from the new opportunities emerging in the country’s economic environment. This population, therefore, continues to depend on subsistence living. Furthermore, the adults amongst this population are unable to provide education and guidance for their children leaving the children unable to compete for the opportunities that are created by India’s economic growth.
Providing these children with vocational and professional education, as well as career guidance will give them a way in which to make use of these opportunities. With proper support, they can become professionals earning enough to support the education of future generations. Furthermore, their success would be an inspiration to others. Finally, they would be able to provide education and career guidance to their relatives and friends
Akshara is focused on breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and lack of access to opportunities by creating conditions so that children in poor rural communities are able to receive a vocational or professional education. Once a participant has learned a skill, Akshara will use its network to assist the participant in finding their first non-subsistence job.
Akshara is the first project of the Equal Access to Opportunity Programme (EATO). EATO works to change the deterministic role economics play in people’s access to opportunities. The Akshara Programme derives its vision and clear operating principles from EATO and serves as a model for starting similar projects in other parts of the world.