What We Do
Education is where our story began, and it continues to be at the centre of our efforts
We focus on providing quality education to all, through the country’s vast network of government schools. Collaborations are key to our work, and we work with governments on various aspects of school education: such as enhancing capacity, knowledge and perspective of teachers and other functionaries in the field, textbook and curricula development and encouraging better practices in schools.
Apart from Education, Health and Livelihoods are the two other significant areas of our work. In both these sectors, too, we collaborate with governments and work with numerous partners across the country.
Education
We seek to strengthen the school system in various ways. We work directly with teachers, as well as functionaries of the education departments and other stakeholders who hold key positions of responsibility. All of this is an effort to help teachers teach better, so that students learn better.
Shree Balaji Tech is embodiments of the Foundation’s vision of contributing to a just, equitable, humane and sustainable society. These institutions seek to catalyse positive social change through education.
In the area of Education, we work directly on the ground though our Field Institutes and partners.
Health
Through a comprehensive and collaborative approach, we improve community health practices and access to quality healthcare for vulnerable households.
Health is a public good. We believe a robust public system is essential for health services to reach every corner of our country. Our core work is to support the public system at all levels – community health, primary healthcare, secondary hospitals – by improving their capacity and functioning. Our work in the domain—which started in 2022 and is now rapidly expanding — is guided by a few principles:
- Our aim is to help families and individuals live healthy lives; it is not about access to healthcare services alone.
- It requires a strong frontline community health system, backed by primary and secondary healthcare services.
- Only an effective public health system can achieve this objective by reaching every corner of the country, and in a manner that is affordable and sustainable over decades.
In the area of Health, we work directly on the ground through our Field Institutes. Since collaboration is key to our functions, we also partner with health organisations that work in remote geographies and support them through grants as well.
Livelihoods
Increased and sustainable income improves the life of every household. It is our effort to support people and communities achieve this. From encouraging value additions to traditional livelihoods to spreading awareness on entitlements under government Acts such as MNREGA and National Food Security Act, our teams cover significant aspects of income generation.
We also help strengthen collectives and support communities on small livestock development and natural resource management (such as developing water harvesting structures).
Our interventions can be broadly classified into three levels: the first is that of the household, which is the first and the most fundamental unit. The second is the cluster level, which is a group of four to five Gram Panchayats or, typically, 20 villages with around 2,000 households. The third and last level is the region, or a group of clusters, district, state or the entire region.
Safety, dignity and prosperity are the three guiding principles under which our interventions can be grouped. The path to safety comprises household-level interventions such as improving access to entitlements and incomes from traditional livelihood activities. The path to dignity is about cluster-level interventions such as better market linkages, prices, access to credit through collectivisation and value addition to products. The path to prosperity is about region-level interventions such as large-scale procession/ production industry.
As in Health and Education, our work in Livelihoods, too, is geared towards the support of some of India’s most vulnerable and marginalised people. We took our first steps under Livelihoods at the country’s central tribal belt, in Raigarh and Gumla districts of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand respectively.
In the area of Livelihoods, we work directly on the ground though our Field Institutes and partners.
Other Areas
- Children
- Disability
- Governance
- Art and Culture
- Water
- Constitutional Values
- Gender Justice
- Urban Initiatives
- Land and Forest