About the organization
Samaaveshi Pathshaala Foundation was founded in 2018 to build inclusive classrooms where all children irrespective of their social backgrounds or disability, study together. At the outset, our goal is to address the issue of ‘low enrolment and high dropout of children with disabilities (CWDs)’ in educational institutions. Several studies have shown that children with disabilities are the largest out-of-school group in India. They face discrimination and are denied access to quality education at all levels.
As per a study in 2015 by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 34 percent of children with disabilities were out of school (UNICEF, 2015). According to the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD, 2016), of all CWDs enrolled in the elementary level, only 8.5 percent make it to the secondary level, and a dismal 2.3 percent pursue higher secondary education). Likewise, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) claimed in 2019 that among 5-year-olds with disabilities, three-fourths do not attend any educational institution, nor do one-fourth of the CWD aged between 5 and 19 years.
Vision statement: One day, all schools will become ‘inclusive’.
Mission statement: To bring systemic transformation in schools where every child irrespective of their social background or disability has equal access and opportunity to quality education.
While the reasons for low enrolment and high dropout among CWDs can be diverse, it’s mostly because schools fail to address their specific learning needs or offer an inclusive learning environment. While this could be due to limited resources in schools, most often it is the result of a discriminatory mindset towards children (and people) with disabilities. The situation is more serious in rural and tribal areas where there are limited opportunities for healthcare, education, and livelihoods.
Location of intervention
Samaaveshi started its journey on 3 Dec 2018 (World Disability Day) as an Inclusive kindergarten in Kashele village of Karjat block, approximately 80 km from Mumbai. It is a village with a population of more than 3,000 individuals, with a majority belonging to the Katkari tribal community who depend on daily-wage work. The village has three anganwadis, one Zilla Parishad (ZP) primary school, and one govt-aided higher secondary school. It also has a 20-bed rural hospital and a Sub-Health Centre (SHC) that caters to the public health needs of over 50 tribal villages nearby.
Our initial challenges made us realize the need to work on community engagement, and building awareness and acceptance of disability and inclusive education. Thus, we set up a community library cum disability resource center to engage with local children, and their parents, through weekly library-based workshops and events on literacy, creative arts, STEM, diversity, and inclusion.
Gradually, we felt the need to build knowledge and capacity of local educational institutions and stakeholders, to identify CWDs and practice inclusive education. In 2019, we collaborated with Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, and the government’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), to launch a six-month pilot program called Anganwadi teacher training on inclusive education, with a cluster of 10 local anganwadis.
Based on the feedback of this pilot program, we decided to provide a resource kit of multi-sensory teaching-learning materials to each Anganwadi, to enable them to practice inclusive, early education. Bit by bit, we expanded this training to more clusters of anganwadis across the Karjat block, to continue building awareness and skills on disability identification and inclusive education.
Program updates
In 2022, we collaborated with the Block Education Office (BEO), Karjat division, to start a new program called ‘Zilla Parishad (ZP) school inclusive-ed support’, aimed at implementing inclusive education at a ZP primary school in Kashele village for grades one to three. A total of 28 students, including 5 CWDs, were brought under the ambit of the program. This collaboration was important because a majority of these children came from low-income tribal backgrounds and had no access to smartphones or e-learning during the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thus, our approach was to place two primary teachers, including a special educator, to provide individual support and facilitate inclusive learning following the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), developed by the internationally renowned Center for Applied Science Technology (CAST). The principles of social-emotional learning and activity-based learning were also incorporated to improve attendance, classroom engagement, and learning outcomes.
Plan of action
For 2023-24, we plan to focus on building an ecosystem of inclusive education in Kashele village (Karjat), by working closely with the three anganwadis and one ZP primary school. Our objective is to build the capacity of all stakeholders; provide resources and technical support to identify CWDs, and ensure their inclusion in these learning spaces to deliver quality inclusive education. Our strategy is to place one early educator at each of the three Anganwadis to strengthen its early childhood nutrition and education services and begin handholding Anganwadi teachers on inclusive-ed skills.
Similarly, we plan to extend inclusive-ed support to grades one to four at the local ZP school, with 40 plus students including seven CWDs. We also plan to hold regular parent meetings and community events at the ZP school to improve enrolment, attendance, and parental engagement. Besides, we’re looking at collaborating with new CSOs and startups to hold more library-based workshops on STEM, literacy, and inclusion.
We believe this integrated approach of working with local anganwadis, ZP schools, and library-based events will gradually increase awareness and acceptance of inclusive education in Kashele and adjoining villages. This will help us demonstrate Kashele as a model village for inclusive education.
Wipro Foundation is the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) entity of Wipro Limited. Going back over two decades, we focus on social initiatives in the domains of Education, Primary Healthcare, Ecology, Disaster Response, and Cities & Public Spaces.
Sachin Bansal heads finance function for Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting in India and South Asia.
He moved to Wipro Consumer Care in 2022 and prior to that was the head of finance of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering (WIN). He joined WIN in 2007 and over the last 15 years has essayed several roles including Plant Finance, India Hydraulic Business Finance, Global Operations Finance and Mergers & Acquisitions.
A qualified Chartered Accountant and a Black Belt in Six Sigma, Sachin has led several successful initiatives to streamline and strengthen the Finance function. As part of the leadership team of WIN, he played a pivotal role in driving profitable growth with improved focus on ROCE, Productivity and Cost Optimization.
Isaac George has held several positions at Wipro across Sales & Marketing, Consulting, and IT Operations for over two decades. Since 2014, he has been leading People Function and Employee Relations at Wipro Infrastructure Engineering. Isaac also heads the group’s social initiatives efforts and works towards creating an inclusive environment for Persons with Disabilities.
Samir Gadgil is the Head HR for the Chief Growth Office and all Corporate Functions at Wipro. He is also Wipro Cares’ Pune Location Head.
Previously, Samir has worked as Head – HR for Digital Operations & Platforms and managed multiple initiatives under HR and People Supply Chain Functions, including Talent Acquisition, Talent Transformation, Workforce Management, Facilities & Transport.
A seasoned professional, Samir has also served as the Global Head- Compensation, and Benefits at Wipro and worked with best-in-class Manufacturing, Consulting, Financial, and IT Service Companies in a career spanning over two decades.
Narayan P S is the Global Head of Sustainability and Social Initiatives at Wipro Ltd. He is also the Managing Trustee at Wipro Foundation, the social initiatives arm of Wipro Ltd. He has been instrumental in the creation of Wipro’s sustainability initiative and has stewarded it since its inception in early 2008. Wipro’s sustainability charter is built on the core principle that business and social purpose must reinforce each other in addressing several key challenges around ecology and the environment, education, and communities.
In addition, Narayan is Visiting Faculty at the Azim Premji University where he teaches ‘Ecology and Development’ in the MA ( Development) program. He is also a Visiting Faculty at Xavier School of Sustainability, Xavier University, Bhubaneswar. Narayan also conducts learning sessions regularly on Sustainability at IIM Bangalore and IIM Indore.
Narayan’s interests center around (i) the broad interplay between Ecology, Economics, and Humanities (ii) the role of the business sector as a change agent in sustainable development (iii) Sustainability in Education, and (iv) Sustainable and Inclusive Cities.
Prior to the current role, Narayan was the Global Head of Information Systems for Wipro’s IT business, when he was chosen as one of CIO’s global 25 Ones to Watch.
A graduate in Electrical Engineering with a post-graduation in Management, Narayan has more than twenty-seven years of cross-disciplinary experience in Business Development, Enterprise Systems, and Corporate Sustainability. He is also involved in sustainability advocacy as a member of several industry forums on sustainability. He is currently the Chairman of the CII-GBC Greenco forum for Bangalore.
Vikrant has recently joined to lead the human resources function for Wipro Enterprises which includes Wipro Infrastructure Engineering (WIN) and Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting businesses.
Vikrant comes with 25 years of diverse global leadership experience in Strategic Talent Management, Mergers & Acquisitions, Organization Design, Cultural Transformation & Change Management, D&I, and Leadership Coaching & Development across Services, Manufacturing, Retail and Technology industries. Besides Human Resources, Vikrant has also led roles across Finance & Audit.
With a career spanning L&T, GE Healthcare, Nike, Accenture, HCL, and Harman International, Vikrant has a distinguished track record and is an alumnus of the Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune.
Aparna C. Iyer is Wipro’s Chief Financial Officer.
Aparna joined Wipro in 2003 and over the years has held several finance roles, including Internal Audit, Business Finance, Finance Planning and Analysis, Corporate Treasury, and Investor Relations (IR).
Most recently, Aparna was Senior Vice President and CFO of Wipro FullStride Cloud, leading finance operations for one Wipro’s fastest growing global business lines.
Prior to taking over as CFO of Wipro FullStride Cloud, Aparna was the Corporate Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations for Wipro Limited. As a part of that role, she was responsible for building and executing forex risk management framework, investment of surplus cash, working capital management, customer credit risk evaluation, driving capital allocation decisions, managing balance sheet exposure as well as investor and analyst relationships.
As the Head of Treasury & IR, Aparna devised Wipro’s forex strategy, aiding the operating margin performance of the company, and driving improved predictability.
Aparna is a Chartered Accountant (CA) and was a gold medalist of the CA 2002 batch.
Saurabh Govil is the Chief Human Resources Officer at Wipro, and a member of the Management Team. He leads all Wipro’s HR functions, including talent acquisition, talent engagement, and learning and development programs.
Saurabh has been a HR practitioner for over two decades, and has worked with organizations like ITC and GE. Since joining Wipro in May, 2009, he has been instrumental in transforming the organization. His work with people, processes, and organizational structure over the last three years has contributed significantly to Wipro’s growth, improving operations and introducing many new initiatives.
Saurabh is an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur where he completed his master’s in human resources. He is on the advisory board of SHRM India. Saurabh has been a regular speaker at NASSCOM’s HR summit. He also contributes to NHRDN’s journal as an author.
Anurag Behar is the Chief Sustainability Officer of Wipro Limited & Vice-Chancellor, Azim Premji University.
Anurag is a member of the Committee that has developed India’s National Education Policy (2019), the first comprehensive education policy for the country, since 1986. He has been deeply engaged with efforts to improve education in India, for the past seventeen years.
He has been a vocal advocate for the critical importance of public systems, in particular the public education system. His many years in business have given him an insider’s view of both the possibilities and limits of markets. For the past few years, he has also been engaged with environmental and ecological issues. He writes widely, including a fortnightly column for the national newspapers Mint & Hindustan, and other publications.
Anurag has earlier played leadership roles in business. As the CEO of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering, he led the business from being No. 20 in the world to being the No. 1 in 5 years. He has also been responsible for many corporate functions for Wipro including Brand, Quality, and Innovation. He continues to provide oversight to the social and ecological initiatives of the Wipro Group, as its Chief Sustainability Officer. He is a member of Wipro’s Group Executive Council.
Anurag has served on various boards including that of Wipro GE Healthcare Ltd, The University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences, and of the TERI University. He serves on many government & sector councils, such as MHRD’s EQUIP, the National Mission on Teachers and Teacher Education, the Government of India implementation committee for the Justice Verma Commission, Karnataka Knowledge Commission, and with the CII’s National Climate Change Council.
He has an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur, and a BE in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Trichy. Both institutions have honored him with their Distinguished Alumnus award. He was elected as a ‘Young Global Leader’, by the World Economic Forum in 2008. He enjoys long-distance running.
Narayan P S is the Global Head of Sustainability and Social Initiatives at Wipro Ltd. He is also the Managing Trustee at Wipro Foundation, the social initiatives arm of Wipro Ltd. He has been instrumental in the creation of Wipro’s sustainability initiative and has stewarded it since its inception in early 2008. Wipro’s sustainability charter is built on the core principle that business and social purpose must reinforce each other in addressing several key challenges around ecology and the environment, education, and communities.
In addition, Narayan is Visiting Faculty at the Azim Premji University where he teaches ‘Ecology and Development’ in the MA ( Development) program. He is also a Visiting Faculty at Xavier School of Sustainability, Xavier University, Bhubaneswar. Narayan also conducts learning sessions regularly on Sustainability at IIM Bangalore and IIM Indore.
Narayan’s interests center around (i) the broad interplay between Ecology, Economics, and Humanities (ii) the role of the business sector as a change agent in sustainable development (iii) Sustainability in Education, and (iv) Sustainable and Inclusive Cities.
Prior to the current role, Narayan was the Global Head of Information Systems for Wipro’s IT business, when he was chosen as one of CIO’s global 25 Ones to Watch.
A graduate in Electrical Engineering with a post-graduation in Management, Narayan has more than twenty-seven years of cross-disciplinary experience in Business Development, Enterprise Systems, and Corporate Sustainability. He is also involved in sustainability advocacy as a member of several industry forums on sustainability. He is currently the Chairman of the CII-GBC Greenco forum for Bangalore.
