Udhyam

About the organization

Vision: Unleashing entrepreneurial capabilities of marginalized girls in educationally backward geographies through STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Agro-tech and Mathematics) education. 

Mission: By 2025, Co-create 118 Maker Labs with Type IV Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBVs) to ensure the success of marginalized girls in all the educationally backward blocks of Rajasthan. 

Maker Labs, as explained later, seek to empower students through a comprehensive STEAM-based curriculum. We are aiming to transform KGBVs through Maker Labs to empower marginalized girls to pursue high-potential careers and uplift their communities.

The work of the organization is driven by certain principles. As part of this, it is believed:

• That everyone is a maker of their destiny. 
• Celebrating small failures can be a great way to achieve a purpose.   
• One should always strive for excellence. 
• One should aspire to be empathetic and solve problems creatively.
• An effort must be made to implement and scale up the maker lab program in 118 KGBVs of Rajasthan. 

Location and area of work

The organization is working in a set of Educationally Backward Blocks (EBBs). These blocks are decided by the government on the basis of the twin criteria of Female Literacy Rate (FLR) and the Gender Gap in Literacy.  Rajasthan is one of the states in which 90% of districts have appeared in the ‘gray’ list of education, with several EBBs. 

The dropout rate of girls in the state has been traditionally high, making intervention important. Currently, we are working in the tribal geographies of Udaipur district of Rajasthan. We are co-creating maker labs in six blocks of Udaipur, namely Jhadol, Sarada, Semari, Jaisamand, Girwa, and Badgaon. 

Within each of the afore blocks we work with the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya scheme under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to uplift marginalized girls through quality education, including vocational education. KGBVs are special-purpose schools designed to ensure the success of marginalized girls. The scheme focuses on the skills of girls so that they can be employed after their education to pursue their entrepreneurial aspirations. 

Project updates 

Through Maker Labs we are looking to co-create with KGBVs an infrastructure for vulnerable people, especially females, to be digitally skilled for the 21st century. These Maker Labs are preparing KGBV girls to become strong and resilient members of the future workforce. 

Maker Lab has three components:

• Maker Mindset program: In this program adolescent girls are equipped with the abilities to become a “maker”. They go through 300 hours of intentionally designed action-oriented STEM curriculum. This includes learning about electrical applications, electronics, printed circuit boards, Fab Lab, digital literacy, coding, robotics, mechanical applications in real life, wood crafting, etc. 
• Design Thinking Program: This program enables our girls to identify a real-life challenge and solve a specific problem for their communities. They then go on to design a functional prototype to solve the problem by using the skills they have learned in the Maker Mindset program. 
• Entrepreneurship Development Program: All functional prototypes become market-ready products after user testing and incorporating feedback. They learn to make business models, financial planning, quality control, and customer acquisition. 

This program cycle fosters the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship towards building a community of makers to participate in making tribal villages vibrant sites of innovation and economic development. 

• KPI 1: Economic impact: 1.1: # Entrepreneurial ventures launched by students in their respective communities till FY 2026. 1.2: $ income generation by the student-led ventures till 2026. 
• KPI 2: Career Aspiration of Girls in STEAM: 2.1: # Functional Prototypes made by girls for UDHYAM Fest (Entrepreneurship fest) to claim seed funding for start-ups till FY 2026 2.2: # Girls participate in Hackathons/ National Science competition/ International Science competition till FY 2026. 2.3: # Girls enrolling themselves in science college after schooling till FY 2026. 
• KPI 3: SoCCs’ Cascade of Learning: 3.1: % increase in score of Mathematics, Computing and Coding from baseline to endline every year till FY 2026 3.2: # Parents surveyed regarding the SoCCs’ impact every year till FY 2026 
• KPI 4: Community involvement: 4.1: # Parents participated in Maker Fest, UDHYAM fest and Hackathon. 4.2: $ contributed by community to support students’ business plans or innovative projects. 
• KPI 5: Leadership development of Students: 5.1: # Issues identified and presented by girls to local government authority through Hackathon till FY 2026 5.2: # Solution proposed by girls to local government authority and MYGOV to solve the issue of their communities. 

Plan of action

In the coming future, we wish to invest sixty percent of our time in capacity building. We also plan to focus more on organizational development. For this purpose, we wish to devise strategies for fundraising and human resource development. We also intend to frame proper financial policies. In the coming future, we also look forward to designing a context-specific curriculum and a teacher training program.