Background

India happens to have the world's largest adolescent population, and yet, millions of these remain deprived of education because they are from lower-income families. Education for these children remains inaccessible due to poverty, seasonal migration, unpaid care work for girls, unsafe travel conditions, and rigid gender norms. A profound impact of these factors falls on economically weak women and members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. Even where education has become a possibility, surveys indicate that under-resourced libraries, overcrowded classrooms, language barriers, and conventional teaching methods have not led to significant improvement in rural literacy rates. 

This serious problem is further exacerbated by the fact that many of these underserved families live in areas without healthy environmental conditions. These families are exposed to polluted rivers, overflowing landfills, open drains, and traffic-choked roads, which result in respiratory diseases, stunted growth, and early deaths amongst the children. For this reason, it has become imperative to address the educational disparities in the country, so that children can become local guardians of their spaces and bring about health and environmental community interventions in the nooks and corners of India. 

With this vision in mind, the project, The Sustainovate Challenge, was launched to provide the necessary knowledge, resources, and skill training to underserved children who have the potential to turn the UN-SDGs into realities through local business ventures.