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Free Schools India is a small organisation made up of people dedicated to sustainable development, and to the ideal that all children should receive a free, quality, education. We are a collection of people from several fields who have come together to start a school for the children of the rural poor in several villages. From this idea our vision for this project has grown into something bigger, and we have already moved into the provision of health care also. Our plans do not stop here though. We would one day like to be able to provide full medical insurance for the families of our children and the wider community, and maybe one day start some micro industry.

The Inspiration

While working for an anti-child labour non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Delhi , Joanna Härmä and Gaurav Siddhu had the opportunity to speak with children in the city and in villages about their experiences with school. They found in one village that several girls could have attended school, if only it had been completely free of cost. Their families were not at all reliant on the income these children received from stitching footballs all day, but the costs associated with schooling were prohibitive for them, and yet they amounted to only US$15 per annum.

On another occasion, we spoke with some children in Delhi from a poor family we came to know, and found out from them that even in the capital, what the government claims is free, universal primary education is not at all free. Luckily their parents were able to earn enough from their ironing business to pay these small fees. In fact, the costs for the rural poor appear to be more than for urban families, which means a very grave situation on the ground, as rural incomes are generally smaller. Also there is more choice available in the cities, while the countryside is vast, and so choosing between schools can mean travelling great distances.

We got to thinking about all of these problems, and about perhaps sponsoring some children to go to school. We put our heads together with Anurag Siddhu, Gaurav’s brother, and after concluding that this idea was not ambitious enough, we decided that we would be capable of tackling a larger project in the form of a school of our own.

We found that this wish coincided with the plans of Gaurav’s and Anurag’s father, Rajvir Singh, who was soon to retire and has always intended to start such a project (he has now retired and is dedicated to the school and farming the family land). He is a highly experienced man whose guidance and input is invaluable to this undertaking. There are four founding members in all, all of whom are fiercely dedicated to the ideals of this project, as well as two other board members who have taken a less direct role. We are starting small, but intend to expand as we gain experience and funding. Therefore we have registered our organisation legally as a national level ‘society’, with the capacity to work all over India . We are confining our area of operation to Uttar Pradesh however (the state directly north-east of Delhi), as this is the most populous and one of the least educated state in India, and is also the region in which we as an organisation possess a deep local knowledge. Our founding members have an expertise in development issues from both a practical and academic perspective.

We believe that progress will only be made when more and more people receive an education, and many rural communities simply need a bit of outside help to achieve this, as the government is failing to provide adequately for them, despite a clear constitutional right to a free, quality education. We have witnessed first hand these failures, and feel that we can help at least in some small way, and are therefore doing so.

The Founders

Rajvir Singh, President

Mr. Singh has recently come to the end of 35 years of experience as a state government official in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.). He was a divisional engineer, with the State Agro Industrial Corporation, meaning that he has lived and worked all his life with rural communities in the state of U.P. and has the deepest possible understanding of the issues and development challenges that face farming communities. Through his lifetime of experience he has arrived at the conviction that education is key to improving the health, opportunities and general prospects for these people. He has seen also the way in which girl children frequently are left behind in terms of education and general equality, and feels that they therefore require extra attention. He has made a reputation for himself for his honesty, incorruptibility and generosity. Mr. Singh has shared the burden of the start-up work, and will be key in monitoring the project on a week-to-week basis.

Joanna Härmä, Vice-President

Joanna is an international human rights law specialist and has been working in the anti-child labour campaigning field in Delhi since March 2002. She comes from an international background, having been raised between Washington DC , Finland and the UK . She has been responsible for arranging the funding for the project, media relations, website content. She has been travelling back and forth between the UK and India , taking part on the work on the ground in India while she is there. She is about to start her third year of her doctoral studies at the University of Sussex; her topic is the rise of low-cost private schools in rural Uttar Pradesh, India.

Gaurav Siddhu, Founding Board Member

Gaurav is a development economist with four years’ experience, working specifically on education. He has worked for the World Bank, Delhi for 18 months, then worked for one year on the Global Campaign for Education doing advocacy and research into international funding for primary education. From January 2003 he has been dedicated full time to working on the school project. He has been acting as general contractor for the entire building works, along with Anurag Siddhu, his brother.

Anurag Siddhu, General Secretary and Treasurer

Anurag is an engineer with four years’ experience in the manufacturing and production sector. He also has a firm understanding of the issues that affect rural communities and has helped to guide this project since the beginning. He has also done much of the groundwork and found out the necessary information for the foundation of this organisation. He has, with his meticulous attention to detail, made sure that every aspect of the building work has been done to perfection.

Non-board member support:

Rosemary Härmä

Mrs. Härmä, mother of Joanna, has provided invaluable support from Cumbria, dealing with enquiries, spreading the word, and generally providing vital support, both moral and practical.

Updated 9 October 2006

Email:
info@free-school.org

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