Volunteer with Adharshila

Join hands with Adharshila to make a difference to the world. Contact us to volunteer, contribute to, or otherwise associate with a hands-on, life-changing experience of working in a remote rural area of India.

You will find a stint with Adharshila a highly enriching experience if your areas of interest include any of the following:

-Meaningful education of underprivileged rural children
-Equitable and sustainable conservation of biodiversity
-Sustainable natural resource management
-Sustainable agriculture for semi-arid tropics
-Sustainable farm and non-farm livelihood avenues
-Sustainably using forest produce for medicinal, commercial and other purpose
-Adivasi (indigenous) culture and way of life
-Preserving indigenous health traditions and knowledge
-Empowerment of the poor, especially women

Adharshila invites researchers, academics, volunteers, donors, and other interested people to contact us and visit our field office in village Agraa, to explore ways of associating themselves more actively with their areas of interest.

We also invite educational institutions to contact us for devising meaningful exposure visits for students, to get a real ‘feel’ of rural India.

Achievements, Infrastructure and Initiatives

Students Achievements
-Implementation of classes up to Standard 8, where the MP State curriculum is taught to children in the 5-14 age group
-Excellent performance by the Adharshila students each year in the Class 5 and Class 8 board examinations held by the State
-Excellent performance by a majority of students in the house examinations held for all other classes














Infrastructure
-Purchase of 0.48 hectares of land for the Adharshila Campus in village Agraa
-Establishment of a composite school campus with three small building units, each with 3 rooms -Establishment of a playground, stage, mini-clinic and livelihood training spaces on the Adharshila campus
-Increased outreach (every year, nearly 150 children from 15 to 20 villages surrounding Agraa attend the Adharshila School)

Administration
-Government recognition up to the Middle School level. As a result, the Adharshila School at Agraa now runs classes up to Standard 8, as against the Primary School that was originally proposed.
-Creation of a cadre of 8 dedicated, well-trained teachers drawn from the local community. These teachers have continuously upgraded their own skills and qualifications, and have been exposed to a range of teaching initiatives across the region for broadening their vision of education.
-Establishment and stabilization of the Adharshila Shiksha Samiti to oversee the functioning of the school. The Samiti has a 7-member Governing Board consisting of experts from varied fields, who are committed to providing long-term support to the School.













Initiatives
-Regular health check-ups, treatment and monitoring of students through the on-campus Arogya clinic
-Development of an innovative and locally relevant Environment Education curriculum, with detailed teaching modules and indoor and outdoor activities for children of all ages
-Organizing the Annual Bal Mela (Children’s Festival) with new themes, events and initiatives every year

Vision and Mission

Adharshila aims to grow into a full-fledged Secondary School that will provide quality education to children of extremely poor and economically vulnerable households in the remote and backward Chambal region of India. Adharshila will develop into a learning hub for this region, by expanding the outreach of its innovative livelihood skill development work not just to its own students, but also to students of government run primary schools in the area.

Its innovative environment education modules will instill conservation awareness among the children, so that they are able to face the challenges of sustainable development and climate change more effectively as adults. Adharshila will be a space where young students get opportunities to move beyond purely syllabus-based learning. It will be a place where they can play, create, experiment, innovate and enjoy, while also learning from books and classroom lessons. It will offer them opportunities to learn using all of their senses and a variety of media. It will expose them to proven techniques of sustainable agriculture and a variety of non-farm livelihood skills, so that adopting these ideas and practices comes naturally to them when they grow up. At Adharshila, the students will be close to trees and open spaces, so that their natural compassion and affinity for nature and animals gets a keener edge.

Through a sustained focus on high quality, joyful, holistic and meaningful education, Adharshila will create within a decade a critical mass of dedicated young individuals who will spearhead rapid social, economic and political transformation of this region. Most importantly, Adharshila will be an oasis among this region of scarcity, where each child finds joy in learning, and which she can look back upon with fondness when she grows up, so that she always has an incentive to contribute to her homeland, from wherever her life takes her.

The Adharshila School

The Adharshila school was established on August 15, 2005 at village Agraa in the Vijaypur tehsil of district Sheopur, Madhya Pradesh. It’s aim is to put into action an innovative, locally relevant approach to primary education for first generation school-going children in the remote and economically vulnerable Adivasi villages of Chambal region.

Since then, the Adharshila school has grown rapidly, far beyond original projections and expectations. It has made notable advances in providing meaningful and joyful education to children from extremely poor and vulnerable households. In this red, white and green coloured campus, nearly 200 boys and girls come daily to spend a day full of fun and learning. The Adharshila school is situated among the green fields between villages Palpur and Agraa, and its serene surroundings create an ideal environment for learning.

The Adharshila School is now an integral part of the social landscape of the region, and its continued existence and growth is central to the long-term sustainable development of this poor and yet natural resource abundant region next to the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary.