Bangalore effective education task (BEET) force: Promoting collaborative mindset

Abstract

India has the largest population, approximately 287 million, of illiterate, according to a UNESCO report based on 2011 census. This is approximately 37% of the world’s illiterate population. India’s literacy rate stood at 74% (2011 census), leaving a quarter of its people without even basic reading and writing skills. The Right of Children to Fee and Compulsory Education (RTE.) Act, 2009, which came into effect on 1 April 2010, has made free and compulsory education, a fundamental right for all children in the age group of 6-14 years. While access to education has been made as a child’s fundamental right, various socio-economic factors like poverty prove to be a hurdle for many children. As poverty and illiteracy are closely linked, India’s 22% Below Poverty Line population, pose an uphill task in improving the literacy rate of India. A lot of Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) have been working in and around Bangalore, to ensure access to education for under privileged children. Let’s Do Some Good Foundation (LDSG), founded by Shoma Bakre and Samridhdhi Trust, founded by Mom Banerjee are two such organizations working in this space. Before starting BEET Force, founders of both the organisations noticed that there was no common platform for collaboration among the various organizations that are working in the same space with common goals. This lack of connect among the organizations, led to a big gap in the social sector wherein people from different organizations were doing the same work, reinventing the wheel, wasting resources that could have been better utilised elsewhere. This was the motivation for the founders of Let’s Do Some Good Foundation and Samridhdhi Trust to create a platform that would connect the organizations/individuals who can provide resources, in the form of time/money/materials/services, with those who seek those resources for benefiting the under privileged children. They envisioned that such a platform would promote collaboration among the organizations working in the education space, thereby streamlining the usage of resources and eliminating the wastage of resources.