We are looking for people who have a semi-urban, rural kind of background who are much more prone to going back and working in their respective areas. We have 38 centres across the country for admission. No other university is following this kind of admission practice. We are enabling people who are really in the trenches to come and apply for admission to this university. We believe rural people have the intelligence. What they lack are the language skills (Hindi and English) and exposure. 

Livelihood requires more — knowledge and networks, both social and cultural. It requires access to natural physical resources—forests, grazing lands, water sources (what I have collectively called “land”). Beyond all this, it depends on rights — legal and social.The micro reality of this complex mesh that constitutes livelihood is determined by our macro socio-political choices. It depends on our model of development, followed consciously and unconsciously.

A majority of successful schools demonstrate an enabling and favorable environment as compared to the other schools, of which the most heartwarming are these two nuggets: there are very few fights among the children who resolve their arguments through dialogue; there is no corporal punishment in most of these successful schools.

In many a classroom, our vaunted linguistic diversity turns into a massive barrier for underprivileged children. It is a problem created by structure. In most cases, the teacher is familiar with the child’s language. But the system does not see the teacher as a contributor to the curriculum; instead, it tries to develop a curriculum that prioritizes common transactional standards over contextual creative processes. Such a curriculum can only have so many variants.