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mobile app (YOL), a Hap- to enhance their happi-
piness Program, which ness quotient by adapting,
can dramatically improve adopting and integrating
students’ socio-emotional, 12 important components
happiness and intel- of their lives — family,
ligence quotients. YOL health, friends, wallet,
enables them to control documents, outings,
and calibrate their usage conscience, commitments,
of distracting social media ambition, confessions,
swamped with information dilemmas, inhibitions —
overload. facilitating their recovery
The YOL Happiness from digital addiction.
Program has received top- With AICTE’s approval,
level global endorsement. YOL can now be intro-
The not-for-profit YOLF Kochhar (left) & Chawla: top level global endorsement duced by any university/
has Prof. Phoebe Koun- college as a credit course.
douri, Chair of the UN SDG-Europe in 2013 with American psychiatrist- In addition, the YOL app serves a
and a member of the Evaluation author Harold Bloomfield made him very useful national purpose. It is
Committee of the Nobel Foundation; aware of the urgency of finding a so- alarming to think that the minds of
Dr. Saamdu Chetri, founding former lution for young social media addicts our children and youth are being
executive director, Gross National incrementally becoming “devoid of recolonised, herded and traded by
Happiness Centre, Bhutan, and purpose, objectives and destination”. Western media companies like Face-
Prof. Philip Kotler, Distinguished Following this epiphany, he quit book which has one billion subscrib-
Professor of Marketing of the Kel- corporate life to take an entirely dif- ers in India,” says Kochhar.
logg School of Management, Illinois ferent path. Together with Chawla, Future plans. Not ones to rest on
(USA), on its Board of Advisors and he promoted the Dharamshala-based their laurels, the duo has drawn up a
Validators. YOL Foundation in 2019. “Our goal blueprint to build YOLF into a global
Newspeg. Since the app was was to develop an app-based YOL enterprise with a subscriber base
launched in early 2022, it has also Happiness Program that would en- exceeding Facebook’s over the next
been endorsed by Prof. Anil Sahas- able children and youth to reclaim four years. “YOL is a gamified app
rabudhe, former chairman of AICTE, their minds from the digital social and will soon issue tokens against
and is receiving “the serious atten- media ocean in which they are its usage. These tokens will then
tion” of Dr. Padmakali Banerji, Vice adrift. With a six-member team become redeemable against goods
Chancellor of Sir Padampat Singha- of highly qualified designers, we and services of various commercial
nia University, Udaipur; Prof. J.P. have developed the YOL Happiness companies anxious to reach users of
Pandey, Vice Chancellor of Abdul Program App which enables people the app,” explains Chawla.
Kalam Tech University, Lucknow; to measure the time they spend on Wind in your sails!
and Prof. R. Velraj, Vice Chancellor social media leisure apps Facebook, Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)
of Anna University, Chennai. Accord- Instagram, Snapchat etc — and sug-
ing to Kochhar, these institutions are gests ways and means to cut back Little Elly engineer
all set to introduce the YOL Happi- and engage in creative learning,”
ness Program as a 2/4 credits course says Kochhar, also a member of
blended with a major. It will be ac- the World Happiness Foundation, REETI BHANDARY is co-
cessible on customised apps acquired Florida (USA). founder of Learning Edge
and owned by these institutions, After the formal launch of YOL PIndia Pvt. Ltd, Bengaluru.
in the new academic year 2023-24 in early 2022, Yogi and his team The company is franchisor of the
beginning this month. made a presentation to then AICTE 130-strong chain of Little Elly pre-
History. After graduating from chairman Prof. Anil Sahasrabudhe, schools in India and two overseas
Punjab University and American who immediately resonated with its (Kathmandu, Seattle), which provide
Graduate University, Miami, Koch- objectives, stating that it will “rescue early childhood care and education
har acquired over three decades of the mind on the same phone that (ECCE) to children aged six months-
corporate experience with several stole it.” 5-years.
blue-chip companies in India (Tata Direct talk. “The app not only mea- Little Elly’s early childhood
Tea, Essar, Microsoft India), the UK sures time spent on leisure social curriculum — which draws from
and UAE before a chance encounter media, it also advises subscribers teaching-learning pedagogies of Dr.

JULY 2023 EDUCATIONWORLD 45