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entrepreneur in 2012 with the floods.
the launch of Whitenife, “With the help of Kedar Mondal, a
one of the largest market- local activist, we built the first Sabuj
places for ethical gifting Pathshala in Suhanitola, Malda, 15
and fashion. In 2013, she years ago. But it was difficult to con-
was acknowledged as one vince the local people, the majority
of the Top 50 most in- of them orthodox Muslims, to send
novative student entre- their children, especially girls, to
preneurs worldwide by school. It took many public aware-
Kairos Society, a US-based ness campaigns to persuade parents
student-run not-for- to agree to our even building the
profit foundation. In 2016, school,” recalls Ghosh, a Presidency
she promoted the Little College alum, who started his career
Chipper International as a journalist with Star Ananda
Preschool (2018) in Agra. Jain (left) & Bajaj: upskilling wave and currently works in the Delhi
This pre-primary was bureau of Deutsche Welle, a German
ter of Outstanding Leadership in the Green schools government-funded media company.
awarded #1 rank under the parame-
Direct talk. “The common curriculum
EducationWorld Grand Jury India initiative of Sabuj Pathshala schools has been
Preschool Rankings 2020-21. specially designed to encourage cre-
Direct talk. “The size of the global ativity, critical thinking and life skills
online education market is expected abuj Pathshala (‘green development. It’s a balanced mix of
to grow to US $13 billion (Rs.96,378 school’), a Kolkata-based academics and poetry, theatre, and
crore) in 2026. Several studies indi- Svoluntary organisation, has es- art and crafts. People from diverse
cate that 65 percent of managers and tablished three lower primary (class walks of life including professors,
professionals in industry worldwide I-IV) schools for underprivileged doctors, and theatre personalities
want to upskill because they are children of Muslim and tribal com- often visit our three schools to widen
aware that they need to adapt to new munities in the Malda, Jalpaiguri the horizons of children. After they
technologies and emerging business and Murshidabad districts of West complete class IV, we facilitate their
management complexities,” says Bengal. admission into local government
Jain. This NGO was promoted in 2006 schools while continuing to provide
Adds Bajaj: “Professionals in edu- by Kolkata journalists MILAN DUTTA learning support,” says Milan Dutta,
cation and allied vocations need to and SYAMANTAK GHOSH, together a former journalist with Anandaba-
deeply ponder how we are preparing with software engineer Arijit Das zar Patrika.
our children for the future. In Whiz and Prof. Tapasya Ghosh. Since then, Future plans. Currently, the an-
League, we are equipping them with several like-minded friends have nual expenditure of Rs.1.5 lakh is
first-hand knowledge about careers joined this philanthropic mission. Dutta & Ghosh (seated): philanthropic mission
and professions that are not on the Newspeg. A third Sabuj Pathsha-
radar of India’s higher education la was established in Murshid-
institutions.” abad last September despite the
Future plans. This year, the plat- raging Coronavirus pandemic,
form intends to expand the number to bridge the learning gaps of
of courses to ten. Moreover, it has 20 underprivileged children
partnered with Mumbai-based True enrolled in local government
School of Music (TSM) and is also schools.
reaching out to more schools and History. In 2005, recurrent
universities to provide supplemen- floods in Malda district caused
tary education. massive damage to life and
Self-financed thus far, Jain and property. While reporting on this
Bajaj are parleying with investors disaster for Anandabazar and
to infuse additional capital into Star Ananda news publications,
the enterprise to enable them to go Dutta and Ghosh felt it incum-
national. bent upon them to provide as-
Wind in your sails! sistance to little children whose
Dipta Joshi (Mumbai) lives were totally disrupted by

JULY 2021 EDUCATIONWORLD 55