Education in India is primarily managed by the state-run public education system, which falls under the command of the government at three levels: central, state and local. Under various articles of the Indian Constitution and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, free and compulsory education is provided as a fundamental right to children aged 6 to 14. The approximate ratio of the total number of public schools to private schools in India is 10:3.
Mahatma Ayyankali was an Indian politician, prominent social reformer, educator, economist, lawmaker, and revolutionary leader. He worked for the advancement of the oppressed people in the princely state of Travancore. His struggle resulted in many changes that improved the socio-political structure of Kerala. His determined and relentless efforts changed the lives of Dalits.
Dalit, also some of them previously known as untouchables, is the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold varna of the caste hierarchy and were seen as forming a fifth varna, also known by the name of Panchama. Several scholars have drawn parallels between Dalits and the Burakumin of Japan, the Baekjeong of Korea and the peasant class of the medieval European feudal system.
Vidyashilp Academy is a private, co-educational school located in Yelahanka, Bangalore, India.
Children on the Edge is a non-profit charitable organisation dedicated to working on behalf of some of the most marginalised children around the world. The organisation is based in Chichester and was founded by the owner of The Body Shop, Dame Anita Roddick, (DBE) in 1990 following her visit to several Romanian orphanages. It was co-founded by Rachel Bentley, who has led the organisation to this day.
Abraham M. George is an Indian-American businessman, academic, and philanthropist. He is the founder of The George Foundation (TGF), a non-profit organization based in Bangalore, India dedicated to the welfare and empowerment of economically and socially disadvantaged populations in India. His foundation has initiated numerous projects in poverty alleviation, education, healthcare, lead poisoning prevention, women's empowerment, and press freedom. He founded the Shanti Bhavan school to help provide free education to socially disadvantaged kids from age 4 through college.
Ravi Hutheesing is an American keynote speaker, cultural diplomat serving the US Department of State, singer-songwriter, and former guitarist for the band Hanson, writer, and pilot. He is also a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family. By ancestry, he's both Indian and German.
Vanessa Roth is an American filmmaker who writes, produces and directs non-fiction films. She has won a number of awards for her films, including a 2008 Academy Award for Best Short Documentary for Freeheld; an Emmy Honors Award for Social Impact and a IDA Nomination for best doc series for her Netflix series, Daughters of Destiny; an Alfred I duPont-Columbia award for Taken In: The Lives of America's Foster Children; Impact Doc Awards for Outstanding Achievement in filmmaking for The Girl and The Picture; two Sundance Special Jury Prizes; two Cine Golden Eagles; two Casey Medals; and a MacArthur Grant. She directed Mary J. Blige's My Life (2021).
Project Nanhi Kali is an Indian non-governmental organisation that supports education for underprivileged girls in India.
Bhagya Reddy Varma, born as Madari Bagaiah was an Indian political leader, social reformer and activist. He fought against untouchability in Hyderabad State. He also fought for abolition of the Jogini and Devdasi systems.
Our Children Foundation (OCF) is a non-profit organisation that provides free education for underprivileged children in India’s rural and semi-rural villages. Founded by Capt. Asraf Ali Shaikh, Founder, Chairman - Our Children Foundation. The goal of Our Children Foundation is to provide institutional reforms that improve disadvantaged people’s access to, success in, and opportunities from quality education in a sustainable manner. Our Children School is OCF’s first project, which focuses on establishing and reopening education centres in areas with inadequate access to schooling in West Bengal.
Sudha Varghese, also known as Sister Sudha, is a former religious sister and social worker in India who has devoted herself to the Musahar, the Dalit of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, one of the Scheduled Castes and who are considered the "untouchables". She resides and works in Jamsaut, a village in Patna district. She is sometimes called didi, which means "elder sister".
Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) is one of the organisations of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). It works to eradicate the untouchability and other forms of caste oppression. It was the key organisation which worked in razing the untouchability wall at Uthapuram.
Marimuthu Bharathan is an Indian activist for the rights of Dalits. He was awarded the 2012 Human Rights Tulip by the Dutch government, but was refused a passport to leave India to receive the award in person, due to a pending murder charge that he strongly denied.
Harijan Sevak Sangh is a non-profit organisation founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1932 to eradicate untouchability in India, working for Harijan or Dalit people and upliftment of Depressed Class of India. It is headquartered at Kingsway Camp in Delhi, with branches in 26 states across India.
The Backward Class is a 2014 Canadian documentary film directed by Madeleine Grant. The film follows the success of a group of ethnically disadvantaged students near Bangalore, India, in taking high-school graduation exams. The film, created by a group of graduates of the University of British Columbia, premiered at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in May 2014 and won the Audience Favourite award.
The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) is a non-governmental privately held national-level board of school education in India that conducts the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) Examination for Class X and the Indian School Certificate (ISC) for Class XII.
Daughters of Destiny is a 2017 English-language original Netflix documentary series created by Oscar-winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth. It follows a group of disadvantaged children in rural India enrolled in the Shanti Bhavan residential school located in Tamil Nadu, India.
Baudhacharya Shanti Swaroop Baudh was an Indian writer, Buddhist scholar, painter, publisher and Pali language expert. He was an Ambedkarite-Buddhist activist. He was born in 1949 at Old Delhi in a Jatav Dalit family. In 1975, he set up Samyak Prakashan, a publishing house dedicated to Ambedkarite, Navayana Buddhist, Pali literature and Dalit literature. Samyak Prakashan has published over 2000 books many of which have been translated into some 14 different languages including English, Sinhalese, Nepalese, Burmese. He was a board of editors member of Dhamma Darpan and Dalit Dastak magazines. He was Delhi state president of Buddhist Society of India.
Ajit George is an Indian-American activist and game designer. He is the Chief Operating Officer of Shanti Bhavan Children's Project, an international nonprofit organization based in Bangalore, India, that provides free education to socially disadvantaged children from the age of four until they graduate from college.
