IndiaPost.com - Envisioning literacy for all Indian kids

India Post News Service

Education is the basis of all success a person achieves in life. Once you have the ability to read and write, you can reach out for anything. This is what feels Yogi Patel, who is an Indian ambassador for Pratham in the US. He did his chemical engineering there and is now working for spreading this one word in each part of India - 'Education'.

He worked as a chemical engineer in the US for a very long time, but later he felt that he should spend the rest of his life solely towards the service of his home country. Thus, he decided to work with Pratham. Pratham started in the slums of Mumbai in 1994, as a result of the vision of a couple of committed individuals.

It, after much deliberation, decided to tackle the problem of education headlong. Pratham could see only one way of correcting this problem and that was to involve the people of Mumbai to help the government in its quest of universalizing primary education. UNICEF parented the birth of Pratham and continued fostering it for the next three years.

A Public Charitable Trust was accordingly formed by the Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai together with the association of several prominent citizens of the city. The extensive network in the slum area enables Pratham to layer other activities, such as health and computer education, at a minimum additional cost of delivery.

It also gives the researchers and academicians an opportunity to collect primary data. Friends of Pratham have started Pratham chapters in the USA, UK and the Middle East, to promote and support the Pratham cause in India.

Overseas funding agencies such as the OXFAM NOVIB, NPL, AIF have also been sufficiently impressed by the work of Pratham, to start funding certain Pratham activities in a few states. Such overseas funding for Pratham, has been made possible by the rigorous efforts of Yogi Patel.

He is ready to do whatever it takes to achieve Pratham's motive of enabling each child in India, read and write, and thus, be successful. If one asks him, what made him work for an organization like Pratham, 'emotional bonding' is the response one gets.

Yogi goes back to his old days in India and feels nostalgic. His eyes are full of tears, as he shows a thumb mark and says, "Although it is sad to know that such a thumb mark is the signature of more than half of India's population, but this mark is very special to me.

This is my father's signature, who was an illiterate man. I belong to a small village in Gujarat. There were some people who had the spirit of Pratham, who funded my education and sent me to the U.S., to do my chemical engineering. This is how I managed to get out of the circle of illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, and then, another generation of illiterates."

Yogi Patel was honored recently by AAHOA (Asian American Hotel Owners Association) with the Cecil B Day Award for Outstanding Community Service. This prestigious Award is given annually by Cecil B. Day, the Founder of Days Inn to one of 9,000 AAHOA members with the best community service record.

"That's how my journey has been, and this is what makes me work for those who like me, have the ability, but just need a bit of help. My vision is to soon eradicate the curse of illiteracy from my country, India," he says.