Way back in the 2014s, Ratnatai Pingle-Deshmukh, a young & brave women, was driven by the extraordinary dream to see a day when no Indian child would be deprived of rights as basic as survival, participation, protection and development. Like many of us, Ratnatai too was upset when she saw disparities between poor children & poor women. She hated to see children begging and working as servants. Unlike most of us though, she did something about it.

A shocking 17.7 million children in India are out of school. Working in hazardous conditions, living on the street, braving hunger, poverty and violence, childhood for them has become an endless struggle to survive.

But despite their circumstances, they have not stopped dreaming. Their dreams are as colourful as any other child’s and they have just as much potential to fulfil them. What they lack is a fair chance – an opportunity to go school, to hone their talents, to even have a happy and carefree childhood that every child deserves.

All through the early, difficult years, it was Ratna’s passion and conviction that drove Rajmata Jijau Org. She was firmly convinced that each of us can, in our own small way, be the agents of change, and when enough of us become one, the impact is a lasting change for the better. All he asked of people was that they help Rajmata Jijau Org by doing what they were good at. As she put it, “What I can do, I must do.”

Join and help us in our efforts to put Every Child in School.