Lack of proper avenues for education among a vast section of the world Bharti Foundation’s Mamta Saikia (middle) receiving the Asian CSR Award in Singapore.population has been the root cause of serious underdevelopment around the globe, especially in Africa and other Third World countries. The average education scenario in rural India is also pathetic, to say the least.

For the improvement of the education sector among the rural communities extra effort needs to be carried on for a better tomorrow of all concerned, including the major business players too.

Many big and small houses have been contributing their bit towards improvement of the education sector. But Bharti Foundation, the ‘philanthropy’ arm of Bharti Enterprises, one of India’s leading business conglomerates, has recently won the Asian CSR Award 2008 for the support and improvement of education among the rural communities. Co-presented by the Asian Institute of Management, the Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility and Intel Corporation, the award was presented to Bharti Foundation by Dr Noeleen Heyzer, under-secretary-general of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of Economic and Social Commission for Asia, at an august ceremony in Singapore, following recognition of Bharti Foundation’s flagship venture, the Satya Bharti School Programme as a great contribution to education among the rural communities.

“We are delighted at this international recognition for this unique initiative from Bharti Foundation. The Satya Bharti School programme has demonstrated how organizations can work effectively for the uplift of underprivileged children in the rural areas. We are confident that children benefiting from this programme will become equal partners in India’s future economic growth”, said Bharti Foundation co-chairman Rakesh Bharti Mittal, reacting to the prestigious awards.

The Asian CSR Awards, said to be Asia’s premier awards programme on corporate social responsibility, recognize and honour Asian companies for outstanding, innovative and world-class products, services, projects and programmes in five categories. Bharti Foundation was chosen as the winner in the ‘Support and Improvement of Education’ category from among 170 entries representing 120 companies from 15 countries.

It may be mentioned that Satya Bharti School Programme is an innovative model that aims to make available high-quality free education to the poor, out-of-school and migrant children, especially the girl child in the Indian countryside. The programme combines various building blocks of education such as quality teachers, comprehensive training modules, scientifically-designed teaching-learning processes and has set benchmarks in the field of quality education. Moreover, Bharti Foundation has also started to support libraries in selected centres in rural Assam.

This pat on the back to Bharti Foundation would inspire other major players to genuinely try and contribute from their substantial income for the uplift of neglected and deprived rural masses through quality education.

Simanta Bhagawati