The education scenario in India has seen rapid progress over the last two decades in addressing the diverse challenges.

  • Enrollment in primary schools has increased to around 96% and school infrastructure has also improved, but there are still significant challenges in enrollment for vulnerable communities.
  • Enrollment numbers are low in vulnerable communities.
  • Enrollment numbers drop sharply in secondary school.
  • Retention beyond secondary school is a challenge in many places. 
  • Irregular attendance is another factor in many rural areas.  

Our projects focus on vulnerable communities who face challenges with universal coverage, out of school children, poor attendance and retention. Some of these communities live in deep rural areas and are primitive tribal groups , socially disadvantaged communities such as scheduled castes, linguistic minority communities at interstate borders and migrant populations like brick kiln workers. We work in these communities to ensure children are enrolled in school, attend school regularly and transition to higher grades while achieving desired learning competencies.

  • We partner with the government to ensure school infrastructure and services are available and functioning per specified norms.
  • We conduct door-to-door visits (and other awareness programs) to educate the community to enroll their children in school and participate in their education.
  • We build community ownership and participation by activating and strengthening the mothers committees and school monitoring committees. This involves training the parents about their roles and responsibilities in school monitoring committees.
  • We involve the children in the change, by activating child rights clubs and child parliaments in schools.
  • We support the teacher by training them on child friendly teaching methodologies and providing learning material for classrooms.

We divide our work into three distinct age groups that also map to the Government programs that support each of these groups.

  •    Preschools for children under 6 years, that are part of the Government’s Anganwadi program
  •    Primary Schools for 6-14 years old children
  •    Upper Primary and High Schools for children above 14 years

The purpose of UN Sustainable Development (SDG) Goal 4 is ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. ILP has aligned all its achievement/impact indicators with the the education-related targets and indicators of UN SDG Goal 4. 

In the last 10 years of our work across 8 states, our projects have created the following impact.

Access to Schools

  • 174 – Government Preschools Opened/Upgraded through community empowerment
  • 175 –  Government Schools Opened/Upgraded through community empowerment
  • 3,000 – Schools with active community involvement in governance and infrastructure

Enrollment  & Retention

  • 32,000 children enrolled into schools
  • 10,000  children who had dropped out, re-enrolled into schools
  • 300,000 children retained in schools
State District Description # of Villages Beneficiary Count
Andhra Pradesh Chittoor Access & Enrollment for children of Yenadi tribe 100 12,567
Andhra Pradesh Kurnool Enable education in a block with lowest literacy rate 19 10,785
Andhra Pradesh Srikakulam Preschool & School readiness in two blocks 23 6,437
Andhra Pradesh Vizianagaram Activity based learning in primary schools 18 1,287
Bihar Jahanabad Bring out-of-school children back to school 40 16,899
Bihar Nalanda Education for all with community support 41 21,140
Bihar Patna Education for Mushar community 20 2,086
Jharkhand Giridh Strengthening schools in Mica mining areas 21 4,843
Jharkhand Lohardaga Community empowerment for education 30 14,652
Jharkhand Saraikela-Kharaswan Bring children back to school and improve learning 45 16,781
Jharkhand West Singbhum Catalyze change through children’s education 60 7,883
Karnataka Bijapur Engage community for children’s education 36 17,445
Karnataka Chikkabalapura Right to Education Task force in Karnataka 45 8,081
Karnataka Davangere Strengthen schools via community participation 165 40,946
Karnataka Kalbaurgi Early childhood education program 1274 78,965
Odisha Dhenkenal Access and Enrollment for tribal children 109 16,395
Odisha Keonjhar Ensuring schooling for children of primitive tribes 57 9,004
Odisha Keonjhar Bring tribal children back to school 148 17,215
Tamil Nadu Cuddalore Ensure development, protection and education of girl children 361 13,514
Tamil Nadu Dindigul Enrollment and improving learning outcomes 1 1,203
Tamil Nadu Krishnagiri Enrollment & Quality education for children of linguistic minorities 64 16,221
Tamil Nadu Thiruvannamalai Ensure quality education for tribal children 72 11,654
Tamil Nadu Thiruvallur Education for children of brick kiln workers 331 24,979
Telangana Adilabad Strengthen child rights to eradicate child labor 40 4,868
Telangana Wanaparthy Education for children of Lambada tribes 48 17,734