Edtech major Vedantu is launching the ‘Help India Learn’ initiative to support children who have lost their parents or an earning member due to the pandemic. Under this initiative, the start-up has pledged `15 crore to assist about 12,000 impacted children.
Pulkit Jain, co-founder & product head, Vedantu, told FE that a part of the fund would be disbursed through partner organisations (NGOs etc that are already working on-ground) to help assist the impacted children with food, shelter, educational devices and school fees.
“While the pandemic brought to the forefront the digital divide as far as K12 education is concerned, the worst impact is on kids who have lost their parents or an earning member of the family,” Jain said. “While we had been trying to support underprivileged students over the last two three years, this time around we’ve created a structured programme. The aim is to reach out to those set of students whom for-profit ed-tech cannot reach.”
Under Help India Learn, NGOs and individuals who are working towards assisting the affected children can team up with Vedantu and work together to ensure their education continues.
Jain said that the idea is to create a long-term impact in the lives of these 12,000 students. “We have adopted these kids academically so that we can shape their lives continuously as we go ahead,” he said.
While he didn’t name the NGOs/partner organisations who will work on-ground on this initiative, he said Vedantu is in talks with six-seven organisations right now. “We are also launching a webpage on this initiative to invite interest from organisations who may want to partner with us, going forward.”
