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If we just think for a moment to give our children a considerable freedom to choose what to learn, how to learn, and to some degree, even when to learn, what do you think would happen? Would they ever bother to learn anything worthwhile? In pursuit of this quest, the couple Rahul and Ridhi started Swatantra Talim. As the name reflects, not just freedom in education but the important principle is that children are motivated to learn and they have a choice over how and what they learn.
Ridhi, working in a corporate job got married to Rahul, a CA for ten years. Unsatisfied with her job she decided to quit and started looking to create more meaning through her actions. Always keen towards education, she began volunteering with Manzil on creating new and creative learning ways for children from low-income backgrounds. In 2011-12, Ridhi started going to a village in Sitapur district. One day Rahul accompanied her on the trip. Reaching the village, Rahul saw about 40-50 young girls waiting under the tree, as their eyes twinkled with hope.
The village was Ramdwari, 90 km away from Lucknow, where education amongst young children was not prevalent. The parents believe in an earning hand instead of education, and girls get married at a young age of 14 years.
Wanting to change this situation, Ridhi and Rahul thought about what they could do to contribute towards a change through education, and this led to the inception of Swatantra Talim.
Before they started their learning centre, they attended a program called Gramya Manthan, a 9-day rural immersion journey conducted by Youth Alliance. This helped them realise the mindset of villagers. One incident that stood out for Rahul during this period is a case where the villagers were asked why they did not want to use toilets. On talking to them he realised that it was not due to the lack of finances that they refused to build toilets, but because they did not like the idea of having a toilet where they lived. This helped him understand the difference in the mindsets and their point of view.
In July 2013, their first after school learning centre opened with 40 girl students. They started focusing on contextual learning with an intention of bringing high-quality education to the villages. The learning space was created to give exposure to art, craft, library, games and excursions. Seeing the girls flourish, Rahul and Ridhi began to think that for a progressive society, this model of education should reach both boys and girls.This thought led to the opening of boys learning centre in Aug 2014. In the beginning, the thought of boys and girls studying together unsettled the orthodox thinking community. So the boys learning centre was started separately. But gradually the centres were merged.