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The Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of USA dedicated to education and village development in rural India sponsored a show with four artists from India to who gave a mesmerizing performance and an evening to remember at the Hindu Temple in Casselberry Florida.
The Lead Female vocalist of the group Sanjeevani Bhelande took the audience thru a journey of vintage film songs to the latest hits. Sanjeevani is the very first winner of Zee TV’s popular show Sa re ga ma.
Filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra heard her on the show and selected her voice for the entire soundtrack of his film ‘Kareeb’. She won the best playback singer award for her song “Chorichori jab nazrein mili’ from the same film. She has given several other Bollywood hits like Nikamma kiya, Socha na tha, Road and more. She was lively throughout the concert and took the audience down memory lane with popular hits of Noorjehan, Shamshad Begum, Geeta Dutt, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle and some of her original songs. She has performed over a 1000 concerts worldwide.
Sanjeevani sang a beautiful piece from her latest album ‘Meera and Me’. The songs on the album are a fusion of Hindi and English translations of Meerabai’s songs like Payoji maine and Mere toh giridhar gopal. She said that thru this album she wants to bring in the audience outside India to enjoy the Indian classic poems and to bring them in to concerts of Indian artists outside India.
Sanjeevani was accompanied by Mohit Shastry on the Flute and keyboard. Mohit has been playing professionally in Mumbai films and stage industry for the last 9 years. He has performed with several well known groups and artists.
Amit Mehta was the male singer with the group who also played Tabla & Dholak. He is specialized in Rhythm Composer Vocalist and has been working with well known groups in India like Bankim Pathak group and Dipesh Desai.
Rupesh Rane accompanied the group on the Octopad. Rupesh has been performing as professional Rhythmist since 1997. Rupesh has performed with well known playback singers from Hindi film industry and also performed in stage shows in USA, Cananda and Caribbean Islands.
The team gave a wonderful performance and left the audience wanting for more. EKAL raised 125 schools that evening.
The highlight of the fund raiser was Shreya Bansal a sophomore at Lake Highland Prep. Shreya says ever since she can remember, she has always loved art and had been searching for ways to benefit someone other than herself. Then she found Ekal Vidyalaya and an opportunity to use her talent for a cause. She has been raising money by teaching art classes and donating all of her earnings to Ekal. She sold greeting cards from her student’s artwork and also raffled two of her limited edition art prints to raise funds that evening.

About Ekal Vidyalaya
By: Navin Doshi and Chandresh Saraiya
India’s middle class constitutes over 250 million people having access to health care, schools and housing. However close to 400 million people, living in villages, are illiterate and nearly 25 percent of them do not have access to schools. Government of India spends less than 10 percent of its budget on elementary and secondary schools and most on scientific studies. Almost all higher education is subsidized in India. While the country pumps thousands of students into universities, millions of children in rural areas have no access to education.
It’s ironic that while India launches space shuttles and develops nuclear arsenal, much of its native population has never heard of space or nuclear fission. While the “Sixty Minutes” program on CBS informs its viewers that it is easier to get admission in Harvard or Yale than any of India’s IITs, many of our rural folks cannot read or write their own names.
The work of Ekalvidyalaya (EV) is to build a bridge between the tribal people and the citizens of modern society. EV has developed a non-formal education system that teaches the value and importance of retaining tribal culture, while educating them in literacy and basic health. EV hopes to make education a positive and uplifting experience for the tribal people.
The seeds of EV were planted twenty years ago when a group of educationists, including Dr.Rakesh Popli (a US based nuclear scientist) and Mrs. Rama Popli (a child educationist), began working with the tribes in forests of Jharkhand. They refined the concept of one-teacher school over a period of two years. The evolution of EV continued for decades. In 1999 Ekalvidyalaya Foundation of India (EVFI) was registered as a charitable trust. Currently, EVFI serves as the umbrella organization for many NGOs that run one-teacher schools in their respective areas. International fund-raising arm was established in the year 2001 and later Ekalvidyalaya Foundation of America (EVFUSA), and recently Global Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation (GOEVF) was established. The growth of establishing schools has been exponential—10,000 in four years.

Dr. Bhupendra Kumar Modi, a well-known industrialist of Modi-Xerox fame and the Chairman of GOEVF is aiming to establish 100,000 schools by the year 2010. This task may seem daunting, but he states, “…. the goal is reachable. Initially, there was no faith in the movement. They said it couldn’t be done. Now that we have reached critical mass of almost 10,000 schools, 100,000 become doable.”
Indians who were educated in India at very little cost are accumulating wealth in western countries. Many of these Indians would like to pay back to their country of origin, and EV provides an opportunity. The success of EV movement and its rapid growth is due to the relative low cost of providing a non-formal education in India. It becomes easy to picture when one looks at how a dollar is spent. An average school of forty students has a budget of one dollar a day, $365 for a whole year. No infrastructure capital is needed, as a typical class is held under a tree or other shaded area. What does a dollar buy in America? Not even one meal! It is probably the best bargain one can get anywhere in the world.
EV, although a social organization, does not hand out charity. Instead, it works hand in hand with tribal people. EV goes beyond mere literacy by attempting to empower the village community for its own self-development. At every level, EV seeks the participation of local people. Village elders, or the Panchayet, are involved in selecting the teacher, the curriculum and the schedule. EV recruits local people to coordinate training and other project related issues at every level. Initially, villagers contribute in kind. As they positive results, their involvement and contribution keeps increasing. Furthermore, the school becomes self-sufficient in a period of five to seven years. Often a prominent urban family will serve as a caretaker family and visit periodically, interacting with the villagers.
It takes approximately six months of preparation to initiate a school. EVFI draws on economics of scale by starting a cluster of schools at a given time. As of December 2004, 13000 EV Schools are operating in various parts of the country. Another 4000 schools will be ready to become operational by April 2005. Collection of funds for these schools is in progress.
Ekal Vidyalaya is an organization dedicated to the betterment of India and its oft-neglected rural people. You may visit the website www.ekalvidya.org for more information.
(Dr. Chandresh Saraiya is the President of EVFUSA and Navin Doshi is the Chairman of the Advisory Board.)