The undeniable power of Education- Ishita Jain, MDI Gurgaon

I have been born and brought up in a family that has always valued education more than anything in this world. My mother and her sisters are all teachers while my dad works in the education ministry and my extended family is full of people who have completed their masters. I have always been taught to value education as it is the only true harbinger of social change in the long run and feel privileged to have been received this prestigious opportunity to go to a famous private school in Delhi and have access to a lot of other avenues of learning which millions of kids today are deprived of. My family always made sure that I never forget the value of education and helped me realise how it is essential for me to give back something to the society, even if it was not something monumental. When I was in class 8^th, I started teaching basic English to the young house helps, who had recently come to Delhi from their villages, working in our locality and taught them day to day mathematics as well. I did this over a couple of few months a taught over 10 house helps. I also tutored my house help’s children, right till the time I left for my MBA and her kids topped in their respective classes for 4 consecutive years. Now my younger sister has started teaching them. I also helped the house helps in our locality with the bank account opening procedures gave them some financial literacy classes. When I joined my under-graduation college, I joined Education Programme of my college. The aim of the programme was to teach the construction workers, their kids and nearby locality’s underprivileged kids anything and everything they wanted to learn. We used to assist them with their homework, teach them things outside the curriculum as well. The program was designed in such a beautiful manner that the focus was more on learning than on just studying. Throughout the year, we used to have various fun sessions, revolving around a festival, like Diwali Mela; Holi Celebrations, Dussehra Celebrations, Christmas and New Year Celebrations and we also arranged for weekly art and craft sessions where children could show us the creative side of them. We would ask them to colour diyas, which we would later sell during the College’s Diwali Mela, decorate candles, make string paintings and so much more. More than anything, the joy that comes with the time spent with these innocent and lovely children was worth every drop of sweat and every minute of time spent on arranging the events and materials for them. The very thought that you could help a child become a better version of himself/herself, get education and help his/her family get out of the poverty cycle, do something different in this stagnant world used to fill us all with emotions which words can never describe. We used to have special weekend classes for the construction workers so that they did not miss out on their work.
Aditya Birla Group has been big in my life, not only because of the high-quality products and class apart customer services which they provide, but also because of the social initiatives the group has been taking. I have seen my distant relatives and extended family getting quality education and healthcare through the undying efforts of ABG and this is the most important reason for why I respect Aditya Birla Group. The way they touch people’s lives, the way they are so determined to bring about grassroot level change in the lives of the people, who have been neglected by various forces of change in our society, is worth every word of appreciation. This is how Aditya Birla Group is big in my life.