In at the moment’s fast-paced world, expertise is way over only a instrument, it’s a gateway to alternative, providing younger minds the prospect to carve out future-ready careers. But, for numerous youngsters, particularly these from underserved communities, this door stays locked, constrained by an absence of assets and mentorship.
What if we may change that? What if we may use expertise not simply to show, however to enhance creativity in each youngster and assist them construct their future?
Pushed by these questions, Meenal Majumder, 53, walked away from her profitable company profession, and made it her mission to make sure that each youngster may benefit from the digital world.
‘Merely offering laptops wasn’t sufficient’
After finishing engineering, Meenal went on to pursue an MBA from IIM Calcutta. Upon getting into the workforce, she joined ICICI Securities, the place she shortly made her mark, rising to the place of a senior vice chairman.
“I all the time thought I used to be going to be a lifelong banker, as I actually loved that. However one thing occurred that modified my outlook,” she tells The Higher India. The ‘one thing’ got here when her daughter, a category 8 pupil on the time, developed an curiosity in becoming a member of the college’s robotics workforce.
“My daughter was the one woman in a gaggle of 40 boys. Whereas she was keen about robotics, she confronted challenges not solely with the technical elements but in addition with becoming right into a workforce the place she typically felt like an outsider,” Meenal recollects.
With a background in engineering, she instinctively stepped in to supply the technical steerage her daughter wanted.
“I realised that hands-on, project-based studying does extra than simply educate technical expertise. It cultivates self-confidence and promotes a problem-solving mindset. I noticed this firsthand when my daughter’s workforce designed a robotic to type and recycle waste, pitching their thought to municipal authorities,” she says. “They had been addressing real-world points and creating significant options.”
This expertise opened her eyes to the potential of experiential studying. Meenal recognised that expertise, when taught in the precise method, might be a revolutionary asset, particularly for younger learners in fields like STEM, AI, and robotics.
A humanitarian at coronary heart, Meenal had one other robust realisation through the COVID-19 pandemic. Because the world shut down, faculties shifted to on-line studying, however many youngsters, particularly these from underserved communities, had been left behind resulting from an absence of assets.
Working intently with the Salaam Bombay Basis, in 2020, she helped elevate Rs 18 lakh to supply laptops to youngsters who wanted them to proceed their training.
“I’m extremely grateful for the robust community I constructed at IIM Calcutta, which performed a key function in serving to me elevate the funds I wanted. Throughout the pandemic, we organised a web-based singing programme as a fundraiser, and it was by way of the assist of my community that we had been in a position to make it successful,” she explains.
However seeing youngsters with out entry to digital instruments, understanding they had been lacking out on treasured instructional alternatives, was “an actual wake-up name”.
“I quickly realised that merely offering laptops wasn’t sufficient. I wanted to start out an initiative that might not solely assist youngsters study expertise but in addition help them to adapt to our quickly altering world,” she recollects.
Beginning The Innovation Story
In 2021, after deep reflection, Meenal made the daring choice to depart behind her profitable profession and observe a brand new function, one that might information youngsters to make use of expertise as a instrument for studying, and put together them for the longer term.
Quickly, she launched The Innovation Story (TIS), a platform devoted to providing project-based STEM training to youngsters from all backgrounds, with a particular concentrate on these from underserved communities.
“A buddy of mine, who labored at Amazon, advised me in regards to the launch of the Amazon Future Engineer programme and expressed how a lot he’d love for me to be a part of it as a companion,” she recollects.
“It was an ideal alternative for The Innovation Story to increase our attain, permitting much more youngsters entry to high quality STEM training. We began with providing steerage to 250 college students within the first yr,” she provides.
Most of those youngsters got here from authorities faculties, the place entry to expertise was restricted, and the thought of studying robotics, synthetic intelligence (AI), or coding appeared virtually unreal. “However my imaginative and prescient was to equip these youngsters with expertise that might empower them not simply at school, however for all times,” she says.
TIS partnered with a number of the most prestigious establishments in India, like IIT Delhi and IISc Bengaluru, to develop a curriculum targeted on project-based studying. The programs in coding, robotics, internet improvement, AI/ML, and 3D CAD are designed to enhance innovation.
“We work with educators from establishments like Harvard, MIT, and IITs to verify we’re offering the most effective assets for our college students,” the founder explains. “I’ve common conferences with these specialists to make sure that we preserve enhancing and evolving the curriculum.”
Bridging the useful resource hole
What units TIS aside is its dedication to providing the identical high-quality training to each personal and authorities college college students. Whereas personal faculties typically have entry to top-tier assets, Meenal felt it was important to stage the underprivileged group.
“We can not afford to let youngsters from underserved backgrounds be left behind within the race to technological development. We have to guarantee they get the identical publicity as their friends in personal faculties,” she says.
By collaborations with organisations like Amazon Future Engineer, Capgemini, and Tata Capital, TIS brings state-of-the-art expertise, mentorship, and coaching to college students who in any other case may by no means have entry to it.
One of many largest challenges she confronted was convincing the mother and father of youngsters from underserved communities. Many had been not sure of the worth of STEM studying and hesitant in regards to the potential careers it may open for his or her youngsters.
“The mother and father had been sceptical, and who may blame them?” she recollects. “They didn’t see how studying to construct a robotic would assist them get a job or make their life higher. So, we needed to transcend educating the youngsters, we needed to mentor the mother and father too. They began believing in us after seeing the tangible outcomes,” she explains.
TIS partnered with NGOs like Salaam Bombay, Agastya Worldwide Basis, and Educate for India, who helped join with the communities most in want.
“I keep in mind these youngsters coming in for his or her first session. They had been so excited, however on the identical time, they had been intimidated by the expertise in entrance of them,” she says. “However their starvation to study was palpable. It drove every thing we did.”
Amongst these college students, many expressed an curiosity within the robotics programme. “With restricted assets and a good finances, we had been decided to get the youngsters concerned within the FIRST Tech Problem (FTC), a world robotics competitors,” she explains. They managed to construct low-cost robots and had been in a position to take part alongside personal college groups.
“Within the competitors, the federal government college youngsters, who had barely learnt the right way to use a pc six months in the past, weren’t solely competing however grew to become one of many finalists,” Meenal shares proudly.
After their success within the FTC, the workforce of about 5 youngsters had been chosen to symbolize India on the First International Problem in 2022, a global robotics competitors held in Switzerland.
“The mother and father had so many questions after I advised them we might be taking their youngsters to Switzerland. They had been day by day wage earners, with no passports or expertise with worldwide journey,” she recollects. “I needed to persuade them that the youngsters had been secure and that they had been chosen for a cause. It wasn’t straightforward, however we made it work.”
One of the crucial emotional moments got here on the day of the competitors, when everybody gathered to see the youngsters off.
“One of many mother and father, an auto-rickshaw driver, advised me that he drives to the airport daily to drop passengers, however by no means imagined he would at some point be dropping his personal son off for a global flight,” the founder recollects.
The workforce excelled on the competitors, coming dwelling with a gold medal. It was a second of delight not only for the youngsters, however for his or her whole group.
“There was this one youngster who had been mocked by his buddies for saying he was going to Switzerland. They thought he was mendacity,” the entrepreneur provides. “However when he began posting photos and movies on Instagram, his buddies lastly believed him.”
The influence of this expertise was evident not solely within the youngsters’s achievements however of their future prospects. Two of the 5 college students from the workforce went on to obtain admissions into high engineering faculties. These college students, as soon as missed and underestimated, are actually function fashions for different authorities college youngsters.
Shaping the subsequent technology of problem-solvers
Presently, TIS is engaged on the ‘Nurturing Innovators’ programme, which has turn into a key initiative in shaping the subsequent technology of problem-solvers. By this programme, personal college college students are inspired to establish real-world challenges and design technological options to handle them.
One notable instance comes from a pupil who realised that authorities hospitals are sometimes understaffed and it’s tough to cater to each mattress. “She noticed that when an IV drip was lacking from any mattress, there was no speedy method for the hospital employees to be alerted,” Meenal explains. “This impressed her to design a tool that might notify the central monitoring unit within the hospital room, each time one thing went mistaken with an IV drip.”
When she offered her answer to the dean of Nair Hospital, he was so impressed by its potential that he expressed curiosity in customising it additional to make the answer much more sensible and efficient for the hospital employees.
One other story that the founder shares is that of a category 11 pupil, who can also be a Kathak dancer. “Realising that deaf youngsters wrestle to attach with music, she invented a wristband that tracks sound waves and converts them into vibrations. This permits the wearer to bounce together with the beats,” she says.
For presidency college youngsters, TIS has launched Challenge Udaan, pathways for engineering. “It’s designed for college students of lessons 5 to 12. The programme begins by laying a powerful basis in digital literacy, communication, and mathematical expertise. Then, we step by step construct on these with problem-solving methods, an introduction to robotics by way of hands-on studying, and finally a course on internet app improvement,” Meenal says.
Profitable influence and future progress
“I work with each personal and authorities college youngsters as a result of they’ve a lot to study from one another. At our TIS centres in Mumbai and Bengaluru, it’s actually heartwarming to look at them work together and collaborate so superbly. After they come by way of our doorways, they depart behind the labels of their outdoors worlds and help one another to develop in life,” Meenal shares.
“Earlier than becoming a member of TIS, I used to be only a curious child with a love for programming, however I had no solution to discover it absolutely,” says 19-year-old Pritam Thopate, a second-year pc science engineering pupil at Terna Engineering School.
“Monetary struggles as soon as held me again, however TIS gave me the instruments, steerage, and most significantly, the arrogance to dream greater. One of the crucial transformative moments of my life got here after I participated within the Nationwide Robotics Competitors,” he displays. “My workforce secured second place and was chosen to symbolize India on the Worldwide Robotics Competitors in Geneva. Profitable the gold medal there felt surreal. Immediately, as I sit in my pc engineering lessons, I really feel extra ready and assured than ever earlier than.”
Ansari Almas Mohd Minnatullah, one other TIS pupil, too, credit the programme for altering his life.
“My journey in STEM has been one in all resilience. Rising up with restricted entry to expertise, I needed to educate myself from scratch. TIS gave me the hope and assets I wanted to develop. A turning level got here after I secured a top-three spot in an internet site improvement mission, which elevated my curiosity in STEM studying. By competitions just like the First Tech Problem and Youth Local weather Change, I gained recognition and confidence,” he shares.
Since its inception, TIS has impacted over 10,500 college students and continues to develop. With centres in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Noida, Meenal appears forward to information a million youngsters by 2030.
“The purpose is to guarantee that each youngster has the abilities, confidence, and mindset to alter the world. Once I see a toddler gentle up after constructing their first robotic, or after they resolve an issue they as soon as thought was unattainable, I do know we’re on the precise path,” Meenal asserts.
Edited by Arunava Banerjee; All photos courtesy Meenal Majumder
