In our country, after 50 years of independence, more than 60 Million Indian children had never ever been to school. Illiteracy is a self-fulfilling curse that perpetuates the chain of poverty, degradation and child labour. To reach out to this group of underprivileged children, we proposed in 1998 to provide basic infrastructure for primary education in rural India, reaching out to about one million children over a period of 10 years. We believe that true freedom for an individual comes only through education.
Keeping the millions of underprivileged children in mind, we declared our Long Term National Project as "Freedom Through Education (FTE)". We believe that true freedom for an individual comes only through EDUCATION.
Over the last few years, Round Tables in India have really put in a lot of effort to provide infrastructure in schools. By now, RTI has been successful in building over 1200 schools at a cost of over Rs. 80 crores benefiting over 7 lakh children.
3 State Governments played a significant role in supporting our efforts of "Freedom through Education", the Government of Andhra Pradesh, which has contributed over Rs.30 Million through the "Janmabhoomi" Scheme, the Government of Tamil Nadu which has contributed over Rs.10 Million through the "Namakku Naamae" Scheme and the Government of Karnataka under the "Project Paathashaala" Initiative.
Our efforts on "Freedom through Education" reached out across frontiers in International territory. Tablers of Round Table Netherlands were so impressed with the work we have been doing that they decided to adopt our National Project "Freedom through Education" as their National Project also. Now Round Table of Britain and Ireland (RTBI) too has come forward to join hands together.
Round Table India performed its National duty when it collected and handed over a sum of Rs.5.1 Million to the Prime Minister towards the Kargil Fund.
During the earthquake in Latur in 1993, Tablers of Round Table India moved Relief Material within 24 hours to the earthquake hit villages. We also constructed a Community Welfare Centre in Latur as a relief measure.
Round Table India worked very hard in Orissa during the Cyclone Relief Work in 1999-2000. "Operation Sadhbhavana" launched by us saw the construction of 4 Schools at a cost of Rs.2 Million directly by the Tables in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
Round Table India also tied up with NOVIB of Netherlands and Centre for Youth Social Development to construct 15 schools at a cost of Rs.13 Million all over Orissa.
The Gujarat Earthquake was another moment, when Round Table India was present in full strength to support the victims of the earthquake. We moved materials to Gujarat from all over India and helped them with immediate relief. We have also collected over Rs. 28 Million towards construction of 14 school buildings in Kutch and Surendarnagar Districts of Gujarat. Wipro has contributed a sum of Rs.8 Million towards this initiative.
Round Table India has been recognised by Govt. of Tamil Nadu as one of the 8 Non Governmental Organisations taking up rehabilitation work in Tsunami affected areas. A total of 116 primary schools are in the process of complete reconstruction at a cost of 60 million rupees. Apart from this, RTI also provided boats/fishing nets/other accessories to the fishermen affected in the recent Tsunami.
Round Table India released Braille Dictionaries in Tamil and Marathi languages and distributed the same to several blind institutions. We received accolades from blind people and institutions for this stupendous effort of our association.
The investment in projects is growing every year and the per-capita expenditure on projects of Round Table India is Rs. 50,000/- per annum, possibly the highest amongst all service organisations in India. Also RTI is a zero-overhead organization.
Looking at the importance of education for the development of the country, Kajol & Ajay Devgan, Sabeer Bhatia and Narain Karthikeyan have agreed on their own accord to support in its mission to educate 1 million children. They are the Ambassadors for Round Table India's long-term project 'Freedom Through Education'.
It is a new freedom movement calling for the entire nation to rise to the challenge and take a stand against illiteracy and its tight grip on generations of Indians. We believe that we can do something to give every Indian a chance, for we have over 60 million children in the age group of 3 - 10, who need to be given basic education. They are our future citizens! They are our country's future!!
