This 3-year project has the objective to improve the educational levels of the youth by establishing centres that cater to their learning needs and making youth and women aware about the issues affecting their environment and providing them with necessary life skills. It targets women and youth in the age group of 11-20 from gond (ST) and bhariya (PTG) communities. 

The education status of most who are fortunate to get enrolled in a school, is marked with poor learning levels, high dropout rates, more so amongst girl child, along with a proportion of youth that falls under the “never been to school” category.  In addition, adolescent girls experience physiological changes that cause them a lot of physical and mental stress and the situation gets compounded due to phenomena of early marriages. The project takes cognizance of the fact that the youth have the potential to act as potent agents of change in their community and society as a whole.  Therefore, it also proposes capacity building of the target group in issues related with health, hygiene, sanitation, governance and life skills. 

The project builds on the previous interventions carried out in 30 existing villages and another 20 villages to be added in the next phase. This proposed project will continue with the same 50 villages to intensify the activities and outputs of the pilot phase and add need based new intensive interventions. Out of these 50 villages, 10 villages would be covered under intensive interventions while the remaining 40 would be covered for broader interventions related with education. Towards successful implementation of the project activities and leading to desired results, a team of trained staff will be deployed to direct work the youth on the ground.

The project will form youth and women groups at the village level and organize capacity building events on issues critical to the group. While dedicated Centres will be set up to promote regular education, the existing courses will be re-design to make learning easier.  These will be done by working to improve education levels amongst the youth – counselling of children, organising residential courses, distributing Scholarships and organizing vocational training.  Another area of engagement will be to work at an institutional level by forming youth groups, women collectives and their interaction with gramsabha so that they are cognizant of issues affecting them and their environment.

• The project will set up Life Skill Training Centres to run designed modules for Youth and Women Group’s Training. It will also run the Science Centre, Protasahan Kendra (Akhvelo) and village Level Libraries to aid the learning. 
• At Outcome level, the project will ensure that the children under ‘Never been to school' and 'drop out’ category are placed in the mainstream educational system with greater awareness of the importance of education and as result they are likely to continue education to higher levels.