Utpal Bhatt
Nominated for : Motivating poor school students in remote areas.
Initiative - Distributes school uniform among the Poor.
Nominated for : Motivating poor school students in remote areas.
Initiative - Distributes school uniform among the Poor.
Uniforms may mean the most monotonous and non-glamorous dress code for many of us. However, to a large number of school students, especially in rural areas, uniforms mean a flaunt-it-in-style-at-wedding outfits. Many of us are in the habit of buying new uniforms at the beginning of new academic year and discard the old ones. One man thought of changing this by recycling the discarded uniforms.Utpal Bhatt, a former government employee, began collecting old uniforms in year 2011 after he visited some rural schools as part of his Gunotsav project assignment. He was supposed to inspect the working of the rural community schools. Says Bhatt, “When I first visited schools in rural areas, I noticed that many of the students came to schools in tattered clothes. They were disciplined and eager to study, but it did not look like a classroom as none in the lot wore decent dresses, forget a uniform.” This inspired Bhatt to begin a modest charity by collecting old uniforms and distributing them among the school students in rural areas.
Later, he worked out statistics and calculated whether it was feasible for him to give newly stitched uniforms to these young and eager children. He shared his thought on a social networking site and was flooded with responses from his NRI friends to help him in the project. “I screened various schools in remote villages in Karjan taluka in Vadodara district. Schools in these areas have children of farm labourers. The strength is about 150 students in each school. None of them knew what a uniform meant. I took a tailor, Jayesh Parmar, along with me.
He took measurements for each of the student. We later pulled in a cloth merchant. Putting in use the donations received from my NRI friends, I executed the task,” Bhatt says. After a couple of months, Bhatt and Parmar returned to the schools at Sharupur Timbi with brand new uniforms. “We had readied 150 pairs in this pilot project. We distributed each pair with a lunch box, a compass box and a water bottle each. The kids took the goodies home. Their smile, zeal, and excitement made us happier. It inspired me to take this project forward,” says Bhatt.
By now, Bhatt has covered areas of Malpur, Meghraj, Pavi-Jetpur, Kawant, Saputara and Chhota Udepur. Following the model of the pilot project, Bhatt has completed 22 uniform charity projects in two years and distributed about 4,000 uniforms, each costing about Rs 350. “Each phase of this project roughly costs around Rs 1 lakh and I take up one school every month. At present the focus is on schools in Saputara area. I have first focussed on the rural schools in tribal belts as during my Gunotsav project trips as a civil servant, I had noticed that these areas were the most deprived,” he says.
The size of goodie bag has also expanded. “I have now added a pair of chappals, and bottles of tonics and cough syrup,” said Bhatt. Bhatt had migrated to Canada in 2000 and after about a decade returned to reunite with his ageing parents in Ahmedabad. “I took up a government job in 2010 and started the uniform project in 2011. Later, I got a request from Kirit Budhalal Foundation in Ahmedabad that it wanted to join me in taking Project Uniform forward. I joined their company as a pharmaceutical executive in 2013. The foundation today donates as much funds as required for this project without imposing any conditions.”
Later, he worked out statistics and calculated whether it was feasible for him to give newly stitched uniforms to these young and eager children. He shared his thought on a social networking site and was flooded with responses from his NRI friends to help him in the project. “I screened various schools in remote villages in Karjan taluka in Vadodara district. Schools in these areas have children of farm labourers. The strength is about 150 students in each school. None of them knew what a uniform meant. I took a tailor, Jayesh Parmar, along with me.
He took measurements for each of the student. We later pulled in a cloth merchant. Putting in use the donations received from my NRI friends, I executed the task,” Bhatt says. After a couple of months, Bhatt and Parmar returned to the schools at Sharupur Timbi with brand new uniforms. “We had readied 150 pairs in this pilot project. We distributed each pair with a lunch box, a compass box and a water bottle each. The kids took the goodies home. Their smile, zeal, and excitement made us happier. It inspired me to take this project forward,” says Bhatt.
By now, Bhatt has covered areas of Malpur, Meghraj, Pavi-Jetpur, Kawant, Saputara and Chhota Udepur. Following the model of the pilot project, Bhatt has completed 22 uniform charity projects in two years and distributed about 4,000 uniforms, each costing about Rs 350. “Each phase of this project roughly costs around Rs 1 lakh and I take up one school every month. At present the focus is on schools in Saputara area. I have first focussed on the rural schools in tribal belts as during my Gunotsav project trips as a civil servant, I had noticed that these areas were the most deprived,” he says.
The size of goodie bag has also expanded. “I have now added a pair of chappals, and bottles of tonics and cough syrup,” said Bhatt. Bhatt had migrated to Canada in 2000 and after about a decade returned to reunite with his ageing parents in Ahmedabad. “I took up a government job in 2010 and started the uniform project in 2011. Later, I got a request from Kirit Budhalal Foundation in Ahmedabad that it wanted to join me in taking Project Uniform forward. I joined their company as a pharmaceutical executive in 2013. The foundation today donates as much funds as required for this project without imposing any conditions.”
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