Episode 29: The middle Road chats with Simranpreet Singh Oberoi, Co-founder of Sanjhi Sikhiya Foundation

Welcome to another scintillating podcast with The middle Road, a global social impact platform. In today’s episode Nishant Malhotra, Sole Founder of The middle Road platform chats with Simranpreet Singh Oberoi, Co-Founder of an equitable educational driven nonprofit enabling social change and impact at the grassroots level within the Indian ecosystem. The middle Road is a thought leader startup, that fuses Media and EdTech for a measurable impact. The venture features research-driven publications & articles, online courses, videos & podcasts in a community-led model across diverse themes and topics. Simranpreet Singh Oberoi great to e-meet you for a video podcast to discuss your work and career transition within the development sector. Today’s discussion’s prime purpose is to share with the audience your story in enabling social change and impact within the primary public education system in the Punjab region in India through Sanjhi Sikhiya.

Sanjhi Sikhiya is a platform that supports diverse development initiatives across Punjab. Sanjhi Sikhiya’s flagship initiative Punjab Youth Leaders Program (PYLP), a two-year leadership program aims to build a cadre of young leaders across Punjab to innovate and create systemic and sustainable solutions that address the pressing issues of Punjab.

 

Q). Simran, how did your experience at various places and your education at Ashoka University prepare for your work at Sanjhi Sikhiya Foundation? I also had a chat with Anu Prasad here who played a fundamental role in setting up Ashoka University. 

Q). You worked in diverse roles at various foundations including the present CSR work at Genpact. How did it enable and facilitate a transition as a cofounder of your present non-profit? Let’s begin with your Genpact experience and as a chief project officer at Shoshit Samadhan Kendra (SSK), what were your observations and learnings in schooling for children in the underserved  Musahar community. You wore multiple hats in this profile. Share your story. 

Q). How did the idea of invigorating and educating the youth in the rural region of Punjab occur to you? The Indian primary education system needs an overhauling. 15% of the students in grade 8 could not read grade 2 text. India spent 3.8% of its GDP on education in 2019 compared to a Global average of 4.8% according to UNDP Human Development Report 2019. The figure for Nepal was 5.1%, US 5%, Finland 7.1% for 2019. Finland is a world leader in inventiveness in K12 education.

Q): At present you are in 850 schools and plan to reach all the 12,000 primary schools in Punjab by 2025. What strategies are you looking to scale up your operation in terms of partnerships, community driven models etc. for a common social good?

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