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In The Spotlight Insights Smile

Empowering Grassroots Academy: Is Your NGO Ready to Grow Powerfully?

Summary

Successful grassroots NGOs do more than deliver services – they build strong internal systems to support growth. In India’s everchanging development sector, many NGOs expand programmes but struggle when governance, staff roles or funding diversify. Common warning signs include key processes hidden in individuals’ heads, basic compliance treated as paperwork and over-reliance on one funding source. NGOs that ignore these issues risk stalling or failing when they scale.

Strengthening NGO capacity building means investing in clear roles, documented processes, compliance-ready governance, effective programme planning and local resource mobilisation. Training alone is not enough: lasting impact comes from applying skills, building resilience and learning from peers. This is exactly the approach of Smile Foundation’s Empowering Grassroots Academy, which combines courses on governance, leadership, fundraising and impact with practical planning and mentoring. In what follows, we explore the 7 signs your NGO may need stronger systems – and practical steps to address each one.

Empowering Grassroots Academy goes virtual

1. Too Much Depends on One or Two People

In a young NGO, staff often wear many hats. That’s normal – but if growth means a handful of individuals hold most of the knowledge, you’re at risk. If a key person is absent, do projects stall? Is everyone clear on who does what?

  • Action: Create an organisational chart or roles-and-responsibilities matrix. Rotate duties so multiple people know each process.
  • Tip: Encourage written handover notes. For example, document the steps for organising a fundraiser or compiling monthly reports.

This issue is common in grassroots NGOs. For instance, Smile Foundation’s Empowering Grassroots training emphasises clear leadership structures and planning, not just individual effort. When team members share knowledge, your NGO becomes more resilient and better prepared to take on new activities.

2. Processes Live in People’s Heads

Your NGO might think it has good systems – but if key processes (financial tracking, beneficiary registration, reporting) aren’t documented, growth can break things. New staff or volunteers may struggle without clear manuals or checklists.

  • Action: Write down your core processes. Even a one-page flowchart or checklist can make a huge difference.
  • Tip: Use free templates (e.g. from Credibility Alliance or the NGO Darpan portal) to standardise documentation.

Example: An NGO running education programmes can note the steps for enrolling a child, tracking attendance and reporting outcomes. If all that info lives only in one founder’s head, scaling will fail as teams expand. Clear documentation transforms tribal knowledge into institutional capacity.

3. Governance and Compliance Are “Just Paperwork”

In India, many small NGOs focus on programmes and see governance requirements (audits, board meetings, registrations) as a chore. But good governance is more than ticking boxes – it’s the bedrock of credibility. Donors and partners look for transparency and accountability.

Smaller NGOs should ask: Do our governance systems actually improve decision-making and trust? Or do they merely meet legal minimums? Smile Foundation’s Empowering Grassroots curriculum covers Good Governance (legal compliance under the Trusts/Societies/Company laws) and the role of the board.

  • Action: Schedule regular board or advisory meetings, even if informal. Establish basic policies (conflict of interest, finance approvals).
  • Tip: Publish simple annual reports or newsletters summarising your work each year. This shows stakeholders (donors, community members) you take accountability seriously.

A telling stat: after EG training, all participating NGOs showed improved governance processes. In other words, better systems go hand-in-hand with trust and funding readiness.

4. Programme Management Lacks Structure

Expanding programmes can overwhelm an NGO without solid planning and monitoring. If project activities, budgets or M&E are ad hoc, you may see confusion on the ground or funder queries.

Effective project management means clear plans and tracking: setting goals, assigning tasks, collecting data and evaluating results. As Smile Foundation notes, its Project Management module “helps grassroots initiatives streamline operations from planning to implementation and evaluation”.

  • Action: Adopt simple planning tools like a logframe or Gantt chart. Even a Google Sheets tracker for activities and outcomes can help.
  • Tip: Hold brief weekly check-ins with your team to review progress. Use that time to update a shared project status document.

Practical example: Baikunthapur Tarun Sangha (BTS), a small NGO in West Bengal, struggled after losing foreign donors. EG training helped them set up documentation and processes for local fundraising. They now plan events in advance and have even added corporate donors. With a plan and paperwork in place, their programmes run more smoothly.

5. Difficulty Adapting to Change (Low Resilience)

The development sector is dynamic – policies, funding sources and community needs can shift quickly. A sign that systems are weak is difficulty responding to change. Crises or new regulations can stall work if there’s no flexibility or foresight.

Resilient organisations regularly review risks and adapt. Smile Foundation’s training includes leadership modules on change and crisis management.

  • Action: Conduct a basic SWOT or risk assessment once a year. Identify top threats (e.g. funding cuts, new compliance rules) and opportunities (new CSR schemes, tech tools).
  • Tip: Encourage a learning culture: after each project or quarter, ask the team what worked and what didn’t. Adapt your processes accordingly.

By planning for volatility, an NGO builds organisational resilience. It means systems (finance, tech, human resources) are robust enough that the NGO doesn’t collapse under stress. For example, Smile’s Resilient & Adaptive Organizations course guides NGOs on “putting systems in place to adapt to … government policies, shifting donor markets”.

6. Struggling to Communicate Impact Clearly

Your NGO may be doing great work, but if it can’t explain that work simply, it misses support. Common red flags include: no regular updates to stakeholders, or difficulty answering donors’ questions about your outcomes.

Effective communication builds legitimacy. Empowering Grassroots’ Communication module teaches NGOs to “enhance visibility and broaden reach… ensuring credibility and accountability” via plans, branding, annual reports, social media, stories etc.

  • Action: Start basic – perhaps a one-page fact sheet or a short presentation about your work. Use bullet points and data to explain your mission and results.
  • Tip: Capture success stories with quotes or photos. Even a simple monthly e-mail newsletter can keep donors and community members in the loop.

For example, one EG trainee reported that after Mobilising Support training, their NGO could better “communicate [its] impact to stakeholders” and influence local decision-makers. In short, clear communication often translates to stronger community and donor engagement.

7. Relying on One Source of Funds

Many NGOs start with one major grant or donor, but this is risky. If that source dries up, programmes can collapse. Sustainable NGOs diversify funding.

The shift to local resource mobilisation has been an official emphasis in India. Smile Foundation’s Empowering Grassroots explicitly aligns with the Atmanirbhar Bharat mission of local self-reliance. Its Resource Mobilisation training covers strategies to “raise funds locally and diversify the source of income”.

  • Action: Brainstorm all possible resources beyond that one grant: individual donors, corporate CSR, local fundraising events, partnerships, even in-kind goods.
  • Tip: Develop a simple resource mobilisation plan: set small targets (e.g. one new local donor per quarter) and try one new channel (social media appeal, community event).

Consider domestic success stories: the Marpu Foundation, one of India’s largest NGOs, “maintains complete financial independence” by relying on grassroots contributions and domestic partnerships rather than foreign funding. Likewise, after EG training, 95% of NGOs in the programme tapped individual donors and 75% expanded their donor base. This shows the power of diversifying support.

Stronger systems help your NGO scale sustainably. All of the above signs – from people-dependence to funding gaps – are ways that good intentions alone aren’t enough. Fixing them means building real organisational capacity. That’s the core idea of NGO capacity building: equipping your team with practical systems, not just one-off training.

Join Smile Foundation’s Empowering Grassroots Academy

Smile Foundation’s Empowering Grassroots Academy November 2026 cohort is designed for this. It combines courses on governance, programme planning, fundraising and impact with mentoring and peer learning, helping grassroots NGOs become truly self-reliant. Each course ends in an action plan (like a Funder-Ready Plan or Resource Mobilisation Plan) that organisations implement with support. Over 85% of EG participants increased their local fundraising after training – evidence that applying these lessons works.

Is your NGO ready for its next stage? Check for the signs above. If any sound familiar, it may be time to strengthen your systems before scaling further. The good news is that support is available: by learning proven practices and building a community of practice, your NGO can grow without losing its core.

Ready to get started? Explore the Empowering Grassroots Academy for tailored courses, practical templates and mentoring support. Equip your organisation with the systems it needs to grow and continue creating impact in your community.

FAQs

Q1: What is NGO capacity building?
Capacity building means strengthening an organisation’s skills, systems and structures so it can do its work more effectively and sustainably. For NGOs, this includes areas like governance, leadership, programme management, communication and resource mobilisation. In practice, it means applying knowledge (e.g. from training) through better processes and planning.

Q2: Why does good governance matter for grassroots NGOs?
Good governance isn’t just paperwork – it builds trust with donors, communities and government. Clear roles (for board and staff), compliance with laws, transparent finances and accountability help an NGO prove its credibility. As one evaluation noted, all NGOs in the Empowering Grassroots programme showed improved governance processes, which helped them attract funding and support.

Q3: How can an NGO become “funder-ready”?
Being funder-ready means having basic systems in place: up-to-date legal compliances, clean financial records, clear impact reports and a plan to use funds wisely. Start by making sure your registrations are current, someone handles finance, and you can describe your programmes and outcomes in simple terms. Tools like a Funder-Readiness checklist (covering governance, documentation and communication) can guide you.

Q4: What is organisational resilience and how do we build it?
Organisational resilience is the NGO’s ability to adapt to change – new policies, funding shifts or crises – without breaking down. To build resilience, regularly review risks (like donor changes or emergencies), invest in staff training, and keep some “rainy day” funds or flexible plans. Effective management of resources and knowledge-sharing also help an NGO bounce back when challenges arise.

Q5: How can grassroots NGOs raise more local funds?
Local fundraising can include approaching individual donors, local businesses (CSR), community events (like charity walks or fairs), and online crowdfunding. Start with a simple strategy: identify local needs, tailor your message to resonate with community stakeholders, and give people easy ways to contribute (e.g. donation drives or partnerships). NGO training often emphasizes that just 25% local funding attention can trigger large support, helping NGOs feel pride in raising their own resources.

Q6: What signs indicate our NGO needs better systems?
Signs include: key tasks lying with one person, missing documentation, grant dependence on a single source, or frequent confusion on roles. If your team often scrambles to find information or misses deadlines when someone is away, that’s a red flag. The ‘7 signs’ above cover these common warning lights.

Q7: Where can I find training on NGO systems and fundraising?
Smile Foundation’s Empowering Grassroots Academy offers courses on exactly these topics (governance, fundraising, communication, etc.). The programme’s resources are designed for Indian CBOs and include practical templates and mentorship. Check the Empowering Grassroots Academy page for upcoming sessions and materials – it could be the support your NGO needs to strengthen its systems.

Sources: Insights are drawn from Smile Foundation’s Empowering Grassroots Academy and programme pages and impact study, and sector examples (e.g. Marpu Foundation’s funding model).

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Smile

Thalassemia in India: Causes, Symptoms and Why Early Screening Matters

Summary: 5 Key Points

  • Thalassemia is an inherited disorder affecting haemoglobin production.
  • Beta thalassemia is the most common form in India.
  • Carriers may have no symptoms and remain unaware of their status.
  • Early screening and genetic counselling can help prevent severe thalassemia.
  • India needs stronger screening, blood safety and access to advanced treatment.

What is Thalassemia?

Thalassemia is a daily reality for thousands of Indian families. This inherited blood disorder disrupts the body’s ability to make healthy haemoglobin, the very molecule responsible for carrying oxygen in our blood. India shoulders a staggering burden, accounting for nearly a quarter of the world’s thalassaemia cases (largely Beta-thalassaemia). Thus, awareness and early screening are lifelines.

At its heart, thalassemia is a genetic condition affecting the production of haemoglobin’s protein chains. 

There are two main forms:

  • Alpha thalassemia: Mutations affect the alpha-globin gene.
  • Beta thalassemia: Mutations affect the beta-globin gene—this is the most common type in India.

The disorder is passed down in an autosomal recessive manner. Two healthy-looking parents, each silently carrying the gene, can have a child with severe thalassemia major. The fact is, most carriers have no idea they’re at risk.

The Prevalence and Causes of Thalassemia

India faces a thalassemia crisis. The thalassemia trait affects an average of 3–4% of the population, translating to roughly 42 million carriers. Every year, between 10,000 and 15,000 infants are born with thalassemia major.

Thalassemia is caused by inherited mutations in the genes responsible for haemoglobin’s alpha or beta chains. Carriers usually have no symptoms, so the disorder can linger in families for generations undetected.

Symptoms: How Does Thalassemia Present?

In Children

Thalassemia major usually becomes apparent in the first two to three years of life. Parents may notice:

  • Unusual paleness (pallor)
  • Persistent tiredness and weak feeding
  • Slow growth and delayed development
  • A swollen abdomen (enlarged liver or spleen)
  • Yellowing of skin or eyes (jaundice)
  • Bone deformities, especially in the face, in severe cases

In Adults

Carriers (thalassemia minor) might have mild, persistent anaemia or no symptoms at all. Many discover their status only during routine blood work or if a child is diagnosed.

Why Early Screening Matters

Understanding Thalassemia Carrier Screening

Early detection can change everything. Screening before marriage or pregnancy gives families the chance to make informed choices and prevent severe disease in future generations.

Screening involves:

  • Complete Blood Count (CBC): can reveal suggestive patterns.
  • Haemoglobin Electrophoresis/HPLC: confirms carrier status.
  • DNA-based genetic testing: provides definitive results.

A single test before marriage or conception, particularly in high-risk communities, can save a family years of suffering and uncertainty.

Regional Trends and High-Risk Groups

Studies highlight significant regional differences. In the North East, Central and South, children are more likely to be diagnosed with haemoglobinopathies. 

Most diagnoses happen in children under three, making newborn and early childhood screening absolutely crucial. From 1990 to 2023, the global disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) rate for thalassemias dropped by 44.8% and mortality fell by 31%. This reflects improved diagnosis, care and prevention in many countries. The highest prevalence globally is among those under 20 years — in 2023, the rate was 36.3 per 100,000 in this age group. China achieved a 78.2% reduction in thalassemia DALY rates since 1990 through mass screening, accessible treatment (including curative stem cell transplant) and strong insurance support. The Chinese model demonstrates the power of integrating screening, prevention and advanced care, but also highlights continued rural/urban health gaps.

The Importance of Prevention and Community Awareness

Mandatory screening for high-risk groups is strongly recommended by health experts. Genetic counselling helps carrier couples understand risks and explore options, including prenatal diagnosis or IVF with genetic testing.

Community education is equally vital. Breaking the stigma and normalising testing can prevent new cases. India can take inspiration from countries like Cyprus and Iran, where routine premarital screening and public awareness have nearly eliminated new thalassemia major cases. China’s success story to reduce thalassemia cases significantly is another example.

Advances in Diagnosis and Management

Diagnostic technology has made prevention and management more effective:

  • High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and genetic testing are now widely available and highly accurate.
  • Management for thalassemia major includes regular blood transfusions, iron chelation, and, when possible, bone marrow transplantation — the only curative option.

Early and accurate diagnosis means families can access optimal care from the outset.

Policy and Public Health Initiatives in India

The Indian government has created dedicated initiatives, such as the National Program for Control of Blood Disorders. Several states have made premarital or antenatal thalassemia testing mandatory. But, treatments are expensive and implementation is uneven. 

India needs to scale up nationwide carrier screening and prevention by the following way:

  • Expand premarital, antenatal and school-based screening programmes, especially in high-risk regions and communities.
  • Integrate genetic counselling into primary healthcare to inform carriers and their families about risks and reproductive options.
  • Embed thalassaemia awareness into school curricula and community health initiatives to foster early education and reduce stigma.

India needs to accelerate adoption of advanced curative therapies and make it accessible:

  • Streamline regulatory pathways for approving new treatments like gene therapy and bone marrow transplantation.
  • Subsidise and expand access to advanced therapies through public health insurance (e.g., Ayushman Bharat), making them affordable for more families.
  • Encourage domestic research, manufacturing and public-private partnerships to drive innovation and reduce costs.
  • Adopt advanced blood screening technologies and strict protocols to minimise transfusion-transmitted infections.
  • Improve access, quality and coordination of blood banks and voluntary donation drives across the country.
  • Support long-term care by providing holistic management for iron overload, organ complications and psychosocial support.

Conclusion

Thalassemia remains a formidable health challenge for India, but it is not insurmountable. India’s next leap against thalassaemia lies in scaling up prevention, embracing innovation, ensuring blood safety and putting patients at the centre of every policy. With urgency and alignment, the country can shift from managing the present to securing a healthier future. Empowering families with knowledge and encouraging testing before marriage or pregnancy will help create a future where thalassemia is no longer a hidden threat. 

FAQs

1. What is thalassemia?
Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder in which the body does not produce enough healthy haemoglobin. It can cause anaemia and, in severe forms, may require lifelong medical care.

2. What are the main types of thalassemia?
The two main types are alpha thalassemia and beta thalassemia. Beta thalassemia is the more common form in India.

3. What causes thalassemia?
Thalassemia is caused by inherited genetic mutations that affect the production of the alpha or beta protein chains that make up haemoglobin. A child can inherit a severe form when both parents carry a relevant gene variant.

4. What are the symptoms of thalassemia in children?
Children with severe thalassemia may develop symptoms such as persistent tiredness, pallor, poor growth, weakness, an enlarged liver or spleen, jaundice and, in severe cases, bone changes. Symptoms may become apparent during the first few years of life.

5. Why is thalassemia screening important?
Many thalassemia carriers have few or no symptoms and may not know they carry the condition. Screening before marriage or pregnancy can help people understand their carrier status and make informed reproductive decisions.

6. How is thalassemia diagnosed?
Initial blood tests such as a complete blood count can identify patterns suggestive of thalassemia. Haemoglobin electrophoresis or HPLC can help identify haemoglobin disorders, while genetic testing can provide more definitive information in appropriate cases.

7. Can thalassemia be treated?
Management depends on the type and severity of thalassemia. Severe forms may require regular blood transfusions and iron chelation therapy. Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation can be curative for some patients, while newer treatments, including gene-based therapies, are expanding the treatment landscape.

Sources:

World Thalassemia Day 2026: Awareness, Prevention & Management
Categories
In The Spotlight Insights

ADHD in Children: Recognising Symptoms Early and How Parents Can Support Them

The Early Onset of Mental Illness in Children
The Early Onset of Mental Illness in Children

Summary: 5 Key Points

  • ADHD affects attention, impulse control and energy regulation.
  • Early recognition can help children receive timely support.
  • Girls with ADHD are often overlooked because their symptoms may be less visible.
  • Parents and schools play an important role in supporting children with ADHD.
  • India needs greater awareness, assessment and support for children with ADHD.
ADHD in children

It’s not uncommon for a child to not be able to sit still, focus and obey. These behaviours may often be dismissed as normal or as disobedience. But if they are severe and start impacting their studies and overall behaviour, then it’s time you get them assessed. Despite its prevalence, ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) in children remains misunderstood, mislabelled, and, far too often, missed altogether. Early recognition and robust support can be life-changing, but only if we start seeing what’s really there.

Effectively managing a child’s symptoms can reduce the severity of ADHD and lower the risk of more serious challenges later on. The sooner parents respond to their needs, the better their chances of avoiding difficulties at school and in social settings, along with related concerns such as underachievement, low self-esteem or risky behaviour in adolescence.

What is ADHD?

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects a child’s ability to pay attention, regulate impulses and manage their energy levels. It’s not a result of bad parenting or wilful behaviour. Instead, it’s rooted in the way a child’s brain develops and functions. Many children with ADHD are creative, energetic and full of potential — they just process the world differently.

Recognising ADHD Early

The signs of ADHD are not always obvious. In preschoolers, you might see relentless restlessness, explosive tantrums or an inability to focus on even a favourite story. At school age, the symptoms can shift: chronic forgetfulness, fidgeting in class or blurting out answers before a question is finished. Adolescents may wrestle with disorganisation, mood swings and an inner restlessness that never seems to settle. While some children display the classic hyperactivity and impulsivity, others — especially girls — show more subtle signs, such as daydreaming or chronic disorganisation. It’s these quieter struggles that are most likely to slip under the radar.

No Forced Labour, Only Education for Children

Why Are So Many Children Undiagnosed in India?

Here in India, the diagnosis gap is vast. Stigma looms large, with many families fearing labels that could affect their child’s future. Teachers and parents, often unaware of the realities of ADHD, may mistake its symptoms for laziness, naughtiness or poor upbringing. The country’s best-trained clinicians are mostly clustered in metro cities, leaving rural families with limited access to diagnosis or support. Schools rarely have structured screening for neurodevelopmental conditions and academic pressure can mask or worsen the symptoms. As a result, the critical window for early intervention quietly closes and many children are left behind.

Girls with ADHD and Supporting Families

Girls with ADHD often fly under the radar. While boys’ hyperactivity tends to attract attention, girls are more likely to be labelled as dreamy, disorganised, or simply ‘not living up to their potential’. They may internalise their struggles, developing anxiety, low self-esteem or perfectionist habits that hide deeper challenges. Without recognition, these girls risk falling further behind or developing secondary mental health problems. 

The Power of Early Intervention

There’s a reason global research keeps returning to the same point: early intervention works. In the context of ADHD, this means acting when the first signs appear, long before a child’s confidence is shaken or their academic record is in tatters. Early support can include behavioural therapy, structured routines, and carefully chosen school accommodations. Children benefit from positive reinforcement, visual reminders and clear, consistent expectations.

Crucially, intervention goes beyond the therapist’s room. Parents play a central role. When families learn how ADHD affects the brain, they begin to let go of blame — both of their children and themselves. 

How Parents Can Support Their Child

No one expects parents to be experts overnight, but a willingness to learn and adapt can be transformative. Remember, ADHD is a brain-based, often inherited condition, so don’t blame yourself, your parenting, or a noisy home.

Here are some ways to get started

  • Learn all you can about ADHD. With so much advice online, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or misled. Stick to trusted sources: government health sites, respected non-profits or advice from your child’s doctor. There’s no miracle cure, but understanding the facts arms you with the tools to help your child thrive.
  • Get a comprehensive assessment done to begin with. A proper diagnosis goes beyond a quick chat. Ensure your child is evaluated by both medical and educational professionals, with input from teachers and family. This helps rule out other conditions and ensures your child gets the right kind of support from the start.

How to help your child at school

  • Keep records of report cards, notes from teachers and any medical or psychological reports to track your child’s journey and ensure nothing important slips through the cracks.
  • Build a circle of support with teachers, special educators, doctors and other professionals who “get” ADHD. You know your child best, so make sure everyone involved has a full picture of their strengths and needs. 
  • Learn all you can about your child’s educational rights. In India, the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act guarantees inclusive education and reasonable accommodations. Read up, ask questions at school and don’t hesitate to reach out to local parent support groups for guidance.
  • Speak up for what your child needs — whether it’s extra exam time, a quiet place to work or regular check-ins with teachers. Keep the conversation going with teachers and professionals. Stay updated on your child’s progress, flag any changes at home and encourage open feedback. 

How to work and support as a family

  • Join or establish and promote local and online parent support groups, where families can share experiences, swap strategies and find emotional encouragement from others who truly understand. Connecting with other parents who “get it” can be a huge relief. Whether it’s a WhatsApp group, a local meet-up or an online forum, sharing worries and tips with fellow parents makes the journey far less lonely.
  • Parenting a child with ADHD can be tough — there’s no shame in asking for support. If you feel overwhelmed, anxious or burnt out, speaking to a counsellor or mental health professional can make all the difference for both you and your child.
  • Work together as a family. Make sure everyone involved in your child’s care agrees on routines and responses to behaviour. A united approach helps your child feel secure and reduces confusion or conflict at home.
  • Sometimes, parents discover their own ADHD when their child is diagnosed. If you notice similar challenges in yourself, don’t ignore them. Getting support will help you and your whole family navigate life more smoothly.

Supporting Parents

Offer regular, practical training sessions for parents — both in person and online — so families can confidently use techniques that help their child at home and in daily life. Ensure parents have ongoing access to therapists, educators and healthcare professionals who will listen, answer questions, and adapt interventions as a child grows. Provide clear, easy-to-understand information on ADHD, navigating school support and managing stress — ideally in local languages and with sensitivity to cultural context.

Bridging the Diagnosis Gap in India

Closing India’s diagnosis gap will require collective action. Awareness campaigns must reach not just city schools but rural clinics and communities. More professionals need to be trained in neurodevelopmental assessment. Routine child health checks should include developmental screening, and schools must develop systems to spot and support children at risk. 

Always remember, ADHD is not a character flaw or a parenting failure. It is a difference in the way a child’s brain develops — a difference that, when recognised early and supported with compassion, can become a source of strength. Every child deserves the chance to thrive. Every parent deserves support and not blame. And India deserves a future where all children, whatever their challenges, are given the tools and understanding they need to reach their full potential.

FAQs

1. What is ADHD in children?
ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is a neurodevelopmental disorder that can affect a child’s ability to pay attention, regulate impulses and manage energy levels. It is not caused by bad parenting or deliberate disobedience.

2. What are the early signs of ADHD in children?
Signs can vary with age and from child to child. They may include persistent restlessness, difficulty sustaining attention, forgetfulness, frequent fidgeting, impulsive behaviour, disorganisation and difficulty following instructions.

3. Why is ADHD often missed in children?
ADHD can be mistaken for laziness, naughtiness or poor discipline. Some children, particularly girls, may show less obvious symptoms such as daydreaming, disorganisation or difficulty meeting expectations, making their challenges easier to overlook.

4. How is ADHD diagnosed in children?
A proper assessment considers a child’s behaviour and functioning across different settings, including home and school. Input from parents, teachers and relevant healthcare or educational professionals can help build a fuller picture and rule out other possible causes.

5. How can parents support a child with ADHD?
Parents can learn about ADHD, establish clear and consistent routines, use positive reinforcement and visual reminders, and work closely with teachers and healthcare professionals to understand and respond to their child’s needs.

6. How can schools support children with ADHD?
Schools can provide appropriate accommodations and structured support, maintain communication with families and professionals, and adapt teaching approaches to a child’s learning needs. Support may include additional time, quieter workspaces and regular check-ins.

7. Why is early intervention important for children with ADHD?
Early recognition and appropriate support can help children manage symptoms and reduce difficulties with learning, social relationships and self-esteem. It also gives families and schools an opportunity to put effective strategies in place before challenges become more difficult to manage.

Sources

Categories
Education Smile

What Is Mission Indradhanush? India’s Push for Full Child Immunisation

How Child Healthcare is the Foundation for Adult Success?
How Child Healthcare is the Foundation for Adult Success?

Summary: 5 Key Points

  • Mission Indradhanush was launched in 2014 to improve child immunisation coverage.
  • It focuses on children who are unvaccinated or have missed doses.
  • The programme targets underserved and hard-to-reach communities.
  • Intensified Mission Indradhanush strengthened efforts in areas with low coverage.
  • Reaching the last mile is essential to ensuring no child is left unprotected.

The first few years of a child’s life largely determine their health and development for the rest of their years. During this time, vaccines become significant to protect children from diseases that can cause serious illness, disability and even death throughout their entire journey. Yet getting every child vaccinated is not as simple as making vaccines available. Some children live far from health centres. Some families move frequently for work. Some children miss a dose because their parents are unaware of the schedule, while others may start vaccination but not complete it.

This is where Mission Indradhanush comes in. Launched by the Government of India in December 2014, the programme was created to reach children left out of, or who had dropped out of, the routine vaccination system. Its larger goal was to take India closer to full immunisation, particularly in communities where vaccination coverage was low.

The National Health Mission explains Mission Indradhanush as a special effort focused on low-coverage and hard-to-reach areas. More than a decade later, Mission Indradhanush offers an important lesson in public health, that it is not enough for a vaccine to exist but the vaccine has to reach the child who needs it.

Why does Child Immunisation Matter?

Vaccination is one of the simplest and most effective ways of protecting children from infectious diseases. A vaccine prepares the body’s immune system to recognise and fight a particular disease before a child is exposed to it. Without the right vaccination, these diseases can have devastating consequences on a lifetime. Depending on the vaccine and national schedule, childhood immunisation protects against diseases such as measles, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and other serious infections.

India’s vaccination programme is part of the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP), one of the country’s largest public health programmes. Through the UIP, vaccines are provided free of cost to eligible children and pregnant women through government health facilities and outreach sessions.

The scale of the programme is enormous. According to the Government of India’s 2025 update on immunisation, India’s Universal Immunisation Programme provides free vaccination every year to around 2.6 crore infants and 2.9 crore pregnant women and currently, over 1.3 crore immunisation sessions are conducted across the country by healthcare workers, including ASHAs and ANMs. 

The benefit is not limited to one child. When a large proportion of a population is vaccinated, diseases find it harder to spread. This provides some protection to people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons and helps prevent outbreaks.

So, What Exactly is Mission Indradhanush?

The word “Indradhanush” means rainbow. Mission Indradhanush was given this name to represent the government’s effort to cover children with the full range of vaccines they need.

The programme was launched in December 2014 to increase full immunisation coverage to more than 90%. Rather than replacing routine vaccination, Mission Indradhanush acts as a catch-up campaign. It looks for children who have missed vaccines or have not completed their vaccination schedule and tries to bring them back into the system.

This distinction is important.

A child may receive the first few vaccines but miss later doses. Another child may never receive a vaccine at all. These children are sometimes described as “zero-dose” or partially immunised, depending on their vaccination status.

Mission Indradhanush focuses particularly on finding these children.

According to theMinistry of Health and Family Welfare’s 2024–25 Annual Report, 12 phases of Mission Indradhanush had been completed, covering 3,777 districts. Across these phases, 5.46 crore children and 1.32 crore pregnant women had been vaccinated.

Why do Some Children Miss Vaccines?

A simple question would be, if vaccines are available for free, why would a child remain unvaccinated? The answer is more complicated than simply saying that parents do not understand the importance of vaccines.

India is a huge country with very different living conditions. Some families live in remote rural or forest areas where health facilities are difficult to reach. Others live in urban settlements but face different challenges, such as migration, overcrowding and unstable employment.

In other instances, for a daily-wage worker, taking a child to a health centre may mean losing a day’s income. A migrant family may move to another city before the child’s next vaccination date. A family may also simply lose track of which vaccine is due and when.

There can also be fear or misinformation around vaccines.

This is why Mission Indradhanush does not simply wait for families to come to health centres. Its approach focuses on identifying, reaching and vaccinating children who have been missed. The government’s Mission Indradhanush guidelines specifically describe the programme as an effort to address gaps among underserved and hard-to-reach populations. 

From Mission Indradhanush to Intensified Mission Indradhanush

A few years after the launch of the mission, the government realised and recognised that an even stronger push was needed. In 2017, it launched the Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI). The idea was to take the programme further by concentrating on districts and areas with particularly low immunisation coverage.

The focus remained on children who had been missed or had dropped out of the routine immunisation system, along with pregnant women who had not received the required vaccinations.

The programme was designed to be more targeted. Instead of treating the country as one large area, health authorities could identify specific districts, villages, urban pockets or communities where vaccination gaps were larger.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s 2024–25 Annual Report, Intensified Mission Indradhanush contributed to a 14.4 percentage-point increase in full immunisation coverage, with national full immunisation coverage rising from 62% in NFHS-4 to 76.4% in NFHS-5. The early results of Mission Indradhanush were also encouraging. Government data reported that the first two phases resulted in a 6.7% increase in full immunisation coverage within one year, compared with an earlier average annual increase of around 1%. (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare)

India has Made Significant Progress

India’s vaccination story has changed considerably over the past decade. The Government of India reported that national full immunisation coverage reached 93.5% in financial year 2023–24, according to its Health Management Information System. This means that India has moved much closer to the goal of ensuring that almost every child receives the vaccines included in the national schedule. 

There has also been progress in reducing the number of children who receive no vaccines at all. According to the WHO’s 2025 regional immunisation update, India reduced its estimated number of zero-dose children from 1.6 million in 2023 to about 0.9 million in 2024, a reduction of around 43%. 

These numbers are important because they show that India’s challenge is no longer simply about increasing vaccination everywhere. It is increasingly about finding the children who remain outside the system.

The Last Mile is the Hardest Mile

When we talk about vaccination, it is easy to focus on the vaccine itself. But a vaccine has to travel through a complicated system before it reaches a child’s arm.

Then, it has to be stored at the right temperature, transported safely, delivered to health workers and made available at the right place and time. Families then need to know about the vaccination session and be able to reach it. And this is often known as the last-mile challenge.

For a family living close to a health centre, vaccination may be relatively easy. For a family living in a remote village or frequently moving for work, it can be much harder.

This is why community health workers are so important. ASHAs, ANMs and other frontline workers often know which families have young children, which children have missed doses and which households need additional support. Mission Indradhanush therefore represents more than a vaccination drive. It is also an exercise in finding people who are easy to miss.

Smile Foundation’s Role in Child Healthcare

At Smile Foundation, we work across healthcare, education, livelihoods and women’s empowerment, with programmes reaching communities in villages and urban slums across India. Our healthcare programme focuses on taking primary healthcare and health awareness closer to underserved communities. 

Our Smile on Wheels programme is particularly relevant to the idea of last-mile healthcare. Mobile healthcare units take basic health services to communities that may face barriers in accessing conventional health facilities, and our programmes combine healthcare delivery with health awareness, helping families understand illnesses and make better use of available services.

For child health, this kind of community-level engagement matters because immunisation is not an isolated event. It is part of a child’s wider health journey. Our broader approach also reflects an important principle — a child cannot be viewed separately from the family and community in which they grow up. Hence, we are always working towards a lifecycle approach that connects education, healthcare, livelihoods and empowerment. 

The Goal is Not Just More Vaccines, but Fewer Missed Children

Mission Indradhanush represents a shift in how India approaches immunisation.

Instead of simply asking whether vaccines are available, the programme asks a more important question — Which children are still being missed, and why? That question takes public health closer to the realities of people’s lives and ensures that full immunisation is ultimately about equity. 

Mission Indradhanush is important because it recognises this reality. It takes vaccination beyond the assumption that families will always be able to come to the health system. Instead, it asks the health system to go looking for those who have been left behind. The rainbow in Mission Indradhanush is therefore more than a name and goes on to represent a simple public health promise — no child should be left unprotected simply because they were difficult to reach.

FAQs

1. What is Mission Indradhanush?
Mission Indradhanush is a Government of India initiative launched in December 2014 to improve immunisation coverage by reaching children who have been left out of or dropped out of the routine vaccination system.

2. Why was Mission Indradhanush launched?
The programme was launched to address gaps in routine immunisation, particularly among children living in low-coverage, underserved and hard-to-reach communities.

3. Who does Mission Indradhanush target?
The programme focuses on children who have missed vaccinations or have not completed their vaccination schedule, particularly those in communities where access to routine immunisation is limited.

4. What is Intensified Mission Indradhanush?
Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) was launched in 2017 to strengthen immunisation efforts in districts and areas with particularly low vaccination coverage. It uses a more targeted approach to identify and reach children who have been missed.

5. Why do some children miss their vaccinations?
Children may miss vaccines because of distance from health facilities, migration, unstable livelihoods, lack of awareness, difficulty keeping track of vaccination schedules, or concerns and misinformation about vaccines.

6. What is the last-mile challenge in child immunisation?
The last-mile challenge refers to the practical difficulties of ensuring vaccines reach children who live in remote areas, frequently migrate or face other barriers to accessing health services. It involves not only vaccine delivery but also reaching families at the right place and time.

7. How does Smile Foundation contribute to last-mile healthcare?
Smile Foundation’s healthcare programmes, including Smile on Wheels, take primary healthcare and health awareness closer to underserved communities. This community-level approach helps address barriers to accessing conventional health facilities and supports families in making better use of available health services.

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Insights Smile

What is BRSR? Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting Explained for Indian Companies 

Summary: 5 Key Points

  • Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) standardises ESG disclosures by listed companies in India.
  • It evolved from the earlier Business Responsibility Report framework.
  • The framework covers environmental, social and governance performance.
  • BRSR helps investors assess risks beyond financial performance.
  • Its future depends on stronger data, transparency and accountability.
Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting

The Industrial Revolution transformed the way the world produced, traded and lived. Factories replaced much of the labour of small workshops, fossil fuels powered unprecedented economic growth, and businesses expanded to a scale previously unimaginable. But the wealth created by industrialisation also came with costs: polluted air and waterways, unsafe workplaces, exploited labour and the intensive extraction of natural resources. For much of modern economic history, these consequences remained largely outside the balance sheet. A company’s success was measured primarily by what it earned, not by what its operations left behind. At the same time, it came about to be clear — a company’s success can just not be measured by these numbers alone.

This understanding has changed over time. Today, businesses are increasingly expected to account not only for their financial performance but also for their impact on people, communities and the environment. In India, one of the most important mechanisms for doing this is ‘Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR)’. Introduced by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), BRSR requires India’s largest listed companies to disclose standardised information on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. In effect, it asks a question that the traditional balance sheet could not: what does it really cost to do business? 

For measurable disclosures 

BRSR evolved from India’s earlier Business Responsibility Report (BRR) framework, which was based on the National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental and Economic Responsibilities of Business. In 2019, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ Committee on Business Responsibility Reporting recommended moving towards a more comprehensive and measurable system. It proposed replacing the BRR with the BRSR, arguing that the new framework should place greater emphasis on sustainability and quantifiable outcomes. SEBI subsequently introduced BRSR in 2021. It was initially voluntary for 2021–22, before becoming mandatory from FY 2022–23 for the top 1,000 listed companies by market capitalisation. Other listed companies can voluntarily submit BRSRs. At its heart, BRSR is an attempt to standardise information about corporate responsibility. 

The report asks companies to provide both qualitative information and quantitative data such as the company’s workforce, wages, gender composition, occupational health and safety, human rights policies, energy and water consumption, greenhouse-gas emissions, waste generation, consumer complaints, data privacy and anti-corruption mechanisms, among other details. The distinction between what a company says it believes and what it actually does is therefore central to BRSR. 

Sustainability beyond the balance sheet

The growth of BRSR reflects a fundamental change in how corporate performance is understood. In fact, it is a pertinent piece of information for investors. ‘Sustainability’ in business captures how environmental and social practices can have direct financial and operational consequences.

A company that depends heavily on water, for instance, may face significant business risks if it operates in a water-stressed region. A manufacturer with high carbon emissions may face rising costs as climate regulations tighten, while poor labour practices can expose businesses to reputational and legal risks. Weak corporate governance, meanwhile, can create risks for investors and shareholders. Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting attempts to make some of these risks visible by requiring companies to disclose standardised information on their ESG performance.

SEBI identifies better-informed investment decisions as one of the key objectives of the framework. By making companies report comparable information on issues such as emissions, energy and water use, employee welfare, human rights and governance, BRSR allows investors to look beyond financial returns when assessing a company’s long-term performance. 

A company’s sustainability footprint does not end at the factory gate. Much of its environmental and social impact may lie within the wider network of suppliers, distributors and other businesses that make up its value chain. Say a large clothing retailer’s own offices may have a relatively small environmental footprint, but the bulk of its impact may come from cotton cultivation, textile processing, manufacturing, transportation and waste. Looking only at the company’s direct operations would therefore provide an incomplete picture of its sustainability performance. This is why BRSR initially sought to bring value-chain emissions and other ESG impacts into corporate disclosure.

The idea was significant: if large companies are responsible for understanding their wider footprint, they must also have some visibility into the practices of the businesses they depend upon. However, SEBI subsequently made value-chain ESG disclosures voluntary in 2025, citing the need to ease compliance requirements. The change highlights one of the central challenges of sustainability reporting: how can regulators demand meaningful and comprehensive information without creating reporting burdens that smaller suppliers may struggle to meet? 

The future of Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting

BRSR does not, by itself, require companies to reduce their emissions. Its immediate function is disclosure. Yet requiring firms to measure and publish their greenhouse-gas emissions, energy consumption, water use and waste creates a level of transparency that did not previously exist. What gets measured can be monitored; what gets disclosed can be scrutinised by investors, regulators and the public. Over time, this visibility can create pressure for companies to improve their environmental performance. 

Early assessments suggest that BRSR has strengthened the structure and coverage of sustainability reporting in India, but important gaps remain. A 2026 analysis by the Observer Research Foundation points to continuing challenges around international comparability, regulatory coherence and the integration of different sustainability-reporting standards. It argues for greater interoperability with global frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), while retaining indicators that reflect India’s own environmental and social priorities. 

Thus, while BRSR represents an important shift, it definitely isn’t an endpoint. Its significance lies not merely in the reports companies produce, but in whether the information disclosed can make corporate environmental and social impacts more visible, and, ultimately, make businesses more accountable for them. 

The future of BRSR will depend on whether it can move beyond disclosure towards meaningful corporate accountability. As sustainability reporting becomes more detailed and increasingly integrated with global ESG standards, companies will need to develop stronger systems for collecting, verifying and acting on environmental and social data. This could mean greater scrutiny of supply chains, more credible emissions reporting and closer attention to issues such as worker welfare, resource use and community impact. The challenge for regulators will be to maintain rigorous reporting standards without creating disproportionate compliance burdens, particularly for smaller businesses within corporate value chains. Ultimately, the success of Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting will only be measured by whether the information they contain influences corporate decisions.

FAQs

1. What is BRSR?
BRSR stands for Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting. It is a framework introduced by SEBI for standardised disclosure of companies’ environmental, social and governance performance.

2. When was Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting introduced in India?
SEBI introduced Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting in 2021. It was initially voluntary for FY 2021–22 and became mandatory from FY 2022–23 for the top 1,000 listed companies by market capitalisation.

3. What does BRSR cover?
BRSR covers a range of environmental, social and governance indicators, including workforce data, wages, gender composition, health and safety, human rights, energy and water consumption, emissions, waste, consumer complaints, data privacy and anti-corruption measures.

4. Why is BRSR important for investors?
BRSR provides standardised information that can help investors understand a company’s environmental and social impacts, governance practices and sustainability-related risks alongside its financial performance.

5. Is BRSR mandatory for all companies in India?
No. BRSR is mandatory for the top 1,000 listed companies by market capitalisation. Other listed companies can voluntarily submit BRSRs.

6. Does BRSR require companies to reduce their emissions?
No. BRSR is primarily a disclosure framework. It requires companies to measure and report information about areas such as greenhouse-gas emissions, energy, water and waste, rather than directly requiring specific reductions.

7. What is the future of BRSR in India?
The future of BRSR will depend on improving the quality and comparability of sustainability data, strengthening verification and aligning Indian reporting with global frameworks while keeping compliance requirements proportionate.

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Health Insights

Monsoon Diseases in Children: Prevention and Care Tips for Parents in India

Aiming for Minimal Academic Stress in Children
Children living life the best way- enjoying it without thinking much- going to a Smile Foundation centre

Summary: 5 Key Points

  • Monsoon conditions can increase children’s risk of infections.
  • Dengue and malaria are common mosquito-borne diseases during the rainy season.
  • Contaminated food and water can cause diarrhoea and typhoid.
  • Respiratory and skin infections can also become more common during monsoons.
  • Good hygiene, safe water, mosquito control and timely healthcare can help protect children.

Every year, the monsoon comes as the long-awaited relief from the scorching, tropical summer heat. But along with cooler weather and rain, it brings with it a rise in monsoon diseases/infections, especially among children. Stagnant water, contaminated drinking water, damp surroundings, mosquitoes and sudden changes in temperature often create conditions that become a breeding ground for diseases and they spread more easily.

For parents and adults, this can make the rainy season a worrying time. A child who was perfectly healthy yesterday may suddenly develop fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, cough or weakness. While most monsoon diseases are manageable with timely care, some can become serious if symptoms are ignored.

The good news is that many monsoon-related illnesses can be prevented. Good hygiene, safe drinking water, protection from mosquitoes, timely vaccination and early medical attention can go a long way towards keeping children safe.

The monsoon is therefore not a season that parents need to fear. It is a season that requires a little more awareness and care.

Common Monsoon Diseases - Smile Foundation

Why Do Children Fall Sick More During the Monsoon?

Rain itself does not make children fall sick, but the problem is created by what happens around us when the heavy monsoon arrives.

While water can collect in open containers, discarded tyres, coolers, drains and other places, creating breeding grounds for mosquitoes, flooding can contaminate drinking water and increase the risk of infections. On top of this, damp walls and crowded surroundings can also make it easier for some infections to spread.

Children can be particularly vulnerable to this as their immune systems are still developing and they may not always understand the importance of washing their hands or avoiding unsafe water. Young children also frequently touch surfaces and then put their hands in their mouths.

The World Health Organization notes that vector-borne diseases, including diseases transmitted by mosquitoes, are strongly influenced by environmental and social conditions. In India, the monsoon can therefore create favourable conditions for diseases such as dengue, malaria and chikungunya, while contaminated water can increase the risk of diarrhoeal diseases.

For parents, understanding these links is the first step towards prevention.

Dengue: The Mosquito-borne Disease Parents Should Watch for

Dengue is one of the most common concerns during India’s monsoon season. It is caused by the dengue virus and is mainly spread through the bite of infected Aedes mosquitoes. These mosquitoes can breed in relatively small amounts of stagnant water around homes and communities.

According to the WHO, dengue is found mainly in tropical and subtropical climates, and the number of cases has increased significantly around the world in recent decades.

A child with dengue may develop a high fever, headache, body aches, nausea or a rash. In many cases, children recover with proper monitoring and supportive care. However, some infections can become severe.

This is why parents should not simply assume that every fever during the monsoon is “just viral fever”. A child with a persistent or high fever should be assessed by a healthcare professional, particularly if the child becomes unusually sleepy, restless, weak or has difficulty drinking fluids.

Dengue prevention begins at home and in the neighbourhood. Since the mosquitoes that spread dengue can breed in stagnant water, regularly emptying and cleaning coolers, flowerpots, buckets and other containers can help reduce breeding sites. Windows and doors can also be screened where possible, while age-appropriate mosquito repellents and protective clothing can reduce bites.

The important point is that mosquito control is a community responsibility. One clean home cannot completely protect a child if stagnant water is present throughout the surrounding neighbourhood.

Malaria: Another Important Monsoon Risk

Malaria is caused by parasites transmitted through infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. It can cause fever, chills, headache, sweating and weakness and can become serious if treatment is delayed.

The WHO’s malaria fact sheet explains that early diagnosis and treatment are essential. Malaria remains a major public health concern globally, particularly in areas where access to healthcare is limited.

Children can be especially vulnerable to severe malaria. This makes it important for parents to take unexplained fever seriously, particularly if the child lives in or has recently travelled to a malaria-prone area.

Parents should not try to diagnose malaria or dengue at home simply by looking at symptoms. Several infections can produce similar symptoms; hence, testing and medical advice are important when a child has persistent fever.

Mosquito prevention remains one of the simplest ways to reduce risk. Sleeping under mosquito nets, using appropriate repellents and removing stagnant water around the home can all help.

Diarrhoea: A Major Monsoon Concern

While mosquitoes often receive most of the attention during the rainy season, another major concern for children is diarrhoea.

As contamination of food and water is rapid during the monsoon, young children can become dehydrated quickly when they lose large amounts of fluid through diarrhoea or vomiting. More than loose stools, the biggest immediate danger is dehydration. The Government of India’s National Health Mission specifically recognises that childhood diarrhoea can increase during the summer and monsoon seasons. Its STOP Diarrhoea Campaign promotes the use of Oral Rehydration Solution or ORS, and zinc, along with safe water, sanitation and handwashing.

A child with diarrhoea should continue to receive fluids and food as appropriate rather than being left without nourishment. Parents should follow the advice of a healthcare professional regarding zinc, particularly for infants and young children. The Government of India’s zinc policy also provides guidance on zinc use in children with diarrhoea.

If a child is unable to drink, becomes unusually sleepy, has very little urine, develops signs of severe dehydration, has blood in the stool or continues to worsen, medical attention should be sought urgently.

Typhoid and Water-borne Infections

Typhoid fever is caused by Salmonella Typhi bacteria and once again spreads mainly through contaminated food and water. Children can develop prolonged fever, weakness, stomach problems and other symptoms.

Good hygiene and safe drinking water are therefore particularly important during the monsoon.

Parents should ensure that drinking water is safe, especially if the local water supply has been affected by flooding or contamination. Food should be properly cooked and stored safely, and hands should be washed before preparing or eating food and after using the toilet.

Vaccination can also help prevent typhoid — parents should discuss age-appropriate vaccination with their child’s doctor rather than relying only on seasonal precautions.

An Increase in Respiratory Infections 

Not every monsoon illness is caused by contaminated water or mosquitoes.

Children can also experience coughs, colds, sore throats and other respiratory infections during the rainy season. Temperature changes, damp indoor environments and increased time spent indoors can contribute to the spread of respiratory infections.

Most childhood coughs and colds are mild and improve with rest, fluids and appropriate care. However, parents should pay attention to breathing difficulties. If a child is breathing unusually fast, struggling to breathe, has bluish lips, is unable to drink or appears extremely weak or sleepy, they should receive immediate medical attention.

Young children and babies deserve particular attention because they may not be able to clearly communicate how unwell they feel.

Skin Infections Need Your Attention too

Another common monsoon problem is skin infection.

Constant exposure to damp clothes, muddy water and humid conditions can cause fungal infections, rashes and other skin problems, especially for children who play outside and remain in wet clothes for long periods.

Parents should change wet clothes promptly and pay attention to persistent rashes, itching, swelling or sores, keeping the child’s skin hygienic, clean and dry.

Children should also avoid wading through and playing in dirty or potentially contaminated floodwater wherever possible. If a child develops a wound after contact with floodwater, it should be cleaned properly and monitored for signs of infection.

The Simple Habits that Protect Children

Many monsoon diseases can be prevented through habits that sound simple but make a significant difference.

Safe drinking water is the most important one. During periods of heavy rain or flooding, parents should be particularly careful about the source of water used for drinking and cooking.

Handwashing is equally important. Children should wash their hands before eating and after using the toilet, while parents must ensure that food is cooked properly and stored with proper hygiene.

Mosquito control should become part of the household routine during the rainy season. Containers that collect water should be emptied regularly, and coolers and other water-holding equipment should be cleaned.

Children should also wear footwear outdoors, particularly in areas where floodwater or sewage may be present. These measures may appear small, but together they can substantially reduce children’s exposure to infection.

Why Last-Mile Healthcare Matters

While prevention is only one part of the answer, children must also have access to healthcare when they become sick.

For many families in India, particularly those living in rural areas, informal settlements or low-income communities, reaching a doctor can itself be difficult. Transport costs, distance and loss of daily wages can lead families to delay treatment.

Through our flagship Smile on Wheels programme, we take primary healthcare services directly to underserved communities through mobile healthcare units. According to our 2025 healthcare impact report, our collective healthcare initiatives have reached 17 lakh people across 17 states, through 109 Smile on Wheels and allied healthcare units. The programme provides services including outpatient consultations, diagnostics, medicines and maternal and child healthcare.

This last-mile approach becomes particularly important during seasons when monsoon diseases are more common. Early access to healthcare can mean the difference between a manageable illness and a serious one.

At Smile Foundation, we have also worked in communities where poor sanitation and inadequate access to safe water have contributed to the spread of diseases such as dengue, malaria and diarrhoea. In our healthcare intervention in Gurugram, we have highlighted how poor sanitation, unsafe water and inadequate waste disposal created conditions in which infectious diseases could thrive.

Our work therefore illustrates an important point: healthcare cannot be separated from the conditions in which people live.

Monsoon Care is about Prevention, Not Panic

The arrival of the monsoon does not mean children have to spend the season indoors or that every fever is a reason to panic. Children can continue playing, learning and enjoying the rainy season, but what matters is creating healthy routines around them.

Safe water, clean surroundings, mosquito control, handwashing, nutritious food, vaccination and timely medical care together form a strong line of defence.

The Government of India’s continued focus on diarrhoea prevention shows how simple, timely public health measures can save lives. Similarly, community healthcare initiatives such as Smile Foundation’s initiatives highlight the importance of taking healthcare closer to families, particularly those living in underserved communities, rather than expecting people to overcome financial, geographical or social barriers on their own to access essential medical services.

FAQs: Common Monsoon Diseases in India

1. What are the most common monsoon diseases in children?
Common monsoon diseases include dengue, malaria, diarrhoea, typhoid, respiratory infections and skin infections.

2. Why do children get sick more often during the monsoon?
Rainfall, stagnant water, increased mosquito breeding, contaminated water and food, and higher humidity can create conditions that favour the spread of infections.

3. How can I protect my child from mosquito-borne diseases during the monsoon?
Use mosquito nets or screens, apply age-appropriate mosquito repellent, keep the surroundings free of stagnant water and ensure children wear protective clothing when appropriate.

4. How can monsoon-related diarrhoea and typhoid be prevented?
Encourage regular handwashing, provide safe drinking water, wash food properly, eat freshly prepared food and avoid food or water that may be contaminated.

5. What are the warning signs that a child needs medical attention?
Persistent fever, difficulty breathing, repeated vomiting, severe diarrhoea, signs of dehydration, unusual weakness, confusion or worsening symptoms should prompt medical attention.

6. Can respiratory infections also increase during the monsoon?
Yes. Changes in temperature and humidity, indoor crowding and exposure to viruses and other infectious agents can contribute to respiratory illnesses during the rainy season.

7. What should parents do if a child develops symptoms of a monsoon illness?
Monitor the child closely, ensure adequate fluids and rest, and seek medical advice when symptoms are severe, persistent or worsening. Early medical attention can help prevent complications.

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In The Spotlight Insights Smile

What Is Corporate Volunteering? Meaning, Benefits and How Indian Companies Are Doing It 

Volunteer Speaks: Ishan Malik
Volunteer Speaks: Ishan Malik

Summary

  • Corporate volunteering puts people at the centre of social responsibility. Instead of contributing only through financial donations, companies enable employees to give their time, skills and expertise to social or environmental causes.
  • Volunteering can take many forms, from community activities and mentoring to fundraising, disaster response and skill-based professional support for nonprofits.
  • The benefits extend to employees, companies and communities. Employees can develop leadership, communication, teamwork and problem-solving skills, while companies can strengthen employee engagement and organisational culture.
  • India’s CSR framework and corporate volunteering are related but not the same. A company’s CSR spending may fund an NGO-led project without employee participation, while volunteering can operate alongside formal CSR expenditure.
  • The future is about impact, not just participation. Skill-based volunteering, long-term nonprofit partnerships and meaningful measurement can help companies move beyond counting volunteer hours towards creating lasting social value.
Corporate Volunteering - Smile Foundation

Imagine a corporate office on a Friday afternoon. Instead of heading home, a group of employees boards a bus to a government school on the outskirts of the city. One employee helps children build a science model; another conducts a digital literacy session; someone else paints a classroom wall. For the employees, it may be a few hours away from their usual desks and deadlines. For the people they are working with, however, these hours represent something more valuable: access to skills, time and people that it may otherwise struggle to afford.

This is the basic idea behind corporate volunteering: employees using their time and expertise to contribute to social or environmental causes, with their companies facilitating or supporting that participation. 

What was once largely associated with occasional charity drives is increasingly becoming a more structured part of corporate social responsibility. Companies are moving beyond simply writing cheques to causes and asking how their employees themselves can become part of the solution. Within what still may feel utopic to many, a technology professional can teach digital skills, a finance employee can help a nonprofit strengthen its accounting systems, while a group of employees can work with a community organisation on education, healthcare or environmental projects. 

Participation to the core 

Corporate volunteering can take several forms: volunteering time during working hours, participating in company-organised community programmes, offering professional expertise, mentoring, fundraising, disaster response, or undertaking longer-term projects with civil society organisations. This thus, makes corporate volunteering distinct from conventional corporate philanthropy. A company making a donation transfers financial resources to a cause; volunteering mobilises another corporate resource: its people. 

At the same time, the process in itself is distinct from charity. Corporate volunteering represents a shift in how companies understand their social responsibility. Rather than treating communities as passive recipients of corporate philanthropy, volunteering creates opportunities for employees to participate directly in the life of the community while also addressing social problems. This illustrates an important evolution: volunteering does not necessarily mean stepping outside one’s professional identity. Skills can themselves become a form of social contribution. A lawyer can provide legal assistance to a nonprofit; a designer can help develop communication material; an engineer can contribute technical expertise; and a corporate manager can mentor a social enterprise. 

Benefits galore

Corporate volunteering benefits both communities and organizations; communities gain resources and skills, while employees find a stronger sense of purpose and connection to their work. Volunteering offers employees opportunities to engage with diverse groups, develop crucial skills like leadership and teamwork, and understand social issues more deeply. For companies, it enhances organizational culture by fostering a meaningful workplace that aligns with employees’ expectations for social responsibility, reinforcing their connection to the company’s values beyond just financial performance.

Research also suggests that volunteering can strengthen employee engagement. But this benefit depends heavily on how programmes are designed. A mandatory volunteering activity undertaken just to meet a target won’t generate the same sense of ownership, say in comparison an opportunity that employees voluntarily choose and find meaningful. This is why the most effective programmes tend to move beyond volunteerism as an event towards volunteerism as an organisational culture. 

The Indian landscape 

India offers an interesting context for this evolution because corporate volunteering operates alongside the country’s formal CSR framework. Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 requires eligible companies to undertake CSR activities, creating a structured environment for corporate social responsibility. However, employee volunteering and CSR expenditure are not synonymous. A company’s CSR programme may fund a project implemented by an NGO without involving employees directly, while employees may volunteer their time in activities that sit alongside, rather than constitute, the company’s CSR spending. 

Some of India’s largest companies have therefore developed dedicated systems to connect employees with community work. The Tata Group, for example, reported 1.087 crore volunteering hours, in FY2025. It showcased a 35 per cent increase over the previous year, with a participation rate of 28 per cent. The group’s programmes include both short-term activities and longer professional volunteering projects. 

Yet the growing scale of corporate volunteering raises an important question: should success be measured by the number of hours volunteered, or by what those hours actually achieve? Volunteer hours are easy to count. Impact is considerably harder. A company can report thousands of employees participating in a tree-planting drive, but the more meaningful questions are whether those trees survive, whether the intervention responds to a locally identified need and whether communities are involved in maintaining it. Similarly, an employee spending a few hours teaching children may generate immediate engagement, but sustained educational outcomes may require consistent mentoring over months or years. 

This is where skill-based volunteering becomes particularly important. Instead of simply supplying additional hands, companies can contribute specialised knowledge that nonprofits may not otherwise be able to access. Tata’s volunteering framework, for example, explicitly includes opportunities for employees to contribute their professional expertise, while its programmes range from short activities to six-month professional projects. The challenge, therefore, is to move from counting participation to understanding outcomes. 

The future of corporate volunteering 

The future of corporate volunteering in India is predicted to be shaped by three major turns: greater skill-based participation, stronger partnerships with nonprofits and better measurement of outcomes. Technology is already making it easier for companies to match employees with volunteering opportunities, track participation and coordinate large programmes. At the same time, companies are beginning to recognise that social problems cannot always be addressed through one-off campaigns. Thus long-term partnerships are being embraced with organisations that possess contextual knowledge of the communities they serve. 

Tele-counselling service by Smile Foundation volunteer in Kolkata

To make this successful, humility is pertinent on the part of corporations. Employees may bring valuable skills and resources, but they do not necessarily possess an understanding of the communities they are entering. Corporate volunteering will ultimately matter, and essentially make a difference, when working with communities and civil society organisations rather than simply doing things for them. This is so because it changes the meaning of corporate social responsibility. Money can fund a programme, but it is only people who can bring relationships and lived knowledge. 

As we go forward in this process, the challenge for Indian companies now is to ask a more fundamental question: what kind of volunteering creates lasting social value? The answer will lie less in the number of photographs from a volunteering day and more in the depth, continuity and outcomes of the relationships that corporations build with the communities they seek to serve.

FAQs

1. What is corporate volunteering?
Corporate volunteering is when employees use their time, skills or professional expertise to contribute to social or environmental causes, with their companies facilitating or supporting their participation.

2. How is corporate volunteering different from corporate philanthropy?
Corporate philanthropy generally involves providing financial resources to a cause, while corporate volunteering mobilises employees’ time, skills and expertise. A company can therefore support a nonprofit financially without involving employees, or employees can volunteer alongside a company’s broader CSR activities.

3. What are the benefits of corporate volunteering?
Corporate volunteering can provide communities with skills, time and human capacity while helping employees develop leadership, teamwork, communication and problem-solving skills. For companies, it can strengthen organisational culture, employee engagement and connections with corporate values.

4. What are some examples of corporate volunteering in India?
Examples include employees teaching children, conducting digital literacy sessions, mentoring, supporting nonprofits with professional skills, participating in environmental initiatives, fundraising and contributing to disaster-response efforts.

5. Is employee volunteering part of CSR in India?
Corporate volunteering and CSR expenditure are not synonymous. Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 creates a formal framework for CSR activities, but a company’s CSR spending may support an NGO programme without involving employees directly. Employee volunteering can operate alongside such CSR initiatives.

6. What is skill-based corporate volunteering?
Skill-based volunteering involves employees contributing their professional expertise to social organisations or community initiatives. For example, a lawyer might provide legal assistance, a designer could support communications, or an engineer could contribute technical knowledge.

7. How can companies make corporate volunteering more impactful?
Companies can focus on long-term partnerships with nonprofits, offer meaningful skill-based opportunities and measure outcomes rather than participation alone. The most effective programmes are designed around community needs and work with communities and civil society organisations rather than simply doing things for them.

Categories
Education Insights

What is PM eVIDYA? Meaning and Role in India’s Digital Education Push

Innovating for Good: The Role of Digital Technology in Nonprofits
Innovating for Good: The Role of Digital Technology in Nonprofits

PM eVIDYA is India’s national digital education scheme, launched in May 2020 to keep classes running during the COVID lockdown. It brings together DIKSHA, SWAYAM, SWAYAM Prabha TV channels, radio broadcasts and content for students with disabilities. Today it reaches close to 25 crore school going children across the country. SWAYAM Prabha alone runs close to 200 DTH channels, up from just 12 in 2020, and DIKSHA has crossed 2.25 crore registered users.

PM eVidya

Summary

  • PM eVIDYA launched in May 2020, as part of the government’s COVID relief package, bringing DIKSHA, SWAYAM, SWAYAM Prabha, radio broadcasting and disability-focused content under one scheme called one nation, one digital education infrastructure.
  • The scheme rests on six pillars: DIKSHA, SWAYAM, SWAYAM Prabha, radio and podcasts, disability-focused content, and coaching for competitive exams like JEE and NEET through SATHEE and IITPAL.
  • SWAYAM Prabha has grown from 12 channels to close to 200 since the 2022-23 Union Budget. DIKSHA has crossed 2.25 crore registered users, and SWAYAM has logged 5.80 crore cumulative enrolments.
  • A UNESCO review found only 19% of Indian schools have internet access. An NCERT survey found unreliable electricity and missing devices are still common barriers.
  • PM eVIDYA outlasted the pandemic emergency that created it. It became permanent public infrastructure, and in 2022 it won UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for ICT in education.

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”

That age old proverb is exactly why PM eVIDYA exists. PM eVIDYA stands for Pradhan Mantri e-Vidya. The Ministry of Education launched it in May 2020 to keep classrooms running through the pandemic, and it has since grown into a permanent digital infrastructure built around DIKSHA, SWAYAM, SWAYAM Prabha TV channels, educational radio and dedicated content for children with disabilities. It now reaches close to 25 crore school going children across the country.

What is PM eVIDYA and when was it launched?

The announcement came on 17 May 2020, as part of the fifth tranche of the government’s COVID economic relief package. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman rolled PM eVIDYA out alongside cash transfers for farmers and daily wage workers.

Three months later, on 7 August 2020, the emergency measure became permanent under a new tagline, one nation, one digital education infrastructure.

The same announcement also launched Manodarpan, a psychosocial support initiative for students, teachers and families during the lockdown. It started life on the same day. Today it runs as its own mental health programme under the Ministry of Education, apart from PM eVIDYA’s six core pillars.

One nation, one digital education infrastructure meant no single app and no single channel. The scheme ran across television, radio and mobile apps at the same time. A student with no laptop could tune in to a DTH channel and if there is a power cut before the evening broadcast, the same lesson aired again on the radio the next morning. PM eVIDYA was built for the way Indian homes actually work.

Key Components of the PM eVIDYA initiative

PM eVIDYA rests on six pillars, and each one solves for a different gap. Some students have a smartphone and steady internet connection; others only have a television at home and a fair number have neither. The six pillars are built to address all of them.

  • DIKSHA, the national digital content portal for schools
  • SWAYAM, the free online course platform for higher and school education
  • SWAYAM Prabha, the network of educational DTH TV channels
  • Extensive use of radio, community radio and podcasts
  • Special e-content for Children with Special Needs, known as CWSN
  • Online coaching for competitive exams, including SATHEE and IITPAL

One Class, One Channel: DTH-based learning

The idea behind One Class, One Channel is simple enough. Each class gets its own dedicated slot on its own channel, so a Class 6 student and a Class 11 student are never fighting over the same screen time.

This runs on SWAYAM Prabha. It had just 3 channels when it launched in May 2020. The 2022-23 Union Budget pushed that number past the original 12, and today it sits at close to 200, all free to watch on DD Free Dish, Dish TV and the Jio TV app. States and boards have their own channels now. Uttar Pradesh holds 5 channels. CBSE uses its own, CBSE-15, for revision videos and teacher training. The newest addition, from December 2024, is a channel dedicated to Indian Sign Language, for hearing impaired students, their teachers and interpreters.

SWAYAM Prabha and digital content access

SWAYAM Prabha plays prerecorded lessons on a fixed schedule. SWAYAM is a full course a student enrols in and works through at their own pace, run with IIT Madras and ten national coordinating bodies including NPTEL, UGC and NCERT. The platform has over 4,400 courses, and as of January 2026, cumulative enrolments have crossed 5.80 crore, with more than 52 lakh certifications handed out.

Every course on SWAYAM is free to take. Only the final proctored exam for an official certificate carries a fee, and universities that follow UGC’s 2021 credit framework can let students transfer up to 40% of a semester’s coursework through SWAYAM. That can shave real time off finishing a degree while working a job.

How PM eVIDYA supports students With disabilities

It is easier for a scheme built around television and online video to forget the students who cannot see the screen or hear the audio. PM eVIDYA has made some real efforts here, even if the coverage is still patchy.

DIKSHA hosts content in the DAISY format for visually impaired learners, along with text to speech tools and Indian Sign Language videos. NIOS has built more than 270 ISL videos covering seven secondary subjects and yoga, available on YouTube and on DVDs for students without reliable streaming.

Beyond DIKSHA and NIOS, there is Barkha, a reading series of 40 multilingual story booklets, built around universal learning principles. It uses tactile visuals, high contrast illustrations and sign language introductions, so a child with a visual, cognitive or motor difference can use the very same first reading lesson as everyone else.

How PM eVIDYA reaches students without internet access

A large share of Indian households, especially in rural areas, still do not have dependable internet. So the scheme leans on formats that do not need one at all.

It starts with television and radio. Doordarshan and All India Radio carry curriculum based classes, board exam preparation and JEE or NEET guidance, in scheduled morning and afternoon slots when students and their families are home. Nearly 300 community radio stations joined in at launch, since a single national broadcast could not reach every village on its own. NIOS built on that base with Mukta Vidya Vani, a live educational web radio with two way contact sessions, also rebroadcast on Radio Vahini FM for listeners who are not online at all. CBSE runs something similar for older students, a podcast called Shiksha Vani, with over 400 curriculum aligned audio lessons for Classes 9 to 12.

None of this needs a smartphone or a data connection, just a radio set sitting in the house. For a child in a village with no fibre line anywhere close, this is not a backup plan, it is how school happens.

Impact of PM eVIDYA on learning continuity in India

DIKSHA had crossed 2.25 crore registered users by the middle of 2026, logging more than 575 crore learning sessions in total. SWAYAM’s enrolments sit at 5.80 crore. SATHEE, the competitive exam platform run with IIT Kanpur, gives students free access to over 80,000 practice questions and mock tests curated by IIT and AIIMS faculty, through both a website and seven dedicated DTH channels.

These numbers trace back to the pandemic, when PM eVIDYA kept nearly 25 crore school children connected to some form of learning while classrooms stayed shut. For students who could not afford a private tutor or a paid app, that mattered a lot. A child who misses a year of school often just doesn’t come back.

The scheme did not stop once the emergency ended. It became permanent public infrastructure, and in 2022 it won UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the use of ICT in education.

Challenges and gaps in reaching every child

A UNESCO review found that only 19% of Indian schools had internet access. That alone keeps DIKSHA’s best content, the simulations, the virtual labs, out of most classrooms. A separate NCERT survey found that 28% of stakeholders named unreliable electricity as a hurdle, and 27% said students simply had no smartphone or laptop to watch on.

The gap isn’t just about schools. Poor families have far less internet than rich ones, and women in India are far less likely to be online than men. A DTH channel might get a screen into the house, but it can’t fix a girl not knowing the language well enough, not feeling confident enough, or simply having too much housework and a younger sibling to watch.

There’s another problem too. Once the broadcast is over, there’s no one left to ask a question to. A recorded lecture can’t answer a question and not every parent has time to sit and explain a tricky maths problem. A child still needs a teacher nearby, someone who can actually help when the lesson doesn’t make sense.

How Smile Foundation supports digital and remote learning access

Smile Foundation works in that gap. Through Mission Education, it runs learning centres, science clubs and teacher training in government schools across 27 states, reaching over 160,000 children. Its Shiksha Na Ruke initiative does more too, handing out smartphones and tablets to students who can’t afford them, curating radio and TV content, and sending teachers door to door in areas where even a shared screen is hard to find. There’s also a helpline for one-on-one mentoring, for children who start falling behind.

You can support a child’s access to digital learning, or volunteer your time with Smile Foundation’s education programmes.

FAQs

  • What is PM eVIDYA and why was it launched?

PM eVIDYA is India’s umbrella digital education scheme, launched by the Ministry of Education on 17 May 2020 to keep learning going during the COVID-19 lockdown. It later became a permanent programme built on the principle of one nation, one digital education infrastructure.

  • What are the main components of the PM eVIDYA initiative?

PM eVIDYA rests on six pillars: DIKSHA, SWAYAM, SWAYAM Prabha DTH channels, radio and podcasts, special content for children with disabilities, and online coaching for competitive exams through platforms like SATHEE.

  • How does the One Class One Channel concept work under PM eVIDYA?

Each school grade is assigned its own dedicated television channel under SWAYAM Prabha, so students of different ages are not competing for the same broadcast slot. This runs across about 200 free DTH channels available through DD Free Dish and other platforms, up from the 12 the scheme started with in 2020.

  • What is SWAYAM Prabha and how is it linked to PM eVIDYA?

SWAYAM Prabha is the group of educational DTH TV channels that forms one of PM eVIDYA’s six pillars. It broadcasts curriculum based lessons around the clock and is aimed especially at students without reliable internet access.

  • Does PM eVIDYA support students with disabilities?

Yes. DIKSHA offers DAISY format audiobooks, text to speech tools and Indian Sign Language videos, while NIOS has produced over 270 ISL videos. The Barkha reading series adds 40 multilingual booklets built around universal design principles.

  • How does PM eVIDYA reach students without internet access?

Students without internet can rely on SWAYAM Prabha’s DTH channels, Doordarshan and All India Radio broadcasts, and NIOS’s Mukta Vidya Vani web radio, which is also rebroadcast on FM for offline listeners.

  • What impact has PM eVIDYA had on learning continuity in India?

DIKSHA has crossed 2.25 crore registered users and SWAYAM has recorded 5.80 crore cumulative enrolments as of 2026. During the pandemic, the scheme kept close to 25 crore school children connected to some form of learning, and it later won a UNESCO prize for its use of ICT in education.

  • What are the main challenges limiting PM eVIDYA’s reach?

A UNESCO review found only 19% of Indian schools have internet access, and an NCERT survey found unreliable electricity and missing devices were common barriers. Gaps in income and gender still shape who actually gets online, and broadcast content cannot replace a teacher answering a student’s question in real time.

  • How does Smile Foundation support digital learning access for underserved children?

Smile Foundation’s Mission Education programme reaches over 160,000 children across 27 states with STEM labs and teacher training, while its Shiksha Na Ruke initiative provides smartphones, tablets and door to door teaching support to children who would otherwise be left out of digital learning.

Sources

PM e-Vidya: Digital Education for Inclusive Learning 2020
PM eVIDYA
Inside Smile Foundation’s School Transformation Programme
Categories
Education Insights

What is DIKSHA Platform? How India Is Digitising Teacher Training and Learning

Teacher's Day: Smile Foundation
Students happy with their teacher

DIKSHA platform gives teachers and students free, curriculum linked content in their own language, through QR linked textbooks, teacher training courses and offline access, for over 2.25 crore registered users. It works as a digital learning platform across India, reaching classrooms in nearly every state and union territory. This guide covers how it actually works.

DIKSHA platform - Smile Foundation

Summary

  • DIKSHA, the Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing, is NCERT’s national platform for school education, with over 2.25 crore registered users across every state and union territory.
  • It offers QR linked textbooks, offline access and content in 135 languages, with core school material available in 36 of them.
  • Teacher training runs mainly through NISHTHA, feeding directly into NEP 2020’s requirement of 50 hours of professional development a year for every teacher.
  • Beyond content delivery, the app lets teachers build digital assessments, receive state education announcements and share teaching practices with peers.
  • Independent research shows real gaps alongside real gains: a meaningful share of teachers use DIKSHA rarely or never, and rural connectivity remains the biggest hurdle.
  • Digital infrastructure only becomes real learning once a teacher is trained to use it well, which is the same gap Smile Foundation works to close in classrooms.

Knowledge means little if it never leaves the room it was learned in. DIKSHA, the Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing, is NCERT’s answer to that problem for schools across India.

What Is the DIKSHA Platform and Who Runs It?

NCERT runs DIKSHA platform under India’s Ministry of Education, working closely with the Central Institute of Educational Technology. The platform launched on 5th September 2017.

It began as a tool built only for teacher training, called the National Digital Infrastructure for Teachers, before growing into a full learning platform covering classes 1 to 12. That growth culminated in 2020, when the government named it India’s One Nation, One Digital Platform for school education under the PM eVidya initiative and Atma Nirbhar Bharat. Today, almost every state, union territory and school board runs on it, including CBSE and NIOS.

Key Features of DIKSHA platform for Teachers and Students

DIKSHA platform works for two groups at once. It trains teachers, and it delivers content to children no matter where they study. To use it, you pick your state and district, then your class and the app shows material built for that group.

What Students and Parents Get

Every NCERT textbook now carries a QR code, and scanning one opens a video, a worksheet or a full explanation of that chapter. NCERT has printed these codes since 2018 and DIKSHA now hosts more than 7,600 of these Energised Textbooks, backed by close to 3.7 lakh pieces of digital content of its own:

  • 2D and 3D animations
  • Augmented reality tools
  • Over 600 virtual labs for subjects like science and maths
  • Simpler formats such as video, PDF, HTML, ePub and quizzes

Students can also test themselves through practice exercises and get instant feedback on whether their answer is right. The same range includes children with special needs, through the DAISY format, text to speech and Indian Sign Language videos. Parents can use the app too, to follow what happens in class and ask teachers questions outside school hours.

What Teachers Get, Through NISHTHA

NISHTHA, the teacher training programme delivered through DIKSHA, is where most of the platform’s daily use happens. It launched during the pandemic for elementary school teachers and later versions expanded into secondary education and foundational literacy and numeracy.

NEP 2020 requires every teacher and school head to complete 50 hours of professional development each year and DIKSHA is one of the main ways schools meet that target. Courses run at your own pace through an integrated learning system, ending in a certificate and a badge on your profile.

The platform also tracks a teacher’s full career, from the day you join a Teacher Education Institute to the day you retire, with:

  • Ready made lesson plans and worksheets
  • Leadership courses if you lead a school
  • Tools to build your own digital assessments
  • Official updates from your state education department
  • A look at how other teachers explain the same topics

A 2022 study across Kendriya Vidyalayas found that more than 80% of English teachers used DIKSHA in class and close to 98% of them had completed NISHTHA through the app.

How DIKSHA platform Supports Regional Language Learning

Indian teachers teach in dozens of languages and DIKSHA platform was built to work across all of them. The platform supports 135 languages in total, 128 of them Indian, with core school content available in 36. Bhasha Sangam, one of its focus areas, teaches everyday sentences across 22 Indian languages and e-Jaadui Pitara does something similar for the foundational stage, using toys, puzzles and flashcards instead of screens.

Getting content into the right language solves only part of the problem, since a family still needs an internet connection to open it. DIKSHA also lets you download material in advance and use it without an internet connection and several states preload lessons directly onto smart classroom boards, useful in parts of rural India where connectivity is patchy.

How Widely Is DIKSHA platform Used Across India?

By mid 2026, DIKSHA platform had grown into India’s largest government digital education platform by a wide margin, nearly nine times the reach of SWAYAM, its closest comparison. Registered users crossed 2.25 crore and the scale builds from there:

  • Around 3 lakh people use DIKSHA every single day
  • Learning sessions have crossed 575 crore since launch
  • Course enrolments stand at 18.77 crore, with 14.82 crore completions
  • 12.79 crore certificates have been issued across 347 courses
  • Uttar Pradesh leads state registrations at 26.8 lakh users, followed by Gujarat and Maharashtra

A Kendriya Vidyalaya study showed similar patterns at the classroom level. More than 70% of English teachers used DIKSHA across listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary, with video notes the most popular format among students. On the app stores, DIKSHA has crossed 5 crore downloads with a 4.1 rating.

Where DIKSHA Still Falls Short

Scale does not mean everyone is using DIKSHA, or using it well. A 2025 study of 180 teachers in Delhi NCR found that 15.1% had never opened the platform at all, and another 24.6% used it only rarely. Connectivity is the biggest reason why. Around 60% of rural educators still face internet issues limiting e-learning in rural India and roughly 60% of the country’s 6.5 lakh rural schools still lack basic digital infrastructure.

A working connection is not the only hurdle. A device and a data plan can quietly exclude economically disadvantaged students, even when the content itself is free, a concern raised in UNESCO’s own case study on DIKSHA. It also notes that some regional languages and dialects remain underrepresented in the content.

The Kendriya Vidyalaya teachers who use DIKSHA daily for English classes still ran into problems. The app sometimes hangs, updates take too long, and downloading material can throw technical errors.

How DIKSHA Fits Into India’s Digital Education Push Under NEP 2020

NEP 2020 names DIKSHA directly as a tool for giving teachers structured, user friendly resources to track student progress. Two of DIKSHA’s newest features build on this same role: AskDIKSHA, which lets students ask questions directly against NCERT textbook content and get an answer back, and Read Aloud, which supports younger or less confident readers. In 2023, the Ministry of Education also moved DIKSHA onto Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to handle its growing scale.

Teachers in the Kendriya Vidyalaya study want DIKSHA to go further still, with hands on training in AI tools and competency based education.

How Smile Foundation Bridges the Digital Learning Gap for Underserved Children

Teacher instructing students in classroom

DIKSHA reaches most of the country, but it still depends on teachers being trained well enough to use it. The places where that training is weakest are usually the same places with poor connectivity and few devices to begin with.

Smile Foundation’s Mission Education programme works in those places, running teacher training support, science clubs and classroom level literacy programmes in government schools, so children and their teachers get this support directly, instead of waiting for connectivity or devices to catch up first. That work happens one teacher and one classroom at a time.

You can support a child’s education directly or explore volunteering opportunities with Smile Foundation.

FAQs

  • What is the DIKSHA platform and who developed it?

The DIKSHA platform is India’s national digital education system, built by NCERT under the Ministry of Education. It launched on 5th September 2017 to give teachers and students free, curriculum linked content. Today it covers school education from the foundational stage through to class 12.

  • How do teachers use DIKSHA for training and professional development?

Teachers use DIKSHA mainly through NISHTHA, the government’s large scale teacher training programme. Courses are self paced and count toward the 50 hours of professional development NEP 2020 requires each year. Teachers also access lesson plans, worksheets and leadership courses through the same platform.

  • What is the QR code feature in NCERT textbooks linked to DIKSHA?

NCERT prints QR codes inside its textbooks that link straight to DIKSHA. Scanning one opens a video, an interactive exercise or extra explanation for that chapter. The platform now hosts over 7,600 of these QR coded textbooks, called Energised Textbooks.

  • Is DIKSHA available in regional languages?

Yes. DIKSHA supports 135 languages in total, 128 of them Indian, with core school content available in 36. Focus areas like Bhasha Sangam and e-Jaadui Pitara build regional language and foundational learning directly into the platform.

  • How many teachers and students actively use DIKSHA in India?

DIKSHA has crossed 2.25 crore registered users, with around 3 lakh people active on the platform daily. Course enrolments stand at 18.77 crore, and the app has been downloaded more than 5 crore times.

  • What is NISHTHA and how is it connected to DIKSHA?

NISHTHA is the National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement, delivered mainly through DIKSHA. It began with elementary grade teachers during the pandemic and later expanded into secondary education and foundational literacy and numeracy training.

  • What are the biggest challenges in DIKSHA’s reach in rural India?

Connectivity is the main obstacle. Around 60 percent of India’s 6.5 lakh rural schools still lack basic digital infrastructure and many rural teachers face regular internet issues. Research also shows a meaningful share of teachers use DIKSHA rarely or not at all, despite the platform’s scale.

  • Is DIKSHA free to use for all students and teachers?

Yes, DIKSHA is completely free for students, teachers and parents across India, available as both a mobile app and a website. Much of the content can be downloaded for offline use. The only real requirement is a device and, ideally, an internet connection to download material.

  • How does DIKSHA support NEP 2020’s digital education goals?

NEP 2020 names DIKSHA directly as a tool for delivering structured, technology led teacher support at scale, central to meeting the policy’s requirement of 50 hours of professional development a year for every teacher. Features like AskDIKSHA and Read Aloud reflect the same push toward personalised, accessible learning.

  • How does Smile Foundation help bridge the digital learning divide for children?

Smile Foundation’s Mission Education programme trains teachers and runs science and literacy programmes in government schools, working on the same gap that platforms like DIKSHA cannot close alone. It focuses on classroom level readiness, which is what actually turns digital infrastructure into real learning.

Sources

Categories
Education

AI Literacy for Children: Why Schools in India Need to Teach It Now

Indian children are already living with AI daily, in homework apps, video feeds and chatbots, mostly without anyone explaining how it works. From untrained teachers and unreliable devices to English-only tools and rules no one has set, several gaps stand between them and the understanding they need.

AI literacy for children - Smile Foundation

Summary

  • AI literacy is a different skill from coding. It teaches children to understand and question what a system is doing when it answers, recommends or predicts something.
  • CBSE made Computational Thinking and AI compulsory for Classes 3 to 8 in April 2026, and Punjab has made AI a core subject from Classes 1 to 12.
  • What to teach changes with age, from unplugged sorting games at five to Python at fourteen.
  • Rural schools face unreliable internet and electricity, untrained teachers and English-only tools, though most of the core ideas can still be taught with paper and cards.
  • Only about a quarter of teachers have had any AI training, which affects what they can teach and what they can spot in homework.
  • Children who learn to question AI early are better placed to use it well as it spreads further into their schooling and work.

AI literacy for children means teaching them how artificial intelligence works, so they can question its answers instead of simply trusting them. A child in your home has probably asked a chatbot something this week, and almost certainly took the answer at face value. Learning to pause, long enough to wonder how the answer was produced and whether it was fair, is the habit AI literacy builds.

What is AI literacy and why does it matter for children?

AI literacy is often confused with coding, since schools tend to introduce both together. Coding is about building software, while AI literacy is about understanding what a system is doing when it answers a question or recommends a video.

That understanding is what lets a child use these tools safely rather than blindly. A homework helper or a translation app is fine to reach for, as long as the child also knows it can be wrong, that it may carry someone’s bias, and that exam answers do not belong inside it.

That kind of judgement takes time to build, which is why the timing matters.

  • Access gaps widen early, and a child in a village school should not start further back than one in a well-funded private school.
  • Entry-level work already expects it, with banking, retail and manufacturing roles assuming some comfort with AI tools.
  • Deepfakes are harder to spot without practice, and children who have seen these systems fail are less easily fooled.
  • Privacy is not obvious to a ten-year-old. Few children know a chat with an AI tool can be stored or used to train it further.
  • India needs builders as well as users, and a student who learns this early can build tools that fit an Indian classroom and language.

How are schools in India introducing AI education in 2026?

The National Education Policy of 2020 asked schools to build digital literacy and computational thinking into the middle years. What that looks like in practice varies widely by board and state.

CBSE’s AI Curriculum and beyond

CBSE has moved fastest. In April 2026, the Union Education Minister launched a Computational Thinking and AI curriculum for Classes 3 to 8, developed with IIT Madras. Classes 3 to 5 get about 50 hours a year, folded into maths through puzzles and pattern games rather than screen time, and classes 6 to 8 get 100 hours across computational thinking, AI literacy and small hands-on projects. There is no exam in it yet, and the full framework is available on CBSE’s academic site.

This builds on earlier work. CBSE has offered an AI elective for Classes 9 to 12 since 2019, and 18,839 schools already offer AI as a Class 6 skill subject. CISCE has added Robotics and Artificial Intelligence for Classes 9 to 12, with the first ICSE paper written in 2025.

States setting the pace

Punjab has gone furthest. In July 2026, it launched Sarbat.AI, making AI a core subject from Classes 1 to 12 across 25,172 schools and roughly 31.5 lakh students.

Kerala started earlier. Its Little KITEs programme has run since 2018 across more than 2,000 schools, training lakhs of children in AI, robotics and cyber safety, and a UNICEF study rates it among the strongest student-led digital learning models anywhere. In 2026 its members began teaching AI safety to nearly six lakh parents.

What to teach at each age

Most school programmes break AI teaching into four stages, shaped by what a child can handle at each age.

  • Ages 5 to 7: No screens required. Sorting games with animal or shape cards teach children to notice patterns and group things by rules, which is what a model does.
  • Ages 8 to 10: Block-based tools like Scratch let children build something simple, run it, and fix it when it does not work.
  • Ages 11 to 13: Children start using generative tools themselves, which makes this the stage for questions about how a filter decides what looks good.
  • Ages 14 and up: Coding becomes part of it, usually Python, and AI skills for students start to need a real technical foundation.

Teaching responsible and ethical use of AI

Children need the safety rules early, not at the end of the course, especially once they start typing personal details into a chat window. Four habits cover most of it.

  • Know the rule on schoolwork. Using AI to check spelling is allowed in most classrooms, however, submitting its writing as your own is not.
  • Check before believing. AI answers sound confident whether or not they are correct, so anything important is worth verifying against a textbook or an adult.
  • Keep private things private. Addresses, phone numbers and family details should never go into a public AI tool.
  • Keep your own voice. A tool can tidy up a sentence, but the thinking behind it should still belong to the child who wrote it.

Challenges in bringing AI education to rural and under-resourced schools

Those habits assume a classroom with a working device in it, which many rural schools do not have. Unreliable internet and electricity are common, teachers have rarely had any AI training, and most tools run in English rather than the language children speak at home. Devices cost more than many families can spend, and parents are often unconvinced the whole thing is useful.

AI can still be taught there. The first thing a child needs to understand is how patterns in data become an answer, and paper works fine for that. A sorting game with picture cards shows how a model groups things. Build a class lunch menu using only the front row’s answers, and children see what bias means before anyone defines it. One shared phone running something like Teachable Machine can serve a whole room.

How teachers can be equipped to teach AI concepts

All of this depends on the teacher, and most have had no preparation for it. Only about a quarter have had any AI training, and confidence is lowest on the practical questions, like how to handle work that may have been AI-assisted or what to do when a tool starts behaving oddly.

The gap shows up first in homework. Teachers who know how these systems produce an answer are much better at spotting AI use in submitted work, and simply having used a chatbot does not give them that skill. Noticing why the sentences run oddly even, or why a confident wrong fact appears where no child in that class would have written one, takes some understanding of how the tool works, and detection software is not reliable enough to settle it either way. A teacher who knows that much can also show the class how to use AI properly, fixing a weak prompt in front of everyone.

Training that works usually has a few things in common.

  • Begin with the same unplugged activities the children will do, since teachers who meet AI through sorting games rather than code feel far less anxious about teaching it.
  • Explain how the system arrives at an answer. Teachers trust it more when training compares the machine’s reasoning to how an expert would think.
  • Show the tool failing. A trainer who types a poor prompt, gets a poor answer and fixes it teaches more than a demonstration that goes perfectly.
  • Teachers should get to try AI on their own lesson plans and question papers before they try it in a live classroom.
  • Schools that settle their rules early make it easier. Teachers say clear policies on what students can and cannot do with AI would help their confidence as much as more tools would.

How Smile Foundation prepares children for a technology-driven future

Most government schools are still waiting for trained teachers and properly stocked classrooms, which is the gap Smile Foundation has worked on since long before AI came into the picture. Its Mission Education programme now brings AI powered learning tools into schools that once had only a blackboard, where children try 3D printing and simple robotics in their own mother tongue.

Children in under-resourced schools are the ones this reaches last. Smile Foundation’s education initiatives welcome donors and volunteers, and a classroom’s first set of digital tools is a good place to start.

FAQs

  • What is AI literacy and why should children learn about it early?

AI literacy for children means understanding how artificial intelligence gathers data and produces an answer and knowing when that answer is worth checking. Most Indian children already use AI daily with no adult nearby to explain it.

  • Which Indian school boards have introduced AI as a subject?

CBSE made Computational Thinking and AI compulsory for Classes 3 to 8 from 2026, on top of an older elective it has run for Classes 9 to 12 since 2019. Punjab has gone furthest of any state, making AI a core subject from Class 1 through 12 under Sarbat.AI.

  • At what age should children start learning about AI concepts?

Children can start as early as five to seven, through unplugged games rather than a screen. Structured AI concepts begin from Class 3 in the CBSE curriculum, with actual code arriving closer to fourteen.

  • How can schools teach AI literacy without expensive technology?

Pattern, prediction and fairness can all be taught with paper and cards, which covers most of what a young child needs. One shared phone is plenty once a live AI tool needs demonstrating.

  • What does responsible use of AI mean for students?

It means using AI as a thinking partner and checking its answers rather than accepting them outright. Whatever ends up on the page should still be the student’s own thought.

  • What challenges do rural schools face in introducing AI education?

Electricity and internet come first, since neither can be counted on in many rural schools. Untrained teachers come next, and most AI tools still assume English, which leaves regional languages underserved.

  • How can teachers be trained to teach AI concepts confidently?

Training works best when it starts with the same unplugged games their students will see, before any code. Peer coaching helps, and free resources like CIET-NCERT’s training series are already available.

  • How does Smile Foundation help prepare children for future-ready careers?

Through Mission Education, which brings AI powered learning tools into schools that need them, including 3D printing and simple robotics taught in children’s own mother tongue.

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