IITian Quits Job to Make Changemakers

Rahul Adhikari, 24-year-old Civil Engineer, is the founder of Better Plus Education (BPE). Rahul Adhikari, son of an Army officer, was born in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.

After completing his engineering from IIT-Roorkee and winning the President’s Gold Medal, he started work in startups especially in the e-commerce and the ed-tech space, upcoming business strategy, product development, marketing, operations, team building, etc. He was always interested in entrepreneurship and building organizations. The Better Plus Education includes Changemaker Education programs in schools that enables school to develop their students as Changemakers. In August 2018, Study Hall School, Lucknow 13 year old students, Aarushi, Divyanshi, Yashika, Fatima, and Ritwika had noticed that parents do not wear helmets when they drop their children off to school. Hence they started on an initiative ‘The Armour Brigade’ where they decided to stand in front of the entrance gates in the morning and talk to each parent who wasn’t wearing a helmet in a friendly and caring way for the coming 2 months. They made cards with handwritten messages on importance of safety and distributed to the parents. They were hopeful and as a result, after 2 months, they found that number of defaulting parents fell from 35 to 3. Having solved this civic concern in their school, they are now expanding to other parts of Lucknow city. The Study Hall School initiative is one among the approximately 250+ Changemakers initiatives started by children from the age of 10 to 16 to solve real-world problems from over 15+ schools across India. These schools made sure that their students not only acquire textbook knowledge but become Changemakers in the real world. However, while working in MAD and other NGOs, Rahul realized his passion and need in creating social change. Rahul started to understand that his skills were better utilized in the social sector, where the impact would be more meaningful and decided to work full-time in this area. Yes, there was approx. 70% less pay but he claims it to be was the best decision of his life. He joined a non-profit organization called Ashoka in 2017 and went to different parts of India and Sri Lanka to interview some of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs and understood all Changemakers mindset was developed at a very young age. This made him think about developing a curriculum that helps all children grow up with such skills and mentality and started the BPE. The objective is to help students develop the four core skills of change making like empathy, teamwork, creative problem-solving, and leadership with a proactive mindset to bring the change.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://www.thebetterindia.com/164295/iit-bengaluru-school-students-changemakers-news/