Labhya
Model & Strategy
Labhya partners with Indian state governments to integrate a daily well-being class into the school day for vulnerable children at scale. 2.4 million vulnerable children across 22,000 Indian public schools experience a daily, state-mandated well-being class as a result of Labhya’s long-term partnership with three Indian state governments.
The Problem
190 million children are enrolled in Indian public schools. Most of these children live in poverty with a household income of $2 or less per day. Our children are unable to cope with their reality — one filled with financial hardship, trauma, and abuse that leads them to experience reduced attentiveness, lack of curiosity, demotivation, powerlessness, shame, anger, and more. This adversity and these emotional barriers affect not only their academic performance in the short term but also their resilience, relationships, mental and emotional state, overall productivity, and life choices.
The Indian public education system lacks the expertise to equip vulnerable children with the necessary skills to tackle poverty, cope with their reality, and go on to become effective learners. As a result, there is an alarming gap between the skills our most vulnerable children need and the skills that the public education system currently provides.
The Solution
Labhya has led the collaboration on and creation of the world’s largest — and India’s first — at-scale well-being programs for vulnerable children. Labhya partners with Indian state governments to co-create and ensure the effective implementation of a state-wide daily well-being class that is integrated into the school day. Labhya’s end-to-end support to government partners includes policy provision, co-creation of localized curriculum, teacher capacity building, monitoring, evaluation, and change management. Currently, Labhya’s programs are enabling 2.4 million vulnerable children across three states in India to cope with poverty and become effective learners. An external study of Labhya by the Boston Consulting Group showcased that 87% of teachers reported a positive behavioral change in children, with a marked increase in attendance, academic scores, and skills like emotional resilience, relationship skills, and learning motivation due to their government programs.
By 2030, Labhya will ensure that 30 million children enrolled in public schools in India will have access to quality well-being programs. Labhya aims to achieve this goal by continuing long-term partnerships with state governments and forging new partnerships where governments cover 100% of the program costs.
Richa taught in under-resourced classrooms for over 10 years and holds a Master’s in International Education Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has been a Harvard Ministerial Leadership Fellow, a Harvard Equity & Inclusion fellow, a ‘Rising Talent 2020’ from the Women’s Forum and ‘Best Entrepreneur 2019’ by Takeda Foundation. She is the only Indian to be recognized by Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) as one of the Top 10 Youth Impact Leaders in Asia.
Vedant’s life purpose stems from his lived experience of adversity as a child. At the age of 17, Vedant became a full-time entrepreneur as the founding team member of a successful UK-based AI logistics startup. His own experience and journey as an entrepreneur led him to become a leader in the education space. Vedant is one of the handful of Indians to have received the prestigious Commonwealth Youth Award.
Impact
2.4 million vulnerable children impacted daily through a well-being class across 22,000 public schools.
150,000 teachers were capacitated to practice and deliver well-being in classrooms effectively.
Three exemplar public-private partnerships with state governments, where governments cover 100% of program costs (the average yearly government investment is north of $100 million in time and resources).
