Sarva Foundation

Sarva provides vocational music training by offering online music lessons at lower than market rates to those who can afford to pay. The revenue generated is utilised for free of cost training and internationally recognised certification of under-resourced Indian youth. This sets them on the path of socio-economic independence; once trained, they are able to become music instructors, teachers, performers, composers, music technicians. It also creates a positive and permanent impact on the learners as individuals and as members of their communities.

We use freely available technology platforms, such as YouTube (for sharing instructional videos), Zoom (for conducting online classes), WhatsApp (for scheduling classes, evaluating performance and general communication), Squarespace (to host our website) and Stripe (to receive payments/donations). 

We hope to transform Sarva to an on-demand, global, technology-driven, collaborative social impact platform for vocational training and are liaising with Microsoft India for their support in reaching our objective.

400 Million Indian girls & boys between the age groups 8-17 years are enrolled in the public school system (Source: https://censusindia.gov.in). The education they receive is completely ‘rote-learning based’ and does not prepare them at all for the real world. Since most of them don’t end up going to college anyway, it is imperative that they graduate high school with skills which will prepare them for jobs straight out of school. Unfortunately, this is not the case. As a result, these youth end up either unemployed or employed as manual/very low level workers, mostly in India’s unorganised industries. They are paid extremely low wages (as low as US$ 2/day) and exposed to exceedingly harsh (and often high risk) working conditions.

The socio-economic plight of these youth does not permit them to make a better future under their present circumstances, even with a secondary education degree. Sarva makes change happen; we create a huge impact in their lives as we train & certify them free of cost in the internationally recognised Rockschool (RSL, UK) music curriculum, thereby making them job ready as music professionals. This brings socio-economic upliftment for them, their families and their communities.

Sarva Foundation is our vehicle to fill the institutional void created by the Indian public education system. Our mission is to transfer knowledge and wealth from the top to the bottom of the pyramid. We believe this is one of the ways for societies to become prosperous, peaceful and equitable.

Sarva in Sanskrit means All. Our mission is to serve all through music education and training for skill development.

We are a social enterprise, so all our actions are aimed at serving the underprivileged. We take inspiration from the Narayana Health model and have adapted it to our framework. We generate revenue by charging those who can pay and utilise the revenue collected to provide free training and certifications to under-resourced youth. The target group is slum dwelling kids between 8-17 yrs, who are students of NGOs/Gurukuls run by philanthropists. One such organisation is Aravindam Foundation, which provides free vocational training in arts to over 300 under-served youth of Dharam Slums, Gurgaon. 

Sarva currently trains ~40 female and male students from Aravindam in Drum Set, Guitar and Vocals. We get them certified from Rockschool (RSL, UK) - a globally recognised organisation offering certified vocational music training.

The Government of India has mandated that each school (public or private) must offer Arts education to all students. This will invariably lead to a huge demand for teachers of these disciplines, and is the gap Sarva is trying to fill by imparting vocational training to those who need it the most.

We train these learners to enable them to become teachers, performers, composers, music technicians or just to become more disciplined and self-confident in life. This creates a positive and permanent impact on the learners as individuals and as members of their communities.

Sarva's solution is aligned to five dimensions - Learning (Vocational Training), Social Upliftment, Economic Prosperity, Health (Mental Wellbeing) and Environment (combatting climate change by reducing carbon emissions related to online learning). 

Our social impact activity has led to a huge increase in the morale and confidence of our learners. Their accomplishments – which have gone unrecognised in the past – have now been validated by an international certification body. To top that, 2 of our learners have been adjudged National Champions and bestowed with the RSL High Achievers Awards.

The vocational training we provide enables our learners to become teachers, performers, composers, music technicians or just to become more disciplined and self-confident in life. 9 out of 10 of our learners achieve Passed with Distinction (>90% score) result in their respective RSL grade exams. 

This makes them well qualified to get gainful employment in future and enhances their self-esteem. They get a real chance to find well-paying and respectable employment, which leads to socio-economic upliftment and mental wellbeing. Hence, a virtuous cycle of peace & prosperity is created in their lives, which is extremely important for society as a whole.

Our focus has been to include as many girls as possible as learners. We believe that it is imperative for girls to get vocational training, so they can get gainful employment, which allows them to escape societal pressure to get married and to start a family at a very young age, and, as a result, face economic exclusion.

Maadhav Sood: Has been learning Drum Set for 11years and has completed the RSL Drum Curriculum (Grade 1 to Grade 8). Is driven to serve the underprivileged and aspires to pursue social entrepreneurship as a vocation. Has been teaching Drums on paid and probono basis for 3 years.

Vocational training in India is restricted to masonry, carpentry, plumbing, electrician and other handyman jobs. While these are specialist activities, there is a huge competition among such professionals due to excessive supply. Hence, most of them do not end up making enough money to make ends meet. Also, this training is usually not provided by professional institutes, but is passed on from father to son or experience handyman to apprentice. Also, Indian women are usually excluded from such activities.

Sarva's innovative model provides internationally certified vocational music training to marginalised young women and men. This helps them become music instructors in schools/music training schools, which are well-paying, safe and secure jobs.

While most vocational training in India is imparted offline, Sarva's training model is online only, which makes it accessible to all Indians, irrespective of their location.

Our social enterprise does not rely solely on donations/grants to survive. We collect revenue from learners who can afford to pay and use these funds to train underprivileged learns free of cost. 

Finally, our train the trainer pedagogy allows our learners to gain experience as trainers to other learners. This provide valuable teaching experience to them and also increases their confidence, as they prepare to become professional music instructors in future.

We aspire to transform Sarva Foundation from a music education platform, to a global online performing arts training marketplace, and ultimately to a non-profit university for all types of vocational education and training.  

Sarva utilises readily available, consumer-facing technologies on an everyday basis. The current suite includes:

- Website Hosting: Squarespace

- Payment Gateway: Stripe

- Online Classes Delivery: Zoom

- Instructional Videos for Learners: YouTube

- Communication between mentors and learners: WhatsApp

- Repository of Recordings and Uploads to RSL: Google Drive

- Marketing: Instagram/Facebook

As we grow, we will surely require to build a sold technology platform to run our operations because we aspire to be a technology driven online marketplace for vocational education and training.

400 Million Indian children between the age groups 8-17 years are enrolled in the public school system (Source: https://censusindia.gov.in). The education they receive doesn't prepare them at all for the real world. Since most of them don’t end up going to college anyway, it is imperative that they graduate high school with skills which will prepare them for jobs straight out of school. Unfortunately, this is not the case. As a result, these youth end up either unemployed or employed as manual/very low level workers, mostly in India’s unorganised industries. They are paid extremely low wages (as low as US$ 2/day) and exposed to exceedingly harsh (and often high risk) working conditions.

The socio-economic plight of these youth does not permit them to make a better future under their present circumstances, even with a secondary education degree. Sarva makes change happen; we create a huge impact in their lives as we train & certify them free of cost in the internationally recognised Rockschool (RSL, UK) music curriculum, thereby making them job ready as music professionals. This brings socio-economic upliftment for them, their families and their communities.

Currently, we're training 10 paid learners and 38 under-served (unpaid/free of cost) learners snd intend to train 100 learners this year. Already, more than half of our learners are young girls, so we're also aligned with the Government of India's beti padhao beti bachao (educate the girl child, save the girl child) campaign. 

Sarva learners share their experiences in this video.

Our impact goal for the next year is to train and certify 500 learners in Drum Set, Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Tabla and Sitar. 50 of these learners will be certified in the mid-levels (Grade 3 & above) of their respective instruments in the RSL Performance Exams.

We will achieve this goal by:

- Investing in social media (mostly Instagram) to increase our base of paying learners by promoting the value proposition of offering online music training at lower than market rate and using the funds collected to train underprivileged learners free of cost. The idea being "You Help Us; We Help You; Together, We Help The Less Privileged".

- Partnering with more youth-centred NGOs to augment our base of under-resourced learners. We will leverage our connections at Microsoft India to connect with the NGOs on the conglomorate's list of partners/beneficiaries. This will help us gain access to these organisations through a solid reference.

- Recruiting at least 50 more volunteer mentors, who have the music skills and inclination to teach for social impact. We will recruit by running Instagram Ads and by word of mouth.

- Crowdfund/raise INR 3 Million (US$ 40000) to cover the cost of advertising, providing music equipment and infrastructure (laptops, cameras) to our partner NGOs. We will not only leverage our current networks, but also actively seek funding/grants from Corporates and from the Government of India - Ministry of Child Welfare and Social Development. 

The UN Sustainable Development Goals which align with our solution are:

• No Poverty - This is Sarva's raison d'être. We believe that poverty alleviation through vocational training and education will invariably lead to socio-economic upliftment, which is one the important ways to make the world more prosperous, peaceful and equitable.

• Quality Education - Sarva provide world-class vocational education from Rockschool (RSL,UK) to all learners. This will never change.

• Gender Equality - Sarva's mission is to 'serve' all, irrespective of age, gender, caste, creed or socio-economic situation. Already, more than half of our learners are young girls, so we're also aligned with the Government of India's beti padhao beti bachao (educate the girl child, save the girl child) campaign. Sarva learners share their experiences in this video.

We measure progress, as follows:

• The number of RSL certificates we secure for our Learners as they clear their respective grades.
• The number of learners (paid and unpaid) we enrol and get certified.
• The number of volunteer mentors we recruit to supplement our service offering.
• The funds we are able to raise from running crowd-funding campaigns and donations from our patrons.
• The revenue generated from paying learners. 

Technology seems to be the biggest barrier we will face in the next year, as we seek to grow and expand. Currently, our small operation permits usage of several 'free to use' platforms, such as YouTube, Zoom, WhatsApp to run our operations and to keep in touch. However,  this is becoming an operational roadblock already with regards to scheduling classes, sharing information, running large group sessions and managing the teams.

We really need a robust technology platform, which will help us run the operations seamlessly. We're hoping to receive support from Microsoft India to build a technology platform for Sarva. At the same time, we are also in conversation with other existing platforms, such as Arist (Boston, USA).

Lack of availability of financial support could also be a barrier, though our requirement is quite low and we're confident to secure it from our existing network of individual benefactors, corporates, government and through internal revenue generation.

Culturally, we have not faced any barriers so far, though this may change as we seek to expand outside of North India. One such barrier could be the reluctance of underserved communities to allow women to participate in our training programs. 

We really need a robust technology platform, which will help us run the operations seamlessly. We're hoping to receive support from Microsoft India to build a technology platform for Sarva. At the same time, we are also in conversation with other existing platforms, such as Arist (Boston, USA).

We are confident to secure funding from our existing network of individual benefactors, corporates, government and through internal revenue generation.

We will try to address the cultural barrier stated above by educating families of our girl learners about the importance of making their daughters and sisters vocationally trained, so that they can participate in the socio-economic upliftment of their communities. We will showcase case studies of girls who have already benefitted and how this vocational training improves their lives in all respects - mentally, socially and economically.

2 Founders, 3 Volunteer Mentors

While our team is representative of those we serve in terms of age, we are privileged to come from comfortable socio-economic backgrounds. However, this does not make us less empathetic towards those we serve as we understand that we are just beneficiaries of good fortune.

Our team consists of school students who have relevant skills in Drum Set, Vocals and Guitar. So, we're well-placed to offer training to our learners. The team details are as follows:

• Maadhav Sood: Has been learning Drum Set for 11 years and has completed the RSL Drum Curriculum (Grade 1 to Grade 8). Is driven to serve the underprivileged and aspires to pursue social entrepreneurship as a vocation. Is preparing to get relevant education around music, business and entrepreneurship to reach his goal. Has been teaching Drums on paid and pro bono basis for almost 3 years. 

• Amara Sood: Has been learning Electric Guitar for 1.5 years and is currently pursuing RSL Grade 4. Has been volunteering for other NGOs as well and is Social Media Manager & Fundraiser for Aravindam India Foundation. Manages Content Creation, PR, Social Media and Fundraising at Sarva Foundation.

• Shiv Chopra: Currently pursuing Grade 6 of RSL Drum Performance curriculum

• Devesh Sharma: Currently pursuing Grade 5 of RSL Drum Performance curriculum.

• Delisha Khanna: An exponent of Indian classical vocals. 

We're all fairly new to this, and keen to learn from each other. We have an open, collaborative and solution-centric mindset at Sarva.

Currently, our leadership team comprises of 1 woman (Amara) and 1 man (Maadhav). Our entire team (including the Volunteer Student Mentors) has 3 men and 2 women. We intend to reach at least a 50-50 gender ratio.

We aim to include our under-resourced learners in the team as Mentors, once they are qualified to take these positions. 4 male and 4 female such learners will complete RSL Grade 3 certification in their respective instruments soon (this is minimum threshold to become a mentor), and will join the team thereafter.

Aravindam Foundation, Gurgaon, India: So far, this has been our only source of under-served learners for providing vocational training to. We hope to continue and grow our association with this NGO.

Shiv Nadar School, Gurgaon, India: Sarva has been launched as a Student Led Club at our high school, with the purpose of recruiting Volunteer Mentors (other students who learn musical instruments and are willing to teach). 

Rockschool (RSL), India: We have partnered with RSL to certify our learners. The India office has whole-heartedly supported our cause and offered reduced examination fee for our underprivileged learners.

We are a social enterprise, so all our actions are aimed at serving the underprivileged. We take inspiration from the Narayana Health model and have adapted it to our framework. We generate revenue by charging those who can pay and utilise the revenue collected to provide free training and certifications to under-resourced youth. The target group is slum dwelling kids between 8-17 yrs, who are students of NGOs/Gurukuls run by philanthropists. One such organisation is Aravindam Foundation, which provides free vocational training in arts to over 300 under-served youth of Dharam Slums, Gurgaon. 

Sarva currently trains ~40 students from Aravindam. We get them certified from Rockschool (RSL, UK) - a globally recognised organisation for vocational music training.

We train these learners to enable them to become teachers, performers, composers, music technicians. This creates a positive and permanent impact on them as individuals and as members of their communities.

The main aim of participation is to gain global visibility & awareness about our solution.

We also look forward to close encounters of the serendipitous kind – with culturally diverse but like-minded solvers (to build our team), mentors, investors, benefactors and patrons, who can help achieve our vision of transforming Sarva Foundation from a music education platform, to a global online performing arts training marketplace, and ultimately to a non-profit university for all types of vocational education and training. 

Sarva's founders are strong supporters of equity and inclusion, which is one of the key tenets of this challenge.

Amara is a crusader for women's rights and is driven to help young women living in poverty as much as she can. Amara's focus has been to include as many girls as possible as learners. She believes that it is imperative for girls to get vocational training, so they can get gainful employment, which allows them to escape the societal pressure to get married very early, thereby facing economic exclusion.

Having been subjected to non-inclusion and bullying as a child due to his short stature, Maadhav has made it his life mission to fight for the cause of equality and non-discrimination.

Hence, we feel Sarva's mission and vision align with the Future of Work in India and Indonesia Challenge.

Since we are a young team (aged 12-15 yrs), we certainly require mentorship support. So far, my father (who is an experienced entrepreneur) has been mentoring us in all aspects of Sarva's operations and mission/vision.

We look forward to receiving more mentorship to grow and manage our operations, our team, to pitch to social impact investors, to market our services (for revenue generation), to expand our paying and non-paying user base and (most importantly) to augment our technology platform!

Our vision is to make Sarva an on-demand, global, technology-driven, collaborative social impact marketplace for vocational education and training.