Smita & Ulhas are teachers at a supplementary school. Ulhas Vairagkar is also a freelance volunteer and advisor to several nonprofits. He is Founder-investor at Vanguard Business School. Both Smita & Ulhas were earlier Directors at T.I.M.E. Delhi-NCR. 

“We are making the pledge for we genuinely believe that the ‘more you give, more you receive’. And, the receipts need not be financial. We also believe that it is not correct that philanthropic support should be publicized. However, we are persuaded that our pledge may possibly influence some more to think and maybe act in a similar direction.

We believe in the power of quality education in transforming lives and families. It has been true in our own case. Sadly, this is lacking for most of the children who come from the bottom of the pyramid in India.

We have been directly involved in teaching under-privileged kids and supporting select NGOs that are working to improve quality of education in government schools. Government schools at present are synonymous with children from not-well-to-do families.

We are acutely aware that the problem is huge and we can only make a tiny difference. But, we see ourselves as that proverbial ‘squirrel’ that helped in building Ram-setu. Hopefully, there will be more such squirrels!”

– Smitha and Ulhas Vairagka