A big change always starts small.

Education and inequality are two of the biggest problems facing India. The shining and prosperous part tends to ignore the other India, the one on the wrong side of the divide. Education is the ticket to escape the inhuman conditions of poverty and violence. But to escape its gravitational pull, we need those on the other side to believe that change is possible, lasting and actionable. This campaign tackles the problem with a simple idea. It dares to attack the root of poverty and class divisions that have always plagued India.

India has the world’s largest population of young minds and could be a global economic powerhouse – if not for a broken education system. There’s a real risk that instead of reaping its demographic dividend, the country might instead find itself crippled with the world’s largest population of illiterates.

Millennium World School – one of India’s largest chains of elite schools with over 35,000 students – wanted to do something about the issue. While governments have been trying, the quality of education and infrastructure is severely lacking. Absentee teachers and broken amenities mean public schools lack even basic facilities. The objective was to find a way for the school to be relevant not just for its students but try to fundamentally change society itself. The challenge was that, it’s not only the lack of infrastructure that is crippling, but also a societal mindset of apathy - that nothing will change.

Demonstrating that change is possible to create a movement.

While India has some good private schools with great infrastructure, they remain underused once the schools shut after classes every afternoon. The idea was simply to open a door and provide access to the most underprivileged. The Open Door Project was created where The Millennium World School opened its doors to underprivileged children after regular classes and devoted its own infrastructure, resources, and teachers. It also reached out to volunteers, activists and NGOs to be part of the movement with a short film and on-ground activation. The outreach involved carrying the message through marginalized communities and neighborhoods to drive enrollments. What just one school has demonstrated is that the potential for transformation is huge. If the 350,000 odd private schools in India each took just 100 kids, we will have 30 million children getting access to quality education.

Open minds lead to open doors

Indians living in the more affluent India, tend to shut out the reality of the other India in order to get through their day. It’s too overwhelming, too depressing and feels like an insurmountable problem. Public service messages have become wallpaper and when people don’t know what to do, they simply don’t do anything at all.

The strategy was two pronged, to create a lasting change.

• Communicate through powerful storytelling that while reality is stark, there is hope, to move people from apathy into caring.

• Demonstrate clear actionability and results, so caring can translate into action and a groundswell movement.

Being the change, we wish to see.

In true grassroots fashion, the campaign eschewed big budget media spends in favour of directly reaching out with on-ground activation and community level contact programs. It centered around a short film (titled “Bhukkad” or ‘the hungry kid’) that shows a young child hungry for learning while battling difficult conditions growing up in a red-light district. It shows that the hunger for learning of a curious child trumps the most adverse of situations and circumstances. The film transforms the hopeless, faceless millions into the face of a kid who chooses to rise above his surroundings, hungry to learn, making the viewer invested in ensuring the doors of learning are never shut for him. By partnering with others in the same education space, this movement demonstrates that it’s a collective endeavour, the beginning of lasting change.

The campaign impacted lives at a grass root level by enrolling children for better education and a better future. Within a few weeks, it galvanized activists and NGOs into action. In only two months, it achieved:

• Participation from 55 school campuses across the country

• Involvement from NGOs – Salam Balak Trust, Kat Katha, Teach India, AIDNOIDA, Kolkata Rista and Learning Links Foundation

• Total media impressions (till date): 42 million (PR) + 7 million (digital and social)

• Total reach: 25 million

• Earned media: INR 11 Million (USD 157,400 appx.). This is significant as coverage for education related coverage is minuscule.

Most important of all, the campaign has shown that the possibilities are enormous as more schools join in the initiative and more children walk into the open doors of these schools, gaining access to quality education, which is their right, and satiating their hunger for learning.