The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.” —John F. Kennedy
About Us
DIKSHA (Developing Initiatives for Knowledge and Social and Humanitarian Activities) is a Civil Society Organization (CSO/NGO) which runs a school located in Palam Vihar, Gurgaon, Haryana to provide free and quality education to children from low-income families in the neighbourhood.
Palam Vihar is one of the more affluent neighbourhoods in Delhi. However, we observed a great many young children, from toddlers to adolescents wandered around construction sites, shopping areas, temples and on the road begging for food and alms. An informal survey conducted by us determined that these children had either left, or never attended school. Many of the adolescents often got involved in illegal and anti-social activities in the absence of structure or guidance. Safety was of particular concern as the children loitered in the streets, unsupervised.
We felt an acute need to provide these children a structured school environment, to give them proper education and encourage the adolescents to lead productive lives. This led to the inception of DIKSHA.
There can be no real growth without healthy populations. - Gro Harlem Brundtland
Mid-day Meals
All children at Diskha come from poor families, some are the children of single parents, some of migrant laborers who have settled in Delhi, some of these parents are maids, some are drivers, construction workers, vegetable sellers – all these people strive hard to survive, they leave their houses early in the morning and return late, children are often left to fend for themselves.
Almost as soon as we started teaching we realised that these children were in poor health due to lack of nutritious meals. Not only did they have underdeveloped physical structures, their lack of focus and understanding pointed towards apparent signs of vitamin deficiency.
All DIKSHA students are provided with free mid-day meals five days a week. The meals are cooked fresh in the in-house kitchen by the DIKSHA cook and provides wholesome nutrition including proteins and carbohydrates to all children. Typical mid-day meals comprise of rice served with lentils like chana dal mixed with bottle gourd/spinach, sambhar (toor dal with vegetables), white gram, black gram, red eyed and black eyed beans, curry of soya chunks and boiled potatoes.
This integral step has made all the difference in how our students respond to what is being taught.
At Diksha we believe in a better tomorrow.
Mission
Diksha is a volunteer-driven, non-profit school striving to empower children who come from economically weaker sections of the community and equip them with the requisite knowledge and life skills, to help them lead their lives with dignity, responsibility, and purpose.
We aim to provide holistic and quality education, which includes extracurricular activities like sports, yoga, drama, dance, singing, life- skills and vocational art. We are very open to employee engagement activities with corporate establishments as they widen the horizons of the children and help dream building.
DIKSHA began in October 2008 with 13 children.
14 years later...
7 batches of Class 10 and 5 batches of Class 12 first-generation learners, have successfully passed their Secondary Course and Senior Secondary Course Public Examinations conducted by National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). Much to our delight most of these students are productive members of society today.