India, April 3 -- Gurugram

Sixty-six-year-old Rajiv Soni, a retired chartered accountant, has been spearheading an initiative over the past five years to educate children left out of the system and integrate them with schools by elevating their knowledge bases to the standards prescribed by various boards.

The initiative, called My School, which started with 20 children in 2021 at Kanhai village, is now a full-fledged operation, with over 300 children passing through its doors-around 100 enrolled in government schools and 55 joined private schools.

Recollecting his motivation for the initiative, Soni said it was due to an encounter with four children during a routine walk at the Aravalli Biodiversity Park in September 2020. "I asked th...