About Us

About Gurukul Vidhya Mandir Sikshan Sansthan

GVMSS was founded in 2002 as the NGO behind Karamsthali Upper Primary School by members of the Jaisalmer community. Our mission is to educate the poor and low-caste children of Jaisalmer who would otherwise be unable to attend school. We currently educate 225 students aged 3 to 14 up to the 8th class. Government schools in India are open to everyone, however the annual fees are beyond the means of of India’s poorest. Our students attend for free, with school materials and uniforms donated by community members.

Many of our students are members of the Untouchable or Dalit (the more progressive name) caste and are considered outside legitimate society by members of the upper castes. People of this caste suffer discrimination and intolerance and are limited in their ability to advance economically. The parents of our children perform the lowest-paid work in Jaisalmer. Many of them work as rubbish collectors and street cleaners. Prostitution is also a common way to earn money. Without education, their children will inherit their jobs. Education is considered a primary means of upward mobility and our goal is to enable our students to improve their lives.

Our primary activities are:

- Education through the 8th class for poor children
- Polio vaccinations for students and community
- AIDS prevention education for parents and community

The History of GVMSS

In June 2002, two teachers working in a private school in Jaisalmer, Karani Bal Niketan, were concerned about
children from the lowest castes working with their parents instead of studying. They realized that it was an injustice to only
educate the rich children who could afford to pay for private or government schools.

Manoj Vyas, from the Brahmin caste, was 23 years old, lived just outside the fort of Jaisalmer and was working as a
teacher in the private school.
Satish Singh Chohan from the Rajput/Warrior caste was 36 years old and was also working in the same private school.

They decided to find a solution to provide a free education for the lower castes. To begin with they organized a meeting
with seven good friends to explain their intentions. After presenting the proposed project, their friends agreed to support
them with financial assistance and to help with the administrative side of the project. This initial group included Dhananjay Purohit (the current financial minister) from the Brahmin caste, three others from the same caste, two from Warriors caste and one from Vaishya caste (commonly known as business men). Then, in July 2002, these two young professors, helped by their friends, needed to make the project official with governmental authorities in order to begin their work.

For this they needed to alert people from the city and from the ‘untouchable’ caste, so they could create the required
committee of 21 members which Indian legislation demands to formalize an NGO. They found nine people from the ‘untouchable’ caste, and 12 from the city, who wanted to contribute to the project, among them were three women. All members agreed to donate 250 rupees each. In total, 5250 rupees were collected, broken down as follows:
- 2450Rs to register the NGO
- 1650Rs for application papers
- 1100Rs to open a bank account

The organization of the GVMSS NGO
The Member committee changes its members annually and selects a working committee, constituted as: one President,
one Vice-President, one Financial Minister, three Secretaries and one Adviser.

The Member committee meets once a year, to report on the past year and decide on projects for the forthcoming year and
also to select the new working committee.
The working committee meets once a month, to take stock of the previous month and to decide on priorities for the
forthcoming month.

The evolution of the GVMSS NGO:

The first year (July 2004 / 2005)
Nine months after the formalization of the GVMSS NGO, the school started to operate at the beginning of the new school
year, July 2004.

At the beginning of the project there were no funds to run the school. It was necessary to rent a building, pay for additional
teachers, purchase teaching materials, stationary, school uniforms and school furniture.
It was necessary to go from door to present the project and convince people to pay a little every month (40rs) during the
first year, to allow the children the opportunity of education.
They explained they would do all that was our possible to collect money from other sources, to give their children free
education the following year.

In 15 days they were able to convince 100 families to pay for their children’s education.
In the first year they collected 40000Rs. This money was used for renting the school building, paying for two teachers
(with two other teachers working for free – Founders) and to purchase teaching materials, stationary and school uniforms.
They were ready to start to teach on 1st July 2004.

The second year (2005/ 2006
The second year they were able to collect money from local people, who were interested and sensitive to their work and
became donating members of the NGO giving between 100 to 60 000rs.
Because of their hard work, collecting a total of 70 000Rs, including 1000Rs from each member of GVMSS NGO, they
were able to keep their promise made to the lower castes.
With this money they were able to offer totally free education to these children. This included paying for school materials
(books, exercise books, school bag’s….), pay for two teachers with two teachers working for free and for the rent for the
school building.
At this moment, 130 children came to benefit from knowledge.

The third year (2005 / 2006)
The third year was the same of the fourth. They continued to motivate local people to donate by walking around the
markets within the town, This enabled them to collect enough money, the 70,000Rs (includes 1000Rs from each member
of NGO) required to continue the project and pay for two additional teachers.
And 130 children could still go to school for free.

The fourth year (2006 / 2007)
Because of the continued work next with the local people, the fourth year they were able to collect 120,000rs from
donations (includes 1000Rs from each member of NGO). With this money they were able to pay for six teachers, two
teachers more than the year before. The founding teachers still worked for free.
This meant an additional 50 children were able to receive a free education, with a total of 180.

The fifth year (2008 / 2009)
In 2008 they collected 127,000Rs (includes 1000Rs from each member of NGO) solely from the local population, and still
have 180 children came to school.
Because of the increasing budget, they have been able to pay for school uniforms, in addition to what was needed for
operation of the school.