An Ahmedabad-based programme which celebrates children who implement socio-economic development programmes in their school neighbourhoods, has ignited the imagination of 1.35 million children and positively impacted 22 million lives in over 30 countries Dilip Thakore & Summiya Yasmeen A NEW CHILD EMPOWERMENT and learning-by-doing movement in primary and secondary education centred in Ahmedabad, is capturing the imagination of children, parents and teachers not only in India but around the world. Conceptualised and launched in 2009 by Kiran Bir Sethi, an alumna of the top-ranked National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and founder-director of the Riverside School (estb.2001), ranked the #2 international day school in the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2014, Design For Change (DFC) is a programme which encourages and celebrates children who implement socio-economic development programmes in the neighbourhood of their schools. Since 2009, this programme has ignited the imagination and attracted the participation of 1.35 million children in 200,000 schools spanning over 30 countries, to initiate social impact programmes — school infrastructure development, waste management, reafforestation, adult literacy, sanitation and health awareness — which have positively impacted the lives of 22 million people worldwide. Thus far the programme has recorded over 11,000 children-led stories of change which propagate DFC’s I Can inspirational credo. According to Sethi, she was inspired by her education in the blue-chip NID to ideate a design for the DFC programme — motivated by the can-do activism of Mahatma Gandhi — and to pilot it in Ahmedabad through Riverside students. After transforming this hub of textiles and commerce into “India’s most child-friendly city”, during the past five years she has rolled out the DFC programme nationally and internationally, a rare accomplishment in intellectually insular post-independence India. Unusually aware that great ideas need to be communicated through hype, hoopla and high-profile celebrations of achievement, Sethi and the Riverside/DFC management team stages an annual Design For Change School Challenge in Ahmedabad — a celebratory event in which the 100 most impactful children-led initiatives from around the country are adjudicated by a high-powered jury, and are awarded cash and other prizes. The latest superbly choreographed and widely publicised DFC School Challenge and I CAN Awards event staged in the spacious premises of the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Ahmedabad on November 22, 2014 was witnessed by your editors. The day-long event showcased and feted the social impact initiatives of 425 enterprising students and their schools in the presence of a stellar cast of supportive guests of honour including recently-retired test cricket legend Rahul Dravid, nine-times World Billiards champion Geet Sethi (Kiran Bir Sethi’s supportive husband) and well-known actor Rahul Bose. Student-teacher teams of 100 shortlisted schools (from among 2,000 schools from 26 states across the country which submitted entries for the challenge) were presented cash prizes aggregating Rs.7 lakh, in addition to other awards. “The Design for Change initiative was founded on the powerful premise: ‘I CAN’. More specifically, children can. By encouraging students to address the challenges that most affect their communities, the DFC programme empowers them to find…
