TERI Knowledge Centres: empowering rural communities
Rampreet Kumar: Age 22

Among TERI’s initiatives towards bringing about a positive change at the grass-roots level is the establishment of knowledge centres in different parts of the country. A knowledge centre is an ICT-enabled establishment run by the local people of that region. The TERI Knowledge Center at Gurgaon can already boast of students who are hardworking and have passed out with flying colours.

Rampreet Kumar is one such student and is an excellent example of the proverb, hard work and dedication pays.

On the Gurgaon–Faridabad highway is a petrol pump just after the TERI RETREAT, Village Gual Pahari. Rampreet Kumar (Ramu) worked there at night as a helper to earn his living. Ramu hails from Bihar. He came to Delhi to earn a living and lead a better life. He has studied up to class 10 and has been working ever since.

Ramu joined the basic computer course at Harichand TERI Knowledge Center, which is just a few minutes walk from the petrol pump.

He was employed as a cleaner at a petrol pump when he started his computer education course. His zeal to learn computers made him join the center. Ramu did not have any money to begin the course. The owner of the TERI Knowledge at Gual Pahari, Saroj Kumar was a big support. He asked Ramu to pay a nominal fee through an installment plan that suited Ramu.

Ramu was an attentive student from the beginning, according to his instructor and showed great interest in the course. Though it was tough in the beginning to understand English, Ramu made efforts and is now easily able to identify different parts of the computer and do basic operations on a system.

Ramu has now been offered a job by a reputed organization. But he is not joining since he would have to leave his present residence. Ramu works from home. His house owner has offered him a job at his office as a computer operator and also asked him to take care of his office as such.
Ramu is a happy man now. His long-term vision is to go back to his native state, Bihar and start a computer education course for children there. He says that the computer course has not only helped him develop new skills but also start a new chapter in life.

Life has now taken a new turn for Ramu, one of the first students of the first batch emerging from TERI Knowledge Centre, Gual Pahari, Gurgaon.

Saroj Kumar, the entrepreneur of the TERI Knowledge Centre at Gurgaon is a very happy man. He says his late father would have been a proud man as he had always dreamt of educating the villagers and providing them with better livelihood opportunities. . For Saroj, this is just the beginning.