Bharat Lok Shiksha Parishad (BLSP) is a charity inIndia that operates Ekal Vidyalayas, or single-teacher schools, under theEkal Vidyalaya of India umbrella organization.BLSP operates inUttar Pradesh,Uttarakhand,Himachal Pradesh,Haryana,Punjab andJammu and Kashmir, while its sister organization theFriends of Tribals Society operates inAssam,Orissa,Bihar,Jharkhand,Madhya Pradesh,Chhattisgarh,Maharashtra andKarnataka.[1]
Based inNew Delhi, BLSP was established and registered in 1986 by youngVivekananda educationists who began to work with tribal people in theJharkhand forests.Goals are to eliminate illiteracy among tribal people and improve their social and economic conditions.The organization has a target of establishing 100,000 Ekal Vidyalayas by 2013.[2]BLSP was founded & registered on 3 March 2000 with a vision of bringing all round development to the remote tribal villages ofIndia.[3]The charity runs Ekal Yidyalayas, where a local youth teaches children aged 6 to 14 for three hours daily using a non-formal approach that includes songs, storytelling, games, art and yoga. The students and their parents are taught principles of health and hygiene. Villagers are trained in agricultural techniques, and are made aware of government schemes from which they may benefit.[4]
JP Modi of Modi InfoSol, aNew Delhi–based IT solution provider, is BLSP vice president.[5]Modi has set himself the ambitious goal of building 3,000 girls schools in backward areas ofJammu,UP,Uttaranchal andRajasthan in partnership with BLSP.[6]In 2006, the Dhoot Group of real estate developers adopted 100 BLSP schools.[7]In March 2008 BLSP launched itsLudhiana chapter, which would cater toFerozepur district. This was the first chapter in the state ofPunjab.Up to 240 Ekal schools were already being run by the parishad in this district.[8]In October / November 2009, Bharat Lok Shiksha Parishad organized a three-day International Ekal ConferenceNew Delhi.The conference was attended by about 13,000 delegates fromIndia,America,Canada,England and elsewhere.[9]